Juvenile Book Lists

These stories teach us that we all have a gift to share. We depend on the insects, birds, fish and the animals to help us live in harmony with them. The Creator has given us these animals to provide guidance and the laws of nature to live in harmony with all creation. Living in harmony with the animals or Wesiihhik gives us the ability to have a peace of heart and the ability to overcome the challenges that life sets along The Path of Life.

Ojibway Ceremonies provides a unique and fascinating glimpse of Ojibway culture before its disruption by European civilization. It is the story of the Ojibway told through the ceremonies which dominated the most important occasions and stages of their existence. As a young boy grows up, we see him develop through his involvement in the many rituals so important to the Ojibway way of life. From the Naming Ceremony and the Vision Quest to the War Path, from the Marriage Ceremony to the Ritual of the Dead, we see the attitudes and beliefs of the Ojibway people come alive.

"Switching to a new school in October is never easy. For Melanie Bluelake, a ten-year-old Cree girl moving off the reserve to the unknown world of a Saskatchewan city, the difficulties of fitting in are intensified.
The spirited heroine of Betty Dorion's juvenile novel certainly makes the best of things. She forms a close friendship with Rachel, a fellow Cree, and refuses to be bugged by Tanya, a classmate who seems determined to make her life miserable. But Melanie finds herself pulled between the familiar and the strange. She likes her new friend but never stops thinking of the gang on the reserve. She supports her single mother's efforts to better their lives by finishing high school, but longs for the loving comforts of Kokum, her grandmother back home.
Melanie Bluelake's Dream provides a vivid child's-eye glimpse into a process happening every day on streets and in schools throughout Canada. With refreshing clarity, it captures the ambivalence felt by many Native people struggling to feel at home in an urban world of someone else's making."--pub. desc.

Muinji’j has been waiting all his life to make this trip with his grandfather - a trip to the city to sell otter, beaver and muskrat pelts, and bring back supplies to the village. It’s a long expedition that tests Muinji’j’s reserves of strength, patience and maturity.
Just as he thinks he and his niskamij have faced all of their challenges, the worst happens - his naskamij falls ill. Although Muinji’j gathers the medicine his grandfather asks for, it doesn’t help fast enough. Both of them realize that there is only one solution: Muinji’j must continue the journey alone. He must face the challenges and mysteries of a city he has never seen, and return to help his grandfather as well as his village that relies on him.

Buffalo Hunt is set in the West, during the waning years of the buffalo hunt. Angelique Dumas is a ten-year-old Métis girl, and this year she gets to be part of the hunt - not with the children, but with the grown-ups. It will be hard work, she knows, and she will have lots of new and important responsibilities. Just how important they are becomes clear on the day Angelique wanders off exploring, and finds herself in the middle of a buffalo stampede.

Two Northern Ontario Ojibway boys are guided by Powers ancient and modern from tragedy and confusion toward their paths to the future.

Teenage twins Kaya and Tala journey into the perilous British Columbia wilderness confronting fish and fowl, beast and phantom, and the wolf spirit destined to be Tala's protective guardian.

"When twin brothers Evan and Brynley Selkirk move with their family from the remote Cree community of Whapmagoostui to bustling Calgary, their worlds turn upside-down. In place of the grey, frigid waters of Hudson Bay, they see the downtown canyons of a modern city.
Bryn, a musical prodigy, trades piano practice for hockey practice to impress a new girlfriend; Evan, the family hockey hero, starts running with a bad crowd and neglecting the game. As the brothers' lies get them in deeper and deeper trouble with their parents, they have to rely on each other to gain the courage to do what's right."--pub. desc.

"Belle hadn't meant to stay so long. It must be after eight o'clock, way past breakfast. How was she going to explain? Suddenly Belle stopped, listening intently as an unfamiliar sound drifted to her on the early morning breeze. Then she recognized what it was. Gunfire! Batoche was under attack!
The story of the Riel Rebellion from a Métis point of view.
Belle, an 11-year-old Métis girl, and Sarah both want the coveted job of church bell ringer. An embroidery contest is held to award the position, and Sarah cheats. Before Belle can expose her, the two are caught up in the advancing forces of General Middleton and his troops as they surround Batoche in the 1885 Riel Rebellion. The church bell disappeared that day and remains missing to this day."--pub. desc.

"Leigh Aberdeen is one of the top players on her Alberta hockey team, the Falcons. But as a Métis and the only girl on the team she's different--and not everyone is happy about that.
To top it off, she doesn't think her mother wants her to play hockey, so Leigh hasn't told her about the Falcons. Soon she's getting threatening messages on the phone, the Falcons'captain tries to get her kicked off the team, and her mother wants Leigh to go to a dance recital on the same night as the finals. When the pressure becomes too intense, Leigh has to face some hard decisions."--pub. desc.

In 1920, Howard Tucker is one of the smartest kids at Haskell Indian Boarding School. Unfortunately, this scrawny 15-year-old would rather hang with the jocks than the dweebs. To get a place on the football team, Howard trades some math lessons for football training from another student. And with some advice from Jim Thorpe, he might just get a chance to play in the big game.

The Dream Carvers is the story of Thrand, a Norse boy in the 11th century, who is captured by the Beothuk, the red ochre people of the new-found-land. At first his thoughts are only of his home in Greenland, and he struggles with his sense of idenity as he lives among people so different from him. But slowly he adjusts to the world of Beothuk, learning their language and their ways. In time he begins to think of himself as one of the red ochre people and is pleased with his sense of belonging.

Jake has left the reservation for Weltimore Academy and entered a different world. Everyone there loves lacrosse, but no one understands it the way Jake does, as an Iroquois. And no one understands Jake either.

Eleven-year-old Ohkwa'ri and his twin sister must make peace with a hostile gang of older boys in their Mohawk village during the late 1400s.

Young Prince Rashko is frustrated with his family - no one does any thinking but him! The kingdom and castle seem to be in the hands of fools. So when Rashko's parents mysteriously disappear and the evil Baron Temny parks his army outside the castle walls, it is up to the young prince to save the day. But there is more to this castle and its history than meets the eye, and Rashko will have to embrace his ancestry, harness a dragon, and use his sword-fighting skills to stop the baron and save the kingdom. Along the way, he realizes that his family is not quite as stupid as he always thought.

"Every monster can be overcome if you know the right way to go about it.
Maddy has always loved scary stories, especially the spooky legends of her Native American ancestors. But that was before she heard about the Whisperer in the Dark, the most frightening legend of all. Now there's an icy voice at the other end of the phone and a chilling message left on Maddy's door. Suddenly this ancient tale is becoming just a bit too real. Once, twice, three times he's called out to her. Where will she be when he finally calls her name?"--pub. desc.

"After being taken captive by a band of treasure seekers, thirteen-year-old Paul and his Abenaki grandfather must face a legendary Native American monster at the top of Mount Washington.
My dream from last night haunts me. I am still running, still trying to hide from something I cannot see. I know that it sees me with eyes that can pierce the darkness. I know that it hungers to take my life.
Paul has always believed in the power of dreams. He knows that they are often warnings. Warnings that should be taken very seriously.
Now his nightmare visions of a predatory winged creature are becoming all too real. And though Paul has always depended on the wisdom of his Abenaki ancestors' stories to guide his footsteps, no monster tale could have prepared him for what he is about to encounter, alone, at the top of one of the most dangerous mountains in the world."--pub. desc.

"The monster has returned . . .
Molly thought she'd put her traumatic past behind her when she escaped from Skeleton Man last year. She thought her family would finally be able to live happily ever after. She thought wrong.
Skeleton Man is back for revenge - but this time Molly is ready."--pub. desc.

After her parents disappear and she is turned over to the care of a strange "great-uncle," Molly must rely on her dreams about an old Mohawk story for her safety and maybe even for her life.

Ten-year-old Justice feels like the “man of the house” for his twin sister Charity and their mom. But when his classmate Trey bullies him, he doesn’t know what to do. A visit to his beloved grandfather helps give Justice some ideas about bullying and how he might deal with it.

Well-loved and respected community member, Mark Kalluak, has collected stories from around Arviat since the 1970s, including stories he grew up hearing his mother tell. In this delightful book for audiences of all ages, Mr. Kalluak shares his favourite versions of traditional and personal tales, lovingly illustrating and translating them himself.

Sometimes even shamans get cranky. That was baby Wolverine’s misfortune—to be cursed by an out-of-sorts shaman frustrated by his own baby daughter’s incessant crying. Not only has shaman Paaliaq forbidden the future marriage of Wolverine to Breath, Paaliaq’s beautiful but teary baby girl, he has cursed Wolverine, banishing him when he becomes a young man. And even when a contrite Paaliaq later revokes the curse, the shaman’s even crankier magic animal will not. Now Wolverine finds himself stranded on a barren island, locked in a life-or-death struggle to return to his home, his family and a very special young girl.

Kicked out of a residential school at age 15, unhappy back on the reserve, and overcome by the pressures of fitting in with a foster family in town, Nipishish is eventually rescued by his family and friends. Home again, this young Métis begins to find strength and purpose in his life through the traditions of his Anishnabe heritage and his activist legacy. A strong sense of community life, a love interest, and discovered political intrigue all add to this intimate portrait of a young man's personal evolution. This first-person narrative unfolds in Quebec from 1959 to 1960, and some of the details are particular to that setting, but much of the struggle, within Nipishish himself, within his indigenous community, and with the outside world, is still relevant for many Indian people in both Canada and the U.S. Although Nipishish does fall into some of the traps that lead to the stereotypical behaviors reflected in the title, readers see the realistic depth of his character that contrasts with the prejudiced labels applied to him. Noël also does an admirable job of showing both strength and weakness, virtue and vice, among the white Canadians and the Anishnabe people alike. He has crafted a story of pain and triumph, with both universal appeal and cultural authenticity.

Joy is ten years old, living in Apex, Nunavut—a suburb of Iqaluit—and loving life. Her little sister Allashua may be annoying, but all in all Joy loves living at the top of the world in Apex. But when Joy begins to notice her parents fighting a lot more than usual, and her mom staying with her sisters in Iqaluit more than she is home, Joy's perfect life soon becomes a lot more complicated. As Joy navigates her parents' separation and its affect on her family, she learns some valuable lessons about how to cope when life gets tough. Told in the wry, funny voice of a smart and savvy ten-year-old girl, this book will appeal to young readers everywhere.

Left alone on a beautiful but isolated island off the coast of California, a young Indian girl spends eighteen years, not only merely surviving through her enormous courage and self-reliance, but also finding a measure of happiness in her solitary life.

Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.

Murphy and his cat, Mousetrap, never expected to end up back on the reserve.

Hope and her family travel from England to their new home on an island off the coast of British Columbia in the 1860s. Hope thinks that she has arrived in paradise. She is right … until whiskey traders arrive.

"For Murphy and his friends, the playing field is no longer level and the goalposts have been moved.

A flock of Indians has just flown smack into the side of a Bay Street skyscraper. Again. It’s up to Bill and Rudy to tag the live ones, nurse them to health at the shelter and release them back into the wild. Thomas King is back in fabulous, fantastical form in this latest collection of short stories, some new, some previously published. Compiled in acomic tour de force, all of the selections in A Short History of Indians in Canada are showcases for King’s wholly original brand of imagination and wit. In 20 tales, King pokes a sharp stick into the gears of the native myth-making machine, slyly exposing the raw underbelly of both historical and contemporary native-white relationships. Through the laughter, these stories shimmer brightly with the universal truths that unite us.

Fresh, inventive, funny and intriguing, this latest novel from King ( Medicine River ) is an imaginative exploration of contemporary Native American culture. The plot revolves around the escape from a mental hospital of four very old Indians called Ishmael, Hawkeye, Robinson Crusoe and the Lone Ranger. These, however, are no ordinary natives. They may be the last survivors of the Indians interned at Fort Marion in Florida in the 19th century. Or perhaps they are the first human beings, as described in tribal creation myths. Their repeated breakouts--37 to date--have coincided with disasters: the 1929 stock market crash, the eruption of Mt. St. Helens, etc. Their mission this time brings them into the lives of an eccentric Canadian Blackfoot family: Lionel Red Dog, who sells TV sets and has no ambition; his sister Latisha, who owns a restaurant that bilks thrill-seeking tourists by purporting to serve them dog meat; Uncle Eli Stands Alone, a former university professor who is determined to prevent the operation of a dam on Indian land; and Charlie Looking Bear, a smarmy lawyer who works for the company opposing Eli's cause. Wavering emotionally between Lionel and Charlie is Alberta Frank, who dates both of them and wants a baby but knows that neither man is husband material. King, a professor of Native American studies at the University of Minnesota, skillfully interweaves Native American and EuroAmerican literatures, exploring the truths of each. He mixes satire, myth and magic into a complex story line that moves smartly from Canada to Wounded Knee to Hollywood, and to a place beyond time where God and the native trickster, Coyote, converse. With this clever, vastly entertaining novel, he establishes himself firmly as one of the first rank of contemporary Native American writers--and as a gifted storyteller of universal relevance.