LibGuides: ND Center for the Book : Great Reads from Great Places

2002 Selection

Sacagawea: American Pathfinder

Describes how Sacagawea found adventure guiding Lewis and Clark to the Oregon coast.

2023 Youth Selection

Josie Dances

Josie dreams of dancing at next summer’s powwow. But first she needs many special things: a dress, a shawl, a cape, leggings, moccasins, and, perhaps most important of all, her spirit name. To gather all these essential pieces, she calls on her mom, her aunty, her kookum, and Grandma Greatwalker. They have the skills to prepare Josie for her powwow debut. As the months go by, Josie practices her dance steps while Mom stitches, Aunty and Kookum bead, and Grandma Greatwalker dreams Josie’s spirit name. Josie is nervous about her performance in the arena and about all the pieces falling into place, but she knows her family is there to support her. The powwow circle is a welcoming space, and dancers and spectators alike celebrate Josie’s first dance. When she receives her name, she knows it’s just right. Wrapped in the love of her community, Josie dances to honor her ancestors.

In this Ojibwe girl’s coming-of-age story, Denise Lajimodiere highlights her own daughter’s experience at powwow. Elegant artwork by Angela Erdrich features not only Josie and her family but also the animals and seasons and heartbeat of Aki, Mother Earth, and the traditions that link Josie to generations past and yet to come. - Minnesota Historical Society Press

2023 Adult Selection

Boys & Oil

In visceral prose, Brorby recounts his upbringing in the coalfields; his adolescent infatuation with books; and how he felt intrinsically different from other boys. Now an environmentalist, Brorby uses the destruction of large swathes of the West as a metaphor for the terror he experienced as a youth. From an assault outside a bar in an oil boom town to a furtive romance, and from his awakening as an activist to his arrest at the Dakota Access Pipeline, Boys and Oil provides a startling portrait of an America that persists despite well-intentioned legal protections. - W.W. Norton

2022 Youth Selection

The Rise of Greg

The Dawn of Magic has arrived, and thirteen-year-old Greg Belmont and his friends have only a few weeks left to figure out how to keep the modern world from falling into utter chaos. Greg's former best friend (and current archenemy), Edwin, and his Elven army believe the only way to save the life on earth is to steal the world's magic supply and keep it only for the Elves. But Greg knows Edwin must be stopped. He and his friends will journey from the ancient forests of Russia to the bottom of the San Francisco Bay--battling plenty of fierce creatures and gaining some surprising new allies along the way--and back to the streets of Chicago for the final battle for the fate of magic on earth. Will Greg and his friends save the world? Or will epic failure strike again when it matters most?

2022 Adult Selection

The Farmer's Lawyer

"In the early 1980s, farmers were suffering through the worst economic crisis to hit rural America since the Great Depression. Desperate, they called Sarah Vogel, a young lawyer. Sarah brought a national class action lawsuit, which pitted her against the Reagan administration's Department of Justice, in her fight for family farmers' rights. A story about justice and holding the powerful to account, The Farmer's Lawyer shows how the farm economy we all depend on almost fell apart what we can learn from Sarah's battle as a similar calamity looms large on our horizon once again"-- Back cover.

2021 Selection

The Curse of Greg

Greg Belmont longs for the days when he thought he was an ordinary thirteen-year-old, before he learned he's really a fantastical Dwarf in a world where the return of magic has reignited an ancient feud between the Dwarves and the Elves. But now that magic is spreading rapidly, calling forth mythical monsters that are wreaking total havoc on earth, he knows things will never go back to normal. To make matters worse, rumors are growing that the Elves are planning a sinister attack -- and their new leader might be none other than Greg's former best friend, Edwin. Before they can say "Galdervatn," Greg and his Dwarven friends find themselves up against perilous dangers that their training has barely prepared them for. Can Greg and his bloodthirsty talking ax keep them out of harm's way long enough to prevent all-out war? Or will epic failure find him yet again?

2020 Selection

The Night Watchman

It is 1953. Thomas Wazhushk is the night watchman at the first factory to open near the Turtle Mountain Reservation in rural North Dakota. He is also a prominent Chippewa Council member, trying to understand a new bill that is soon to be put before Congress. The US Government calls it an 'emancipation' bill; but it isn't about freedom - it threatens the rights of Native Americans to their land, their very identity. How can he fight this betrayal? Unlike most of the girls on the reservation, Pixie - 'Patrice' - Paranteau has no desire to wear herself down on a husband and kids. She works at the factory, earning barely enough to support her mother and brother, let alone her alcoholic father who sometimes returns home to bully her for money. But Patrice needs every penny to get if she's ever going to get to Minnesota to find her missing sister Vera. In The Night Watchman multi-award winning author Louise Erdrich weaves together a story of past and future generations, of preservation and progress. She grapples with the worst and best impulses of human nature, illuminating the loves and lives, desires and ambitions of her characters with compassion, wit and intelligence.

2019 Selection

The Legend of Greg

Risk-averse Greg Belmont is content with being ordinary. He's got a friend -- -that's right, just one -- at his fancy prep school, and a pretty cool dad (even if he is obsessed with organic soaps that smell like a mix of salted pork and Icelandic bog). The problem is, Greg isn't ordinary. He's actually an honest-to-goodness, fantastical Dwarf! He discovers the truth the day his dad brings home a gross new tea -- one that awakens bizarre abilities in Greg. Then a murderous Bro-Troll kidnaps his dad and Greg is whisked away to the Underground, where Dwarves have lived for centuries right beneath the streets of Chicago. With the help of some awesome new friends and a talking ax, Greg learns all about the history of the Dwarves, which has been marked with tales of epic failure since the dawn of time. However, the return of the magic they once wielded means big changes are afoot, escalating tensions with the Dwarves' sworn enemy: the Elves.

2018 Selection

I Survived the Children's Blizzard 1888

Eleven-year-old John Hale has already survived one brutal Dakota winter, and now he's about to experience one of the deadliest blizzards in American history. The storm of 1888 was a monster, a frozen hurricane that slammed into America's midwest without warning. Within hours, America's prairie would be buried under ten feet of snow. Hundreds would be dead, thousands terrified and lost and freezing. John never wanted to move to the wide-open prairie. He's a city kid, not a tough pioneer! And his inner strength is seriously tested when he finds himself trapped in the blinding snow, the wind like a giant crushing hammer, pounding him over and over again. Will John ever find his way home?

2017 Selection

Runs with Courage

Ten-year-old Four Winds is a young Lakota girl caught up in the changes brought about by her people's forced move to the reservation. Set in the Dakota Territory, it is the year 1880. Four Winds has been taken away from her family and brought to a boarding school run by whites. It is here she is taught English and learns how to assimilate into white culture. But soon she discovers that the teachers at this school are not interested in assimilation but rather in erasing her culture. On the reservation, Four Winds had to fight against starvation. Now she must fight to hold on to who she is.

2016 Selection

Makoons

Named for the Ojibwe word for little bear, Makoons and his twin, Chickadee, have traveled with their family to the Great Plains of 1860s Dakota Territory. There they must learn to become buffalo hunters and once again help their people make a home in a new land. But Makoons has had a vision that foretells great challenges -- challenges that his family may not be able to overcome. (Based on the author's own family history.)

2015 Selection

Countdown Zero

Ever since Carson Fender was let go by the secret agency that had enlisted his services to help foil a nefarious plot perpetrated by one of their former agents, he's been back to hanging with his friends, pulling pranks, and not having to lie to everyone about how he's spending his days. And that's for the best, isn't it? Of course, this was all before a note showed up in his school lunch, informing him that Agent Nineteen had three days left to live, and that there might still be someone inside the Agency working against them. Carson has always been able to rely on his friends -- but what happens when there's no one left to trust?

2014, 2011, 2010 Selection

Sacagawea

A biography of the Shoshone girl, Sacagawea, from age eleven when she was kidnapped by the Hidatsa to the end of her journey with Lewis and Clark, plus speculation about her later life.

2013 Selection

A Boy Called Slow

Anxious to be given a name as strong and brave as that of his father, a proud Lakota Sioux grows into manhood, acting with careful deliberation, determination, and bravery, which eventually earned him his proud new name: Sitting Bull.

2012 Selection

Dinomummy

In 2000, teenage dino-hunter Tyler Lyson stumbled across the fossil remains of a hadrosaur in the remote hills of the Hell Creek Formation in North Dakota. More than a collection of fossilized bones, Tyler discovered a threedimensional mummified dinosaur -- a dinomummy. He and a paleontologist from the University of Manchester in England, Dr. Phil Manning, led an excavation that would change the way we think about dinosaurs. Named for its place of discovery, "Dakota" was gradually uncovered and moved to a lab for further excavation and analysis. Tyler and Phil's enthusiasm, expertise, and years of work blend as this paleontological detective story unfolds. Stunning computer-generated artwork, based on fieldwork and laboratory studies of the hadrosaur specimen, brings Dakota and its environment back to life on the pages of this amazing book. Travel back in time to explore Hell Creek 65 million years ago, when herds of hadrosaurs migrated across vast floodplains. Dakota died during the Late Cretaceous Period on the floodplains of North America and its body was locked in a rocky tomb. But Dakota's story was far from over. From the rugged badlands of Hell Creek to high-tech scientific labs, photographs document the incredible story of two men and a very special dinosaur.

2009 & 2008 Selection

Gift Horse

Relates the story of a Lakota youth whose father gives him a horse in preparation for his making the transition from boyhood into manhood and becoming a Lakota Warrior.

2007 Selection

The Range Eternal

A young Native American girl who considers her family's wood-burning stove to be the heart of her home in the Turtle Mountains must adapt when it is replaced.
"At the heart of a home in the Turtle Mountains sits a woodstove. It is where Mama makes her good soup, where she cooks a potato for warming hands on icy mornings, where she heats a stone for warming cold toes at night. It warms the winter nights and keeps Windigo, the ice monster, at bay. On the stove's blue enamel door are raised letters, The Range Eternal, and in the dancing flames through the window below a child can see pictures: the range of the buffalo, the wolf and the bear, the eagles and herons and cranes: truly, the Range Eternal. In these charmingly illustrated pages, Louise Erdrich tells a story of hearth and home, of memory and imagination, of a shiny blue woodstove, of the warm heart of family."--book jacket.

2006 Selection

P is for Peace Garden

"An A-Z pictorial for children ages 4-10 all about North Dakota including, famous people, geography, history, and state symbols. Letter topics are introduced with poems accompanied by expository text to provide detailed information"--Provided by publisher.

2005 Selection

Hondo

He was etched by the desert's howling winds, a big, broad-shouldered man who knew the ways of the Apache and the ways of staying alive. She was a woman alone raising a young son on a remote Arizona ranch. And between Hondo Lane and Angie Lowe was the warrior Vittoro, whose people were preparing to rise against the white men. Now the pioneer woman, the gunman, and the Apache warrior are caught in a drama of love, war, and honor.

2004 Selection

A Vast and Open Plain

A Vast and Open Plain": The Writings of the Lewis and Clark Expedition in North Dakota, 1804-1806 features all the writings -- journal entries, reports, and letters -- by the members of the Corps of Discovery during their 215 days within the borders of present-day North Dakota. It is the first book to feature all such writings done within a single state along the Lewis and Clark trail.

2004 Selection

Shehke

Potter eloquently tells the story of Sheheke, the Mandan Indian who traveled from North Dakota with Lewis and Clark to meet President Thomas Jefferson in Washington, D.C., in 1806. The story of Shehekes life has been too long untold. Sheheke was an ambassador for the Mandan Nation, a consistent friend of the United States, and an important part of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. In sharing his story, his legacy of kindness, friendship, and courage lives on.

2002 Selection

Sacagawea: American Pathfinder

Describes how Sacagawea found adventure guiding Lewis and Clark to the Oregon coast.

2023 Youth Selection

Josie Dances

Josie dreams of dancing at next summer’s powwow. But first she needs many special things: a dress, a shawl, a cape, leggings, moccasins, and, perhaps most important of all, her spirit name. To gather all these essential pieces, she calls on her mom, her aunty, her kookum, and Grandma Greatwalker. They have the skills to prepare Josie for her powwow debut. As the months go by, Josie practices her dance steps while Mom stitches, Aunty and Kookum bead, and Grandma Greatwalker dreams Josie’s spirit name. Josie is nervous about her performance in the arena and about all the pieces falling into place, but she knows her family is there to support her. The powwow circle is a welcoming space, and dancers and spectators alike celebrate Josie’s first dance. When she receives her name, she knows it’s just right. Wrapped in the love of her community, Josie dances to honor her ancestors.

In this Ojibwe girl’s coming-of-age story, Denise Lajimodiere highlights her own daughter’s experience at powwow. Elegant artwork by Angela Erdrich features not only Josie and her family but also the animals and seasons and heartbeat of Aki, Mother Earth, and the traditions that link Josie to generations past and yet to come. - Minnesota Historical Society Press

2023 Adult Selection

Boys & Oil

In visceral prose, Brorby recounts his upbringing in the coalfields; his adolescent infatuation with books; and how he felt intrinsically different from other boys. Now an environmentalist, Brorby uses the destruction of large swathes of the West as a metaphor for the terror he experienced as a youth. From an assault outside a bar in an oil boom town to a furtive romance, and from his awakening as an activist to his arrest at the Dakota Access Pipeline, Boys and Oil provides a startling portrait of an America that persists despite well-intentioned legal protections. - W.W. Norton

2022 Youth Selection

The Rise of Greg

The Dawn of Magic has arrived, and thirteen-year-old Greg Belmont and his friends have only a few weeks left to figure out how to keep the modern world from falling into utter chaos. Greg's former best friend (and current archenemy), Edwin, and his Elven army believe the only way to save the life on earth is to steal the world's magic supply and keep it only for the Elves. But Greg knows Edwin must be stopped. He and his friends will journey from the ancient forests of Russia to the bottom of the San Francisco Bay--battling plenty of fierce creatures and gaining some surprising new allies along the way--and back to the streets of Chicago for the final battle for the fate of magic on earth. Will Greg and his friends save the world? Or will epic failure strike again when it matters most?

2022 Adult Selection

The Farmer's Lawyer

"In the early 1980s, farmers were suffering through the worst economic crisis to hit rural America since the Great Depression. Desperate, they called Sarah Vogel, a young lawyer. Sarah brought a national class action lawsuit, which pitted her against the Reagan administration's Department of Justice, in her fight for family farmers' rights. A story about justice and holding the powerful to account, The Farmer's Lawyer shows how the farm economy we all depend on almost fell apart what we can learn from Sarah's battle as a similar calamity looms large on our horizon once again"-- Back cover.

2021 Selection

The Curse of Greg

Greg Belmont longs for the days when he thought he was an ordinary thirteen-year-old, before he learned he's really a fantastical Dwarf in a world where the return of magic has reignited an ancient feud between the Dwarves and the Elves. But now that magic is spreading rapidly, calling forth mythical monsters that are wreaking total havoc on earth, he knows things will never go back to normal. To make matters worse, rumors are growing that the Elves are planning a sinister attack -- and their new leader might be none other than Greg's former best friend, Edwin. Before they can say "Galdervatn," Greg and his Dwarven friends find themselves up against perilous dangers that their training has barely prepared them for. Can Greg and his bloodthirsty talking ax keep them out of harm's way long enough to prevent all-out war? Or will epic failure find him yet again?

2020 Selection

The Night Watchman

It is 1953. Thomas Wazhushk is the night watchman at the first factory to open near the Turtle Mountain Reservation in rural North Dakota. He is also a prominent Chippewa Council member, trying to understand a new bill that is soon to be put before Congress. The US Government calls it an 'emancipation' bill; but it isn't about freedom - it threatens the rights of Native Americans to their land, their very identity. How can he fight this betrayal? Unlike most of the girls on the reservation, Pixie - 'Patrice' - Paranteau has no desire to wear herself down on a husband and kids. She works at the factory, earning barely enough to support her mother and brother, let alone her alcoholic father who sometimes returns home to bully her for money. But Patrice needs every penny to get if she's ever going to get to Minnesota to find her missing sister Vera. In The Night Watchman multi-award winning author Louise Erdrich weaves together a story of past and future generations, of preservation and progress. She grapples with the worst and best impulses of human nature, illuminating the loves and lives, desires and ambitions of her characters with compassion, wit and intelligence.

2019 Selection

The Legend of Greg

Risk-averse Greg Belmont is content with being ordinary. He's got a friend -- -that's right, just one -- at his fancy prep school, and a pretty cool dad (even if he is obsessed with organic soaps that smell like a mix of salted pork and Icelandic bog). The problem is, Greg isn't ordinary. He's actually an honest-to-goodness, fantastical Dwarf! He discovers the truth the day his dad brings home a gross new tea -- one that awakens bizarre abilities in Greg. Then a murderous Bro-Troll kidnaps his dad and Greg is whisked away to the Underground, where Dwarves have lived for centuries right beneath the streets of Chicago. With the help of some awesome new friends and a talking ax, Greg learns all about the history of the Dwarves, which has been marked with tales of epic failure since the dawn of time. However, the return of the magic they once wielded means big changes are afoot, escalating tensions with the Dwarves' sworn enemy: the Elves.

2018 Selection

I Survived the Children's Blizzard 1888

Eleven-year-old John Hale has already survived one brutal Dakota winter, and now he's about to experience one of the deadliest blizzards in American history. The storm of 1888 was a monster, a frozen hurricane that slammed into America's midwest without warning. Within hours, America's prairie would be buried under ten feet of snow. Hundreds would be dead, thousands terrified and lost and freezing. John never wanted to move to the wide-open prairie. He's a city kid, not a tough pioneer! And his inner strength is seriously tested when he finds himself trapped in the blinding snow, the wind like a giant crushing hammer, pounding him over and over again. Will John ever find his way home?

2017 Selection

Runs with Courage

Ten-year-old Four Winds is a young Lakota girl caught up in the changes brought about by her people's forced move to the reservation. Set in the Dakota Territory, it is the year 1880. Four Winds has been taken away from her family and brought to a boarding school run by whites. It is here she is taught English and learns how to assimilate into white culture. But soon she discovers that the teachers at this school are not interested in assimilation but rather in erasing her culture. On the reservation, Four Winds had to fight against starvation. Now she must fight to hold on to who she is.

2016 Selection

Makoons

Named for the Ojibwe word for little bear, Makoons and his twin, Chickadee, have traveled with their family to the Great Plains of 1860s Dakota Territory. There they must learn to become buffalo hunters and once again help their people make a home in a new land. But Makoons has had a vision that foretells great challenges -- challenges that his family may not be able to overcome. (Based on the author's own family history.)

2015 Selection

Countdown Zero

Ever since Carson Fender was let go by the secret agency that had enlisted his services to help foil a nefarious plot perpetrated by one of their former agents, he's been back to hanging with his friends, pulling pranks, and not having to lie to everyone about how he's spending his days. And that's for the best, isn't it? Of course, this was all before a note showed up in his school lunch, informing him that Agent Nineteen had three days left to live, and that there might still be someone inside the Agency working against them. Carson has always been able to rely on his friends -- but what happens when there's no one left to trust?

2014, 2011, 2010 Selection

Sacagawea

A biography of the Shoshone girl, Sacagawea, from age eleven when she was kidnapped by the Hidatsa to the end of her journey with Lewis and Clark, plus speculation about her later life.

2013 Selection

A Boy Called Slow

Anxious to be given a name as strong and brave as that of his father, a proud Lakota Sioux grows into manhood, acting with careful deliberation, determination, and bravery, which eventually earned him his proud new name: Sitting Bull.

2012 Selection

Dinomummy

In 2000, teenage dino-hunter Tyler Lyson stumbled across the fossil remains of a hadrosaur in the remote hills of the Hell Creek Formation in North Dakota. More than a collection of fossilized bones, Tyler discovered a threedimensional mummified dinosaur -- a dinomummy. He and a paleontologist from the University of Manchester in England, Dr. Phil Manning, led an excavation that would change the way we think about dinosaurs. Named for its place of discovery, "Dakota" was gradually uncovered and moved to a lab for further excavation and analysis. Tyler and Phil's enthusiasm, expertise, and years of work blend as this paleontological detective story unfolds. Stunning computer-generated artwork, based on fieldwork and laboratory studies of the hadrosaur specimen, brings Dakota and its environment back to life on the pages of this amazing book. Travel back in time to explore Hell Creek 65 million years ago, when herds of hadrosaurs migrated across vast floodplains. Dakota died during the Late Cretaceous Period on the floodplains of North America and its body was locked in a rocky tomb. But Dakota's story was far from over. From the rugged badlands of Hell Creek to high-tech scientific labs, photographs document the incredible story of two men and a very special dinosaur.

2009 & 2008 Selection

Gift Horse

Relates the story of a Lakota youth whose father gives him a horse in preparation for his making the transition from boyhood into manhood and becoming a Lakota Warrior.

2007 Selection

The Range Eternal

A young Native American girl who considers her family's wood-burning stove to be the heart of her home in the Turtle Mountains must adapt when it is replaced.
"At the heart of a home in the Turtle Mountains sits a woodstove. It is where Mama makes her good soup, where she cooks a potato for warming hands on icy mornings, where she heats a stone for warming cold toes at night. It warms the winter nights and keeps Windigo, the ice monster, at bay. On the stove's blue enamel door are raised letters, The Range Eternal, and in the dancing flames through the window below a child can see pictures: the range of the buffalo, the wolf and the bear, the eagles and herons and cranes: truly, the Range Eternal. In these charmingly illustrated pages, Louise Erdrich tells a story of hearth and home, of memory and imagination, of a shiny blue woodstove, of the warm heart of family."--book jacket.

2006 Selection

P is for Peace Garden

"An A-Z pictorial for children ages 4-10 all about North Dakota including, famous people, geography, history, and state symbols. Letter topics are introduced with poems accompanied by expository text to provide detailed information"--Provided by publisher.

2005 Selection

Hondo

He was etched by the desert's howling winds, a big, broad-shouldered man who knew the ways of the Apache and the ways of staying alive. She was a woman alone raising a young son on a remote Arizona ranch. And between Hondo Lane and Angie Lowe was the warrior Vittoro, whose people were preparing to rise against the white men. Now the pioneer woman, the gunman, and the Apache warrior are caught in a drama of love, war, and honor.

2004 Selection

A Vast and Open Plain

A Vast and Open Plain": The Writings of the Lewis and Clark Expedition in North Dakota, 1804-1806 features all the writings -- journal entries, reports, and letters -- by the members of the Corps of Discovery during their 215 days within the borders of present-day North Dakota. It is the first book to feature all such writings done within a single state along the Lewis and Clark trail.

2004 Selection

Shehke

Potter eloquently tells the story of Sheheke, the Mandan Indian who traveled from North Dakota with Lewis and Clark to meet President Thomas Jefferson in Washington, D.C., in 1806. The story of Shehekes life has been too long untold. Sheheke was an ambassador for the Mandan Nation, a consistent friend of the United States, and an important part of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. In sharing his story, his legacy of kindness, friendship, and courage lives on.

2002 Selection

Sacagawea: American Pathfinder

Describes how Sacagawea found adventure guiding Lewis and Clark to the Oregon coast.

ND Center for the Book

2024 North Dakota Selections

Spiral

The Clean Daughter

2024 Great Reads North Dakota Resources

Past ND Selections

2023 Youth Selection

Great Reads from Great Places: Video

Great Reads Book Lists