Read On!

This November, honor Native American Heritage Month by reading the following JLG Selections that pay tribute to Indigenous stories and voices. These lists have been curated by editorial experts for your library.

Current/Upcoming JLG Titles 

Wings of an Eagle: The Gold Medal Dreams of Billy Mills    
Sports Elementary: November 2024  
“The pursuit of a dream will heal you. Do this and you could have wings of an eagle.” After Billy Mills lost his mother as a child, he followed his father’s advice, finding “strength when I move.” Coauthor Donna Janell Bowan and Mills, a member of the Oglala Lakota Tribe, share the story of Mills’s childhood and his perseverance as a runner, eventually competing—and winning a gold medal—at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.  

American Indians’ Right to Vote  
Instructional Nonfiction History Grades 3-5: November 2024  
With voting rights and access commonly featured in today’s news, this book provides a timely, focused look at past and current issues facing Native Americans. Speaking to young readers at their level, the author provides context on important moments in history, and on voting and citizenship. Includes historical and contemporary photographs.  

Little Moons   
Graphic Novels Middle Plus: December 2024  
In this moving graphic novel, thirteen-year-old Reanna grieves the loss of her missing older sister. She feels lonely and abandoned . . . but she is not alone. There are little moons everywhere. Will Reanna be able to find comfort through her family’s Ojibwe traditions?  
 
Lost at Windy River: A True Story of Survival  
Hi-Lo PG Middle/High: January 2025    
In 1944, thirteen-year-old Ilse Schweder became lost during an epic snowstorm in the northern Canadian wilderness. Written by her granddaughter after extensive interviews with her grandmother, this graphic novel follows Ilse as she survived for nine days on barren land, using Indigenous knowledge to weather threats from animals, hunger, and subarctic temperatures. Cultural notes are organically woven throughout, and vibrant illustrations bring this gripping story to life.   
 
Find Her  
Realistic Fiction Middle: February 2025  
Twelve-year-old Wren’s mother has been missing for more than five years. Wren has worked tirelessly to find clues, scouring the MMIWG (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls) database, to no avail. When she begins looking for lost pets as a way to further her research skills, Wren soon finds herself entangled in a dangerous mission to uncover a serial animal abuser. This gripping story will captivate young readers while shining a light, in an age-appropriate way, on the epidemic of violence against indigenous women.   
 
Ours to Tell: Reclaiming Indigenous Stories  
Biography High Plus: Spring 2025  
“We want our version to be known. We know our own history.” Ours to Tell profiles sixteen Indigenous creators, from a sixteenth-century Mayan scribe to a nineteenth-century Beothuk (Newfoundland) mapmaker to Tommy Orange, a contemporary author of Cherokee and Arapaho heritage. Readers will be drawn to the vivid images and historical photographs as they explore the struggles and triumphs of Indigenous creativity through a consciously Indigenous lens.    
 
The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World  
Nonfiction High Plus: February 2025    
Robin Wall Kimmerer, Potawatomi ecologist and author of the best-selling Braiding Sweetgrass, describes harvesting serviceberries as a metaphor for the gift economy and a meditation on indigenous wisdom: “I have not earned, paid for, nor labored for [the berries]. . . . And yet here they are—along with the sun and the air and the birds and the rain . . . You could call them natural resources or ecosystem services, but the Robins and I know them as gifts.”  
 
By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land  
Adult Crossover Nonfiction Plus: February 2025    
In a fascinating blend of history and reportage, Rebecca Nagle tells the story of the Muscogee people's long fight for sovereignty. Forced into exile in the 1830s, they were moved from their southeastern US homes to Oklahoma, only to have their new land taken over as well. It took a small-town murder in the 1990s and the ensuing Supreme Court case to establish the continued existence of the Muscogee reservation. A 2025 Andrew Carnegie Medal Longlist Selection. 

Previous JLG Selections

Why We Dance: A Story of Hope and Healing  
Primary Plus: March 2024   
It’s the day of the Jingle Dress Dance, and one young girl gets ready to perform before her community, drawing strength from her family and tradition. With lyrical text and vibrant illustrations, Why We Dance captures the resilience and unity in this meaningful ceremony, which originally emerged in response to the 1918 influenza pandemic and remains a powerful expression of healing and hope across Indigenous communities today.  
 
Kindred Spirits: Shilombish Ittibachvffa  
Character Building Elementary: October 2024    
When the Choctaw people heard of Ireland's suffering during the Potato Famine in 1845, they recalled their own hardships on the Trail of Tears and contributed what little money they had. In 2020, 175 years later, the Irish honored this enduring bond, donating to the Navajo and Hopi Nations during the devastating COVID-19 pandemic. This moving story of kindness—across generations and an ocean—is brought to life with rich illustrations and historical and cultural details. The backmatter further explores the Choctaw-Irish relationship, emphasizing empathy and global solidarity.  
 
Daughter of the Light-Footed People: The Story of Indigenous Marathon Champion Lorena Ramírez  
Sports Elementary Plus: October 2024  
The Indigenous Rarámuri, “the light-footed people” of Chihuahua, Mexico, run as a way of life. Lorena Ramírez, who is an ultramarathoner, runs wearing their traditional women’s clothing, including a long skirt and huaraches made from rubber tires. With each step of a sixty-mile race, Ramírez draws energy from and celebrates her culture, her family, and her community.   

 
We Still Belong  
Upper Elementary & Middle: October 2023   
Wesley has big plans for Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Her poem about the holiday will be appearing in the school newspaper, she will attend an intertribal powwow with her family, and she’s going to ask her crush to the school dance. As her day starts to unravel, however, Wesley is forced to think deeply about first impressions, opposing viewpoints, and her own Native identity.  
  
Mascot  
Advanced Readers: December 2023  
In this timely novel in verse, six eighth graders from various racial and socioeconomic backgrounds challenge the continued use of a Native American caricature as the local high school’s mascot. Their activism ultimately lands the issue before the school board; their hard-fought win offers a compelling argument for the importance of teamwork, even with unlikely allies.   
 
No Place Like Home  
Advanced Readers Plus: October 2023   
Ojibwe twelve-year-old Opin, along with his mother and defiant older brother, have been living in their car for some time. Author James Bird draws heavily on personal experience as he brings readers on an emotional road trip across California toward Los Angeles, where the family hopes for a brighter future. As they travel, they grapple with the complexities of identity, family, and the meaning of home.  
 
Stealing Little Moon: The Legacy of American Indian Boarding Schools  
Biography Middle Plus: October 2024    
The author traces four generations of his family’s experiences at the Chilocco Indian Agricultural School in Oklahoma, one of the many American residential schools whose founding purpose was cultural genocide. The first attendee, Jones’s grandmother Little Moon, was four years old when she was forcefully abducted from her family by government officials, and, like so many Indigenous people of her generation, suffered physical and emotional trauma at the hands of teachers and administrators. A compelling read that goes a long way toward unveiling a shameful and too often ignored chapter of US history.  
 
Boarding Schools: Racial Justice in America: Indigenous Peoples  
Instructional Nonfiction History Grades 6-8: July 2024   
With contemporary and historical photos throughout, this book provides a straightforward introduction to the history of US federally funded Indian Boarding Schools. The goal—to assimilate indigenous peoples to white, Christian ways of life while eliminating traditional ways—had terrible effects, both immediate and long-term. Sections on topics such as the Bureau of Indian Affairs, first Indigenous cabinet secretary Deb Haaland, and gender roles also provide starting points for further research.   
 
Sheine Lende: A Prequel to Elatsoe  
PG High Plus: July 2024  
Apache teen Shane and her mother raise animal ghosts to help them find missing people. During a search for two kids who have disappeared, Shane’s mom goes missing, and all signs point to an infestation of wild fairy rings. With the help of her brother and untrustworthy grandfather, Shane and her spirit animals journey through space, time, and the underworld to piece together the puzzle, save lives, and bring their family back together.  
 
Warrior Girl Unearthed  
High Interest High Plus: August 2023    
When Perry Firekeeper-Birch begins her internship at the local tribal museum, she learns the shocking truth about her Ojibwe people’s stolen remains and artifacts. Her fascination leads her to uncover a grave robbing scheme, which she and her friends become determined to thwart. Set in the same world as Boulley’s Printz-winning Firekeeper’s Daughter, this fascinating coming-of-age story is also a high-stakes mystery that reveals an unsettling true history.