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 35  There are a total of 93 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 "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 "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.

6. 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 "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 "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 "Heroes of the water monster"
Notes:
2024 Young Adult honor
Description:
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.

11. Herizon

Book cover for "Herizon"
Notes:
2022 Picture Book winner
Description:
A young Diné girl helps her grandmother retrieve a flock of sheep with a magical scarf that transforms the world she knows.
Book cover for "Healer of the water monster"
Notes:
2022 Middle School winner
Description:
"Brian Young's (Navajo) debut novel, inspired by Navajo beliefs, features a seemingly ordinary boy who must save the life of a Water Monster-and help his uncle suffering from addiction-by discovering his own bravery and boundless love." --
Book cover for "The sea in winter"
Notes:
2022 Middle School honor
Description:
In this evocative and heartwarming novel for readers who loved The Thing About Jellyfish, the author of I Can Make This Promise tells the story of a Native American girl struggling to find her joy again. It's been a hard year for Maisie Cannon, ever since she hurt her leg and could not keep up with her ballet training and auditions. Her blended family is loving and supportive, but Maisie knows that they just can't understand how hopeless she feels....
Book cover for "The used-to-be best friend"
Series:
Jo Jo volume 1.
Notes:
2022 Middle School honor
Description:
Jo Jo Makoons Azure is a spirited seven-year-old who moves through the world a little differently than anyone else on her Ojibwe reservation. It always seems like her mom, her kokum (grandma), and her teacher have a lot to learn--about how good Jo Jo is at cleaning up, what makes a good rhyme, and what it means to be friendly. Even though Jo Jo loves her #1 best friend Mimi (who is a cat), she's worried that she needs to figure out how to make more...
Book cover for "Jo Jo Makoons"
Notes:
2022 Middle School honor
Description:
Jo Jo Makoons Azure is a spirited seven-year-old who moves through the world a little differently than anyone else on her Ojibwe reservation. It always seems like her mom, her kokum (grandma), and her teacher have a lot to learn--about how good Jo Jo is at cleaning up, what makes a good rhyme, and what it means to be friendly. Even though Jo Jo loves her #1 best friend Mimi (who is a cat), she's worried that she needs to figure out how to make more...
Book cover for "Bowwow powwow ="
Notes:
2020 Picture Book winner
Description:
"When Uncle and Windy Girl attend a powwow, Windy watches the dancers and listens to the singers. She eats tasty food and joins family and friends around the campfire. Later, Windy falls asleep under the stars. Uncle's stories inspire visions in her head: a bowwow powwow, where all the dancers are dogs. In these magical scenes, Windy sees veterans in a Grand Entry, and a visiting drum group, and traditional dancers, grass dancers, and jingle-dress...
Book cover for "Indian no more"
Notes:
2020 Middle School winner
Description:
Regina Petit's family has always been Umpqua, and living on the Grand Ronde reservation is all ten-year-old Regina has ever known. Her biggest worry is that Sasquatch may actually exist out in the forest. But when the federal government signs a bill into law that says Regina's tribe no longer exists, Regina becomes "Indian no more" overnight—even though she was given a number by the Bureau of Indian Affairs that counted her as Indian, even though...
Book cover for "Fry bread"
Notes:
2020 Picture Book honor
Description:
"Fry bread is food. It is warm and delicious, piled high on a plate. Fry bread is time. It brings families together . . . Fry bread is nation. It is shared by many, from coast to coast and beyond. Fry bread is us. It is a celebration of old and new, traditional and modern, similarity and difference . . . [This book ] is an evocative depiction of a modern Native American family . . ." -- Adapted from dust cover.
Book cover for "Birdsong"
Author:
Notes:
2020 Picture Book honor
Description:
When a young girl moves from the country to a small town, she feels lonely and out of place. But soon she meets an elderly woman next door, who shares her love of arts and crafts. Can the girl navigate the changing seasons and failing health of her new friend? Acclaimed author and artist Julie Flett’s textured images of birds, flowers, art, and landscapes bring vibrancy and warmth to this powerful story, which highlights the fulfillment of intergenerational...
Book cover for "At the mountain's base"
Notes:
2020 Picture Book honor
Description:
A family, separated by duty and distance, waits for a loved one to return home in this lyrical picture book celebrating the bonds of a Cherokee family and the bravery of history-making women pilots. At the mountain's base sits a cabin under an old hickory tree. And in that cabin lives a family — loving, weaving, cooking, and singing. The strength in their song sustains them through trials on the ground and in the sky, as they wait for their loved...