2025 New Middle Grade Releases
This book list contains new and upcoming middle grade books with publication dates in 2025. These diverse titles explore a wide variety of genres and issues that will strengthen classroom and library collections. In Faye and the Dangerous Journey, readers accompany an Ojibwe girl and her family through the traumatic events of the Sandy Lake Ojibwe removal, while nonfiction titles such as Native Lands and Sacred Places and Water is Life offer overviews of crucial issues in Native rights and history. Check out these books and many more in the list below.

Native Lands and Sacred Places: Reclaiming and Protecting Native Lands
Author
Cayla Bellanger DeGroat (White Earth Band of Ojibwe)
Summary
For Native nations and peoples, land is sacred. It is a valued and respected part of their spiritual and religious beliefs. Some locations hold even more meaning such as burial sites, places for ceremonies, and areas where medicines grow. When Europeans began colonizing the land that would become the United States, Native nations were forced from the lands they lived on. Many nations no longer had access to sacred sites. Discover how Native peoples are reclaiming their ancestral lands with the Land Back movement.

Eating to Save the Planet
Author
Anne Broyles (Cherokee Nation)
Illustrator
Hannah Li
Summary
When we walk down the aisles of a grocery store, most of us don’t think about all the steps it took for each item to get on the shelf. Or how those different steps might impact the environment and even our own health. This book explores why we eat what we eat, the environmental impact of the meat industry, what terms like “vegan” and “plant-based” mean, and much more.

The Froggy Archive
Author
Julie Fiveash (Diné/Navajo)
Summary
In this graphic novel, a frog volunteers at a community library and is tasked with creating a community archive to re-inject interest in the woefully-underfunded library.

Indigenous History from 1887–1932: The Allotment and Assimilation Era
Author
E.A. Hale (Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma)
Summary
This book provides an overview of Indigenous history in the United States from 1887 to 1932. It covers Native experiences during allotment of their land and US policies of assimilation, including boarding schools.

Indigenous History from 1961–1977: The Civil Rights Era
Author
E.A. Hale (Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma)
Summary
This book provides an overview of Indigenous history in the United States from 1961 to 1977. It covers Native movements for civil rights.

Outfoxed
Author
Elise McMullen-Ciotti (Cherokee Nation)
Summary
Twelve-year-old Skye has just rescued a baby fox she’s named Kitkat, with the help of her Park Ranger cousin Braeden. Skye would usually release the fox back into the wild as soon as it’s healed, but this baby fox was injured by a trap. No one hurts a baby animal and gets away with it as long as Skye’s around, and now she’s on a mission to find the poacher! When Skye takes Kitkat to the vet, she meets a quiet girl named Ivy. To Skye’s surprise, Ivy decides to join in on the investigation and a friendship starts to form between the girls. But will these new friends uncover the true identity of the poacher and safely release Kitkat back into the wild?

If You Lived During the American Revolution
Author
Chris Newell (Passamaquoddy Tribe at Indian Township)
Summary
What if you lived during the American Revolution? What would you have eaten? What would daily life look like? Which side would you have fought on? This book answers all these questions and more in a comprehensive dive into the American Revolution.

Indigenous Language Revitalization: From Boarding Schools and Code Talkers to Immersion Learning
Author
Katrina M. Phillips (Red Cliff Ojibwe)
Summary
Indigenous languages have a mixed history in the United States. Many Native languages have become endangered. In the 1800s, the US government began forcing Native children to attend federal Indian boarding schools, where children were punished for speaking anything other than English. But during the two World Wars, the US military asked Native American soldiers to create unbreakable codes in their Native languages. Indigenous languages help explain cultural practices, keep ceremonies alive, and teach Indigenous peoples about their histories and their ways of life. Today, Indigenous nations use immersion camps and schools to revitalize their languages.

Native Hunting and Fishing: Practicing Traditions and Defending Treaty Rights
Author
Katrina M. Phillips (Red Cliff Ojibwe)
Summary
Indigenous Nations historically provided for their families and their communities by hunting, fishing, farming, and gathering. In the 19th century, the US government often forced Native Americans to sign treaties that ceded lands while protecting Indigenous rights to hunt and fish on those lands. But the United States government has not always upheld these treaties. Find out how Native nations continue to defend and exercise their rights today.

Water Is Life: The Ongoing Fight for Indigenous Water Rights
Author
Katrina M. Phillips (Red Cliff Ojibwe)
Summary
For many Indigenous peoples, water is sacred. Indigenous peoples have lived by important water sources throughout their histories. But in the 1800s, treaties with the US government and people settling in the West forced many Indigenous peoples to leave their homelands, to leave their water sources, and to move onto reservations. Indigenous peoples continue to stand for their communities in talks about water sources. From protesting dams and oil pipelines to improving access to clean water, Indigenous peoples fight for their water rights and to protect their homelands.

Jo Jo Makoons: Super Scary Sleepover
Author
Dawn Quigley (Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe)
Illustrator
Tara Audibert (Wolastoqey/French)

Starstuff: Ten Science Fiction Stories to Celebrate New Possibilities
Editor
Wade Roush
Summary
In this anthology, ten middle-grade authors use the possible—and the premise of hope—to explore how science and technology can reshape our world and defy assumptions. Includes stories from Muscogee author Cynthia Leitich Smith and Norway House Cree author David A. Robertson.

Faye and the Dangerous Journey: An Ojibwe Removal Survival Story
Author
Kim Sigafus (White Earth Ojibwa)
Illustrator
Chiara Manetti
Summary
In the fall of 1850, Faye and her family begin a long, difficult journey with thousands of other Ojibwe people to receive money the U.S. government owes them. But why isn’t the money being delivered to them in Wisconsin, as usual? Why must they walk and canoe all the way to the middle of Minnesota in terrible weather? These are questions Faye asks, but the answers don’t make sense. When her family reaches their destination, Mama is sick, and there is no money as promised. Will Faye and her family make it back home? Will there be a home to return to?

The Summer of the Bone Horses
Author
Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve (Sicangu Lakota)
Illustrator
Steph Littlebird (Kalapuya (Conf Tribes of Grand Ronde))
Summary
When Eddie’s parents drive from the Black Hills to the Dakota plains to drop him off with Grandpa and Grandma High Elk, Eddie aches all over at the thought of being away from Mom and Dad for the first time. But quickly, Eddie’s stay on the Rosebud Reservation becomes a summer that he’ll never forget as he spends his days riding horses, fishing, helping Grandma in her garden, and playing with the toy bone horses that his grandfather gave him. When his grandfather is hurt and needs medical attention, Eddie steps up and helps him get the care he needs.
Conclusion
The 2025 middle grade titles included in this list are excellent additions for educators to include in their libraries and classrooms. In their pages, Native and non-Native readers alike will have the opportunity to see and relate to Native characters in contemporary and historical settings, learn about important topics and issues affecting Native peoples, and understand crucial moments in Native history, leading to poignant and rich discussions in schools and libraries.

About the Author
Traci Sorell
This book list was compiled by author Traci Sorell. You can find her online at https://www.tracisorell.com.