A Picture-Book Reading List
Because, We are still here.
Stories of native and indigenous erasure and historical trauma that center the thriving artistic presence, resilient cultural practices, and ongoing activism of Native American communities
Fry Bread by Kevin Noble (Seminole Nation, Mekusukey Band) and Juana Martinez-Neal
Literacy Professor Anne Peel suggested Fry Bread because...
It’s an own-voice, counternarrative text; A story of Native American family, history and community through foodways. The author wrote this story for his own children because he struggled to find a book that acknowledges America's historical injustices while celebrating that, “We are still here.”
Check out the author reading their work here.
TAGS: Counternarrative, NativeVoices
We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom (Ojibwe, Turtle Mountain Band) and Michaela Goade (Tlingit and Haita Tribes)
We recommend this book because ...
According to the author's web site, this Caldecott Award winning book was "inspired by Standing Rock, and all Indigenous Peoples fighting for clean water."
Check out the author reading their work here.
TAGS: NativeVoices, activism, climate justice
When We Were Alone by David Robertson (Norway House Cree) and Julia Flett (Cree-Metis)
Elementary and Urban Education Professor Tabitha Dell'Angelo suggested this book because...
When a young girl helps tend to her grandmother's garden, she is told about life in a residential school a long time ago, where her clothing, language, and family were all taken away. Debbie Reese writes, it "brought forth a lot of emotion as I read it. There were sighs of sadness for what Native people experienced at boarding schools, and sighs of—I don’t know, love, maybe—for our perseverance through it all."
Check out the author reading their work here.
Check out the author talking to an early childhood teacher about reading the book in classrooms
TAGS: Native erasure, residential schools, family history, NativeVoices
When I Was Eight by Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton (Inuvialuit) and Gabriel Grimard
Literacy Professor Anne Peel suggested this book because...
This is a true story of the author's experience in residential schools in Canada. As Debbie Reese said, this is a "frightful but honest story about perseverance. Some of us might like children's books to be light and pretty, but for many of us, life isn't always that way. Denying that reality and that history is a disservice to everyone."
Older readers will be interested in the chapter book version of Pokiak-Fenton's memoir: Fatty Legs.
TAGS: NativeVoices, residential schools, memoir