American Indian Youth Literature Award winners and honors

Excellent writing and illustration by Native Americans and Indigenous peoples of North America, showing Native people in their full humanity.

Showing 1 - 20 of 94  There are a total of 94 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "Forever cousins"
Notes:
2024 Picture Book winner
Description:
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.--
Book cover for "We still belong"
Notes:
2024 Middle Grade winner
Description:
"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"--
Book cover for "Rez ball"
Notes:
2024 Young Adult winner
Description:
"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...
Book cover for "Contenders"
Notes:
2024 Picture Book honor
Description:
"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." --
Book cover for "Berry song"
Notes:
2024 Picture Book honor
Description:
"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." -- Library of Congress.
Book cover for "Remember"
Author:
Notes:
2024 Picture Book honor
Description:
"Picture book adaptation of US Poet Laureate Joy Harjo's iconic poem, Remember"--
Book cover for "Rock your mocs"
Notes:
2024 Picture Book honor
Description:
"In this happy, vibrant tribute to Rock Your Mocs Day, observed yearly on November 15, author Laurel Goodluck (Mandan, Hidatsa, and Tsimshian) and artist Madelyn Goodnight (Chickasaw) celebrate the joy and power of wearing moccasins--and the Native pride that comes with them. A perfect book for Native American Heritage Month, and all year round!" --publisher's website.
Book cover for "Eagle drums"
Notes:
2024 Middle Grade honor
Description:
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.
Book cover for "Eagle Drums"
Notes:
2024 Middle Grade honor
Description:

**A NEWBERY HONOR BOOK**
A magical middle grade debut about the origin story of the Iñupiaq Messenger Feast, a Native Arctic tradition.
With beautifully hand-drawn full color art throughout!
As his family prepares for winter, a young, skilled hunter must travel up the mountain to collect obsidian for knapping—the same mountain where his two older brothers died.
When he reaches the mountaintop, he is immediately confronted

...

10. Mascot

Book cover for "Mascot"
Notes:
2024 Middle Grade honor
Description:
In Rye, Virginia, just outside Washington, DC, people work hard, kids go to school, and football is big on Friday nights. An eighth-grade English teacher creates an assignment for her class to debate whether Ry這s mascot should stay or change. Now six middle schoolerś€“-all with different backgrounds and beliefś€“-get involved in the contentious issue that already has the suburb turned upside down with...
Book cover for "Fancy pants"
Series:
Jo Jo volume 2.
Notes:
2024 Middle Grade honor
Description:
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."--
Book cover for "JoJo Makoons"
Notes:
2024 Middle Grade honor
Description:
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...
Book cover for "Snow day"
Series:
Jo Jo volume 3.
Notes:
2024 Middle Grade honor
Description:
"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...
Book cover for "Maria Tallchief"
Notes:
2024 Middle Grade honor
Description:
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! Complete with an introduction from Chelsea Clinton, black-and-white illustrations throughout, and a list of ways that readers can follow in Maria...
Book cover for "She persisted"
Notes:
2024 Middle Grade honor
Description:
A chapter book biography of Native American activist, Wilma Mankiller, part of the She Persisted series.
Book cover for "Deb Haaland"
Notes:
2024 Middle Grade honor
Description:
"As a child of two military parents, Deb Haaland moved around a lot when she was young before finally settling in Albuquerque to be near family. But she persisted, studying hard and eventually earning a law degree. An enrolled member of the Pueblo Laguna nation, Deb was one of the first two Native American women to be elected to Congress, where she represented New Mexico's 1st District. In 2021, when the Senate confirmed her as President Biden's secretary...
Book cover for "Warrior girl unearthed"
Notes:
2024 Young Adult honor
Description:
Perry Firekeeper-Birch has always known who she is - the laidback twin, the troublemaker, the best fisher on Sugar Island. Her aspirations won't ever take her far from home, and she wouldn't have it any other way. But as the rising number of missing Indigenous women starts circling closer to home, as her family becomes embroiled in a high-profile murder investigation, and as greedy grave robbers seek to profit off of what belongs to her Anishinaabe...
Book cover for "Funeral songs for dying girls"
Notes:
2024 Young Adult honor
Description:
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...
Book cover for "Man made monsters"
Notes:
2024 Young Adult honor
Description:
Haunting illustrations are woven throughout these horror stories that follow one extended Cherokee family across the centuries and well into the future as they encounter predators of all kinds in each time period.
Book cover for "Man Made Monsters"
Notes:
2024 Young Adult honor
Description:
WALTER DEAN MYERS AWARD WINNER
AMERICAN INDIAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION YOUTH LITERATURE HONOR
INTERNATIONAL LITERACY ASSOCIATION BOOK AWARD WINNER
WHIPPOORWHILL AWARD WINNER
READING THE WEST BOOK AWARDS SHORTLIST
NEA READ ACROSS AMERICA RECOMMENDED TITLE

BEST OF THE YEAR
Washington Post
  • Booklist Editors' Choice
  • Publishers Weekly
  • Horn Book
  • New York Public Library

    Tsalagi should
  • ...