November Is Native American Heritage Month!
This month honors Indigenous communities, their culture, and their resilience as they faced assimilation, discrimination & genocide spanning generations. It’s a time to celebrate the rich histories, diverse cultures and important contributions of our nation’s first people.
Help young people celebrate with these Jane Addams Children’s Book Award-Winning and Honor Books and Finalists:
We Are Water Protectors
by Carole Lindstrom, illustrated by Michaela Goade,
This story empowers the reader to stand up for environmental justice and one of the most important elements for our survival – water. The story, with its foundation taken from the 2016 Standing Rock protests in the Dakotas, takes place on Indigenous land and reminds us “we are stewards of the Earth and that together we must fight to protect our planet’s sacred water.” Fighting against the arrival of an oil pipeline, the female main character, literally and metaphorically, stands up against the evil “black snake” calling on us all to embrace that “we are water protectors. WE STAND.” Goade, through vibrant watercolors, communicates the clear and imminent necessity of communities standing together in solidarity for our world. Young readers are called to respond passionately by joining the stand, pledging to become water protectors and earth stewards.
The 2021 Jane Addams Children’s Book Award Winner, Books for Younger Children
Rez Dogs
by Joseph Bruchac
This story is a timely verse novel set during the coronavirus pandemic on the Wabanaki reservation about a girl named Malian, her grandparents, and a dog that becomes her best friend. Bruchac illustrates how American history has silenced the stories of indigenous people, including forced sterilization, boarding schools, family separation, and colonization. Malian is vocal and confident in her indigenous identity, thinks deeply, and makes hard choices. She challenges her teacher to recognize her own racist beliefs, providing a clear and hopeful message that all people can change when they acknowledge their own biased beliefs and commit to rejecting bigotry and embracing diversity.
A 2022 Jane Addams Children’s Honor Book for Older Readers
The Birchbark House
by Louise Erdrich
This story moves with grace and certainty through the seasons, tying the cycle of life, death, and renewal to events in the life of a seven-year-old Objiwa girl and her family during the mid-19th century. When two white traders who arrive in the middle of winter carry the devastation of smallpox into her village, Omakayas is physically untouched by the deadly outbreak that follows, but she is emotionally devastated by the magnitude of her loss in its wakeâ€"a loss that reaches back farther than she knew. This lyrically-told chronicle of Ojibwa culture and U.S and American Indian history never strays from a child’s understanding of grief and heartbreak, or joy and wonder.
A 2000 Jane Addams Children’s Honor Book for Older Readers
Show Me a Sign
by Ann Clare LeZotte
This story weaves a riveting story inspired by the true history of a thriving deaf community on Martha’s Vineyard in the early 19th century. The story and author’s note also reference the complex, troubling, and often unacknowledged history of how colonialism and white settlement impacted Indigenous Wampanoag and Black community members.
A 2020 Jane Addams Children’s Book Award Finalist for Older Children.
The Jane Addams Children’s Book Award annually recognizes children’s books of literary and aesthetic excellence that effectively engage children in thinking about peace, social justice, global community, and equity for all.
Find resources associated with each of our winning and honor books here:
https://www.teachingbooks.net/
The 2022 NCTE Annual Convention
The Jane Addams Peace Association is excited to announce that we will be present for this year’s National Council of Teachers of English Conference in Anaheim, California! We will be conducting a workshop entitled, “Jane Addams Children’s Book Award Author/Illustrator Panel: Anti-Racist Children’s Books for Today’s Diverse Classrooms” on Saturday, November 19th from 12:30PM – 1:45PM PST,with special guests Dr. Jackie Arnold, Ms. Josie Bustos, Ray Anthony Shepard, Aida Salazar, and Angela Joy.
The 2022 NCTE Annual Convention offers access to more than 690 sessions led by literacy educators, for literacy educators. Centered around the theme, !Suenos! Pursuing the Light, this Convention will include sessions and messages specific to our time—finding the light for ourselves and for students while in a period of darkness, exacerbated by a worldwide pandemic. Join us as we share the ways our individual and collective pursuit of light has assisted and continues to assist us in imagining a new story with bright spots and new sueños (dreams) for ourselves, our students, and our communities.
REGISTER FOR EVENT NOW!
COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHTS
Birchbark Books
Located at 2115 W 21st St, Minneapolis, MN 55405
Birchbark Books is operated by a spirited collection of people who believe in the power of good writing, the beauty of handmade art, the strength of Native culture, and the importance of small and intimate bookstores. “We exist to keep real conversations between book lovers alive. We exist to nourish and build a community based on books. We are a neighborhood bookstore, and also an international presence. Our visitors come from Minneapolis-St. Paul, from every U.S. reservation and Canadian reserve, and from all over the world.”
Birchbark supports Native artists, selling their wares in store and online, as well as sponsor readings by Native and non-Native writers, journalists, historians. They also support Native gardeners and sustainable Indigenous harvesting. It was very important to them to be sustainable in the construction of their store as well by salvaging materials and using as much nontoxic materials as possible.
Visit Website: https://birchbarkbooks.com/
SUPPORT OUR WORK
The Jane Addams Peace Association perpetuates the spirit of activist and pacifist Jane Addams, her love for children and humanity, her commitment to freedom and democracy, and her devotion to the cause of world peace.
Through our Books In Their Hands program we bring authors and illustrators to low-income schools nationally to share their Jane Addams award books. We also donate Jane Addams Children’s Book Award commended titles into the hands of children.
Your donation to the Jane Addams Peace Association, a 501(c)(3) organization, is tax-deductible and helps us support authors, illustrators, parents, teachers, and librarians deepen understanding of peace and justice for children and their adults through reflection, dialogue, and social action.