Native American Book Selection

When selecting the book resources to supply to teachers as part of the grant, the project coordinator and pedagogy expert worked collaboratively to consult several sources. The search began with a review of recommended books from the following sources:

• National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) Notable Tradebooks for Young People
  
• Carter G. Woodson Book Awards
• John Newberry Medal and Honor Books
• Randolph Caldecott Medal Books
  
• Librarian Recommendations
• Literacy Experts Recommendation
  
• Personal Recommendations (based on classroom use)

Each book from the resulting list was reviewed in the library. At that point, the project coordinator and pedagogy scholar deleted those books that were inappropriate. Examples for deleting books included that the reading level was too high for the target audiences (3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students), the era of the text did not align with the era of the module, and there were multiple books addressing the same topics.

The list resulting from the library review was then matched against those books recommended by respected sources that review children's books about Native Americans. The primary resources for this review were the Oyate website, A Broken Flute, and Debbie Reese's blog. Some texts were maintained in the list even though there were concerns about aspects of the works (e.g., The Buffalo Hunt by Russell Freedman), but information about these failings was shared with students in the module. The final final list appears below.

Booklist (2010)