Sports Stories for Teens: American Indian Heritage

Product Description: Matthew Eagletail is the star player for the Warriors, his basketball team on the Tsuu Tíina First Nation near Calgary. When his mother remarries, everything in Matthew's life is suddenly different and new: a new school, a new father, five pesky new sisters, a new dog named Precious. Worst of all, he has to quit the Warriors. When he's asked to join his new school's team, the Bandits, he claims he'll never play for the competition. His sister Jazz thinks otherwise, and sets out to prove it.

Product Description: Leigh Aberdeen is one of the top players on her Alberta hockey team, the Falcons. But as a Métis and the only girl on the team, she's different — and not everyone is happy about that. To top it off, she doesn't think her mother wants her to play hockey, so Leigh hasn't told her about the Falcons. Soon she's getting threatening messages on the phone, the Falcons' captain tries to get her kicked off the team, and her mother wants Leigh to go to a dance recital on the same night as the finals.

Product Description: In 2003, Jordin Kudluk "Thunder" Tootoo became the first Inuk to play in an NHL game. Jordin has had more than his fair share of fights — both on and off the ice. He's had to overcome the social problems that are associated with the North, fight his way through the discrimination and culture shock he encountered after leaving Rankin Inlet and moving to Alberta to play in the Juniors, and see his way through the grief of losing his NHL-bound older brother and hero, Terence Tootoo, to suicide in 2002.

Product Description: When January Fournier arrives at the Foothills Hospital in Calgary, her brother Grey is barely clinging to life in intensive care after a horrible motorcycle crash. She's devastated — but things get worse when the police accuse Grey of a string of bike thefts, claims he's in no condition to dispute. Jan decides she's the only person who can uncover the truth and sets out to find the real thief.

Product Description: Sixteen-year-old Mississippi Choctaw Randy Cheska has lived most of his young life in the shadow of his older football-hero brother, Jack. After Jack is killed while serving in Iraq, Randy's father puts even more pressure on Randy to excel in football. But Randy has no interest in sports and has never been good at them. Imagine Randy's surprise when he discovers stickball, a game he's immediately drawn to.

In Rye, Virginia, just outside Washington, DC, people work hard, kids go to school, and football is big on Friday nights. An eighth-grade English teacher creates an assignment for her class to debate whether Rye’s mascot should stay or change. Now six middle schoolers — all with different backgrounds and beliefs — get involved in the contentious issue that already has the suburb turned upside down with everyone choosing sides and arguments getting ugly.

"Along with well-known figures such as Jim Thorpe and National Hockey League hit man Jordin Tootoo, Schilling introduces Olympic wheelchair racer Cheri Becerra-Madsen, speed skier Ross Anderson, ice dancer Naomi Lang, and eight other less-familiar Native American athletes of the present and recent past. Most of the portraits are based on personal interviews; all include tribal affiliations, career notes (sometimes in boldface), brief sidebars, and small, black-and-white action photos." — Booklist

What will Callum and his teenage Southern California skate buddies do when a major war breaks out one summer while they are away at camp? How will they find their families? Who is actually sending them messages that guide them through the maze of underground skateparks towards safe haven in the north? And will they really be safe when they get to their friend friend's reservation in Washington state? This dystopian novel for teen readers is the first in a new series.

Product Description: Inspired by the traditional Choctaw story "No Name," this modern adaptation features a present-day Choctaw teenager surviving tough family times — his mother left home and he is living with a mean-spirited, abusive father. The one place the teen can find peace is on the neighborhood basketball court. But after a violent confrontation with his father, the teen runs away, only to return home to find an unexpected hiding spot in his own backyard.

Bobby Byington has always had to navigate his father’s alcoholism and anger, but things are looking up. His father has stopped drinking, his mother is back home, and his basketball team is winning games. But two new problems surface when his "smart" girlfriend is bullied by a resentful schoolmate and a fellow team member is bullied by an abusive father. Book 2 of the Pathfinders series.

After overcoming years of trouble with his alcoholic father and surviving a near-death car accident, Bobby Byington ― for the first time in his life ― has a strong family. His parents are reunited, his father has turned away from the bottle, and Bobby is a starter on the high school basketball team. But the door to trouble never stays closed. Bobby's girlfriend, Faye, is suffering attacks from a school bully, and some of Bobby's basketball teammates are dealing with all-too-familiar problems at home.

These days, Tre Brun is happiest when he is playing basketball on the Red Lake Reservation high school team — even though he can’t help but be constantly gut-punched with memories of his big brother, Jaxon, who died in an accident. When Jaxon's former teammates on the varsity team offer to take Tre under their wing, he sees this as his shot to represent his Ojibwe rez all the way to their first state championship. This is the first step toward his dream of playing in the NBA, no matter how much the odds are stacked against him.

Product Description: When twin brothers Evan and Brynley Selkirk move with their family from the remote Cree community of Whapmagoostui to bustling Calgary, their worlds turn upside-down. In place of the grey, frigid waters of Hudson Bay, they see the downtown canyons of a modern city. Bryn, a musical prodigy, trades piano practice for hockey practice to impress a new girlfriend; Evan, the family hockey hero, starts running with a bad crowd and neglecting the game.

Product Description: As a member of the lacrosse team and of Iroquois heritage, Jake knows how sacred the game is. When he moves to a boarding school in Washington, DC and plays for its team, however, he finds that the coach is feeding untruths to his team about the game.

Product Description: In this sequel to Lightning Rider, January and her family have taken in an RCMP summer student as a boarder. When Willow Whitecloud pulls up on her Kawasaki ZX-10R, January takes an instant liking to her. Willow becomes both a friend and a spiritual guide, who helps January connect with her Native heritage. But January is shocked when a number of clues suggest that her mentor may be involved in illegal activity that threatens the natural world she has taught January to respect.