New Releases by Monique Gray Smith

When Charlie’s Kohkom asks him what the best part of his school day was, he knows right away: Indigenous drum circle! Kohkom tells him that not very long ago she was gifted her very first drum at a ceremony for children who never returned home from residential schools. But Charlie doesn’t understand. How could she only have gotten her first drum so recently? Kohkom explains that she was taken from her family when she was very little because of something called the Sixties Scoop. She was raised by an adoptive white family and only later learned what being Cree meant. It’s taken her a long time to feel like she belongs. Kohkom''s story gives Charlie the idea to teach her a song so they can play their drums together. Praise for Monique Gray Smith: ★“Joyful and tender...celebrates the activities that bring gladness through family and cultural connections.”—School Library Journal, starred review for My Heart Fills With Happiness ★“Smith tackles difficult and complex conversations with straightforwardness and compassion.”—School Library Journal, starred review for Speaking Our Truth “Gentle...Notably centering Indigenous families and characters of color in personal and communal activities—and encouraging readers to evaluate their actions toward others.”—Publishers Weekly for When We Are Kind “Smith’s text is heartwarming!”—Debbie Reese, American Indians in Children’s Literature for You Hold Me Up

When Charlie’s Kohkom asks him what the best part of his school day was, he knows right away: Indigenous drum circle! Kohkom tells him that not very long ago she was gifted her very first drum at a ceremony for children who never returned home from residential schools. But Charlie doesn’t understand. How could she only have gotten her first drum so recently? Kohkom explains that she was taken from her family when she was very little because of something called the Sixties Scoop. She was raised by an adoptive white family and only later learned what being Cree meant. It’s taken her a long time to feel like she belongs. Kohkom''s story gives Charlie the idea to teach her a song so they can play their drums together. This bilingual book includes full text in both English and Plains Cree.

INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER Uplifting stories, vignettes, and reflections to inspire gratitude, love, joy, and hope in navigating life in a changing, challenging world. “Monique Gray Smith’s signature warmth and wisdom illuminates paths toward resilience, creativity, and human connection.” —Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat Pray Love “Tender words and heartfelt stories provide gentle guidance to remind us how we can care for each other and ourselves, with attention to the profound power of small acts.” —Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass This beautiful and welcoming book can be read cover to cover or used as a daily source of guidance, providing gentle wisdom that inspires and empowers. Through the lens of five transformative practices—gratitude, love, joy, happiness, and hope—bestselling author Monique Gray Smith weaves together short stories, poignant reflections, and thoughtful questions that invite readers to pause and reconnect with their inner light. And as an Indigenous author, Monique brings her cultural wisdom and unique perspective to each offering. Sharing the Light is a powerful reminder that when we embrace our light and share it with the world, that energy not only transforms us but ripples out to uplift everyone around us.

Let Dragonfly lead you on a journey of inspiration! Following your winged guide, visit the places and things that can help you find strength in the present and imagine your amazing future. Dream alongside everything from a giant construction site and a sewing machine to the river and a blanket of moss. After your travels, Dragonfly asks: What do you like to dream about? With its mixed setting in rural and urban environments and exploration of both the natural and modern world, Dreaming Alongside gives readers permission to daydream and think of what magic their lives have the potential to hold. Praise for Monique Gray Smith: ★“Joyful and tender...celebrates the activities that bring gladness through family and cultural connections.”—School Library Journal, starred review for My Heart Fills With Happinessufeff ★“Smith tackles difficult and complex conversations with straightforwardness and compassion.”—School Library Journal, starred review for Speaking Our Truth “Gentle...Notably centering Indigenous families and characters of color in personal and communal activities—and encouraging readers to evaluate their actions toward others.”—Publisher''s Weekly for When We Are Kind “Smith''s text is heartwarming!”—Debbie Reese, American Indians in Children''s Literature for You Hold Me Up

Key Selling Points Dragonfly invites us on a journey to dream alongside the places and things that give us inspiration, taking comfort in what''s around us and envisioning a joyful future. Monique Gray Smith includes a mix of both traditional points of inspiration, like the ocean and cedar trees, and more modern, unexpected ones, such as construction machines, computers and the dentist''s office, to represent the real places readers know, and show them that dreams can come from anywhere. Nicole Neidhardt''s beautiful illustrations capture the hope and joy of Monique''s sentiments with their bold colours and patterns, and focus on Indigenous children and families (with sightings of Dragonfly throughout). Monique got the idea for this book from a walk her wife and little nephew had, where he became transfixed by a digger at a construction site, and she began thinking about all that can inspire a kid to dream. Monique Gray Smith is a bestselling author of books such as I Hope, When We Are Kind and My Heart Fills with Happiness; she is also a sought-after consultant and speaker, known for her storytelling, generosity and focus on resilience. Includes an author''s note speaking to the importance of daydreaming and paying attention to our dreams.

Encourage children to show love and support for each other and to consider each other’s well-being in their everyday actions. Consultant, international speaker and award-winning author Monique Gray Smith wrote You Hold Me Up to prompt a dialogue among young people, their care providers and educators about reconciliation and the importance of the connections children make with others. With vibrant illustrations from celebrated artist Danielle Daniel, this is a foundational book about building relationships, fostering empathy and encouraging respect between peers, starting with our littlest citizens. This bilingual book includes full text in both English and Spanish.

★ "A quiet loveliness, sense of gratitude, and—yes—happiness emanate from this tender celebration of simple pleasures." — Publishers Weekly, starred review The sun on your face. The smell of warm bannock baking in the oven. Holding the hand of someone you love. What fills your heart with happiness? This beautiful book, with illustrations from celebrated artist Julie Flett, serves as a reminder for little ones and adults alike to reflect on and cherish the moments in life that bring us joy. International speaker and award-winning author Monique Gray Smith wrote My Heart Fills With Happiness to support the wellness of Indigenous children and families, and to encourage young children to reflect on what makes them happy. This bilingual book includes full text in both English and Spanish.

In this warmhearted book, we join Molly at the Intertribal Community Center, where she introduces us to people she knows and loves: her grandmother and her grandmother''s wife, her uncles and their baby, her cousins, and her treasured friends. They dance, sing, garden, learn, pray, and eat together. And tonight, they come together for a feast! Molly shares with the reader how each person makes her feel--and reminds us that love is love.

I could hand you a braid of sweetgrass as thick and shining as the braid that hung down my grandmother’s back. But it is not mine to give, nor yours to take. Wiingaashk belongs to herself. I offer, in her place, a braid of stories meant to heal our relationship with the world. As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer is trained to use the tools of science to ask questions of nature. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces plants and animals as our oldest teachers. Drawing from her experiences as an Indigenous scientist, Kimmerer demonstrated how when we listen to the languages of other beings—from strawberries and witch hazel to water lilies and lichen—we are capable of understanding the generosity of the earth and learn to give our own gifts in return in her best-selling book Braiding Sweetgrass. Adapted for young adults by Monique Gray Smith, this new edition reinforces how wider ecological understanding stems from listening to the earth’s oldest teachers: the plants around us. With informative sidebars, reflection questions, and art from illustrator Nicole Neidhardt, Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults highlights how acknowledging and celebrating our reciprocal relationship with the earth results in a wider, more complete understanding of our place and purpose.

Key Selling Points Simple, straightforward text outlines essential hopes that adults have for the young ones they love and asks young readers what hopes they have for themselves. Monique Gray Smith is an award-winning, bestselling author and advocate for the mental health and well-being of all children. Carefully constructed text addresses aspirations from a safe place to sleep to a life full of love. The author’s When We Are Kind was a Quill & Quire Best Book of the Year, and My Heart Fills With Happiness won the Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize. The illustrator has been nominated for the Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize and the Governor General’s Literary Award. Also available in French and Cree–English editions.

Key Selling Points Simple, straightforward text outlines essential hopes that adults have for the young ones they love and asks young readers what hopes they have for themselves. Monique Gray Smith in an award-winning, bestselling author and advocate for the mental health and well-being of all children. Carefully constructed text addresses aspirations from a safe place to sleep to a life full of love. The author’s When We Are Kind was a Quill & Quire Best Book of the Year, and My Heart Fills With Happiness won the Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize. The illustrator has been nominated for the Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize and the Governor General’s Literary Award. Also available in French and English editions.

Key Selling Points My Heart Fills With Happiness won the Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize in 2017. Author Monique Gray Smith has also written the bestselling picture book You Hold Me Up and the middle-grade nonfiction book Speaking Our Truth: A Journey of Reconciliation . Illustrator Julie Flett received a BolognaRagazzi Special Mention (2019) for her book with Richard Van Camp, We Sang You Home . This book features a beautiful array of Indigenous children and multigenerational families. The dual-language English/Plains Cree edition of this bookwas selected for the 2019 TD Grade One Book Giveaway. Monique Gray Smith dedicated this book to the former Indian Residential School students and their families. My Heart Fills With Happiness has been translated into French, Spanish, Plains Cree and now Anishinaabemowin.

Key Selling Points Simple, pointed text gives examples of how children can be kind to those around them, the different emotions that receiving kindness can make us feel, and how we maintain a connection with one another through acts of kindness within our community. The author is well-known for her board and picture books. Her title My Heart Fills With Happiness was selected for the 2019 TD Grade One Book Giveaway. Like the author''s bestselling titleYou Hold Me Up, the text relays an important message through carefully chosen language. The illustrator is Diné (Navajo) from New Mexico. She was inspired by her community to illustrate an Indigenous family.

When Tilly receives an invitation to help drive eight elders on their ultimate bucket-list road trip, she impulsively says yes. Before she knows it, Tilly has said good-bye to her family and is on an adventure that will transform her in ways she could not predict, just as it will for the elders who soon dub themselves “the Crazy Eights.” The Crazy Eights each choose a stop—somewhere or something they’ve always wanted to experience—on the way to their ultimate goal, the Gathering of Nations Pow Wow in Albuquerque. Their plan is to travel to Las Vegas, Sedona, and the Redwood Forests, with each destination the inspiration for secrets and stories to be revealed. The trip proves to be powerful medicine as they laugh, heal, argue, and dream along the way. By the time their bus rolls to a stop in New Mexico, Tilly and the Crazy Eights, with friendships forged and hearts mended, feel ready for anything. But are they?

★ "A quiet loveliness, sense of gratitude, and—yes—happiness emanate from this tender celebration of simple pleasures." — Publishers Weekly, starred review The sun on your face. The smell of warm bannock baking in the oven. Holding the hand of someone you love. What fills your heart with happiness? This beautiful board book, with illustrations from celebrated artist Julie Flett, serves as a reminder for little ones and adults alike to reflect on and cherish the moments in life that bring us joy. Orca Book Publishers is pleased to offer this bilingual book (full text in both English and Plains Cree) in two accessible editions. The audiobook features alternate text descriptions of images, including the cover. The epub edition of this title is fully accessible.

Key Selling Points: Simple but powerful text shows us the different ways we can respect and be kind to one another in this moving picture book. The author is well-known for her board and picture books. Her title My Heart Fills with Happiness was selected for the 2019 TD Grade One Book Giveaway. Danielle Daniel''s book Sometimes I Feel Like a Fox was the winner of the 2016 Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award (CCBC), a finalist for the First Nation Communities Read Award and the 2017 Blue Spruce Award, and was named one of NY Public Library''s Most Notable Titles in 2015. You Hold Me Up has been translated into French, Plains Cree and Anishinaabemowin.

This vibrant picture book, beautifully illustrated by celebrated artist Danielle Daniel, encourages children to show love and support for each other and to consider each other’s well-being in their everyday actions. Consultant, international speaker and award-winning author Monique Gray Smith wrote You Hold Me Up to prompt a dialogue among young people, their care providers and educators about reconciliation and the importance of the connections children make with their friends, classmates and families. This is a foundational book about building relationships, fostering empathy and encouraging respect between peers, starting with our littlest citizens.

★"Smith''s book is an effort that returns, offering diverse voices that invite the world into the reconciliation experience. Absolutely necessary.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review Canada''s relationship with its Indigenous people has suffered as a result of both the residential school system and the lack of understanding of the historical and current impact of those schools. Healing and repairing that relationship requires education, awareness and increased understanding of the legacy and the impacts still being felt by Survivors and their families. Guided by acclaimed Indigenous author Monique Gray Smith, readers will learn about the lives of Survivors and listen to allies who are putting the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission into action. Praise for Speaking Our Truth: ★"Smith thoroughly and compassionately examines the history and traumatic aftereffects of Canada''s residential schools...Smith informs without overwhelming or sugarcoating, and she emphasizes the power readers themselves possess.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review ★"Despite the somber topic, Smith consistently empowers readers to be agents of change and provides specific suggestions to take action."—School Library Journal, starred review ★"Offers a perfect framework for readers actively exploring Indigenous history and current issues. Welcoming, honest, and down to earth, Speaking Our Truth is the tool many Canadians have been waiting for."—Quill & Quire, starred review The epub edition of this title is fully accessible.

Kelly creates a cabin out of a huge cardboard box but has no one to share it with.