Indigenous Voices: Books for Teens

Updated April 1, 2026
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Braiding sweetgrass for young adults : Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the teachings of plants
Kimmerer, Robin Wall
Paper Book
I could hand you a braid of sweetgrass as thick and shining as the braid that hung down my grandmother's back. But it is not mine to give, nor yours to take. Wiingaashk belongs to herself. I offer, in her place, a braid of stories meant to heal our relationship with the world. As a...
Buffalo dreamer
Duncan, Violet
Paper Book
Summer and her family always spend relaxed summers in Alberta, Canada, on the reservation where her mom's family lives. But this year is turning out to be an eye-opening one. First, Summer has begun to have vivid dreams in which she's running away from one of the many real-life residential schools...
Elatsoe
Little Badger, Darcie
Paper Book
One of TIME Magazine's Top 100 Fantasy Novels of All Time -- Now in Paperback!  A Texas teen comes face-to-face with a cousin's ghost and vows to unmask the murderer. Elatsoe--Ellie for short--lives in an alternate contemporary America shaped by the...
Funeral songs for dying girls
Dimaline, Cherie
Paper Book
After inadvertently starting rumors of a haunted cemetery, a teen befriends a ghost in this brand-new young adult novel exploring grief and belonging by the critically acclaimed and bestselling author of The Marrow Thieves series. Winifred has lived in the apartment above the...
Hearts unbroken
Smith, Cynthia Leitich
Paper Book
Winner of an American Indian Youth Literature Award New York Times best-selling author Cynthia Leitich Smith turns to realistic fiction with the thoughtful story of a Native teen navigating the complicated, confusing waters of high school -- and first love. ...
Legendary frybread drive-in : intertribal stories
Smith, Cynthia Leitich
Paper Book
Michael L. Printz Award Winner American Indian Youth Literature Award Winner Featuring the voices of both new and acclaimed Indigenous writers and edited by bestselling Muscogee author Cynthia Leitich Smith, this collection of interconnected stories serves up laughter...
Notable native people : 50 indigenous leaders, dreamers, and changemakers from past and present
Keene, Adrienne
Paper Book
An accessible and educational illustrated book profiling 50 notable American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian people, from NBA star Kyrie Irving of the Standing Rock Lakota to Wilma Mankiller, the first female principal chief of the Cherokee Nation An American Indian...
Pet
Emezi, Akwaeke
Paper Book
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST * STONEWALL BOOK AWARD WINNER * ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S 100 BEST YA BOOKS OF ALL TIME NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR by The New York Times * Time * Buzzfeed * NPR * New York Public Library * Publishers Weekly * School...
Saints of the household
Tison, Ari
Paper Book
Winner of the Pura Belpré Award and Walter Dean Myers Award for Young Adult Literature! Saints of the Household is a haunting contemporary YA about an act of violence in a small-town--beautifully told by a debut Indigenous Costa Rican-American writer--that...
Sisters in the wind
Boulley, Angeline
Paper Book
A Printz Honor Book! An AIYLA Honor Book! A Good Morning America Book Club Pick! From the instant New York Times bestselling author of Firekeeper's Daughter and Warrior Girl Unearthed comes a daring new mystery about a foster teen claiming her heritage on her own...
This Indian kid : a Native American memoir
Chuculate, Eddie D.
Paper Book
Award-winning author Eddie Chuculate recounts his experience growing up in rural Oklahoma, from boyhood to young manhood, in an evocative and vivid voice. Scholastic Focus is the premier home of thoroughly researched, beautifully written, and thoughtfully designed works of narrative...

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