First Nations Children’s Literature
A selection of books by First Nation authors and illustrators for children of all ages to read or listen to.
Board Books
Board Books
We All Count : A Book of Cree Numbers
Board book. Text includes English and Cree. Counting. Age: Birth-4.
Where to Find:
Board Books
My Heart Fills with Happiness
Board book and e-book. Happiness. Age: Birth-6.
Where to Find:
Board Books
We Sang You Home
Board book. Gentle rhyming celebrates and welcomes babies onto the world. Age: Birth-6.
Where to Find:
Picture Books
Picture Books
Thunder Boy Jr.
Child picture book and e-audiobook. "Thunder Boy Jr. wants a normal name...one that's all his own. Dad is known as Big Thunder, but Little Thunder doesn't want to share a name"-- Provided by publisher. Age: 5-8.
Where to Find:
Picture Books
A Day with Yayah
Child picture book. Text includes English and Ntlakyapamuk. On an outing in Nicola Valley, British Columbia, a Native American family forages for herbs and mushrooms while the grandmother passes down her language and knowledge to her young grandchildren. Includes glossary. Age: 4-7.
Where to Find:
Picture Books
Bowwow Powwow : Bagosenjige-niimi'idim
Child picture book. Text in Ojibwe and English. “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.” —Provided by publisher. Age: 3-7.
Where to Find:
Picture Books
Birdsong
Child picture book and e-book. 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 nature and art. As the seasons change, can the girl navigate the failing health of her new friend? Age: 5-8.
Where to Find:
Picture Books
Wild Berries = Pikaci-Mīnisa
Child picture book. Text includes English and Cree. Clarence and his grandmother pick wild blueberries and meet ant, spider, and fox in a beautiful woodland landscape. Age: 3-6.
Where to Find:
Picture Books
Kunu's Basket : A Story from Indian Island
Child picture book. Feeling frustrated when his first attempt to weave a basket fails, a Penobscot Indian boy receives help and encouragement from his grandfather. Age: 5-8.
Where to Find:
Picture Books
You Hold Me Up
Child picture book. This vibrant picture book, beautifully illustrated by celebrated artist Danielle Daniel, encourages children to show love and support for each other and to consider each other’s well-being in their everyday actions. Age: 3-6.
Where to Find:
Picture Books
Dragonfly Kites = Pimithaagansa
Child picture book. Text in Cree and English. Dragonfly Kites refers to "kites" made by tying a string around the middles of dragonflies. Two Cree brothers in northern Manitoba fly these kites during the day, but at night fly themselves in their dreams. Age: 5-8.
Where to Find:
Picture Books
Awâsis and the World-Famous Bannock
Child picture book. Text in English and Cree. As young Awâsis searches for the ingredients to make Kohkum's world-famous bannock recipe, they run into a variety of other-than-human relatives that help them along in their journey. Includes a pronunciation guide and Kohkum's world-famous bannock recipe at the back of the book."-- Provided by publisher. Age: 4-8.
Where to Find:
Picture Books
Zoe and the Fawn
Child picture book. Text includes English and Okanagan. "Join Zoe on her quest for the deer, as she encounters animals and learns their syilx (Okanagan) names along the way."-- cover. Age: 5-8.
Where to Find:
Picture Books
We Are Water Protectors
Child picture book. Water is the first medicine. It affects and connects us all... When a black snake threatens to destroy the Earth and poison her people's water, one young water protector takes a stand to defend Earth's most sacred resource. Winner of the 2021 Caldecott Medal. Age: 5-8.
Where to Find:
Picture Books
Fry Bread : A Native American Family Story
Child picture book, e-book and DVD. This volume tells the story of a post-colonial food that is a shared tradition for Native American families all across the North American continent. Includes a recipe and an extensive author note that delves into the social ways, foodways, and politics of America's 573 recognized tribes. Age 3-6.
Where to Find:
Picture Books
When the Shadbush Blooms
Child picture book. A young Lenni Lenape Indian child describes her family's life through the seasons. Includes facts about the Lenni Lenape Indians. Age: 5-8.
Where to Find:
Picture Books
Hungry Johnny
Child picture book. “At the community feast, observing the bounty of festive foods and counting the numerous elders yet to be seated, Johnny learns to be patient and respectful despite his growling tummy"-- Provided by publisher. Age: 3-7.
Where to Find:
Picture Books
Johnny's Pheasant
Child picture book. Johnny spies a pheasant which he believes is sleeping and his Grandma fears is dead, but they learn they were both wrong when the pheasant departs, leaving behind a gift. Age: 5-8.
Where to Find:
Picture Books
Greet The Dawn: The Lakota Way
Child picture book. Pickup trucks and eagles, yellow school buses and painted horses, Mother Earth and Sister Meadowlark all join together to greet the dawn. They marvel at the colors and sounds, smells, and memories that come with the opening of the day. Animals and humans alike turn their faces upwards and gaze as the sun makes its daily journey from horizon to horizon. Dawn is a time to celebrate with a smiling heart, to start a new day in the right way, excited for what might come. Age: 8-12.
Where to Find:
Picture Books
The Forever Sky
Child picture book. Two young Ojibwe brothers, Niigaanii and Bineshiinh, look to the stars and spin stories, some inspired by Uncle and some of their own making, as they remember their grandmother. Age: 5-8.
Where to Find:
Picture Books
Hiawatha and the Peacemaker
Child picture book, e-book and e-audiobook. Hiawatha, a Mohawk, is plotting revenge for the murder of his wife and daughters by the evil Onondaga Chief, Tadodaho, when he meets the Great Peacemaker, who enlists his help in bringing the nations together to share his vision of a new way of life marked by peace, love, and unity rather than war, hate, and fear. Includes historical notes. Age: 8-10.
Where to Find:
Picture Books
When We Were Alone
Child picture book. "When a young girl helps tend to her grandmother's garden, she begins to notice things that make her curious. Why does her grandmother have long, braided hair and beautifully colored clothing? Why does she speak another language and spend so much time with her family? As she asks her grandmother about these things, she is told about life in a residential school a long time ago, where all of these things were taken away. When We Were Alone is a story about a difficult time in history, and, ultimately, one of empowerment and strength."-- Provided by publisher. Age: 4-8.
Where to Find:
Picture Books
Jingle dancer
Child picture book. Jenna, a member of the Muscogee, or Creek, Nation, borrows jingles from the dresses of several friends and relatives so that she can perform the jingle dance at the powwow. Includes a note about the jingle dance tradition and its regalia. Age: 5-8.
Where to Find:
Picture Books
At the Mountain's Base
Child picture book and e-book. 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 one, a pilot, to return from war."-- book jacket. Age: 5-8.
Where to Find:
Picture Books
First Laugh : Welcome, Baby!
Child picture book. A Navajo family welcomes a new baby into the family with love and ceremony, eagerly waiting for that first special laugh. Includes brief description of birth customs in different cultures. Age: 3-6.
Where to Find:
Picture Books
Whispers of the Wolf
A young boy named Two Birds had found the abandoned wolf pup in a cave, and they had grown up together side by side. But now the wild wolves were calling and the young wolf yearned to be free. Would Two Birds release his companion back into the wild? Set around 500 years ago among the Pueblo Indians of the desert Southwest. Age: 3-8
Where to Find:
Picture Books
Fall in Line, Holden
Child picture book. At a very strict school in Indigenous Nation, everyone but Holden stays in line until they reach the door at the end of the school day. Age: 4-8.
Where to Find:
Picture Books
The Girl and the Wolf
Child picture book. “A young girl becomes lost in the woods after wandering too far away from her mother. Scared because she is lost, she encounters a large wolf who reminds her of her own ability to survive and find her mother again."--Provided by publisher. Age: 3-5.
Where to Find:
Fiction
Fiction
Bearwalker
Child fiction book. Although the littlest student in his class, thirteen-year-old Baron Braun calls upon the strength and wisdom of his Mohawk ancestors to face both man and beast when he tries to get help for his classmates, who are being terrorized during a school field trip in the Adirondacks. Age: 10-13.
Where to Find:
Fiction
Hidden Roots
Child fiction book. Although he is uncertain why his father is so angry and what secret his mother is keeping from him, eleven-year-old Sonny knows that he is different from his classmates in their small New York town. Age: 9-12.
Where to Find:
Fiction
The Journal of Jesse Smoke : A Cherokee Boy
Child fiction book, and e-book. Part of the “My Name is America” series. Alternate title: On This Long Journey. Jesse Smoke, a sixteen-year-old Cherokee, begins a journal in 1837 to record stories of his people and their difficulties as they face removal along the Trail of Tears. Includes a historical note giving details of the removal. Age: 9+
Where to Find:
Fiction
The Winter People
Child fiction book, and e-audiobook. As the French and Indian War rages in October of 1759, Saxso, a fourteen-year-old Abenaki boy, pursues the English rangers who have attacked his village and taken his mother and sisters hostage. Age: 10+
Where to Find:
Fiction
Wabi: A Hero’s Tale
Child fiction book, and e-book. After falling in love with an Abenaki Indian woman, a white great horned owl named Wabi transforms into a human being and has several trials and adventures while learning to adapt to his new life. Age: 10+
Where to Find:
Fiction
Whisper in the Dark
Child fiction book. An ancient and terrifying Narragansett Native American legend begins to come true for a teenage long-distance runner, whose recovery from the accident that killed her parents has stunned everyone, including her guardian aunt in Providence, Rhode Island. Age: 10+
Where to Find:
Fiction
I Can Make This Promise
Child fiction book, e-book and e-audiobook. “When twelve-year-old Edie finds letters and photographs in her attic that change everything she thought she knew about her Native American mother's adoption, she realizes she has a lot to learn about her family's history and her own identity"-- Provided by publisher. Age: 8-12.
Where to Find:
Fiction
The Birchbark House
Child fiction book, audiobook on cd, and e-audiobook. The first book in The Birchbark House series. Omakayas, a seven-year-old Native American girl of the Ojibwa tribe, lives through the joys of summer and the perils of winter on an island in Lake Superior in 1847. Age: 8-12.
Where to Find:
Fiction
The Case of Windy Lake
Child fiction. The first book in the Mighty Muskrats Mystery series. Sam, Otter, Atim, and Chickadee are four inseparable cousins growing up on the Windy Lake First Nation. Nicknamed the Mighty Muskrats for their habit of laughing, fighting, and exploring together, the cousins find that each new adventure adds to their reputation. When a visiting archeologist goes missing, the cousins decide to solve the mystery of his disappearance. Age: 9-12.
Where to Find:
Fiction
A Coyote Solstice Tale
Child fiction book. After a little girl, who is dressed like a reindeer, crashes Coyote's solstice party, she brings them to a mall where Coyote has fun shopping--until he realizes he needs to pay for everything. Age: 4-9.
Where to Find:
Fiction
In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse
Child fiction book and e-book. Teased for his fair coloring, eleven-year-old Jimmy McClean travels with his maternal grandfather, Nyles High Eagle, to learn about his Lakota heritage while visiting places significant in the life of Crazy Horse, the nineteenth-century Lakota leader and warrior. Age: 10-13.
Where to Find:
Fiction
Indian No More
Child fiction book. When Regina's Umpqua tribe is legally terminated and her family must relocate from Oregon to Los Angeles, she goes on a quest to understand her identity as an Indian despite being so far from home. Age: 8-11.
Where to Find: