Indigenous Peoples Titles for Teens

Updated October 23, 2025
Drag items up and down to your preferred order then select the "Save Order" button.
#NotYourPrincess : voices of Native American women
Leatherdale, Mary Beth
Paper Book
Whether looking back to a troubled past or welcoming a hopeful future, the powerful voices of Indigenous women across North America resound in this book.  In the same style as the best-selling Dreaming in Indian, #NotYourPrincess presents an eclectic collection of poems, essays...
Apple : skin to the core
Gansworth, Eric
Paper Book
PRINTZ HONOR AWARD NATIONAL BOOK AWARD LONGLIST A moving memoir-in-verse that chronicles one Native teenager's search for belonging  The term "Apple" is a slur in Native communities across the country. It's for someone supposedly "red on...
The Art Thieves
Rogers, Andrea L.
Paper Book
Nnedi Okorafor meets Angeline Boulley in this gripping story of hope (and time travel!) amid climate collapse BEST OF THE YEAR: Shelf Awareness * Cooperative Children's Book Center  TO: Angel Wilson (LawAngel@IBLO.gov) FROM: Stevie...
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...
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...
Everything you wanted to know about Indians but were afraid to ask : young readers edition
Treuer, Anton
Paper Book
From the acclaimed Ojibwe author and professor Anton Treuer comes an essential book of questions and answers for Native and non-Native young readers alike. Ranging from "Why is there such a fuss about nonnative people wearing Indian costumes for Halloween?" to "Why is it called a 'traditional...
Firekeeper's daughter
Boulley, Angeline
Paper Book
An Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller! A Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club Pick! A Printz Medal AND Morris Award Winner! Soon to be adapted at Netflix for TV with President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama's production company, Higher Ground.
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...
A girl called Echo. Pemmican Wars 1, Pemmican Wars
Vermette, Katherena
Ebook
Godly heathens : a novel
Edgmon, H. E.
Paper Book
Godly Heathens is the first book in H.E. Edgmon's YA contemporary fantasy duology The Ouroboros, in which a teen, Gem, finds out they're a reincarnated god from another world. Maybe I have always just been bad at being human because I'm not one.
Harvest House
Smith, Cynthia Leitich
Paper Book
NSK Neustadt Laureate and New York Times best-selling author Cynthia Leitich Smith delivers a thrilling cross-genre follow-up to the acclaimed Hearts Unbroken. Deftly leading readers to the literary crossroads of contemporary realism and haunting mystery, Cynthia...
The heartbeat of Wounded Knee : life in Native America
Treuer, David
Paper Book
The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee is a story of Native American resilience and reinvention, adapted for young adults from the adult nonfiction book of the same name. Since the late 1800s, it has been believed that Native American civilization has been wiped from 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. ...
Hunting by stars
Dimaline, Cherie
Paper Book
From the acclaimed author of The Marrow Thieves comes a thrilling new story about hope and survival that New York Times bestselling author Angeline Boulley called "a revelatory must-read." Hunting by Stars is an engrossing, action-packed, deftly...
If I ever get out of here : a novel with paintings
Gansworth, Eric
Paper Book
"A heart-healing, mocs-on-the-ground story of music, family and friendship." -- Cynthia Leitich Smith, author of Tantalize and Rain is Not My Indian Name.Lewis "Shoe" Blake is used to the joys and difficulties of life on the Tuscarora Indian reservation in 1975: the joking, the...
If I go missing
Jonnie, Brianna
Paper Book
If I Go Missing is derived from excerpts of a letter that went viral and was also the basis of a documentary film. In her letter, Jonnie calls out the authorities for neglecting to immediately investigate missing Indigenous people and urges them to "not treat me as the Indigenous person I am...
Indiginerds
Pete, Alina
Paper Book
YALSA's 2025 Great Graphic Novels for Teens "This colorful, inviting graphic memoir anthology shatters narrow ideas about what a nerd (or a Native person) looks like." -- KIRKUS First Nations culture is...
Inuunira : my story of survival
Koonoo, Brian
Paper Book
Kirkus Best Teen & YA Nonfiction of 2022 "An unforgettable physical and emotional journey." --★ Kirkus, STARRED review In this harrowing survival story, Brian Koonoo takes off on a hunting trip in Canada's Arctic. After his snowmobile breaks down, his GPS loses signal, and his...
Killers of the flower moon : the Osage murders and the birth of the FBI
Grann, David
Paper Book
The New York Times bestseller and National Book Award finalist Killers of the Flower Moon is now adapted for young readers. This book is an essential resource for young readers to learn about the Reign of Terror against the Osage people...
Legendary Frybread Drive-In: Intertribal Stories
Smith, Cynthia Leitich
Paper Book
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, love, Native pride, and the world's best frybread. The road to Sandy June's Legendary Frybread...
Little moons
Storm, Jen
Paper Book
In this moving graphic novel, thirteen-year-old Reanna grieves the loss of her older sister. Can she find comfort through her family's Ojibwe traditions? It's been a year since Reanna's sister, Chelsea, went missing on her way home from school. Without any idea of what happened, Reanna and...
Looking for Smoke
Cobell, K. A.
Paper Book
A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK In her powerful debut novel, Looking for Smoke, author K. A. Cobell (Blackfeet) weaves loss, betrayal, and complex characters into a thriller that will illuminate, surprise, and engage readers until the final word. A must-pick for readers who enjoy books by...
Man made monsters
Rogers, Andrea L.
Paper Book
18 illustrated horror stories follow one Cherokee family through the atrocities -- supernatural and manmade -- each generation encounters -- ALSO AVAILABLE IN PAPERBACK! Imagine a chilling horror collection that weaves classic monsters like werewolves and...
The marrow thieves
Dimaline, Cherie
Paper Book
Winner of the 2017 Governor General's Literary Award (Young People's Literature - Text) Winner of the 2017 Kirkus PrizeWinner of the 2018 Sunburst Award Winner of the 2018 Amy Mathers Teen Book Award Winner of the 2018 Burt Award for First Nations, Inuit...
Moonshot : the indigenous comics collection. Volume 1
Nicholson, Hope
Paper Book
The power of style : how fashion and beauty are being used to reclaim cultures
Allaire, Christian
Paper Book
Style is not just the clothes on our backs--it is self-expression, representation, and transformation. As a fashion-obsessed Ojibwe teen, Christian Allaire rarely saw anyone that looked like him in the magazines or movies he sought out for inspiration. Now the Fashion and Style Writer for...
RAIN IS NOT MY INDIAN NAME
SMITH, CYNTHIA LEITICH
Paper Book
In a voice that resonates with insight and humor, New York Times bestselling author Cynthia Leitich Smith tells the story of a teenage girl who must face down her grief and reclaim her place in the world with the help of her intertribal community. It's been six months since Cassidy Rain...
Rez ball
Graves, Byron
Paper Book
This compelling debut novel by new talent Byron Graves tells the relatable, high-stakes story of a young athlete determined to play like the hero his Ojibwe community needs him to be. These days, Tre Brun is happiest when he is playing basketball on the Red Lake Reservation...
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...
Sheine Lende : a prequel to Elatsoe
Little Badger, Darcie
Paper Book
"Like Elatsoe, Sheine Lende is much more chill than your typical YA fantasy or YA mystery. The stakes are high, but it never feels stressful. There is little on-the-page violence, and even when things get heavy or dangerous, the reader always feels...
Sisters in the Wind
Boulley, Angeline.
Paper 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 terms. Ever since Lucy Smith...
A Snake Falls to Earth
Badger, Darcie Little
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER In this breathaking work of Indigenous futurism, Darcie Little Badger weaves an unforgettable tale of monsters, magic, and family. Nina is a Lipan girl in our world. She's always felt there was something more out there. She still...
The summer of bitter and sweet
Ferguson, Jenny
Paper Book
In this complex and emotionally resonant novel about a Métis girl living on the Canadian prairies, debut author Jen Ferguson serves up a powerful story about rage, secrets, and all the spectrums that make up a person--and the sweetness that can still live alongside the bitterest...
Surviving the city
Spillett, Tasha
Paper Book
Miikwan and Dez are best friends. Miikwan is Anishinaabe; Dez is Inninew. Together, the teens navigate the challenges of growing up in an urban landscape--they're so close, they even completed their Berry Fast together. However, when Dez's grandmother becomes too sick, Dez is told she can't stay...
Surviving the city. From the Roots Up Vol 2, From the roots up
Spillett-Sumner, Tasha
Paper Book
Dez's grandmother has passed away. Grieving, and with nowhere else to go, they're living in a group home. On top of everything else, Dez is navigating a new relationship and coming into their identity as a Two-Spirit person. Miikwan is crushing on the school's new kid Riel, but doesn't...
Those Pink Mountain Nights
Ferguson, Jen
Paper Book
In her remarkable second novel following her Governor General's Award-winning debut, The Summer of Bitter and Sweet, Jen Ferguson writes about the hurt of a life stuck in past tense, the hum of connections that cannot be severed, and one week in a small, snowy town that changes...
The unfinished
Isaacs, Cheryl
Paper Book
In her stunning debut, Cheryl Isaacs (Mohawk) pulls the reader into an unsettling tale of monsters, mystery, and secrets that refuse to stay submerged. When small-town athlete Avery's morning run leads her to a strange pond in the middle of the forest, she awakens a horror the townspeople...
Walking in two worlds
Kinew, Wab
Paper Book
Bugz is a shy Indigenous teen who faces the stresses of teenage angst and life on the Rez. But in the virtual world, her alter ego is not just confident but dominant in a massive multiplayer video game universe. Feng is a teen boy who has been sent from China to live with his aunt, a doctor on the...
Warrior Girl Unearthed
Boulley, Angeline
Paper Book
An Instant New York Times bestseller! A #1 Indies Bestseller! Six Starred Reviews! #1 New York Times bestselling author of Firekeeper's Daughter Angeline Boulley takes us back to Sugar Island in this high-stakes thriller about the power of discovering your stolen...
Where Wolves Don't Die
Treuer, Anton
Paper Book
Tightly woven Indigenous YA thriller that explores masculinity and love between generations of family Ezra Cloud hates living in Northeast Minneapolis. His father is a professor of their language, Ojibwe, at a local college, so they have to be there. But Ezra hates the dirty,...
The Witch King
Edgmon, H. E.
Paper Book
A New York Public Library Best Book for Teens 2021 To save a fae kingdom, a trans witch must face his traumatic past and the royal fiancé he left behind. In Asalin, fae rule and witches like Wyatt Croft...don't. Wyatt's betrothal to fae prince...

Library staff! You can create and contribute to lists. Contact your catalog administrator or log in here.