For the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (and all year long) we've created a booklist to highlight the voices of First Nations, Inuit and Métis writers from across Canada. We believe in the power of storytelling to share important truths and bring people together. Sharing stories can spark meaningful conversations and teach us how to move forward in a good way.
Board Books
Today is Orange Shirt Day
Written by Phyllis Webstad
Illustrated by Natassia Davies
Medecine Wheel Publishing, 2024
Ages: 0-3 Grades: p-K
Today, we gather together Today, we listen Today, we learn Today, we open our hearts
A first conversation about the importance of Orange Shirt Day - Every Child Matters and what little ones can expect to see and do on Orange Shirt Day - The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
An authentic, age-appropriate touch-and-feel board book designed for ages 0-3, written by the founder of the Orange Shirt Day movement and author of award-winning picture book Every Child Matters.
***
When We Are Kind
Written by Monique Gray Smith
Illustrated by Nicole Neidhardt
Orca Book Publishers, 2024
Ages: 0-3 Grades: p-K
When We Are Kind celebrates simple acts of everyday kindness and encourages children to explore how they feel when they initiate and receive acts of kindness in their lives. Celebrated author Monique Gray Smith has written many books on the topics of resilience and reconciliation, and she communicates an important message here for readers of all ages through her carefully chosen words. Beautifully illustrated by artist Nicole Neidhardt, this book encourages children to be kind to others and to themselves.
Picture Books
Celebrating Potlatches
Written by Samantha Beynon
Illustrated by Carla Joseph
Strong Nations Publishing, 2025
Ages: 4-8 Grades: p-3
“Papa, what is a Potlatch?” Inspired by Ts’msyen Chief William Beynon’s historic notebooks on Potlatches in the Gitxsan village of Gitsegukla, Celebrating Potlatches pairs intergenerational storytelling with beautiful illustrations to honour Indigenous traditions. From the award-winning author of Oolichan Moon and the accomplished illustrator of Be a Good Ancestor, this book recounts the 1885 Potlatch ban and the resilience of the communities who fought to keep their traditions alive.
Dad, I Miss You: A Residential School Story
Written by Nadia Sammurtok
Illustrated by Simji Park
Inhabit Media, 2024
Ages: 6-8 Grades: 1-3
Told in the voice of a boy and his father by turns, this book takes a thoughtful and heartfelt look at the emotional toll of a child being taken from their family and community to attend residential school. While the child’s internal monologue expresses his fear, confusion, and loss, the father’s monologue conveys his own sadness, fears, and hopes for the future of his child. The narrative gives voice to the things left unsaid between a parent and child experiencing this heart-rending separation. Upon his return to his community, when father and son are reunited, they must start the long process of reconnection.
Mii maanda ezhi-gkendmaanh / This Is How I Know
Written by Brittany Luby
Illustrated by Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley
Groundwood Books Ltd., 2021
Ages: 3-7 Grades: p-2
In this lyrical story-poem, written in Anishinaabemowin and English, a child and grandmother explore their surroundings, taking pleasure in the familiar sights that each new season brings. We accompany them through warm summer days full of wildflowers, bees and blueberries, then fall, when bears feast before hibernation and forest mushrooms are ripe for harvest. Winter mornings begin in darkness as deer, mice and other animals search for food, while spring brings green shoots poking through melting snow and the chirping of peepers.
Brittany Luby and Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley have created a book inspired by childhood memories of time spent with Knowledge Keepers, observing and living in relationship with the natural world in the place they call home — the northern reaches of Anishinaabewaking, around the Great Lakes.
***
Miya Wears Orange
Written by Wanda John-Kehewin
Illustrated by Erika Rodriguez Medina
HighWater Press, 2025
Ages: 6-8 Grades: 1-3
Miya loves her school and she especially loves storytime. One day, her teacher shares a story about a little girl who was taken away to a residential school. The little girl wasn’t allowed to go home. Her hair was cut and she wasn’t allowed to keep her favourite doll. She was taken away from her family because she was Indigenous, just like Miya!
Miya worries the same thing will happen to her. Her mom tells her that Indigenous girls and boys aren’t forced to leave their families anymore. Miya is relieved, but she is still sad. What can she do about these feelings?
***
The Secret Pocket
Written by Peggy Janicki
Illustrated by Carrielynn Victor
Orca Book Publishers, 2023
Ages: 6-8 Grades: Grades 1-3
Walking Together
Written by Elder Dr. Albert D. Marshall & Louise Zimanyi
Illustrated by Emily Kewageshig
Annick Press, 2023
Ages: 4-7 Grades: 1-2
A poetic, joyful celebration of the Lands and Waters as spring unfolds: we watch for Robin's return, listen for Frog's croaking, and wonder at maple tree's gift of sap. Grounded in Etuaptmumk, also known as Two-Eyed Seeing—which braids together the strengths of Indigenous and non-Indigenous ways of knowing—and the Mi’kmaq concept of Netukulimk—meaning to protect Mother Earth for the ancestors, present, and future generations—Walking Together nurtures respectful, reciprocal, responsible relationships with the Land and Water, plant-life, animals and other-than-human beings for the benefit of all.
Junior Fiction
Giju's Gift
(Adventures of the Pugalatmu'j)
Written by Brandon Mitchell
Illustrated by Veronika Barinova & Britt Wilson
HighWater Press, 2022
Ages: 6-8 Grades: 1–3
Sarah Ponakey, Storycatcher and Âhâsiw's Forest Powwow
Written by Sita MacMillan
Illustrated by Azby Whitecalf
Annick Press, 2024
Ages: 6-9 Grades: 1–3
Two Tricksters Find Friendship
Written by Johnny Aitken & Jess Willows
Illustrated by Alyssa Koski
Orca Book Publishers, 2025
Ages: 6-8 Grades: 1–3
Middle Grade Fiction
The Case of the Pilfered Pin
(A Mighty Muskrats Mystery)
Written by Michael Hutchinson
Second Story Press, 2024
Ages: 9-12 Grades: 4-7
The Kodiaks: Home Ice Advantage
Written by David A. Robertson
HighWater Press, 2024
Ages: 9-12 Grades: 4-6
Watch an interview with author David A. Robertson.
***
I Won't Feel This Way Forever
Written by Kim Spencer
Orca Book Publishers, 2025
Ages: 9-12 Grades: 4-5
Summer vacation starts off well enough as Mia binges MTV and learns how to jar fish with her aunty and uncle. Then her grandma starts feeling unwell. At first, Mia isn’t too worried, but when a call comes in from the clinic to say her grandmother has to go to the hospital in Vancouver, everyone realizes this is serious.
Mia and her mom and aunties head to the city to be by her grandmother’s side. Mia mostly ping-pongs from the hospital to the motel, but she also gets to see some of the city and eat (too much) takeout. She even joins a basketball camp at the Friendship Centre, where she meets a teen coach who inspires her to get back into the game she loves and delve deeper into what it means to be Indigenous. As time passes, Mia’s grandmother's health doesn’t improve, and she has to face the fact that her beloved grandma might not get better.
Young Adult Fiction
7 Generations: A Plains Cree Saga (15th Anniversary Edition)
Written by David A. Robertson
Illustrated by Scott B. Henderson
HighWater Press, 2025
Ages: 15-18 Grades: 9-12
Edwin, a Cree teenage boy, is struggling to feel connected to his family and his identity. From stories shared by his mother, Edwin learns about the history of his family, through the years of war, a smallpox epidemic, and residential schools, all the way through to the present and the conflicts Edwin faces in his own life.
Edwin must confront the past to heal in the present—but can his father, scarred by his own residential school experience, heal in time to help Edwin?
This special 15th anniversary edition brings together all four titles in the 7 Generations series, recoloured and relettered, with a preface from author David A. Robertson and an afterword from bestselling author Cherie Dimaline.
***
Bad Medicine
Written & illustrated by Christopher Twin
Conundrum Press, 2023
Ages: 14 and up Grades: 9-12
Hopeless in Hope
Written by Wanda John-Kehewin
HighWater Press, 2023
Ages: 12-14 Grades: 7-9
Watch an interview with author Wanda John-Kehewin.
***
The Summer of Bitter and Sweet
Written by Jen Ferguson
HarperCollins, 2022
Ages: 13 and up Grades: 8-12
We Are the Medicine(Surviving the City)
Written by Tasha Spillett
Illustrated by Natasha Donovan
HighWater Press, 2024
Ages: 12 and up Grades: 7-12
Non-Fiction
You Were Made for This World: Celebrated Indigenous Voices Speak to Young People
Edited by Stephanie Sinclair & Sara Sinclair
Tundra Books, 2025
Ages: 8-12 Grades: 3–7
Every young person deserves the chance to feel like they belong, that they are recognized, that they matter. In the spirit of A Velocity of Being: Letters to a Young Reader, You Were Made for This World brings together forty Indigenous writers, artists, activists, athletes, scholars and thinkers with a joint purpose: to celebrate the potential of young people, to share a sense of joy and pride in language, traditional and personal stories and teachings, and shared experiences, and to honor young people for who they are and what they dream of.
Including contributions from activist Autumn Peltier, singer/songwriter Tanya Tagaq, hockey player Ethan Bear, Governor General's Award–winning author David A. Robertson, artists Chief Lady Bird and Christi Belcourt, illustrator Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley, and dozens of others, this beautifully collaborative collection urges readers to think about who they are, where they come from and where they're going, with a warm familiarity that will inspire you to see yourself and your community with proud eyes.
Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
Written by Robin Wall Kimmerer & Monique Gray Smith
Illustrated by Nicole Neidhardt
Zest Books, 2022
Ages: 13 and up Grades: 7-12
Drawing from her experiences as an Indigenous scientist, botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer demonstrated how all living things—from strawberries and witch hazel to water lilies and lichen—provide us with gifts and lessons every day in her best-selling book Braiding Sweetgrass. Adapted for young adults by Monique Gray Smith, this new edition reinforces how wider ecological understanding stems from listening to the earth’s oldest teachers: the plants around us. With informative sidebars, reflection questions, and art from illustrator Nicole Neidhardt, Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults brings Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the lessons of plant life to a new generation.
***
If I Go Missing
Written by Brianna Jonnie & Nahanni Shingoose
Illustrated by Neal Shannacappo
Lorimer, 2019
Ages: 12 and up Grades: 7-12
***
Ours To Tell: Reclaiming Indigenous Stories
Written by Eldon Yellowhorn & Kathy Lowinger
Annick Press, 2025
Ages: 12-18 Grades: 7-12
For too long, stories and artistic expressions from Indigenous people have been written and recorded by others, not by the individuals who have experienced the events.
In Ours to Tell, sixteen Indigenous creators relate traditions, accounts of historical events, and their own lived experiences. Novelists, poets, graphic artists, historians, craftspeople, and mapmakers chronicle stories on the struggles and triumphs lived by Indigenous people, and the impact these stories have had on their culture and history.
***
The Witness Blanket: Truth, Art and Reconciliation
Written by Carey Newman & Kirstie Hudson
Orca Book Publishers, 2022
Ages: 9-12 Grades: 4–8
Book list curated by Spencer Miller