Novels

This teen novel, written by Iqaluit-based Inuit author Aviaq Johnston, is a coming-of-age story that follows a young shaman named Pitu as he learns to use his powers and ultimately finds himself lost in the world of the spirits. After a strange and violent blizzard leaves Pitu stranded on the sea ice, without his dog team or any weapons to defend himself, he soon realizes that he is no longer in the world that he once knew. The storm has carried him into the world of the spirits, a world populated with terrifying creatures---black wolves with red eyes, ravenous and constantly stalking him; water-dwelling creatures that want nothing more than to snatch him and pull him into the frigid ocean through an ice crack. As well as beings less frightening, but equally as incredible, such as a lone giant who can carry Pitu in the palm of her hand and keeps caribou and polar bears as pets. After stumbling upon a fellow shaman who has been trapped in the spirit world for many years, Pitu must master all of his shamanic powers to make his way back to the world of the living, to his family, and to the girl that he loves.

Award

• 2018 Winner of Indigenous Voices Award for Most Significant Work of Prose in English by an Emerging Indigenous Writer

Educator Information
Recommended in the Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools 2019-2020 resource list for grades 7 to 10 for English Language Arts.

Additional Information
208 pages | 6.00" x 9.00"

This is the third book in the Stories of Our People series.

Educator & Series Information
Stories of Our People/Lii zistwayr di la naasyoon di Michif Series is a departure from other books about Aboriginal or traditional stories. It includes five stories. As readers go through the series, they will notice that the narrative and artwork gets progressively darker. The series starts with trickster stories, then moves to a Whiitigo and Paakuk story, then jumps to a story about selling one’s soul and personal redemption, and finally to a Roogaroo story.

This project came to life from the stories of our Elders, and as such, original transcripts of the stories, prose renditions by Janice DePeel, and biographies of the storytellers and project team are available on the Virtual Museum of Métis History and Culture: www.metismuseum.ca/browse/index.php?id=13100

Based on stories by Norman Fleury, Gilbert Pelletier, Jeanne Pelletier, Joe Welsh, and Norma Welsh.

Stories of Our People/Lii zistwayr di la naasyoon di Michif Series:
Book 1: How Michif was Lost
Book 2: Chi-Jean and the Red Willows
Book 3: Whistle for Protection
Book 4: Sins of the Righteous
Book 5: Attack of the Roogaroos!

An Indigenous monster story.

In 1872, dinosaur hunters become embroiled in a battle over the discovery of fossils in Northern Ontario as their excavation crews are driven mad by a bizarre and terrifying illness. Over a hundred years later, Church and his family show signs of the same monstrous affliction. As he begins to unravel his family's dark history, Church must race to protect the secrets buried deep in bones and blood. Set in the fictional town of Sterling and Ghost Lake Reserve, Wrist is Nathan Adler's debut novel.

Reviews
“A forest doesn’t know what the future holds, but it is patient.” I love how Adler solicits the assistance of the natural world in weaving his magical tale - fantastic, captivating from beginning to end. Meet the fantastic world of Adler’s people and follow their journey through Ojibway life and story. Adler peppers the story with the rhythmic sound of Ojibway and it seems to help tell the story in the same way the natural world helps tell the story.” – Lee Maracle, author of Celia’s Song

"Nathan Adler writes exceptionally well. His words weave together and tell a haunting story that leaves you wanting more." -Christine Smith (McFarlane), Freelance Journalist

"With a unique voice and narrative, Nathan Adler blends poetic imagery and Anishinaabe story to create something totally new and completely beautiful." – Cherie Dimaline, author of A Gentle Habit, The Girl Who Grew a Galaxy, and Red Rooms

Additional Information
198 pages | 5.50" x 8.50"

Years after a devastating battle, Mahingan and his tribe struggle to recover a lost loved one.

Six years earlier in the fourteenth century, Mahingan and his tribe fought the Battle of the Falls against the Haudenosaunee. There were many losses, and Mahingan thought he had lost his wife, Wàbananang (Morning Star). But after the battle, he learned she was still alive, taken captive by the Haudenosaunee. Now on a desperate quest to rescue her, Mahingan and his small family are wintering north of the Ottawa River near present-day Lachute, Quebec. If they are to have any hope of recovering Wàbananang, though, they must first survive until spring.

At the same time, over 2,000 kilometres away in present-day Newfoundland, events taking place will affect four Native tribes: Mahingan’s, a group of Mi’kmaq, a Beothuk group, and a band of Haudenosaunee warriors led by Mahingan’s old nemesis, Ò:nenhste Erhar (Corn Dog) — a fierce Mohawk War Chief and Wàbananang’s captor.

Along the way, Mahingan’s brother, Mitigomij, will reveal his true self and powers. Then, an influential Mi’kmaq legend puts a new, powerful twist on events, and threatens to send things spiraling out of Mahingan’s control.

Educator Information
Recommended Ages: 12-15.

Series Information
This novel is part of the Algonquin Quest Series, a series of young adult novels from Algonquin author Rick Revelle.

Additional Information
296 pages | 5.00" x 8.00"

In 2017-2018, Bearskin Diary was the award recipient for First Nation Communities Read.

Raw and honest, Bearskin Diary gives voice to a generation of First Nations women who have always been silenced, at a time when movements like Idle No More call for a national inquiry into the missing and murdered Aboriginal women. Carol Daniels adds an important perspective to the Canadian literary landscape.

Taken from the arms of her mother as soon as she was born, Sandy was only one of over twenty thousand Aboriginal children scooped up by the federal government between the 1960s and 1980s. Sandy was adopted by a Ukrainian family and grew up as the only First Nations child in a town of white people. Ostracized by everyone around her and tired of being different, at the early age of five she tried to scrub the brown off her skin. But she was never sent back into the foster system, and for that she considers herself lucky.

From this tragic period in her personal life and in Canadian history, Sandy does not emerge unscathed, but she emerges strong--finding her way by embracing the First Nations culture that the Sixties Scoop had tried to deny. Those very roots allow Sandy to overcome the discriminations that she suffers every day from her co-workers, from strangers and sometimes even from herself.

Additional Information

Helen Betty Osborne, known as Betty to her closest friends and family, dreamed of becoming a teacher. She left her home to attend residential school and high school in a small town in Manitoba. On November 13, 1971, Betty was abducted and brutally murdered by four young men. Initially met with silence and indifference, her tragic murder resonates loudly today. Betty represents one of almost 1,200 Indigenous women in Canada who have been murdered or gone missing.

This book is a true account. Content may be disturbing to some readers.

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 12 to 18. 

Additional Information
30 pages | 6.50" x 10.00"

In this second installment in the series, Billy and his friend Chigger continue their adventures in a hidden cave. After a horrifying accident at the cave, Billy is pronounced clinically dead on an operating table. After being revived, he discovers an ability to see and speak with the spirits of the dead including his deceased Cherokee grandmother. When Chigger becomes possessed by an alien creature, Billy knows he must return to the cave to save his friend. What he doesn’t know is that the Horned Serpent known to the Cherokees as Uktena is lying in wait.

Educator & Series Information
Ages: 12 to 16 / Reading level: 4.5

This novel is part of the Billy Buckhorn series, which is part of the PathFinder series. The PathFinders series of Hi-Lo (high interest, low readability) novels offers the following features: 

• Indigenous teen protagonists
• Age appropriate plots
• 2.5 – 4.5 Reading Level
• Contemporary and historical fiction
• Indigenous authors

The PathFinders series is from an American publisher. Therefore, Indigenous terminology in the PathFinders books is not the same as Canadian Indigenous terminology. This prompts a useful teaching moment for educators in discussing appropriate terminology use in Canada.  The recommended ages for books in the PathFinders series are 12-16.

Additional Information
120 pages | 4.50" x 7.00"

Billy Buckhorn's uncanny intuition became apparent at an early age. In the course of this exciting series, Billy's supernatural abilities grow and develop, and his reputation as a gifted "holy man" in the Old Way spreads throughout the Cherokee Nation. In book 3, Supranormal, Billy and his grandfather Wesley face a deadly, ancient beast that's poised to take control of the world. While Wesley and Billy summon aid from the spirit realms, Billy's father, a college professor, puts together an archaeological team to help out - and to document the unprecedented things they've seen and experienced. But even with everyone pulling together, can they stop Uktena?

Series Information
This novel is part of the Billy Buckhorn series, which is part of the PathFinder series. The PathFinders series of Hi-Lo (high interest, low readability) novels offers the following features: 

• Indigenous teen protagonists
• Age appropriate plots
• 2.5 – 4.5 Reading Level
• Contemporary and historical fiction
• Indigenous authors

The PathFinders series is from an American publisher. Therefore, Indigenous terminology in the PathFinders books is not the same as Canadian Indigenous terminology. This prompts a useful teaching moment for educators in discussing appropriate terminology use in Canada.  The recommended ages for books in the PathFinders series are 12-16.

Additional Information
128 pages | 4.50" x 7.00"

Birdie is a darkly comic and moving first novel about the universal experience of recovering from wounds of the past, informed by the lore and knowledge of Cree traditions. Bernice Meetoos, a Cree woman, leaves her home in Northern Alberta following tragedy and travels to Gibsons, BC. She is on something of a vision quest, seeking to understand the messages from The Frugal Gourmet (one of the only television shows available on CBC North) that come to her in her dreams. She is also driven by the leftover teenaged desire to meet Pat Johns, who played Jesse on The Beachcombers, because he is, as she says, a working, healthy Indian man. Bernice heads for Molly’s Reach to find answers but they are not the ones she expected.

With the arrival in Gibsons of her Auntie Val and her cousin Skinny Freda, Bernice finds the strength to face the past and draw the lessons from her dreams that she was never fully taught in life. Part road trip, dream quest and travelogue, the novel touches on the universality of women's experience, regardless of culture or race.

Educator Information
This book is also available in French as Birdie.

Additional Information
288 pages | 5.50" x 8.50"

After her ikusin (grandmother) dies, Kai Hunter, a part-Navajo, part-Stoney Nakoda 16-year-old, runs away to Banff, Alberta, to avoid being placed in a foster home. Kai lies her way into a new identity, a job, and a safe place to live. She makes new friends and volunteers with a rapid attack crew for the forestry service. She even meets a great guy named Rory, who's into motorcycles, just like her - and who seems to be into her, too. But Kai is scared of being found out, and she isn't sure that she can trust all of her new friends...or that she likes the person she's pretending to be. Meanwhile, she's got to pay rent, figure out whether Rory is boyfriend material, and assist the rap-attack crew as they face a string of suspicious forest fires. In the thrilling conclusion to this romantic adventure, Kai's choices become matters of life and death.

Educator & Series Information
This book is part of the PathFinders series.

R.L. 3.5

Recommended for ages 12 to 16.

Additional Information
128 pages | 4.53" x 7.00"

Through stories of Lakota leader Crazy Horse, a boy learns about his heritage and himself in this American Indian Youth Literature Award-winning novel from acclaimed author Joseph Marshall III.

Jimmy McClean is a Lakota boy, though you wouldn’t guess it by his name. His mother is Lakota, and his father is half white and half Lakota. Over summer break, Jimmy embarks on a journey with his grandfather, Nyles High Eagle. While on the road, his grandfather tells him the story of Crazy Horse, one of the most important figures in Lakota, and American, history.

Expertly intertwining fiction and nonfiction, celebrated Brulé Lakota author Joseph Marshall III chronicles the many heroic deeds of Crazy Horse, especially his taking up arms against the U.S. government. He fiercely fought against encroachments on the territories and way of life of the Lakota people, including leading a war party to victory at the Battle of the Greasy Grass (the Battle of the Little Bighorn) and playing a major and dangerous role as decoy at the Battle of the Hundred in the Hands (the Fetterman Battle). With Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse was the last of the Lakota to surrender his people to the U.S. Army. Through his grandfather’s tales about the famous warrior, Jimmy learns about his Lakota heritage and, ultimately, himself.

Drawing references and inspiration from the oral stories of the Lakota tradition, Marshall gives readers an insider’s perspective on the life of Tasunke Witko, better known as Crazy Horse.

Reviews

Additional Information
176 pages | 6.20" x 8.25" | Black and White Illustrations | Hardcover

Luna Begay is as studious and serious about her Aboriginal heritage as her sister, Issy, is outgoing and fun. When Issy convinces Luna to go with her to a party full of rich kids, Luna is surprised to end up talking with Jon, who is charming, sophisticated, and very good-looking. But the night turns bad when Jon drugs and rapes Luna.

Feeling guilty and ashamed that she will be perceived as an "Indian slut," Luna doesn't tell anyone and remains in denial until Issy figures out that Luna is pregnant. Knowing that her decisions will affect her parents and Issy as much as her own future, Luna has to work out how to deal with the consequences of that one night, and she has to do it fast.

Reviews
"A hi-lo title that reads like a Lifetime made-for-TV movie. An adequate choice for struggling readers."— Tamara Saarinen, School Library Journal

"Melanie Florence's young adult novel One Night is a powerful read for all readers. Written for reluctant readers it will be read by readers at all levels... The author explores many issues — sexual abuse, bullying, teenage pregnancy, adoption, and rape. Melanie Florence's well-written and compassionate novel does not disappoint." — Keep Calm and Novel On, Educator and NetGalley Reviewer

"I adore Luna... She never begins to act out of character but she does grow throughout the novel ... Parents and other adults [are exactly as I would expect them to be. Realistically portrayed, they are at first shocked, then incredibly supportive of Luna. Her principal and teachers are understanding and concerned with her safety. I heaved a sigh of relief at this portrayal. I work at a public high school ... and I absolutely KNOW this is how it goes down there rather than the usual judgmental way portrayed in novels. (Although the students on the other hand can be brutal - also written in the novel.) Luna's parents were so fantastic. Concern for their daughter, getting her immediate medical care, discussing realistic options for after the baby is born, and supporting Luna the whole way are exactly how a parent SHOULD react. Writing adults as they are here could encourage girls to come forward about rape or pregnancy. THANK YOU MELANIE FLORENCE! ... The inclusion of so many contemporary issues (alcoholism, stereotyping, negative branding, rape, drinking, abortion, adoption, being roofied) makes it interesting and thought-provoking the whole way through." — Mandy Peterson, Librarian

"This book deals with some serious topics that are timely and are issues teens are facing. One Night touches on aspects of racism, stereotyping, bullying, drugs, rape, and Aboriginal heritage. It would be well-paired with some recent news articles or other non-fiction pieces on any of these topics."— Chasity Findlay,, CM Magazine

Educator & Series Information
This book is part of the SideStreets series. SideStreets are edgy, fast-paced novels that combine real-world themes and believable characters to make for short, heart-stopping books — sure to engage the most reluctant reader.

Interest age: From 14 To 18
Fry Reading Level [grade]: 2.9
Lexile Reading Level: HL560L

Additional Information
192 pages | 4.25" x 7.00"

In this important graphic novel, two Aboriginal brothers surrounded by poverty, drug abuse, and gang violence, try to overcome centuries of historic trauma in very different ways to bring about positive change in their lives.

Pete, a young Aboriginal man wrapped up in gang violence, lives with his younger brother, Joey, and his mother who is a heroin addict. One night, Pete and his mother’s boyfriend, Dennis, get into a big fight, which sends Dennis to the morgue and Pete to jail. Initially, Pete keeps up ties to his crew, until a jail brawl forces him to realize the negative influence he has become on Joey, which encourages him to begin a process of rehabilitation that includes traditional Aboriginal healing circles and ceremonies.

Powerful, courageous, and deeply moving, The Outside Circle is drawn from the author’s twenty years of work and research on healing and reconciliation of gang-affiliated or incarcerated Aboriginal men.

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 16 and up. 

Curriculum Connections: Graphic Art, Indigenous Studies, Social Studies.

Additional Information
128 pages | 6.68" x 10.00"

Three young men—Flinch, Bryce, and Rupert—have vandalized their community and are sent by its Elders to live nine months on the land as part of the circle sentencing process. There, the young men learn to take responsibility for their actions and acquire the humility required to return home. But, when they do return, will they be forgiven for what they’ve done?

Three Feathers explores the power and grace of restorative justice in one Northern community and the cultural legacy that can empower future generations.

Three Feathers is the third title in The Debwe Series. Created in the spirit of the Anishinaabe concept debwe (to speak the truth), The Debwe Series is a collection of exceptional Aboriginal writings from across Canada.

Reviews
"Three Feathers is a graphic novel illustrated by stark, black and white images. Many of the frames have no captioning, inviting the reader to intuit the narrative. K. Mateus, the illustrator, makes imaginative use of Aboriginal symbols and motifs in this 48 page book; when Gabe is attacked, demonic figures shadow the background, and when Bryce rails at the members of the community sentencing circle, the image of an angry wildcat snarls behind him." - CM Magazine

Educator & Series Information
Grades 10-12 BC English First Peoples Resource for units on Childhood and Place-Conscious Learning.

Recommended for grades 9 to 12.

This book is part of The Debwe Series, which features exceptional Indigenous writings from across Canada.

This book is available in French: Trois Plumes

Additional Information
48 pages | 6.50" x 10.00"

Lozen and her family are looking for a place of refuge from the despotic Ones who once held them captive and forced Lozen to hunt genetically engineered monsters.

Lozen and her allies travel in search of a valley where she and her family once found refuge. But life is never easy in this post—apocalyptic world. When they finally reach the valley, they discover an unpleasant surprise awaiting them——and a merciless hunter following close behind.

Hally, their enigmatic Bigfoot friend, points them to another destination——a possible refuge. But can Lozen trust Hally? Relying on her wits and the growing powers that warn her when enemies are near, Lozen fights internal sickness to lead her band of refugees to freedom and safety. Alongside family, new friends, and Hussein, the handsome young man whose life she saved, Lozen forges a path through a barren land where new recombinant monsters lurk and the secrets of this new world will reveal themselves to her . . . whether she wants them to or not.