LibGuides: American Indian Youth Literature Award: 2024

Winner

CO-WINNERS

Forever Cousins by Laurel Goodluck ; illustrated by Jonathan Nelson
A Letter for Bob by Kim Rogers ; illustrated by Jonathan Nelson

Forever Cousins by Laurel Goodluck; Jonathan Nelson (Illustrator)
Call Number: EASY GOO (Easy fiction)
ISBN: 9781623542924
Publication Date: 2022-10-04
Amanda and Kara are cousins and best friends in an intertribal Native American family; but Kara's family leaves the city and moves back to the Rez, making both girls sad; but the summer reunion reminds them that they will always be cousins.
A Letter for Bob by Kim Rogers
Call Number: EASY ROG
ISBN: 9780063044555
Publication Date: 2023-09-19
Katie writes a goodbye letter to her family's car that she named Bob, thanking him for the memories--from powwows to vacations to time spent with extended family and more.

We Still Belong by Christine Day ; cover art by Madelyn Goodnight

We Still Belong by Christine Day
Call Number: JUV F DAY (Juvenile fiction)
ISBN: 9780063064560
Publication Date: 2023-08-01
Wesley's hopeful plans for Indigenous Peoples' Day (and asking her crush to the dance) go all wrong-until she finds herself surrounded by the love of her Indigenous family and community at the intertribal powwow.

Rez Ball by Byron Graves ; jacket art by Natasha Donovan

Rez Ball by Byron Graves
Call Number: YA F GRA-B
ISBN: 9780063160378
Publication Date: 2023-09-12
These days, Tre Brun is happiest when he is playing basketball on the Red Lake Reservation high school team, even though he can't help but be constantly gut-punched with memories of his big brother, Jaxon, who died in an accident. When Jaxon's former teammates on the varsity team offer to take Tre under their wing, he sees this as his shot to represent his Ojibwe rez all the way to their first state championship. This is the first step toward his dream of playing in the NBA, no matter how much the odds are stacked against him. But stepping into his brother's shoes as a star player means that Tre can't mess up. Not on the court, not at school, and not with his new friend, gamer Khiana, who he is definitely not falling in love with. After decades of rez teams almost making it, Tre needs to take his team to state. Because if he can live up to Jaxon's dreams, their story isn't over yet.

Honor Books

Celebration by Lily Hope ; illlustrated by Kelsey Mata Foote
Contenders by Traci Sorell ; illustrated by Arigon Starr
Berry Song written & illustrated by Michaela Goade
Remember by Joy Harjo ; illustrated by Michaela Goade
Rock Your Mocs by Laurel Goodluck ; illustrated by Madelyn Goodnight

Contenders : two native baseball players, one World Series by Traci Sorell; Arigon Starr (Illustrator)
Call Number: EASY B SOR
ISBN: 9780593406472
Publication Date: 2023-04-11
The true story of John Meyers and Charles Bender, who in 1911 became the first two Native American pro baseball players to face off in a World Series, teaches important lessons about resilience, doing what you love in the face of injustice, and the fight for Native American representation in sports.
Berry Song by Michaela Goade
Call Number: EASY GOA (Easy fiction)
ISBN: 9780316494175
Publication Date: 2022-07-19
As a young Tlingit girl collects wild berries over the seasons, she sings with her Grandmother as she learns to speak to the land and listen when the land speaks back.
Remember by Joy Harjo; Michaela Goade (Illustrator)
Call Number: EASY HAR (Easy fiction)
ISBN: 9780593484845
Publication Date: 2023-03-21
Remember the sky you were born under,
Know each of the star's stories.
Remember the moon, know who she is.
Remember the sun's birth at dawn,
That is the strongest point of time.

So begins the picture book adaptation of the renowned poem that encourages young readers to reflect on family, nature, and their heritage. In simple and direct language, Harjo, a member of the Mvskoke Nation, urges readers to pay close attention to who they are, the world they were born into, and how all inhabitants on earth are connected. Michaela Goade, drawing from her Tlingit culture, has created vivid illustrations that make the words come alive in an engaging and accessible wa
Rock Your Mocs by Laurel Goodluck; Madelyn Goodnight (Illustrator)
Call Number: EASY GOO
ISBN: 9780063099890
Publication Date: 2023-10-10
This picture book by Laurel Goodluck (Mandan, Hidatsa, and Tsimshian) and illustrated by Madelyn Goodnight (Chickasaw) is a joyful and colorful introduction to the annual celebration of Rock Your Mocs Day, November 15, because moccasins and Native pride shouldn't be saved just for ceremonies and powwows but celebrated all year round!

Eagle Drums written & illlustrated by Nasuġraq Rainey Hopson
Mascot by Traci Sorell & Charles Waters ; jacket illustration by Nicole Neidhardt
Fancy Pants (Jo Jo Makoons) by Dawn Quigley ; illustrated by Tara Audibert
Snow Day (Jo JO Makoons) by Dawn Quigley ; illustrated by Tara Audibert
Maria Tallchief (She Persisted) by Christine Day ; illustrated by Alexandra Boiger & Gillian Flint
Wilma Mankiller (She Persisted) by Traci Sorell ; illustrated by Alexandra Boiger & Gillian Flint
Deb Haaland (She Persisterd) by Laurel Goodluck ; illustrated by Alexandra Boiger & Gillian Flint

Eagle Drums by NasuAraq Rainey Hopson (Illustrator)
Call Number: JUV F HOP
ISBN: 9781250750655
Publication Date: 2023-09-12
In preparation for winter, a skilled young hunter embarks on a perilous journey up the mountain to gather obsidian, where he encounters the fearsome eagle god Savik and is presented with a life-altering choice.
Mascot by Charles Waters; Traci Sorell
Call Number: JUV F WAT
ISBN: 9781623543808
Publication Date: 2023-09-05
Six eighth graders in Washington, DC, navigate through the conflict and division sparked by a school assignment focused on their town's Native American mascot.
Fancy Pants (Jo Jo Makoons #2) by Dawn Quigley; Tara Audibert (Illustrator)
Call Number: Juv F QUI M2 (Juvenile fiction)
ISBN: 9780063015418
Publication Date: 2022-05-10
Filled with lots of glitter, raised pinkies, and humorous misunderstandings, this second book in the Jo Jo Makoons series--written by Dawn Quigley and illustrated by Tara Audibert--is filled with the joy of a young Ojibwe girl discovering her very own special shine from the inside out. First grader Jo Jo Makoons knows how to do a lot of things, like how to play jump rope, how to hide her peas in her milk, and how to be helpful in her classroom. But there's one thing Jo Jo doesn't know how to do: be fancy. She has a lot to learn before her Aunt Annie's wedding! Favorite purple unicorn notebook in hand, Jo Jo starts exploring her Ojibwe community to find ways to be fancy.
Snow Day (Jo Jo Makoons #3) by Dawn Quigley; Tara Audibert (Illustrator)
Call Number: EASY C QUI M3
ISBN: 9780063015432
Publication Date: 2023-09-19
Jo Jo Makoons has noticed that the family members she loves most--Mama, Kokum, and even her cat, Mimi--all have their own ways of being healthy. So when Teacher says that their class will be learning about healthy habits, Jo Jo is ready to be neighborly by helping everyone around her be healthy too. After a snowstorm shuts down her Ojibwe reservation, Jo Jo uses her big imagination and big personality to help both Elders and classmates alike. Because after all, being healthy means being together!
Maria Tallchief (She persisted) by Christine Day; Chelsea Clinton; Alexandra Boiger (Illustrator); Gillian Flint (Illustrator)
Call Number: JUV B TAL
ISBN: 9780593115817
Publication Date: 2021-11-16
Maria Tallchief loved to dance, but was told that she might need to change her Osage name to one that sounded more Russian to make it as a professional ballerina. She refused, and worked hard at dancing her best, becoming America's first prima ballerina. Many famous American ballets were created for Maria!
Wilma Mankiller (She persisted) by Traci Sorell; Chelsea Clinton; Alexandra Boiger (Illustrator); Gillian Flint (Illustrator)
Call Number: EASY B MAN (Easy biography)
ISBN: 9780593403037
Publication Date: 2022-10-04
The descendant of Cherokee ancestors who had been forced to walk the Trail of Tears, Wilma Mankiller experienced her own forced removal from the land she grew up on as a child. As she got older and learned more about the injustices her people had faced, she dedicated her life to instilling pride in Native heritage and reclaiming Native rights. She went on to become the first woman Principle Chief of the Cherokee Nation.
Deb Haaland (She persisted) by Laurel Goodluck; Chelsea Clinton; Alexandra Boiger (Illustrator); Gillian Flint (Illustrator)
Call Number: JUV B HAA
ISBN: 9780593620694
Publication Date: 2023-10-03
Biography of the first Native American to become a cabinet secretary.

Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley ; jacket illustrations by Michaela Goade
Funeral Songs for Dying Girls by Cherie Dimaline
Man Made Monsters by Andrea L. Rogers ; illustrated by Jeff Edwards
Running with Changing Woman by Lorinda Martinez ; cover design by Brittany Gene
Heroes of the Water Monster by Brian Young ; jacket art by Shonto Begay

Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley
Call Number: YA F BOU-A (Young adult fiction)
ISBN: 9781250766588
Publication Date: 2023-05-02
Perry Firekeeper-Birch was ready for her Summer of Slack but instead, after a fender bender that was entirely not her fault, she's stuck working to pay back her Auntie Daunis for repairs to the Jeep. Thankfully she has the other outcasts of the summer program, Team Misfit Toys, and even her twin sister Pauline. Together they ace obstacle courses, plan vigils for missing women in the community, and make sure summer doesn't feel so lost after all. But when she attends a meeting at a local university, Perry learns about the "Warrior Girl", an ancestor whose bones and knife are stored in the museum archives, and everything changes. Perry has to return Warrior Girl to her tribe. Determined to help, she learns all she can about NAGPRA, the federal law that allows tribes to request the return of ancestral remains and sacred items. The university has been using legal loopholes to hold onto Warrior Girl and twelve other Anishinaabe ancestors' remains, and Perry and the Misfits won't let it go on any longer. Using all of their skills and resources, the Misfits realize a heist is the only way to bring back the stolen artifacts and remains for good. But there is more to this repatriation than meets the eye as more women disappear and Pauline's perfectionism takes a turn for the worse. As secrets and mysteries unfurl, Perry and the Misfits must fight to find a way to make things right - for the ancestors and for their community.
Funeral Songs for Dying Girls by Cherie Dimaline
Call Number: YA F DIM-C (Young adult fiction)
ISBN: 9780735265639
Publication Date: 2023-04-04
Winifred has lived in the apartment above the cemetery office with her father, who works in the crematorium all her life, close to her mother's grave. With her sixteenth birthday only days away, Winifred has settled into a lazy summer schedule, lugging her obese Chihuahua around the grounds in a squeaky red wagon to visit the neglected gravesides and nursing a serious crush on her best friend, Jack. Her habit of wandering the graveyard at all hours has started a rumor that Winterson Cemetery might be haunted. It's welcome news since the crematorium is on the verge of closure and her father's job being outsourced. Now that the ghost tours have started, Winifred just might be able to save her father's job and the only home she's ever known, not to mention being able to stay close to where her mother is buried. All she has to do is get help from her con-artist cousin to keep up the rouse and somehow manage to stop her father from believing his wife has returned from the grave. But when Phil, an actual ghost of a teen girl who lived and died in the ravine next to the cemetery, starts showing up, Winifred begins to question everything she believes about life, love and death. Especially love.
Man Made Monsters by Andrea Rogers; Jeff Edwards (Illustrator)
Call Number: YA F ROG-A
ISBN: 9781646141791
Publication Date: 2022-10-04
Horror fans will get their thrills in this collection--from werewolves to vampires to zombies--all the time-worn horror baddies are there. But so are predators of a distinctly American variety--the horrors of empire, of intimate partner violence, of dispossession. And so too the monsters of Rogers€ imagination, that draw upon long-told Cherokee stories--of Deer Woman, fantastical sea creatures, and more. Following one extended Cherokee family across the centuries, from the tribe€s homelands in Georgia in the 1830s to World War I, the Vietnam War, our own present, and well into the future, each story delivers a slice of a particular time period that will leave readers longing for more. Alongside each story, Cherokee artist and language technologist Jeff Edwards delivers haunting illustrations that incorporate Cherokee syllabary.
Heroes of the Water Monster by Brian Young
Call Number: JUV F YOU (Juvenile fiction)
ISBN: 9780062990433
Publication Date: 2023-05-23
Edward and Nathan, two Navajo stepbrothers, work with a young water monster named Dew to confront their past and save the world from a monstrous, enormous Enemy that is stealing water from all of the Navajo Nation.