Teachers who work with English as a Second Language learners will find ESL/ESOL/ELL/EFL reading/writing skill-building children's books, stories, activities, ideas, strategies to help PreK-3, 4-8, and 9-12 students learn to read.
Contemporary Voices: American Indian Youth Today
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Additional recommendations are available from the American Indians in Children's Literature blog and Oyate website.
These novels, short stories, and writings by and about American Indian authors give voice to contemporary Native youth who are finding their way through a complex and often challenging world. The experiences range from true-to-life accounts of life on and off of the reservation for today's American Indian teens to the fantastic — what happens when a vampire arrives at the reservation? These selections are sure to leave an impression on Native and non-Native readers alike.
Between the Deep Blue Sea and Me
Product Description: Moana Kawelo, PhD, has a promising career as a museum curator in Los Angeles. The untimely death of her father and the gravitational pull of Hawaii when she returns home for his funeral causes Moana to question her motivations and her glamorous life in California. Between the Deep Blue Sea and Me is the story of Moana's struggle to understand her ancestral responsibilities, mend relationships, and find her identity as a Hawaiian in today s world. 2010 American Indian Youth Literature Award Winner.
Eternal
In this vampire romance from award-winning author Cynthia Leitich Smith, Miranda is finally the life of the party: all she had to do was die. Elevated by none other than the King of the Mantle of Dracul, she goes from high-school theater wannabe to glamorous fiend overnight. Meanwhile, her guardian angel, Zachary, demoted to human guise as her personal assistant, has his hands full saving his girl's soul while planning a fast-approaching Death Day gala.
Moccasin Thunder: American Indian Stories for Today
Product Description: The ten stories that make up this collection edited by Lori Carlson (Cool Salsa) are raw, original, and fresh. A supermarket checkout line, a rowboat on a freezing lake at dawn, a drunken dance in the gym, an ice hockey game on public-access TV. These are some of the backgrounds against which ten outstanding authors such as Sherman Alexie, Cynthia Leitich Smith, Linda Hogan, and Lee Francis have created their memorable characters.
Rain Is Not My Indian Name
Product Description: Cassidy Rain Berghoff didn't know that the very night she decided to get a life would be the night that her best friend would lose his. It's been six months since her best friend died, and up until now Rain has succeeded in shutting herself off from the world. But when controversy arises around her aunt Georgia's Indian Camp in their mostly white midwestern community, Rain decides to face the outside world again — at least through the lens of her camera.
Rising Voices: Writings of Young Native Americans
Product Descriptoin: An unforgettable collection of poems and essays written by young contemporary Native Americans. Words of protest against prejudice and oppression, poems of estrangement and pain, cries for lost worlds and lost identities — but also songs of celebration and joy for the future. Recommended for classroom reading.
Solar Storms
Product Description: Searching for her birth mother, 17-year-old Angela finds her way to the remote region of the Boundary Waters between Canada and Minnesota. Here she reunites with the woman who raised her during her early years. But her happiness is short-lived, when she gets involved in a conflict with developers preparing to build a huge hydroelectric dam.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Junior is a basketball-playing, cartoon-drawing teenager living on the Spokane Indian Reservation. When he decides that it's time to start working towards a better future for himself, he leaves his school on the reservation for an all-white high school where he finds that the only other Indian there is the school mascot. With a sense of humor and a strong spirit, Junior remains determined to persevere in the face of tragedy and a complicated exploration of his own identity. Cartoon drawings accompany the text.
The Heart of a Chief
Chris's life is complicated. At school, he's been selected to lead a project on sports teams with Indian names. At home, where his father is battling alcoholism on the Penacook reservation, the Indians are divided about building a casino. It would destroy the beautiful island Chris thinks of as his own. What can one sixth-grade boy can do in the midst of so many challenges?
The Lesser Blessed: A Novel
Product Description: The Lesser Blessed is a powerful coming-of-age story — edgy, stark, and at times, darkly funny that centers around Larry, a Native teenager trying to cope with a painful past and find his place in a confusing and stressful modern world. Skinny as spaghetti, nervy, and self-deprecating, the 16-year-old is an appealing mixture of bravado and vulnerability.
The Night Wanderer: A Native Gothic Novel
Product Description: Nothing ever happens on the Otter Lake reservation. But when 16-year-old Tiffany discovers her father is renting out her room, she's deeply upset. Little do Tiffany, her father or even her astute Granny Ruth suspect the truth that their guest is actually a vampire, returning to his tribal home after centuries spent in Europe — but Tiffany has other things on her mind. Fed up and heartsick, Tiffany threatens drastic measures and flees home. There, in the midnight woods, a chilling encounter with the vampire changes everything…for both of them.
When the Rain Sings: Poems by Young Native Americans
A range of poets in grades 2 to 12 from eight nations write compellingly of their personal reactions and experiences as Native Americans. Photographs from the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian are included in this unique collection.
Who Will Tell My Brother?
Product Description: Determined to sway high school officials to remove disparaging Indian mascots, Evan assumes a struggle that spirals him onto a soul-searching journey and exposes him to a barrage of bullying and escalating violence. Marlene Carvell's free-verse novel is a timely look at a true story of a mixed-race teen caught up in an exploration of his past, his culture, and his identity.
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