American Indian Youth Literature Award/Honors Winners

"The first AILA American Indian Youth Literature Awards were presented during the Joint Conference of Librarians of Color in 2006. Awarded biennially, the AIYLA identifies and honors the very best writing and illustrations by Native Americans and Indigenous peoples of North America. Books selected to receive the award present Indigenous North American peoples in the fullness of their humanity." - AILAnet.org

Showing 1 - 20 of 34  There are a total of 48 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "At the mountain's base"
Star rating for At the mountain's base
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"At the mountain's base sits a cabin under an old hickory tree. And in that cabin lives a family -- loving, weaving, cooking, and singing. The strength in their song sustains them through trials on the ground and in the sky, as they wait for their loved one, a pilot, to return from war."--From publisher.
Book cover for "Berry song"
Star rating for Berry song
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
As a young Tlingit girl collects wild berries over the seasons, she sings with her Grandmother as she learns to speak to the land and listen when the land speaks back.
Book cover for "The birchbark house"
Star rating for The birchbark house
Series:
Birchbark house volume 1.
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
Omakayas, a seven-year-old Native American girl of the Ojibwa tribe, lives through the joys of summer and the perils of winter on an island in Lake Superior in 1847.
Book cover for "Birdsong"
Star rating for Birdsong
Author:
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
When a young girl moves from the country to a small town, she feels lonely and out of place. But soon she meets an elderly woman next door, who shares her love of nature and art. Can the girl navigate the changing seasons and failing health of her new friend?
Book cover for "Bowwow powwow ="
Star rating for Bowwow powwow =
Description:
When Uncle and Windy Girl attend a powwow, Windy watches the dancers and listens to the singers. She eats tasty food and joins family and friends around the campfire. Later, Windy falls asleep under the stars. Uncle's stories inspire visions in her head: a bowwow powwow, where all the dancers are dogs.
Book cover for "Eagle drums"
Star rating for Eagle drums
Description:
In preparation for winter, a skilled young hunter embarks on a perilous journey up the mountain to gather obsidian, where he encounters the fearsome eagle god Savik and is presented with a life-altering choice.
Book cover for "Elatsoe"
Star rating for Elatsoe
Average Rating:
3.7 stars
Description:
"Imagine an America very similar to our own. It's got homework, best friends, and pistachio ice cream. There are some differences. This America been shaped dramatically by the magic, monsters, knowledge, and legends of its peoples, those Indigenous and those not. Some of these forces are charmingly everyday, like the ability to make an orb of light appear or travel across the world through rings of fungi. But other forces are less charming and should...
Book cover for "Fancy pants"
Star rating for Fancy pants
Series:
Jo Jo volume 2.
Average Rating:
3 stars
Description:
"Filled with lots of glitter, raised pinkies, and humorous misunderstandings, this second book in the Jo Jo Makoons series--written by Dawn Quigley and illustrated by Tara Audibert--is filled with the joy of a young Ojibwe girl discovering her very own special shine from the inside out. First grader Jo Jo Makoons knows how to do a lot of things, like how to play jump rope, how to hide her peas in her milk, and how to be helpful in her classroom. But...
Book cover for "Firekeeper's daughter"
Star rating for Firekeeper's daughter
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:
Daunis, who's part Ojibwe, defers attending the University of Michigan to care for her mother and reluctantly becomes involved in the investigation of a series of drug-related deaths.
Book cover for "Forever cousins"
Star rating for Forever cousins
Description:
Amanda and Kara are cousins and best friends in an intertribal Native American family; but Kara's family leaves the city and moves back to the Rez, making both girls sad--but the summer reunion reminds them that they will always be cousins.
Book cover for "Fry bread"
Star rating for Fry bread
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
Depicts a modern Native American family in their daily life.
Book cover for "Funeral songs for dying girls"
Star rating for Funeral songs for dying girls
Description:
"Funeral Songs For Dying Girls is a young adult novel about an Indigenous girl who lives on the grounds of a cemetery with her widowed father."--
Book cover for "Healer of the water monster"
Star rating for Healer of the water monster
Author:
Series:
Description:
"Brian Young's ... debut novel tells of a seemingly ordinary Navajo boy who must save the life of a Water Monster--and comes to realize he's a hero at heart."--Publisher's description.
Book cover for "Hearts unbroken"
Star rating for Hearts unbroken
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
When Louise Wolfe's boyfriend mocks and disrespects Native people in front of her, she breaks things off and dumps him over e-mail. She'd rather spend her senior year with her family and friends and working on the school newspaper. The editors pair her up with Joey Kairouz, an ambitious new photojournalist, and in no time the paper's staff find themselves with a major story to cover: the school musical director's inclusive approach to casting The...
Book cover for "Heroes of the water monster"
Star rating for Heroes of the water monster
Series:
Description:
Edward and Nathan, two Navajo stepbrothers, work with a young water monster named Dew to confront their past and save the world from a monstrous, enormous Enemy that is stealing water from all of the Navajo Nation.
Book cover for "Hunting by stars"
Star rating for Hunting by stars
Series:
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
French has been captured by the Recruiters, confined to one of the infamous residential schools, where the government extracts the marrow of Indigenous people in order to steal the ability to dream, and where the captured are programmed to betray others of their kind, something which he discovers has been done to his brother; meanwhile the other survivors, his found family, are hunting for him, determined to rescue him--and French has to decide just...
Book cover for "I can make this promise"
Star rating for I can make this promise
Average Rating:
2.8 stars
Description:
"When twelve-year-old Edie finds letters and photographs in her attic that change everything she thought she knew about her Native American mother's adoption, she realizes she has a lot to learn about her family's history and her own identity"--
Book cover for "In the footsteps of Crazy Horse"
Star rating for In the footsteps of Crazy Horse
Description:
Teased for his fair coloring, eleven-year-old Jimmy McClean travels with his maternal grandfather, Nyles High Eagle, to learn about his Lakota heritage while visiting places significant in the life of Crazy Horse, the nineteenth-century Lakota leader and warrior, in a tale that weaves the past with the present. Includes historical note and glossary.
Book cover for "Indian no more"
Star rating for Indian no more
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
When Regina's Umpqua tribe is legally terminated and her family must relocate from Oregon to Los Angeles, she goes on a quest to understand her identity as an Indian despite being so far from home.
Book cover for "Killer of enemies"
Star rating for Killer of enemies
Series:
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"In a world that has barely survived an apocalypse that leaves it with pre-twentieth century technology, Lozen is a monster hunter for four tyrants who are holding her family hostage"--