Book picks similar to
Children of the Dawnland by Kathleen O'Neal Gear


historical-fiction
fiction
native-american
fantasy

A House of Tailors


Patricia Reilly Giff - 2004
    Endless tiny stitches, button holes, darts. Since she was tiny, she’s worked in her family’s dressmaking business, where the sewing machine is a cranky member of the family.When 13-year-old Dina leaves her small town in Germany to join her uncle’s family in Brooklyn, she turns her back on sewing. Never again! But looking for a job leads her right back to the sewing machine. Why did she ever leave home? Here she is, still with a needle and thread—and homesick to boot. She didn’t know she could be this homesick, but she didn’t know she could be so brave either, as she is standing up to an epidemic or a fire. She didn’t know she could grow so close to her new family or to Johann, the young man from the tailor’s shop. And she didn’t know that sewing would reveal her own wonderful talent—and her future. In Dina, the beloved writer Patricia Reilly Giff has created one of her most engaging and vital heroines. Readers will enjoy seeing 1870s Brooklyn through Dina’s eyes, and share her excitement as she discovers a new world.From the Hardcover edition.

Naya Nuki: Shoshone Girl Who Ran


Kenneth Thomasma - 1983
    After being taken prisoner by an enemy tribe, a Shoshoni girl escapes and makes a thousand-mile journey through the wilderness in search of her own people.

The Wolf's Boy


Susan Williams Beckhorn - 2016
    . . Kai burns to become a hunter and to earn a rightful place among his people. But that can never be. He was born with a club foot. It is forbidden for him to use or even touch a hunter’s sacred weapons.Cut off from the other boys, Kai turns to his true friends, the yellow wolves, for companionship. They have not forgotten the young human they nurtured as an abandoned infant. When Kai discovers a motherless cub in the pack, he risks everything to save her, bringing her back to live with him.But as winter draws near, Kai’s wolf grows ever more threatening in the eyes of the People. When the worst happens, Kai knows that they must leave for good. Together, they embark on a journey into the north—a place of unimaginable danger—that tests the power of friendship and the will to survive.Award-winning author Susan Williams Beckhorn delivers a tale set in Paleolithic times. Inspired by modern discoveries, Susan’s careful research creates a vivid picture of a time when the first wolves came to live with humans and forged a bond that lives on to this day.

Other Bells for Us to Ring


Robert Cormier - 1990
    Darcy is spellbound by Kathleen Mary's vivid tales of Catholicism. She shows Darcy a world beyond Frenchtown: a world of daring games and secrets, of sins and miracles. With Darcy's father off fighting the war somewhere in Europe, Kathleen Mary couldn't have come into her life at a better time.Then, just as suddenly as they appeared, Kathleen Mary and her family disappear. While Darcy waits to hear from her, she learns that her father is missing in action. Christmas is coming, and Darcy is unsure about the power of God's love. Will the miracle she hopes for really happen?

The Boy Who Made Dragonfly: A Zuni Myth


Tony Hillerman - 1972
    In this book, first published in 1972, he recounts a Zuni myth first recorded a century ago by the anthropologist Frank Hamilton Cushing. Hillerman's version of the story, written to be read by children ten years old and up, will have equal appeal for adults with an interest in Native American culture.In our society, Hillerman explains, this would be called a 'Bible story.' Like stories based on the Old Testament, this narrative is intended to teach both the history and morality of a people. It tells the consequences of a drought in which Zuni crops were ruined and the tribe was forced to accept charity from neighboring Hopis.

Raven's Choice


Harper Swan - 2014
    Her own survival soon becomes doubtful when the band’s leader threatens to cast her out onto the steppe for what he sees as dangerous willfulness. Raven feels an unexpected empathy for the mysterious Neanderthal. But while trying to preserve his life and health, will she go so far as to commit what could be the worst error of her own life? Mark Hayek will never find out that Raven faced a frightening dilemma. But if he did know, he would understand that the present reality exists because of choices made in the past. As meticulously researched as Jean Auel’s Earth Children series but with the benefit of recent discoveries, this novella is an updated story revealing how contact between Neanderthals and Early Humans had surprising results.

The Coming of the Dragon


Rebecca Barnhouse - 2010
    Some people thought he was a sacrifice to the gods and wanted to send him right back to the sea. Luckily for Rune, King Beowulf disagreed. He lifted the boy from the boat and gave him to Amma, a wisewoman living on a farm far removed from the king’s hall, to raise as she saw fit.Sixteen years later, Rune spends his summers laboring on the farm. And at King Beowulf’s request, he comes to the hall each winter for weapons training. But somehow he never quite fits in. Many people still fear he will bring a curse on the kingdom. Then a terrible thing happens. On a lonely crag on a mountain that belongs to the giants, someone awakens a dragon. It is time for Rune to find the warrior inside himself and prove to the doubters once and for all that he is a true hero.From the Hardcover edition.

Thunder Rolling in the Mountains


Scott O'Dell - 1992
    "We are few and they are many. They will devour us."It is Sound of Running Feet who narrates the story of her tribe's fate. Readers will be gripped as she shares with us her respect for her father, her love for handsome Swan Necklace, and her destiny.

A Well-Timed Enchantment


Vivian Vande Velde - 1990
    . . so has she! Except that now she's in medieval France, the cat is a handsome young man, and her watch has the power to completely change history. Maybe a quiet summer would have been nice?

The Musician's Daughter


Susanne Dunlap - 2008
    Or so fifteen-year-old Theresa Maria is convinced when her musician father turns up dead on Christmas Eve, his valuable violin missing, and the only clue to his death a strange gold pendant around his neck. Then her father’s mentor, the acclaimed composer Franz Joseph Haydn, helps her through a difficult time by making her his copyist and giving her insight in to her father’s secret life. It’s there that Theresa begins to uncover a trail of blackmail and extortion, even as she discovers honor—and the possibility of a first, tentative love. Thrumming with the weeping strains of violins, as well as danger and deception, this is an engrossing tale of murder, romance, and music that readers will find hard to forget.

Dreamwood


Heather Mackey - 2014
    Her father, an expert on the supernatural, has been away for too long while doing research in Saarthe, a remote territory in the Pacific Northwest populated by towering redwoods, timber barons, and the Lupine people. But upon arriving, she learns her father is missing: Rumor has it he’s gone in search of dreamwood, a rare tree with magical properties that just might hold the cure for the blight that’s ravaging the forests of Saarthe.Determined to find her father (and possibly save Saarthe), Lucy and her vexingly stubborn friend Pete follow William Darrington’s trail to the deadly woods on Devil’s Thumb. As they encounter Lupine princesses, giant sea serpents, and all manner of terrifying creatures, Lucy hasn’t reckoned that the dreamwood itself might be the greatest threat of all.

Alone in an Untamed Land: The Filles Du Roi Diary of Helene St. Onge


Maxine Trottier - 2003
    Onge and her older sister Catherine are orphans. When King Louis XVI orders all men in New France to marry, Catherine becomes a fille du roi, one of the many young women sent to the new world as brides. Hélène will accompany her on the long sea voyage and live with her sister’s new family. But Catherine dies during the gruelling journey, and Hélène finds herself alone in strange new country. New France is a far harsher place than she imagined, with bitter winters and the threat of attack from the Iroquois. Will the new friendships she has made on her long voyage enable her to survive?

Anpao: An American Indian Odyssey


Jamake Highwater - 1977
    Any maiden but Ko-Ko-Mik-e-is, that is, who claims she belongs to the Sun alone. And so Anpao sets off for the house of the Sun to ask permission to marry the woman he loves. But Anpao's journey is not an easy one. Before he can reach the Sun, Anapao must travel back in time to the dawn of the world. He must relive his own creation, venture through The World Beneath the World, and battle the many magical mystical creatures of Native American legends. For only by doing so can Anpao discover who he really is, and prove to the Sun why he alone is worthy of the fair Ko-komik-e-is

The Other Side of the Island


Allegra Goodman - 2008
     Honor and her parents have been reassigned to live on Island 365 in the Tranquil Sea. Life is peaceful there, the color of the sky is regulated by Earth Mother, a corporation that controls New Weather, and it almost never rains. Everyone fits into their rightful and predictable place. . . . Except Honor. She doesn't fit in, but then she meets Helix, a boy with a big heart and a keen sense for the world around them. Slowly, Honor and Helix begin to uncover a terrible truth about life on the Island: Sooner or later, those who are unpredictable disappear . . . and they don't ever come back.

Wonder Show


Hannah Barnaby - 2012
    He said he would always find Portia, that she could never leave. Free at last, Portia begins a new life on the bally, seeking answers about her father’s disappearance. Will she find him before Mister finds her? It’s a story for the ages, and like everyone who enters the Wonder Show, Portia will never be the same.