Native American Heritage Month

November is Native American Heritage Month , and although I believe Native American literature belongs in every month of the year, an opportunity to highlight it is always welcome.

This is not a comprehensive list, but rather some of the most often cited middle-grade historical fiction with Native American themes and characters.

I must begin with Joseph Bruchac, whose contribution to Native American children's literature is beyond measure. Some favorite historical fiction are: Children of the Long House, Hidden Roots (for upper middle-grade as the subject is genocide), and my personal favorite Code Talkers (A WWII story, which is sometimes listed as YA, but I think is appropriate for for upper middle-grade).

Louise Erdrich is a prolific author in multiple genres and forms. Her Birchbark series has become a staple of Native American historical fiction.

"[In this] story of a young Ojibwa girl, Omakayas, living on an island in Lake Superior around 1847, Louise Erdrich is reversing the narrative perspective used in most children's stories about nineteenth-century Native Americans. Instead of looking out at 'them' as dangers or curiosities, Erdrich, drawing on her family's history, wants to tell about 'us', from the inside. The Birchbark House establishes its own ground, in the vicinity of Laura Ingalls Wilder's 'Little House' books." --The New York Times Book Review

How I Became a Ghost, by Tim Tingle is on most lists for 

middle grade Native American historical fiction: "A Choctaw boy tells the story of his tribe's removal from its Mississippi homeland, and how its exodus to the American West led him to become a ghost --one able to help those left behind." Amazon Review. It is followed by Book 2, When a Ghost Talks, Listen.

Michael Dorris's  Morning Girl  is "a tale based on an entry in the diary of Christopher Columbus that tells of a native family living in a vibrant community striving to coexist with the natural world." Amazon. Sees Behind Trees is about a "Native American boy with a special gift to 'see' beyond his poor eyesight journeys with an old warrior to a land of mystery and beauty." Amazon. And Guests is a favorite Thanksgiving story with a wonderful twist of perspective. Dorris is an award winning author for children and adults.

You can find these and many more on lists at these websites:

https://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/p/best-books.html

https://www.whatdowedoallday.com/native-american-middle-grade-books/
http://homeschoollifemag.com/blog/2017/11/20/great-books-for-studying-native-american-history-middle-school
https://www.nativerealities.com/collections
http://www.colorincolorado.org/booklist/historical-fiction-american-indian-heritage-grades-6-12
https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lists/teaching-content/native-american-historical-fiction-book-list/
https://www.pragmaticmom.com/2010/06/top-10-native-american-childrens-books-ages-2-16/