Medicine Wheels

 

Rating: 4 out of 5 | Indigenous representation in literature and a prime example of failing upward.

My Thoughts: 

If you are looking for a "sports" read for young men, especially of the reluctant reader variety, like Graves' other book Rez Ball, this one will capture reluctant readers. It is a fairly easy read with all the right ingredients to keep readers interested. 

Bryce is abandoned by his mother and kicked out of the motel without his things when his mother violates her probation. Still, his relationship with his paternal grandparents is strong and they greet him with open arms. His grandfather, really his only father figure since his father died, is in home hospice, but is still raising him with his quiet wisdom and love. 

Being back on the rez is healing for Bryce and fills in all the emptiness that he was feeling, but it does not take away the pain of having an incarcerated mother and a dying grandfather. What holds this story together is his father's skateboard. 

The Wolf Creek reservation is another character in this book because it brings with it familiar "characters" in Bryce's life that he can rely on. It also brings the Ojibwe culture, language and rituals back into Bryce's life -- all healing players in his story. Finally, on the cover is a mantra that really exemplifies this Indigenous feel good book: "ride, crash, rise." This is a characteristic of a feel good Indigenous book when not everything is unicorns and rainbows, but despite the trauma, the characters still get a good ending when they lean into their cultural values. If readers want more like this, the publisher, Heartdrum, an imprint of  Harper Children's Books for Indigenous stories, is a great start. Cynthia Leitich Smith is the author-curator for the imprint, so checking her blog is also a good start. 

From the Publisher:

The American Indian Youth Literature and Morris Award-winning author of Rez Ball returns with the unforgettable story of a gifted young Ojibwe athlete learning to ride in his father’s footsteps while practicing for a skateboarding championship.

When Bryce’s mom walks out on her abusive boyfriend and back into jail for breaking her probation, he’s left facing the summer of his junior year with no parents, no phone, and only the clothes on his back.

With nowhere to call home, Bryce crashes at his grandparents’ house on Wolf Creek reservation. Wolf Creek is full of memories and old friends—including Robbie and Mikayla, who hang out at the local skate park.

Skateboarding reminds Bryce of his late dad: carefree, riding like he could fly. If Bryce could learn to ride like that, he’d take his crew to the top of the skateboarding championship at the end of the summer, and finally prove he’s not a loser, especially to the online-famous, captivating Mikayla. Summer is looking up, even as he’s falling on his face.

But when a fresh loss takes Bryce down, he’ll need to learn to lean on his Ojibwe community to get back on the board. Only then can he discover his father’s real legacy—and the true meaning of unconditional love.

Publication Information:

• Author: Byron Graves
• Publication Date: June 2, 2026
• Print Length: 344 pages
• Ages: 13 and up

Elatsoe

 

Rating: 4 add this to your classroom library of Native American stories by Native American authors.

My Thoughts:

November is Native American Heritage Month, so start early to find or add books to your classroom for next fall. In 2015, data from the Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) indicated that there were about 20 books written or illustrated by American Indians. In 2018, Indigenous creators made up about 1.4% of all YA authors. In 2023, it rose to 2.4%. In 2024, CCBC counted 102 books by Indigenous authors/creators, aggregated between Canadian First Nation authors/illustrators and Native American authors/illustrators. When the numbers are so small, it is good to read both, but this author, Dr. Darcie Little Badger is a Native American, Lipan Apache writer with her PhD in oceanography.  Ellie's foray into the underworld ancestral sea was a fascinating way for Ellie to really get to know her ancestral gift and the ways that this knowledge might help her later on in the book. 

The fact that Dr. Little Badger is American is significant for middle and secondary teachers looking to diversify their 'literature closets' by replacing of supplementing copies of  Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell. I have been in enough public and private school classrooms in Hawai'i to know that there are still class sets of Island in literature closets.  Books like this and other #ownvoices literature by Native authors might replace or supplement Island. Bringing in something like Elatsoe could balance out, or avoid reinforcing the stereotypes, tropes and historical inaccuracy found in O'Dell's work. If you want to read more about the analysis and critique of Island -- in case you need to answer to school boards, administrators, parents, other stakeholders --  get your fuel from the article "A critical look at O'Dell's Island of the Blue Dolphins" by Dr. Debbie Reese, a Nambé Pueblo scholar and founder of the blog site American Indians In Children's Literature. 

As far as the story, I found a video of the author that does a much better job in selling this book. The only other two things I want to say are that:

1.  This is book one of a duology.
2. I wish I had the power to be protected by my own ghost dog. 

My childhood dog was a goofy doberman/German shepherd mutt named Squirt who was clumsy and hilarious, but also loyal and kind. 

From the Publisher:

Elatsoe―Ellie for short―lives in an alternate contemporary America shaped by the ancestral magics and knowledge of its Indigenous and immigrant groups. She can raise the spirits of dead animals―most importantly, her ghost dog Kirby. When her beloved cousin dies, all signs point to a car crash, but his ghost tells her otherwise: He was murdered.

Who killed him and how did he die? With the help of her family, her best friend Jay, and the memory great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother, Elatsoe, must track down the killer and unravel the mystery of this creepy town and its dark past. But will the nefarious townsfolk and a mysterious Doctor stop her before she gets started?

The breathtaking debut novel from Darcie Little Badger features an asexual, Apache teen protagonist―and combines mystery, horror, noir, ancestral knowledge, haunting illustrations, and fantasy elements, in one of the most-talked-about books in years.

Publication Information:

Author                 Darcie Little Badger

Illustrator           Rovina Cai

Publisher            Levine Querido (August 25, 2020)

Print length        368 pages

Grade level         7-12

Ladders and Bridges:

Key First Nation (Canadian) YA Authors:

• Wab Kinew: Walking in Two Worlds
• Cherie Dimaline: The Marrow Thieves, Funeral Songs for Dying Girls
• This Place: 150 Years Retold is a collective of First Nation authors/illustrators who explore the past and future through a native perspective in graphic form. 
• Jen Ferguson: The Summer of Bitter and Sweet

Key American Native YA Authors:

• Cynthia Leitich Smith: Hearts Unbroken founder of the Heartdrum imprint, editor of the fabulous anthology Legendary Frybread Drive-In (includes authors on this list)
• Darcie Little Badger: Sheine Lende (book 2), Snake Falls to Earth 
• Angeline Boulley: Firekeeper's Daughter, Warrior Girl Unearthed
• Byron Graves: Rez Ball
• Andrea L. Rogers: Man Made Monsters (Elatsoe for older readers who are ready for "the horror")

Saints of the Household

 

My Thoughts:

This debut YA novel by Indigenous Costa Rican author Ari Tison is complex in that it starts with the repercussions of violence not done to, but done by these two Bribri American brothers. The two brothers come upon a couple in the Minnesota woods and recognize the girl, Nicole, their Anishnabe "cousin," being grabbed forcefully by her boyfriend, white/Mexican soccer star Luca. The two brothers, Max and Jay without much conversation or questioning beat him up. The rest of the book is done in alternating chapters as Jay and Max come through some sort of healing and reflection on both the violence done to them by their father, as well as the violence they inflicted. Jay's chapters are written in prose vignettes. Max's chapters are written in spare free verse. 

The difficulty and therefore the brilliance in this book is that the words on paper reflect how the two boys shatter. The incident acts as a chasm between them that never really gets bridged. Each of them find their own individual semi- peace, but I don't think they see each other in the same way. Jay has Nicole and his grandfather to help him heal. Max has his art and a budding romance that he does not want to tell Jay about. Perhaps that is the most tragic aspect of this book is that they cannot rely on each other to heal. In fact, as the readers alternate between the two boys, how they "read" each other is so heartbreakingly wrong that it feels like their base is untenable. 

This book deserves whatever awards it is going to get. The heartbreak stayed with me long after I finished reading. I'm not going to talk about themes and activities in this post because I think this is my next Language arts methods class read for the summer. 

From the Publisher:

Max and Jay have always depended on one another for their survival. Growing up with a physically abusive father, the two Bribri American brothers have learned that the only way to protect themselves and their mother is to stick to a schedule and keep their heads down.

But when they hear a classmate in trouble in the woods, instinct takes over and they intervene, breaking up a fight and beating their high school's star soccer player to a pulp. This act of violence threatens the brothers' dreams for the future and their beliefs about who they are. As the true details of that fateful afternoon unfold over the course of the novel, Max and Jay grapple with the weight of their actions, their shifting relationship as brothers, and the realization that they may be more like their father than they thought. They'll have to reach back to their Bribri roots to find their way forward.

Told in alternating points of view using vignettes and poems, debut author Ari Tison crafts an emotional, slow-burning drama about brotherhood, abuse, recovery, and doing the right thing.

Publication Information:

Author: Ari Tison

Publisher: Farrar, Straus, Giroux (March 28, 2023)

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0374389499

Grade level: 10-12

The Summer of Bitter and Sweet

 

My Thoughts:

This book about Lou, a Métis young woman living in Canada, is lots of bitter. Readers need to be warned that this may be triggering. There is radical racial violence, sexual violence, and emotional violence.  The author has a trigger warning at the beginning that warns us about the trauma coming, including traumas faced by Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit people. The author does this because according to Ferguson, "Your health, happiness, safety, and well-being matter more than reading this book." She even says that if readers are not ready, it is ok to stop reading or even never read this book. As a teacher, I appreciate that last part. Young adults, even middle level readers need to understand that books can be too much of a mirror, a window, even a sliding glass door (Rudine Sims Bishop). Reading, at its best, should be a visceral experience. So if a book just does not grab you, or if a book grabs you too much and starts to push you into dark spaces that you do not want to go into, then abandon the book. According to the author, that is fine, even encouraged. For teachers, it should be ok for our own students to abandon books too. When we force people to read, that is when we lose them. I am just writing this because I know the research. I know the best practices for raising lifelong readers. I appreciate that Ferguson starts the book off in that way.

The problem is, once I started reading, I forgot her advice completely. The voice of Lou, her observations and descriptions, her family, the situation of getting the Ice Cream Shack ready on this, her final summer before college, even Homer, her old dog that surfs on top of the picnic table in the back of her F-150 pulled me in. The niggling warning beep Lou's complex attitude toward her boyfriend does not give me enough warning for the four-alarm fires that are coming in this book. It is graphic and complex. It is a visceral explosion. The bitterness is deep and rotten, but I was already too far in and I forgot to breathe.

Yes, there is sweet. Eventually. And there is an understanding of one's self, eventually. Lou comes to some realizations much later than the reader, but it did make me look up the Ace Umbrella spectrum again. I read all kinds of stories because love is love, however, this one gave me pause. I am rethinking that mantra. I did not understand the difficulty Lou has, however, it was good to read about it. Someone that passes into your own classrooms will need this book.

From the Publisher:

Lou has enough confusion in front of her this summer. She’ll be working in her family’s ice-cream shack with her newly ex-boyfriend—whose kisses never made her feel desire, only discomfort—and her former best friend, King, who is back in their Canadian prairie town after disappearing three years ago without a word.

But when she gets a letter from her biological father—a man she hoped would stay behind bars for the rest of his life—Lou immediately knows that she cannot meet him, no matter how much he insists.

While King’s friendship makes Lou feel safer and warmer than she would have thought possible, when her family’s business comes under threat, she soon realizes that she can’t ignore her father forever.

The Heartdrum imprint centers a wide range of intertribal voices, visions, and stories while welcoming all young readers, with an emphasis on the present and future of Indian Country and on the strength of young Native heroes. In partnership with We Need Diverse Books.

Publication Information:

Author: Jen Ferguson (Métis and White)

Publisher: Heartdrum (May 10, 2022)

Hardcover: 384 pages

Man Made Monsters

 

My Thoughts:

This is not my genre. I think I just said this a couple of weeks ago for She is a Haunting, but this collection of tales through an extended family of Cherokees is a terrifying romp through America. Although this is not my genre, this is my publishing house and I trust the diverse taste that the editors at Levine Querido provide, so I quickly picked this up.

This collection gave me Something Wicked This Way Comes vibes. The Ray Bradbury classic about a circus that comes to town, the seduction and promise with a pulse of horror is mirrored by this collection by Cherokee YA author Andrea Rogers in her debut that will be a classic. 

This book was so terrifying that I also borrowed the audiobook just to hear the pronunciation of the Cherokee language in my ear as I was listening and reading. It also has one of the best lines I have read in a long time:

Tsalagi should never have to live on human blood, but sometimes things just happen to sixteen-year-old girls.

The above quote is from the first story, "An Old-Fashioned Girl," about Ama Wilson. The German haunts me still.  With these types of books, I appreciate a good genealogy chart like this one, as well as language without translation. 

Some of the other stories that I am still thinking about include: "Maria Most Likely," "Amaʻs Boys," "Deer Women," "I Come From the Water," and the final story "The Zombies Attack the Drive-Inn!"

I gave away my advanced copy I picked up from NCTE, but I will definitely order more. 

From the Publishers:

Making her YA debut, Cherokee writer Andrea L. Rogers takes her place as one of the most striking voices of the horror renaissance that has swept the last decade.

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.

But don’t just take it from us – award-winning writer of The Only Good Indians and Mongrels Stephen Graham Jones says that "Andrea Rogers writes like the house is on fire and her words are the only thing that can put it out."

Man-Made Monsters is a masterful, heartfelt, haunting collection ripe for crossover appeal – just don’t blame us if you start hearing things that go bump in the night.

Publication Information:

Author: Andrea Rogers

Illustrator: Jeff Edwards

Publisher: Levine Querido (October 4, 2022)

Print length: 306 pages

Apple: Skin to the Core (audiobook)

 

My Thoughts:

This audiobook, read by the author, Eric Gansworth, is a memoir of radical honesty. The author writes about his growing all the stereotypes and trauma of the indigenous people as a whole, but told from within his own story and coming of age within this environment.

His stories are heartbreaking and honest, but when he starts reciting his rhyming poetry, it diminished the power of his prose. I was all in until then. Three stars for the audiobook and an extra star for being an indigenous author telling an indigenous story.

From the Publisher:

The term Apple is a slur in Native communities across the country. It's for someone supposedly red on the outside, white on the inside.

Eric Gansworth is telling his story in Apple (Skin to the Core). The story of his family, of Onondaga among Tuscaroras, of Native folks everywhere. From the horrible legacy of the government boarding schools, to a boy watching his siblings leave and return and leave again, to a young man fighting to be an artist who balances multiple worlds.

Eric shatters that slur and reclaims it in verse and prose and imagery that truly lives up to the word heartbreaking.

Publication Information:

Author/Narrator: Eric Gansworth

Audio Publisher: Dreamscape Media LLC (Oct 6 2020)

Two Tribes, graphic memoir

 

My Thoughts:

This graphic story inspired by Emily Bowen Cohenʻs life, is about Mia who lives with her mom and new stepfather. She is sent to Jewish day school and as a family, they practice Jewish traditions. But Mia is also part Muskogee from her biological fatherʻs side. Like her mom, her dad lives with his new family in Oklahoma. Mia sticks out at her Jewish day school because she does not look like her classmates, and that just makes her hungry to get to know her Native American side of her identity. Her plan is to take her bat mitzvah money and sneak away to Oklahoma to visit her dad and his new family. It is a little disturbing that her mother does not seem to see her or that the teachers at the Jewish school do not curb the ethnic shaming by the students, especially when Semitic attacks are prevalent in the world. 

Her mother eventually finds out and is very upset that Mia left and was staying with her dad and his family, but eventually she understands that the divorce is not about Mia and Mia should not be isolated from both sides of her family. 

As teachers we cannot control parents, but it is our job to ensure that all students understand their identity as well as the gifts that come with being and/both, not one or the other. 

This is another book out of Heartdrum, a Native-focused imprint of Harper Collins Children's Books. 

From the Publisher:

Mia is still getting used to living with her mom and stepfather, and to the new role their Jewish identity plays in their home. Feeling out of place at home and at her Jewish day school, Mia finds herself thinking more and more about her Muscogee father, who lives with his new family in Oklahoma. Her mother doesn’t want to talk about him, but Mia can’t help but feel like she’s missing a part of herself without him in her life.

Soon, Mia makes a plan to use the gifts from her bat mitzvah to take a bus to Oklahoma—without telling her mom—to visit her dad and find the connection to her Muscogee side she knows is just as important as her Jewish side.

Publication Information:

Author, Illustrator: Emily Bowen Cohen

Publisher: Heartdrum (August 15, 2023)

Rez Ball

 

My Thoughts:

Tre and his family just lost his big brother Jaxon. Jaxon was the basketball star. Jaxon and his teammates were going to get to the state championship. Jaxon was the pride of the Ojibwe people. Tre was the comic book geek little brother. But after Jaxon dies, Tre is determined to use his sophomore year summer to train for basketball season and make the varsity team. 

Tre's friend Wes starts making a documentary on his basketball journey and he meets a cute gamer friend, Khiana, but the major story is about basketball, getting on the varsity team and leading the team to states. 

I enjoy the action, but I enjoyed the male friendship angle more. This story was picked up for production by Netflix so read this now. 

From the Publisher:

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. 

This book is published by Heartdrum, an imprint that publishes high-quality, contemporary stories about Indigenous young people in the United States and Canada.

Publication Information:

Author: Byron Graves

Publisher: Heartdrum (September 12, 2023)

Tilly and the Crazy Eights

 

My Thoughts:

The fifth star is for books that I continue to think about and lose sleep over. But a four star read is just as powerful. The four star book is one that I have a visceral reaction to. This is solidly a four star fabulous book. I finished it on the plane where the eight elders are finally at the world Pow Wow. The ending is so powerful I found myself crying silently in first class.  If you are traveling, this is a great travel companion, but be ready to have all the feels. And if you are having all the feels, I hope you are in the first row of first class.

This is a road book, not just about bucket list road tripping but also about the fact that no matter how old you are or how much life has thrown at you, there is still time to love and discover. There is also still time to heal together and recenter ancestral knowledge. 

This story can only be told by an indigenous author and even for fiction pieces we need to normalize this idea of indigenous stories by indigenous authors. That is the only way we can just tell a road story without wallowing in victimry and stereotypes and what has been lost. It is the only way to resist with hope and love. 

This book is better for middle level readers, but if they are ready for more complex adventure, there are several on this blog and there will be more. If they want to keep learning about native perspective, Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults is a great read, in addition to the fact that Monique Gray Smith (this author) actually did this adaptation from Robin Wall Kimmererʻs original text. 

From the Publisher:

When Tilly receives an invitation to help drive eight elders on their ultimate bucket-list road trip, she impulsively says yes. Before she knows it, Tilly has said good-bye to her family and is on an adventure that will transform her in ways she could not predict, just as it will for the elders who soon dub themselves “the Crazy Eights.” The Crazy Eights each choose a stop―somewhere or something they’ve always wanted to experience―on the way to their ultimate goal, the Gathering of Nations Pow Wow in Albuquerque. Their plan is to travel to Las Vegas, Sedona, and the Redwood Forests, with each destination the inspiration for secrets and stories to be revealed. The trip proves to be powerful medicine as they laugh, heal, argue, and dream along the way. By the time their bus rolls to a stop in New Mexico, Tilly and the Crazy Eights, with friendships forged and hearts mended, feel ready for anything. But are they?

Publication Information:

Author: Monique Gray Smith

Publisher: Second Story Press (October 9, 2018)

Warrior Girl Unearthed

 

My Thoughts:

Angeline Boulley, native Indian author, probably one of 80 right now, worked in DC at Indian Affairs before leaving to become an author. What she brings to this book is an understanding of the bureaucracy of getting artifacts back to tribes. She brings this background into her sophomore book that she dubs "Indigenous Laura Croft, tomb raider." The way institutions are able to hide artifacts to loophole around policy may be fiction, but I am more worried that this just skims the surface and the true extent of grave robbery is even worse than it seems from this book. 

I am also obsessed with the warrior girl. How do I learn how to be a tomb raider too? What part can I play in repatriation of my own ancestors? I think if I were a young indigenous kid reading this book, I definitely would like to seek out more answers.

The pacing moves a little slow at times, but the horrors at the end, especially the description of the silo is so purely evil and sick that I read too fast to get to the end and I did not see the twist coming until it was right in. front of me. Sick!

If you already read Firekeeper's Daughter, you will see Daunis show up as the aunt to Perry and her twin. 

From the Publisher:

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 tribe, Perry begins to question everything.

In order to reclaim this inheritance for her people, Perry has no choice but to take matters into her own hands. She can only count on her friends and allies, including her overachieving twin and a charming new boy in town with unwavering morals. Old rivalries, sister secrets, and botched heists cannot - will not - stop her from uncovering the mystery before the ancestors and missing women are lost forever.

Publication information:

Author: Angeline Boulley

Publisher: Henry Holt & Co.

Publication date: May 2, 2023

Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults

 

My Thoughts:

Like How to be a (Young) Antiracist, this non fiction, indigenous perspective adaptation  of the adult book is meant to be more palatable to young adults. The difference is that I have read and wrote about the original Braiding Sweetgrass. The connections between storytelling and indigenous truth telling through botanic metaphor in the original book is so powerful that for me, the adaptation was too watered down. The teachings were filtered through someone else rather than through my own indigenous transaction with Kimmerer's text. 

I believe this is a well meaning way to open the door for our middle grade students, but I would also encourage high school teachers in science and language arts to use the stories from the adult book in their classroom. Kimmerer is a born storyteller. The power of the transaction between reader and author is difficult to adapt down. Long after I read the original I continued to find random notes around the house with page numbers and thoughts. That is the power of transactional reading.

p. 159

A theory, to scientists, means something rather different from its popular use, which suggests something speculative or untested. Grounded theory – in [is?] the traditional ecological knowledge of indigenous peoples. If we use a plant respectfully, it will flourish. If we ignore it, it will go away. When you pick the flower for a lei, for example, the tree will produce more flowers. A tree where the flowers are not picked and valued seems to eventually disappear.

p. 134

The most important thing each of us can know is our unique gift and how to use it in the world. Individuality is cherished and nurtured, because, in order for the whole to flourish, each of us has to be strong in the who we are and carry our gifts with conviction, so they can be shared with others. In reciprocity, we fill our spirits as well as our bellies.

p. 104

We are showered every day with gifts, but they are not meant for us to keep. Their life is in their movement, the inhale and exhale of our shared breath. Our work and our joy is to pass along the gift and to trust that what we put out into the universe always comes back.

p. 174

Political action , civic engagement – these are powerful acts of reciprocity with the land. The Maple Nation Bill of Responsibilities asks us to stand up for The Standing People, to lead with the wisdom of Maples.

p. 179

Not everything should be convenient. [The difficulty of digging is an important constraint]

From the Publisher:

Drawing from her experiences as an Indigenous scientist, botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer demonstrated how all living things―from strawberries and witch hazel to water lilies and lichen―provide us with gifts and lessons every day in her best-selling book Braiding Sweetgrass. Adapted for young adults by Monique Gray Smith, this new edition reinforces how wider ecological understanding stems from listening to the earth’s oldest teachers: the plants around us. With informative sidebars, reflection questions, and art from illustrator Nicole Neidhardt, Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults brings Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the lessons of plant life to a new generation.

Publication information:

Author: Robin Kimmerer; adapted by Monique Gray Smith

Illustrator: Nicole Neidhardt

Publisher: Zest Books

Publication date: November 1, 2022

Kapaemahu (Picture Book)

 

My Thoughts:

This month is Pride Month (June) and this is the perfect book to bring in, whether your classroom is in Hawai'i or on the continent. This is the mo'olelo of the Kapaemahu stones that currently are fenced in on Kuhio Beach near the Duke Kahanamoku statue in Waikiki, O'ahu. Although there is signage on the rocks, what it does not say, and what this book focuses on are the four mahu healers and what the decolonized original meaning of mahu is without the colonial, puritan stigma from a western lens. Instead, these four figures from Tahiti are only referred to as "healers." 

This story has been hidden in personal accounts and the nupepa (Hawaiian language newspapers). The stones were even buried under a bowling alley for a time, but this is a time for this over 700 year old story to come back into the light. The fact that the stones are so accessible makes this a treasure like the naha stone outside of the Hilo Public Library. 

Will there be push back, even in Hawai'i? Perhaps. There are strategies for that, starting with taking advantage of the launch of this book, the short film, as well as the Bishop Museum display. Start with the website: Kapaemahu.com where you will find resources, including the short film, history, portraits, and news.

As a middle school teacher, I also found the archives valuable as this is a way again to help students find research about other hidden mo'olelo in their own community like the Kapaemahu healer stones.  If this 700-year old story is brought back into circulation, how many other stories are there that need to be unearthed. 

Finally, this is a bilingual story, but this is the first book and film in ʻōlelo Niʻihau. "Ola, ola, ola, e ola loa tō  moʻolelo ʻo Kapaemahu."

From the Publisher:

An Indigenous legend about how four extraordinary individuals of dual male and female spirit, or Mahu, brought healing arts from Tahiti to Hawaii, based on the Academy Award–contending short film.

In the 15th century, four Mahu sail from Tahiti to Hawaii and share their gifts of science and healing with the people of Waikiki. The islanders return this gift with a monument of four boulders in their honor, which the Mahu imbue with healing powers before disappearing.
 
As time passes, foreigners inhabit the island and the once-sacred stones are forgotten until the 1960s. Though the true story of these stones was not fully recovered, the power of the Mahu still calls out to those who pass by them at Waikiki Beach today.

With illuminating words and stunning illustrations by Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, Dean Hamer, Joe Wilson, and Daniel Sousa, KAPAEMAHU is a monument to an Indigenous Hawaiian legend and a classic in the making.

Author: Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, Dean Hamer, Joe Wilson

Illustrator: Daniel Sousa

Publisher: Kokila

Publication Date: June 7, 2022

Gaʻs/The Train (English and Miʻgmaq Edition)

 

My Thoughts:

Written in English by a Miʻgmaq author and translated by a Miʻgmaq translator, this is a poignant story about the lasting trauma of the residential schools in Canada from the point of view of a little girl's Uncle, "Ntlamugsis." Because the Uncle is talking to his niece, Ashley, who is still a child, he does not go into the brutal reality of children taken by force from their families and beaten and sometimes killed in these residential schools, however, the trauma is being separated from family and culture is explained simply  enough that Ashley feels the injustice and pain of this experience.

In the end, I think this will help middle schoolers to research further and take a closer look at other first person accounts from survivors of the residential schools. Being in Hawaiʻi, this is a story of loss of a language which we also know is the loss of culture. We have a Hawaiian proverb that states, I ka ʻōlelo nō ke ola, i ka ʻōlelo nō ka make - in language there is life, in language there is death. The loss of our language in the generations before us means that as indigenous people, we are going to school to learn our grandparents' and great grandparents' mother tongue. It does not miss my attention that this is a story written in English and translated into Miʻgmaq versus the other way around.  We heed the warning from the proverb and from this book. If we do not pass on these stories, if we do not encourage our children to continue our culture through language, who will?

From the Publisher:

he dual-language edition, in English and Mi'gmaq, of the Silver Birch Express-nominated title, The Train.

Ashley meets her great-uncle by the old train tracks near their community in Nova Scotia. Ashley sees his sadness, and Uncle tells her of the day years ago when he and the other children from their community were told to board the train before being taken to residential school where their lives were changed forever. They weren't allowed to speak Mi'gmaq and were punished if they did. There was no one to give them love and hugs and comfort. Uncle also tells Ashley how happy she and her sister make him. They are what give him hope. Ashley promises to wait with her uncle by the train tracks, in remembrance of what was lost.

Fire Keeper's Daughter

 

Update:

For ALA (American Library Association) Award season 2022 this book received: 

• Michael L. Printz Award Winner
• William C. Morris YA Debut Award Winner
• American Indian Youth Literature Award YA Honor Book

My Thoughts:

I have been sitting on this review for a bit because I feel as an Indigenous reader and teacher, when something comes around that is meant to teach me something, even if it a book and not a person, the respect due to this momi, this pearl of wisdom given, is to sit with it in silence and let the process of the struggle for this knowledge seep into my marrow. Finally, there is a YA semi contemporary novel that uses both radical self honesty and nerdy girl scientist skills to tell an Indigenous story and to solve a good mystery using both science and culture. 

This book is getting a lot of mainstream love, so I just want to talk about this as an Indigenous teacher who has been teaching Indigenous students for almost 30 years now. In the English classroom, we have needed this. Some of my favorite BIPOC, AAPI authors over the years did not write the kind of YA book that I could bring into my classroom. What I was left with were books about versus books by (Island of the Blue Dolphins).  Publication companies uplifting Indigenous YA authors and giving them the same kind of book press is also fairly new. One of the benefits of this pandemic is that YA publishers have been inviting a diverse group of authors to their book launch panels. This is much better than just inviting BIPOC authors, or just inviting AAPI authors so that it becomes about the color of the author and not the interplay of their books to each other.  The audience, then is more diverse. 

As far as the story, what I appreciate are those cultural elements and author decisions that feel very authentic and touch on our own native Hawaiian discussions/arguments that address what of the culture is to be shared, what is just for those inside the community and what parts are ok to publish outside of the community. There is a point where Daunis figures out something, but she also knows that it is not the kind of information that can be shared with the FBI. She also acknowledges stereotypes from the outside and speaks back to those stereotypes with radical self honesty without making this story a lecture on culture and cultural misappropriation. Perhaps this is a newer issue, but I also noticed that the FBI sent two Indigenous agents to act as undercover agents. It brought back the memories of the recent TMT protest on Mauna Kea where law enforcement made a decision to arrest Hawaiian elders so they put together all of their Hawaiian law enforcement officers. It just feels like the government putting us all in the bucket and it is the other crabs who are pulling us down so we can try and get out of this bucket. What Boulley does just with that one decision to bring in the character of "Jaime" who may be Indigenous but is neither connected to his land or his community, and therefore has no identity, is to subtly talk about the idea that belonging to a community and a culture has nothing to do with blood quantum or something on your birth certificate. It has to do with how you carry your responsibility to your land, to your elders, to those that follow you, perhaps called seven generation thinking. 

Finally, I want this book read, but I do not want to give anything away, so suffice it to say that there are disturbing parts and disturbing realizations based on certain events that are sad but not untruthful and I really appreciate the author for not glossing over or trying to soften this story to fit into a romance or feel good book. This is a story that lovingly captures the complexity of a culture in a way that only someone from inside the culture can write about, and instead of making it strictly a cultural story, can instead just weave a good story using land, people and relationships with both. 

NetGalley/Bookish and Macmillan publishing have put out very good teaching guides that can help teachers to run book clubs or have book discussions in their class. 

From the Publisher:

Eighteen-year-old Daunis Fontaine has never quite fit in, both in her hometown and on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. She dreams of a fresh start at college, but when family tragedy strikes, Daunis puts her future on hold to look after her fragile mother. The only bright spot is meeting Jamie, the charming new recruit on her brother Levi’s hockey team.

Yet even as Daunis falls for Jamie, she senses the dashing hockey star is hiding something. Everything comes to light when Daunis witnesses a shocking murder, thrusting her into an FBI investigation of a lethal new drug.

Reluctantly, Daunis agrees to go undercover, drawing on her knowledge of chemistry and Ojibwe traditional medicine to track down the source. But the search for truth is more complicated than Daunis imagined, exposing secrets and old scars. At the same time, she grows concerned with an investigation that seems more focused on punishing the offenders than protecting the victims.

Now, as the deceptions—and deaths—keep growing, Daunis must learn what it means to be a strong Anishinaabe kwe (Ojibwe woman) and how far she’ll go for her community, even if it tears apart the only world she’s ever known.

Spotted Tail: Picture Book

David Heska Wanbli Weiden, Author; Jim Yellowhawk, Illustrator

This memoir/children's book is about famous statesman and Lakota leader Spotted Tail. What makes this a children's book gem is that the illustrations are just gorgeous, which makes up for the fact that there is just way too much small text.

Once you read through the words, though, Spotted Tail's life is an important history to pass on. We need more sliding glass door books like this that bring readers into a life perhaps unknown until now. What it does for middle and high school readers is that it gives an important message about telling our elder's stories lest they be forgotten. It encourages young writers to do their own oral histories and turn them into books. It also will encourage young readers to read more. 

If the story does not grab them, though, the illustrations will. 

From the Publisher:

Named as one of the best books of 2019 by American Indians in Children's Literature, this biography of Spotted Tail traces the life of the famous Lakota leader who expertly guided his people through a pivotal and tumultuous time in their nations history as they fought and then negotiated with the U.S. government. Spotted Tail is remembered for his unique leadership style and deep love for his people. Today a university is named in his honor.