Books We Love
We work with lots of amazing books and love to take the opportunity to highlight our favorites. Each month, our literacy team selects a few of our favorite books to share with our community. We will be sharing amazing books for a wide age range. We will also use this space to highlight the voices and stories of those from historically marginalized groups. You can donate any of these titles and previous Books We Love using our Book Wish List.
November
We All Play
by Julie Flett (Author/Illustrator), Greystone Kids (Publisher)
Baby animals and kids love to play! This wonderful book celebrates playtime and the connection between children and the natural world. Julie Flett’s iconic illustrations celebrate birds who chase and chirp, bears who wiggle and wobble, and owls who peek and peep. A group of kids love to do the same thing, shouting, “We play too! kimêtawânaw mîna.”
Being Home
Traci Sorell (Author), Michaela Goade (Illustrator), Kokila (Publisher)
Today is a day of excitement—it’s time to move! As a young Cherokee girl says goodbye to the swing, the house, and the city she's called home her whole life, she readies herself for the upcoming road trip. While her mother drives, the girl draws the changing landscape outside her window. She looks forward to the end of the journey, where she'll eat the feast her family has prepared, play in the creek with her cousins, and settle into the new rhythm of home.
With warm, expressive artwork and spare, lyrical prose, the story of a young girl’s move toward rather than away from home unfolds.
Blue Stars
by Kekla Magoon and Cynthia Leitich Smith (Author), Molly Murakami (Illustrator), Candlewick (Publisher)
When cousins Riley Halfmoon and Maya Dawn move to Urbanopolis to live with their activist grandma, they get off to a rocky start. Outgoing Riley misses her Muscogee cousins but is sure that she and Maya will be instant BFFs. Meanwhile, introvert Maya misses her parents, on active duty in Japan, and just wants some space to herself.
At school, Maya joins the Robotics Club and Riley bonds with fellow gymnasts. Just when they start to feel at home, their school culture is threatened by an influential foe in disguise. Joining the student council feels like a way to help, so both cousins toss their hats in the ring for sixth-grade class president. But when they realize what they’re up against—money, power, and lies—they quickly shift from competition to cooperation, joining forces as superheroes.
Riley is savvy with people; Maya is a whiz with gadgets. In no time, this dazzling duo is off to save the day! Relatable and rich in themes of family, community, and compromise, the Blue Stars series will entertain and empower, inspiring readers to be the stars they are.
Looking for Smoke
by K.A. Cobell (Author), Heartdrum (Publisher)
When local girl Loren includes Mara in a traditional Blackfeet Giveaway to honor Loren's missing sister, Mara thinks she'll finally make some friends on the Blackfeet reservation.
Instead, a girl from the Giveaway, Samantha White Tail, is found murdered. Because the four members of the Giveaway group were the last to see Samantha alive, each becomes a person of interest in the investigation. And all of them--Mara, Loren, Brody, and Eli--have a complicated history with Samantha.
Despite deep mistrust, the four must now take matters into their own hands and clear their names. Even though one of them may be the murderer.