Material appropriate for young adults
A collection of stories and songs by Nishnaabeg storyteller and writer Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. Blending elements of Nishnaabeg storytelling, science fiction, contemporary realism, and lyric voice, this collection encompasses broad and imaginative themes.
In early 1942, during the darkest months following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, a group of 29 Navajo Marines, young and fresh out of boot camp, were taken into a room with bars on the windows and a guard at the door. Their task: devise a top-secret code that would thwart the sharpest cryptanalytic minds in Imperial Japan. And they succeeded.
A sobering perspective of what it was like to be forced on the Navajo Long Walk, one of our nation’s most traumatizing events. Ninaanibaa’, the young woman whose family the story centers on, is the heart of the novel. Two of her young daughters are kidnapped prior to removal. Through the love of her warrior husband, Haske Yil Naanaah, she never gives up hope of reuniting again with her daughters.
“I am a child of Changing Woman.” That is a line in a Navajo prayer spoken by medicine men on behalf of patients, and in the old days it was symbolic and spiritual. Today, it is real. Navajo women, once relegated to bearing children, caring for the home, and raising livestock in a matrilineal society, have transformed themselves into businesswomen, attorneys, truck drivers, pilots, nurses, artists, presidential candidates, and more. Who is the Navajo woman and what drives her in 2007? Join Navajo writer Betty Reid and photographer Kenji Kawano on a journey through the cycle of a Navajo woman’s life, from east (birth and youth) to south (teenager and young adult) to west (adult) to north (elder).
A renowned activist recalls his childhood years in an Indian boarding school
Behind Closed Doors features written testimonials from thirty-two individuals who attended the Kamloops Indian Residential School. The school was one of many infamous residential schools that operated from 1893 to 1979. The storytellers remember and share with us their stolen time at the school; many stories are told through courageous tears.
Tim Giago weaves memoir, commentary, reflection and poetry together to boldly illustrate his often-horrific experiences as a child at an Indian Mission boarding school run by the Catholic Church. Through his words, the experience of one Indian child becomes a metaphor for the experience of many who were literally ripped from their tribal roots and torn from their families for nine months of the year in order to be molded to better fit into mainstream America. They were not allowed to speak their own languages or follow their traditional customs, and cases of physical, sexual and psychological abuse were common. As a result, the Mission school experience often resulted in isolation, confusion, and intense psychological pain. This has contributed to problems including alcoholism, drug abuse, family violence and general alienation in an entire generation of Native Americans. Dramatic and intensely moving black-and white illustrations by Giagos daughter Denise illuminate the text.
A young man is on a dangerous mission that will secure his future … or leave him dead. With all the suspense of a fast-paced movie, this gripping novel about Diego’s treacherous journey across borders, is also a moving story about a boy’s crossing into manhood.
Asking For It is a powerful story about the devastating effects of rape and public shaming, told through the awful experience of a young woman whose life is changed forever by an act of violence.
Featured in WOW Review Volume IX, Issue 3.
Girl Rising, a global campaign for girls’ education, created a film that chronicled the stories of nine girls in the developing world, allowing viewers the opportunity to witness how education can break the cycle of poverty.