Native+Americans

__**Fiction**__

Alexie, Sherman. **//The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.//** Little, Brown, 2007. National Book Award winning book by Native American, Sherman Alexie, is about live on the Rez. Determined to get a good education, Junior decides to attend an all-white school in a neighboring farm town. A coming of age story with great humor and raw emotion. Read before assigning to students :-) Recommended by Dr. Berg.

Bruchac, Joseph. **//The Winter People.//** Dial, 2002. This is the story of Saxso, a 14 year old Abenaki indian boy, and his quest to rescue his mother and sister after an attack on their village, St. Francis, by a combined force of English soldiers and Mohican indians. The story takes place during the Franch and Indian War. The attack force captured some women and girls and killed others motivating some of the other villagers, like his uncle and the chief of the tribe, to go after the attack force. After some council with the Worrier, Saxso heads off alone to complete his quest. Grades 6 - 10. Recommended by Bryan H.

Bruchac, Jospeh. **Code Talker: a Novel about the Navajo Marines of World War II.** Scholastic, c2005. In World War II code talkers were crucial to the American effort by sending messages back and forth. The code talkers used a code in the Navajo language that the Japanese could not break. The code talkers endured some of the heaviest fighting of the war and for twenty years after the war their story was classified. Joseph Bruchac tells their story with Ned Begay. Ned is sixteen years old when he becomes a code talker in the U.S. Marines in World War II. Grades 8 - 12. Recommended by Emily.

Dorris, Michael. //**A Yellow Raft in Blue River.**// Henry Holt, c1987. Three generations of Native American women successively tell their stories. Bitter rifts and inevitable bonds are highlighted as the story unravels and a long-kept family secret spills out. Grades 9 - up. Recommended by Stephanie

Jacob, Iris. **//My sisters' voices : teenage girls of color speak out.//** H. Holt, 2002 This is a collection of writings from teenage girls of African American, Hispanic, Asian American, Native American, and biracial backgrounds. With candor and grace, they speak out on topics that are relevant not only to themselves and their peers but to anyone who is raising, teaching, or nurturing young women of color. Grades 7 - up. Recommended by: John G.

O'Dell, Scott. **//Streams to the River, River to the Sea: A Novel of Sacagawea.//** Houghton Mifflin, 1986. This is the story of Sacagawea, the interpreter and guide for Lewis and Clark, told from her point of view. Sacagawea survives multiple traumas and hardships while on the journey to the Pacific, and matures along the way. Clark offers her a life in the white world after they fall in love, but she instead returns to her Shoshone way of life. Grades 4 - 6. Recommended by Katy.

Richter, Conrad. **//The Light in the Forest.//** Fawcett, 1953. Fifteen year old Tru Son is a white boy adopted into a Native American tribe. After eleven years of living as a member of the tribe, Tru Son is taken by white soldiers and claimed by his white father. Tru Son has difficulty adjusting to his life in white society and longs to return to his tribe. Tru Son's issues of belonging cause conflict among his tribe family and his white family. Where does he belong? Grades 4 - 6. Recommended by Ashlee M.

__**Nonfiction**__

Riley, Patricia ed. **//Growing up Native American.//** Avon Books, 1993 A collection of accounts of native American life by twenty-two acclaimed native American writers features tales, remembrances, and thoughts on the future. Grades 9 - up. Recommended by: John G.