This list is drawn from books recommended by Debbie Reese of American Indians in Children's Literature (AICL). Visit the AICL website and subscribe to the AICL blog for many more recommendations (including a list of best books), critical reviews, and current news.
Titles that we recommend are featured below with cover images. The ones with reviews are noted with an asterisk (*). Some titles are recommended with a caveat. At the end of this page, we provide a list of titles on this theme, with reviews, that we do not recommend.
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Button Up! Fall in Alaska*
By Angela Y. Gonzales
Bye-Bye Ice! Springtime in Alaska *
By Carla Snow
Little You
By Richard Van Camp, Julie Flett (Illustrator)
Loving Me
By Debby Slier
Mittens and Mukluks! Winter in Alaska *
By Joni Spiess
My Heart Fills with Happiness*
By Monique Gray Smith
We Sang You Home*
By Richard Van Camp, Julie Flett (Illustrator)
Welcome Song for Baby: A Lullaby for Newborns
By Richard Van Camp
Classified: The Secret Career of Mary Golda Ross, Cherokee Aerospace Engineer *
By Traci Sorell and Natasha Donovan (Illustrator)
Contenders: Two Native Baseball Players, One World Series *
By Traci Sorell and Arigon Starr (Illustrator)
Crossing Bok Chitto: A Choctaw Tale of Friendship & Freedom *
By Tim Tingle, Jeanne Rorex Bridges (Illustrator)
Finding My Dance
By Ria Thundercloud and Kalila J. Fuller (Illustrator)
The First Blade of Sweetgrass
By Suzanne Greenlaw, Gabriel Frey, and Nancy Baker (Illustrator)
The Good Rainbow Road: A Native American Tale in Keres and English
By Simon J. Ortiz, Michael Lacapa (Illustrator)
Hungry Johnny
By Cheryl Kay Minnema, Wesley Ballinger (Illustrator)
I Am Not a Number*
By Jenny Kay Dupuis and Kathy Kacer
I Sang You Down from the Stars*
By Tasha Spillett-Sumner and Michaela Goade (Illustrator)
If You Lived During the Plimoth Thanksgiving
By Chris Newell and Winona Nelson (Illustrator)
In My Anaana's Amautik*
By Nadia Sammurtok and Lenny Lishchenko (Illustrator)
Indian Shoes
By Cynthia Leitich Smith, Jim Madsen (Illustrator)
Johnny's Pheasant*
By Cheryl Minnema
Jo Jo Makoons: The Used-To-Be Best Friend *
By Dawn Quigley and Tara Audibert (Illustrator)
Josie Dances
By Denise Lajimodiere and Angela Erdrich (Illustrator)
Keepunumuk: Weeâchumun's Thanksgiving Story *
By Danielle Greendeer, Anthony Perry, Alexis Bunten, and Garry Meeches (Illustrator)
A Letter for Bob *
By Kim Rogers and Jonathan Nelson
Look, Grandma! Ni, Elisi! *
By Art Coulson and Madelyn Goodnight (Illustrator)
Mothers of Xsan series
By Hetxw'ms Gyetxw (Brett D. Huson)
Muskrat Will Be Swimming
By Cheryl Savageau, Robert Hynes (Illustrator)
Rock & Roll Highway: The Robbie Robertson Story
By Sebastian Robertson, Adam Gustavson (Illustrator)
Sharice's Big Voice: A Native Kid Becomes a Congresswoman *
By Sharice Davids, Nancy K. Mays, and Joshua Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley (Illustrator)
Shin-Chi's Canoe
By Nicola I. Campbell, Kim Lafave (Illustrator)
Skysisters
By Jan Bourdeau Waboose, Brian Deines (Illustrator)
Stand Like A Cedar
By Nicola I. Campbell and Carrielynn Victor (Illustrator)
Still This Love Goes On *
By Buffy Sainte-Marie and Julie Flett (Illustrator)
Sweetest Kulu
By Celina Kalluk, Alexandria Neonakis (Illustrator)
Tanna's Owl
By Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley, Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley, and Yong Ling Kang (Illustrator)
Thanks to the Animals
By Allen Sockabasin, Rebekah Raye (Illustrator)
Walking on Earth & Touching the Sky
By Timothy P. McLaughlin (Editor), S. D. Nelson (Illustrator), Joseph Marshall (Foreword by)
We Are Still Here! Native American Truths Everyone Should Know
By Traci Sorell and Frane Lessac (Illustrator)
What Your Ribbon Skirt Means to Me: Deb Haaland's Historic Inauguration
By Alexis Bunten and Nicole Neidhardt (Illustrator)
What's the Most Beautiful Thing You Know about Horses? *
By Richard Van Camp and George Littlechild (Illustrator)
When The Rain Sings Poems By Young Native Americans
By Lee Francis
As Long as the Rivers Flow
By Larry Loyie with Constance Brissenden, Heather D. Holmlund (Illustrator)
The Barren Grounds: The Misewa Saga, Book One
By David A. Robertson
The Birchbark House *
By Louise Erdrich
The Case of the Burgled Bundle *
By Michael Hutchinson
The Case of the Windy Lake *
By Michael Hutchinson
Charles Albert Bender: National Hall of Fame Pitcher
By Kade Ferris
Deb Haaland: First Native American Cabinet Secretary *
By Matthew J. Martinez and Jill Doerfler
Do All Indians Live in Tipis?
By Smithsonian Books
Fatty Legs: A True Story
By Christy Jordan-Fenton, Margaret Pokiak-Fenton, Liz Amini-Holmes (Illustrator)
A Girl Called Echo *
By Katherena Vermette
The Great Bear: The Misewa Saga, Book 2 *
By David A. Robertson
Healer of the Water Monster *
By Brian Young and Shonto Begay (Illustrator)
If I Ever Get Out of Here: A Novel with Paintings
By Eric L. Gansworth
In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse*
By Joseph Marshall III
An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States for Young People*
By Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Debbie Reese
The Reluctant Storyteller
By Art Coulson and Carlin Bear Don't Walk (Illustrator)
The Sea in Winter
By Christine Day
Son Who Returns
By Gary Robinson
Sugar Falls: A Residential School Story
By David A. Robertson, Scott B. Henderson, (Illustrator), Donovan Yaciuk (Colourist)
This Place: 150 Years Retold
By Alicia Elliott (Foreword by), Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm (Contribution by), Sonny Assu (Contribution by)
Trickster: Native American Tales: A Graphic Collection
By Matt Dembicki (Editor)
Triple Threat
By Jacqueline Guest
Under the Mesquite
By Guadalupe Garcia McCall
Walking on Earth & Touching the Sky
By Timothy P. McLaughlin (Editor), S. D. Nelson (Illustrator), Joseph Marshall (Foreword by)
We Dream Medicine Dreams
By Lisa Boivin
We Still Belong *
By Christine Day
Who Will Tell My Brother
By Marlene Carvell
The Wolf's Trail: An Ojibwe Story, Told by Wolves
By Thomas D. Peacock
An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States for Young People*
By Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Debbie Reese
Apple (Skin to the Core) *
By Eric Gansworth
Blue Horses Rush in
By Luci Tapahonso
Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
By Monique Gray Smith, Robin Wall Kimmerer, and Nicole Neidhardt (Illustrator)
Code Talker Stories
By Laura Tohe
Crazy Horse's Girlfriend
By Erika T. Wurth
The Diné Reader: An Anthology of Navajo Literature *
Edited by Esther G. Belin and Jeff Berglund
Dreaming in Indian: Contemporary Native American Voices
By Lisa Charleyboy, Mary Beth Leatherdale (Editor)
Fighter in Velvet Gloves: Alaska Civil Rights Hero Elizabeth Peratrovich
By Annie Boochever and Roy Peratrovich Jr
How We Go Home: Voices from Indigenous North America
Edited by Sara Sinclair
Hunting by Stars (a Marrow Thieves Novel)
By Cherie Dimaline
Indigenous DC: Native Peoples and the Nation's Capital
By Elizabeth Rule
Last Standing Woman
By Winona LaDuke
The Lesser Blessed
By Richard Van Camp
The Marrow Thieves*
By Cherie Dimaline
Mean Spirit
By Linda Hogan
Moccasin Thunder: American Indian Stories for Today
By Lori Marie Carlson
The Night Wanderer: A Graphic Novel
By Drew Hayden Taylor
Night Flying Woman: An Ojibway Narrative
By Ignatia Broker
Notable Native People: 50 Indigenous Leaders, Dreamers, and Changemakers from Past and Present
By Adrienne Keene and Ciara Sana (Illustrator)
#NotYourPrincess: Voices of Native American Women*
Edited by Lisa Charleyboy and Mary Beth Leatherdale
Red Nation Rising: From Bordertown Violence to Native Liberation
By Nick Estes, Melanie Yazzie, Jennifer Nez Denetdale, and David Correia
Rez Ball *
By Byron Graves
Robopocalypse
By Daniel H. Wilson
Spíləx̣m: A Weaving of Recovery, Resilience, and Resurgence *
By Nicola I. Campbell
Team Spirits: The Native American Mascots Controversy
By C. Richard King (Editor), Charles Fruehling Springwood (Editor), Vine Deloria Jr (Foreword by)
When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry *
By Jennifer Elise Foerster, Leanne Howe, and Joy Harjo (Editor)
Indigenizing Education: Transformative Research, Theories, and Praxis
Edited by Jeremy Garcia, Valerie Shirley, and Hollie Anderson Kulago
Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years: Resources for Teaching about the Impact of the Arrival of Columbus in the Americas
By Bill Bigelow (Editor), Bob Peterson (Editor)
Teaching Critically about Lewis and Clark: Challenging Dominant Narratives in K-12 Curriculum
By Alison Schmitke and Leilani Sabzalian and Jeff Edmundson