Indigenous Peoples Titles for Teens

Updated October 23, 2025
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#NotYourPrincess : voices of Native American women
Leatherdale, Mary Beth
Paper Book
Native Women demand to be heard in this stunning anthology. 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, #Not...
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...
A Constellation of Minor Bears
Ferguson, Jen
Paper Book
A USA Today Bestseller Award-winning author Jen Ferguson has written a powerful story about teens grappling with balancing resentment with enduring friendship--and how to move forward with a life that's not what they'd imagined.      ...
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...
The everlasting road
Kinew, Wab
Paper Book
Devastated by the loss of her beloved older brother to cancer, Bugz returns to the place where she can always find solace and strength: the Floraverse. Over the past year, she has gained back all that she had lost in that virtual world, and while the remaining ClanLess members still plot against her...
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
Paper Book
Echo Desjardins, a 13-year-old Métis girl adjusting to a new home and school, is struggling with loneliness while separated from her mother. Then an ordinary day in Mr. Bee's history class turns extraordinary, and Echo's life will never be the same. During Mr. Bee's lecture, Echo finds herself...
A girl called Echo. Vol. 2, Red River resistance
Vermette, Katherena
Paper Book
Echo Desjardins is adjusting to her new home, finding friends, and learning about Métis history. She just can't stop slipping back and forth in time. One ordinary afternoon in class, Echo finds herself transported to the banks of the Red River in the summer of 1869. All is not well in the...
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 (Young Readers Adaptation): 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...
Legendary Frybread Drive-In: Intertribal Stories
Smith, Cynthia Leitich
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...
Liar's Test
Kwaymullina, Ambelin
Paper Book
A gripping YA fantasy with a deadly contest to win a crown, a fierce heroine determined to right the wrongs done to her people, and a smoldering love story that could change everything... I didn't want to rule the Risen. Wreak a little havoc upon them, though? That was...
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...
Merciless saviors : a novel
Edgmon, H. E.
Paper Book
The stunning conclusion to the Ouroboros series, a contemporary fantasy duology in which a teen, Gem, finds out they're a reincarnated god from another world. That day at the First Church of Gracie changed everything for Gem Echols, and not just because Marian and Poppy...
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...
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 spirit of Denendeh. Volume 2, As I enfold you in petals
Van Camp, Richard
Paper Book
Newly sober, Curtis searches for healing in the ancient cultural practices of his Tłıcho Dene grandfather. But will the Little People answer his call? Curtis has returned to Fort Smith, six weeks sober. He doesn't have any sober friends, his mom's still drinking, and his best...
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...
This Indian Kid : A Native American Memoir
Chuculate, Eddie
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...
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...
What the eagle sees : Indigenous stories of rebellion and renewal
Yellowhorn, Eldon
Paper Book
"There is no death. Only a change of worlds." --Chief Seattle [Seatlh], Suquamish Chief        What do people do when their civilization is invaded? Indigenous people have been faced with disease, war, broken promises, and forced assimilation....
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...
You Were Made for This World: Celebrated Indigenous Voices Speak to Young People
Sinclair, Stephanie
Every young person deserves the chance to feel like they belong, that they are recognized, that they matter. In the spirit of A Velocity of Being: Letters to a Young Reader, You Were Made for This World brings together forty Indigenous writers, artists, activists, athletes, scholars and thinkers...

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