I get asked quite often, ‘What books do I recommend? How do I know if I’m adding good books to my classroom library or school library or my public library? Which books are the best or okay?’ And what I tell people is the book is going to give you a lot of information. So, certainly, check that out, look at who’s written it, who has illustrated it, what does it say in the back matter?
And then also, a lot is available on the web. Check out the creator’s websites, and see what they are representing about themselves. A lot of people will say, well, if they’re Native then, yes, that book is recommended, and that’s not necessarily always the case, it’s not always the case if someone is not Native that the book is awful or not well written. I think it’s a much higher hill to climb and to do it well, if you don’t have a lot of help from others.
It can very easily come off as written for non-Native people. My criteria when I look at a book is, who has been centered and who is this book written for?
Second to that I look at what work has this person done? And people a lot of times will say, ‘Well, but if it’s fiction.’ And? If it’s fiction? I’m like there still is writing from a place of giving those Native characters their full humanity. And that is not the easiest work to do, but it’s necessary if you’re going to write a work that to me should be given to young people, you know? The majority of young people only get access to books because they’ve come from gatekeepers, whether that’s someone’s family, or a community member, or the librarian, or the teacher, you know?
Until they’re a teen, they generally are being taken to the public library. They are being given access to the school library at certain times or they are being told, ‘Yes, you can go and select a book in the classroom library.’ And all of those decisions then are also influenced by what that person puts in those libraries, right, in those collections. Similarly, with what a family brings into its home.
So until that child is a teen, they could have missed out on a lot of wonderful representations because that’s not what they’ve had exposure to. I always tell people, like Google is your best friend. You can find lots of lists that have been curated by people that tell you what are books that are well done, and the place that I always tell people to start is look at the American Indian Library Association’s website.
