A wonderful collection of essays and poems about, as the title implies, growing up Native in America. It ranges from funny to sad to empowering, and involves people from coast to coast and in between. It really helps fight the notions that all Native people are the same. They have a variety of experiences, but at the heart of all of them is a strong sense of community and hope for the future. A short and enjoyable read.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me review this book. This book gives a glimpse into Native American life from authors from various Native American tribes and share their views and stories. The stories are varied and talk about growing up on reservations to creating a skin care line to a woman trying to understand why her grandmother never taught her their language. She learns that her grandmother was sent to a boarding school and forbidden to speak her native language. If spoken, the children were punished and so her grandmother did not speak whilst she was at the boarding school until she left at 18.

This was such an insightful read and I really enjoyed listening to it on audio since there were different narrators.

I read the blurb that said this was uplifting, and while I do think there were parts that were, I think most of this book highlighted some of the identity struggles that native people face as they either try to fit into their native culture or mainstream US culture.

I appreciated the diverse perspectives of this book as there were people who are native and black, white and/or Latinx.

Overall I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for diverse, real life stories.

A wonderful collection of native perspectives, ranging from those who grew up steeped in native culture on the rez and those who have had to fight to prove their indigeneity. I found the mix of personal narrative, essay, quotes, and poetry to provide an expansive view of what it means to be native in North America and that the changing formats/ tones kept the overall work from being either too heavy, nor too information dense. I love that this book was not written with the intent of educating white people. but as a connection point for other natives. The writing reflects this in that there is no over explanation of what, how, or where indigeneity exists and instead the work focuses on portraying the soul-level experience of growing up Native in America. A must read for all!

Thanks to Atria for the gifted copy!

This was my choice for our 12 New Perspectives Indigenous perspective in September, and I’m so glad that I picked it up! This is a collection of stories highlighting various aspects of the Native American experience. I loved that there were some essays and some poems, and lots of diversity from the contributors, really giving a wide-lens glance of the Native perspective.

Books like this are so important for this time period we are in now that injustices are being openly talked about. Where I live, I don't encounter Native Americans very often, so I don't have first hand knowledge of the road they have been forced to travel by a country full of people who took over their land and made them behave in a way that removed the beauty of their way of life. . I thoroughly appreciated the openness and rawness of the accounts within the pages and I am thoroughly appalled by the treatment Natives were given.

Read this to be exposed to a lot of interesting Native perspectives!

There is so much variety in what the contributors do in their lives, but also in how they relate to being Native (did they grow up in a reservation or big city or somewhere else? are they an enrolled, not enrolled, or ineligible member of a tribe?). I felt like this hit a good balance of being easy to read and introducing a lot of topics impacting Native Americans today.

My favorite parts were the essays that explored Native communities and how Natives treat other Natives. A standout was Angeline Boulley’s essay about the complications of being an enrolled member and the prejudices that can exist for not being seen as Native enough.

But there were also a lot of beautiful, uplifting stories of everyday trailblazers, finding connection with others, and maintaining a link to traditions.

in all anthologies, some stories are better than others, but that's kind of the gift of this one. it's intended to paint a full picture of what it means to be Native, outside of stereotypes or expectations or misconceptions. some of the writers are writers, and some aren't. a lot of my favorite essays actually came from non-writers: from Chopped chefs, for example. the best one is from a standup comedian which is a kind of writing and probably cheating. 
i think this book may be specifically intended for a Native audience, but even as a non-Native reader, this was enlightening and powerful.

“Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won’t either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up.” - Louise Erdrich

Just as the title says, through essays and poems, 20 Native Americans share their experience of “growing up Native in America”. Some are humorous (Timeless Wisdom: Genius Tips for Enhanced Native Living), some are poignant (I Belong), and some are heartbreaking (Growing Up Pueblo (and White) in America). Each piece is heartfelt and I thoroughly enjoyed spending my time reading each one.

Rating:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25

Read if you like:
Reading Indigenous works
Essay and Poetry collections
Learning about different cultures

Thank you Atria Books for the ARC.

Beautiful book! Highly recommend! I enjoyed the poetry, especially "Growing up Pueblo (and White) in America". Powerful and a moving collection of stories.

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for this ARC!

This book is a collection of essays and poems written by a fascinating group of Native authors. They each give a unique and interesting perspective and it was really interesting to read their stories. All the essays and poems are strong, I truly enjoyed reading them all. I highly recommend this book.

Thank you to Atria & MTV Books and NetGalley for the review copy.

Pub date: October 1, 2024