The finalists for the 2025 Minnesota Book Awards were chosen on January 27th, by a group of 27 judges from around the state.
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"Can you beat Mr. Fox at his Game of No? The rules are simple: every time he asks a question, you must respond with 'NO.' If you accidentally say 'YES,' then it's back to the beginning of the book for you, where you must start all over again . . . Kids will giggle uncontrollably as they gamely aim to avoid Mr. Fox's clever traps--but just ask them if they'd like to read this book again, and they won't be able to resist: 'YES!'"--Provided by publisher.
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Book
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E LaR
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"In this moving true story, Kao Kalia Yang shares her experiences as a Hmong refugee child navigating life at home and school in America while carrying the weight of her selective mutism."--
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Book
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JB Yan
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Struggling to adapt to a new, colder environment, Guyanese immigrant Lakshmi finds comfort in a familiar face and learns to brave the snow.
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Book
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E Ken
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"Maria and her beloved lolo -- her grandfather -- spend their days drawing together, eating ice cream from Mang Basilio's ice cream cart and watching the maya birds outside their home in the Philippines. Until one day, Lolo stops feeling well and his drawing desk is left empty. Over time, he starts to forget names, words and even forget people entirely. Maria worries -- will her lolo forget about her? How can she reconnect with Lolo when he's unable to find his words? This sweet and poignant story, beautifully illustrated by Jamie Bauza, is a wonderful conversation starter about the ties that bind us and how to navigate through family change."--
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Book
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E Oxt
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Dreaming our futures : Ojibwe and Očhéthi Šakówiŋ artists and knowledge keepers
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"'Dreaming Our Futures' features twenty-nine Native painters, primarily Dakota and Ojibwe, who live in the Upper Midwest region or have family or tribal connections there. The artists represent a range of generations, professional experience, and genres, and their work embraces traditional, historical, contemporary, and conceptual themes. ... this volume includes bilingual artist statements, biographies, essays (on the representation of Indigenous people in historical context, and storytelling and the creative process), and new scholarhship on several specific artists."--Page 4 of cover.
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Book
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704.0397 Dre
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"This comprehensive guidebook covers every factor that can influence the mental health of college students, providing clear guidance for maintaining a healthy and successful lifestyle as students navigate their new life away from home"--
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Book
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616.89 Nos
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When we become ours : a YA adoptee anthology
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There is no universal adoption experience, and no two adoptees have the same story. This anthology for contains a wide range of powerful, poignant, and evocative stories in a variety of genres. These tales from fifteen adoptee authors genuinely and authentically reflect the complexity, breadth, and depth of adoptee experiences.
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Book
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YA FIC Whe
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The new science of social change : a modern handbook for activists
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"In this accessible guide for activists, scholar Lisa Mueller translates cutting-edge empirical research on effective protest to show how to make movements really matter"--
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Book
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Red stained : the life of Hilda Simms
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Black actress and activist Hilda Simms was a rising star on the stage and screen in post-WWII America until accusations of un-Americanism and communist sympathies derailed her career. Hilda Simms emerged as an actress at a time when segregation was deeply entrenched in Hollywood and on Broadway. Black performers were mostly relegated to bit parts, stereotyped characters, or comic-relief roles--if they were hired at all. After joining Harlem's American Negro Theatre in 1943, Simms became immersed in a vibrant community of African American performers, writers, and other artists. Over the next two decades, she helped to chart a path for Black actors who wanted to be considered serious dramatists and tell stories that spoke to the true experience of African Americans.
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Book
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B Sim
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We are the evidence : a handbook for finding your way after sexual assault
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"We Are the Evidence is the first comprehensive resource for survivors of sexual assault. Written with conviction and compassion by Cheyenne Wilson, a registered nurse and survivor of sexual assault, this handbook contains everything victims and advocates need to know to navigate the tumultuous times that follow an assault. Within, there's advice for: The appropriate steps to take immediately after an assault; Disclosing your assault how and when you choose; How to pursue justice and navigate the legal system; Beginning the healing process and reclaiming your power. Throughout, you'll find exercises, opportunities to rest, and invaluable guidance from experts like attorneys, detectives and therapists. Voices from other sexual assault survivors also lend their support. Meant to be easily accessible, everything is organized for you to go right to the topic you most need guidance for, no matter where you are on your healing journey. You deserve to be heard, believed, and supported."--From Amazon.com.
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Book
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362.883 Wil
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"Paulie Johannson has never put much stock in the idea of family. She has her long-term boyfriend, Declan, and beloved best friend, Jemma, and that's more than enough for her. Yet one night on a lark, she lets Jemma convince her to audition for Sverige och Mig, a show on Swedish television where Swedish Americans compete to win the ultimate prize: a reunion with their Swedish relatives. Much to Paulie's shock, her drunken submission video wins her a spot on the show, and against Declan's advice, she decides to go for it. Armed with her Polaroid camera, a beat-up copy of Pippi Longstocking, and an unquenchable sense of possibility, Paulie hops on a plane to Sweden and launches into the contest with seven other Americans, all under the watchful eye of a camera crew. At first, Paulie is certain that she and her competitors have nothing in common besides their passports, and views their bloodthirsty ambitions with suspicion. Yet amid the increasingly absurd challenges--rowing from Denmark to Sweden in the freezing rain, battling through obstacle courses, competing in a pickled-herring-eating contest--Paulie finds herself rethinking her snap judgments about her fellow countrymen, while her growing attachment to her Swedish roots increases her resolve to win the competition herself. Grapping with long-held notions of family, friendship, and love--not to mention her feelings for the distractingly handsome Swedish cameraman who's been assigned to follow her around--Paulie starts to reconsider her past and rethink what she wants for the future" --
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Book
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FIC Fra
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"Ten years ago, Sylvia Gray's young daughter, Faye, attacked a classmate in order to impress the Kingman, a monster she and her best friend had encountered on the Internet. When twenty-one-year-old Faye goes missing, leaving her toddler behind, Sylvia launches a search that propels her back into the past and back into the Kingman's orbit. With the help of her estranged husband, her distant sister, and a charismatic professor, Sylvia draws dangerously closer not only to Faye, but also to the truth about the monster that once inspired her. Will Sylvia be able to reach her daughter before history repeats itself? Or will it be Sylvia, this time, who loses her grip on reality and succumbs to the dark powers of this monstrous figure?" --
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Book
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FIC Sta
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Quill has lived on the Red Pine reservation in Minnesota her whole life. She knows what happens to women who look like her. So when learns women are being stolen, she is determined to do something about it. In her quest to find justice for all the women of the reservation, Quill is confronted with the hard truths of their home and the people who purport to serve them.
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Large Print
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LP FIC Ren
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The witches of Santo Stefano : a novel
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"When Cassie Graves discovers her husband's affair, it's enough to chip away at the foundation of her life. But after researching her family's Italian ancestry, it completely crumbles beneath her. Her grandmother Gia's often-told stories about the past are a lie. Her much-romanticized great-grandfather Giovanni may not even have existed. Most alarming of all, it appears her mysterious great-grandmother Violetta died by stregoneria--witchcraft. Now, piecing together the puzzle of her family tree in the small, centuries-old hill town of Santo Stefano, Cassie finds help from a welcoming group of locals: the accommodating Renzo; Dante, whose own family history connects with Cassie's; and the ethereal Luna, an interpreter of dreams who gives Cassie a protective amulet--and the warning that she may have walked into a trap. When Cassie comes upon an old spell book, she gets closer to unearthing long-buried family secrets, the truth about a powerful female lineage, and the haunting discovery of who she really is" --
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Book
Call Number:
FIC Web
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Perennial ceremony : lessons and gifts from a Dakota garden
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"Travel through a garden's seasons toward healing, reclamation, and wholeness--for us, and for our beloved relative, the Earth. In this rich collection of prose, poetry, and recipes, Teresa Peterson shares how she found refuge from the struggle to reconcile her Christianity and Dakota spirituality, discovering solace and ceremony in communing with the earth. Perennial Ceremony brings us into this relationship, as Peterson guides us through the Dakota seasons to impart lessons from her life as a gardener, gatherer, and lover of the land"--
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Book
Call Number:
818.6 Pet
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Sticky notes : memorable lessons from ordinary moments
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"When middle school teacher Matt Eicheldinger had a student who wouldn't speak at all, he decided to leave her a sticky note on her desk everyday, each one with a funny cartoon or encouraging messages. Years later, she returned to share she had saved every sticky note he had left to encourage her, leaving Eicheldinger to wonder what other extraordinary moments he missed from seemingly ordinary interactions. Luckily, he had a way to revisit them all. For the past fifteen years, Eicheldinger has written down moments like this from his classroom, capturing literally hundreds of daily interactions between himself, students, and families. Sticky Notes offers readers a chance to experience one hundred of these stories that capture friendship, grief, joy, and so much more. Although each story can stand on its own, Eicheldinger offers a new perspective that will help you understand what he has grown to learn over the years: there is always a greater message within the story, we just need to be ready to see it." --
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Book
Call Number:
379.157 Eic
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When skies are gray : a grieving mother's lullaby
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"After the stillbirth of her daughter, Lindsey grapples with the unbearable agony of losing a child. Over the next year and half, as she mourns the loss of one child while simultaneously trying to hold space for the joy of expecting another baby, she learns that grief can live side by side with joy."--
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Book
Call Number:
155.6463 Hen
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Where rivers part : a story of my mother's life
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"In the 1960s when Kalia's mother, Chue, was born, the US was actively recruiting Hmong Laotians to assist with CIA efforts in Laos's Secret War. By the time Chue was a teenager, the US had completely vacated Laos, and the country erupted into genocidal attacks on the Hmong people, who were perceived as traitorous for their involvement. Notably, from 1964-1973, Laos became victim to the heaviest bombardment by the United States against communist Pathet Lao, becoming the most heavily bombed country in history. Fearing vengeful soldiers looking to take their lives, Chue and her family quickly fled their village for the jungle, leaving all that they knew behind. Perpetually on the run, the family was often on the brink of starvation, and death loomed. During this tumultuous period, Chue met her husband, Bee, and unwittingly left her mother behind forever when she escaped to a refugee camp with his family, a mistake she would regret for the rest of her life. There, Chue, Bee, and their daughters lived in a state of constant fear and hunger until they finally made it to America. The determined couple enrolled in high school classes despite being in their late twenties and worked grueling factory jobs to provide for their family, yet most who meet Chue know nothing of her extraordinary resilience and traumatic past. In Where Rivers Part, told from her mother's point of view, Kao Kalia Yang unveils her mother's epic struggle towards safety and the important undocumented history of a time and place most US readers know nothing about, offering insight into America's Secret War in Laos with tenderness and unvarnished clarity. In doing so, she excavates the plight of many refugees, who suffer silently and are often overlooked as one of the essential foundations of this country. For readers of The Wild Swans by Jung Chang, The Spirit Catches You When You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman, and those who flock to stories about survival during wartime, Where Rivers Part is not only a personal account of resilience and survival but also a powerful and transporting look into Laos's Secret War and the lived experiences of the Hmong people"--
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Book
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959.70433 Yan
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Follows Hmong American Malcom as he embarks on a journey to become a shaman like his grandparents before him.
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Book
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J FIC Yan
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"The house seemed to sit apart from the others on Katydid Street, silent and alone, like it didn't fit among them. For Violet Hart-whose family is about to move into the house on Katydid Street-very little felt like it fit anymore. Like their old home, suddenly too small since her mother remarried and the new baby arrived. Or Violet's group of friends, which, since they started middle school, isn't enough for Violet's best friend, Paige. Everything seemed to be changing at once. But sometimes, Violet tells herself, change is okay. That is, until Violet sees her new room. The attic bedroom in their new house is shadowy, creaky, and wrapped in old yellow wallpaper covered with a faded tangle of twisting vines and sickly flowers. And then, after moving in, Violet falls ill-and does not get better. As days turn into weeks without any improvement, her family growing more confused and her friends wondering if she's really sick at all, she finds herself spending more time alone in the room with the yellow wallpaper, the shadows moving in the corners, wrapping themselves around her at night. And soon, Violet starts to suspect that she might not be alone in the room at all"--
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Book
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J FIC Urs
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Sam(ira)'s worst (best) summer
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Samira knows this is going to be the worst summer ever. Her best friend, Kiera, ditched her for the cool girls. Her parents and older sister are taking a trip to India, so Sammy is staring down endless weeks spent with Imran, her little brother, and her Umma. To top it all off--literally!--her house gets TP'd. The TP'ing upsets Imran, who is convinced that they're being targeted because they're the only brown family on the block. When Sammy attempts to solve the problem, she creates a bigger mess instead.
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Book
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J FIC Ham
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When ten-year-old Ayla struggles with the loss of her best friend Kiri, her friends and family help her gradually accept the truth of what happened.
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Book
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J FIC McG
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Dodge County, Incorporated : Big Ag and the Undoing of Rural America
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In this compelling firsthand account, Sonja Trom Eayrs tells the story of one Dodge County family farm in rural Minnesota to expose the abuses wrought by corporate factory farms in terms of pollution, cancer clusters, waste, the destruction of local communities and economies, and the erosion of democracy.
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Book
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It took courage : Eliza Winston's quest for freedom
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"On August 22, 1860, an enslaved woman from Mississippi named Eliza Winston petitioned for her freedom before a judge in Minnesota--and won. For more than 150 years, historians' accounts have focused on the implications of the events for Minnesota politics rather than on Winston's own story. With It Took Courage, Christopher P. Lehman sets the record straight. Lehman uncovers the never-told story of Winston's first forty-two years and her long struggle to obtain her freedom. She was sold away from her birth family; her husband, a free man, died before he could purchase her freedom. She was enslaved in Tennessee, Louisiana, Kentucky, and Mississippi. A sitting US president--Andrew Jackson--bought her, and that purchase kept her enslaved by his relatives for over a quarter of a century. In It Took Courage the remarkable story of Eliza Winston's battle for freedom is given full expression. Lehman's skillful description shows Winston as a capable, mature woman who understood her life and her values. Eliza Winston made the bold decision to leave behind everything she had known for an uncertain but free future. An appreciation of her story is essential for understanding the legacy of slavery in America"--Back cover
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Book
Call Number:
342.73087 Leh
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The Minneapolis Reckoning: Race, Violence, and the Politics of Policing in America
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"Since the beginning of the Black Lives Matter Movement in 2014, police brutality, police violence, and police reform have emerged as central public policy concerns, and throughout that time, Minneapolis has been at the center of these conversations, both as a leader in progressive police reform and as a demonstration of the failure of those reforms. From solidarity protests with Ferguson in 2014, to an occupation of a police precinct following the killing of Jamar Clark in 2015, protests following the death of Justine Damond (Ruszczyk) in 2017, and the uprising following George Floyd's murder in 2020, activists in Minneapolis have long demanded that the city take measures to make Black Lives Matter. In 2020, these demands shifted from police reform and accountability toward police defunding and abolition, culminating in a deeply contested ballot initiative to replace the Minneapolis Police Department with a new Department of Public Safety-- a debate that has come to symbolize the rift in opinion about the role of policing that continues to divide the nation..."--
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Book
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To banish forever : a secret society, the Ho-Chunk, and ethnic cleansing in Minnesota
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"In 1863, after the end of the US-Dakota War, a group of white men in Mankato, Minnesota, formed a secret society, pledging to expel the Ho-Chunk people from the nearby Blue Earth reservation with the goal of claiming for themselves some of the richest farmland in the world." -- Page 4 of cover.
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Book
Call Number:
977.604 Coa
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The French winemaker's daughter : a novel
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"In 1942, seven-year-old Martine hears her father being dragged off by the Germans as she hides in her armoire. Pinned to her dress is a piece of paper with her aunt's Paris address written on it, and in her arms is a bottle of wine she has been instructed to take with her if something should happen to her Papa. When she finally emerges, she drops the bottle of wine and runs to a neighbor, who puts her on a train to Paris. The piece of paper is still pinned to her dress, but her aunt is not there when she arrives. She wanders the cold streets until she falls asleep on the doorstep of Hotel Drouot where she is found by a nun and put in the care of Sister Ada. In 1990, Charlotte, a pilot for a commercial airline, attends an auction with her boyfriend Henri at Hotel Drouot, now the oldest auction house in Paris. It is there that Henri bids on a box of wine saved from the German occupation during WWII. He gives Charlotte one of the bottles that is considered unworthy of collection. Later, when cleaning it, Charlotte makes a shocking discovery that sends her looking for the source of this unusual and very valuable bottle of wine" --
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Book
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FIC Ell
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In Argus, North Dakota, a collection of people revolve around a fraught wedding. Gary Geist, a terrified young man set to inherit two farms, is desperate to marry Kismet Poe, an impulsive, lapsed Goth who can't read her future but seems to resolve his. Hugo, a gentle red-haired, home-schooled giant, is also in love with Kismet. He’s determined to steal her and is eager to be a home wrecker. Kismet's mother, Crystal, hauls sugar beets for Gary's family, and on her nightly runs, tunes into the darkness of late-night radio, sees visions of guardian angels, and worries for the future, her daughter’s and her own. Human time, deep time, Red River time, the half-life of herbicides and pesticides, and the elegance of time represented in fracking core samples from unimaginable depths, is set against the speed of climate change, the depletion of natural resources, and the sudden economic meltdown of 2008-2009.
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Book
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FIC Erd
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In formally adventurous stories rooted in Zambian literary tradition, Obligations to the Wounded explores the expectations and burdens of womanhood in Zambia and for Zambian women living abroad. The collection converses with global social problems through the depiction of games, social media feuds, letters, and folklore to illustrate how girls and women manage religious expectation, migration, loss of language, death, intimate partner violence, and racial discrimination. Although the women and girls inhabiting these pages are separated geographically and by life stage, their shared burdens, culture, and homeland inextricably link them together in struggle and triumph.
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Book
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FIC Kal
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This collection is a powerful reckoning with violence, shame, and easy pessimism in which Smith relies on artistic resilience to envision futures that seem possible.
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Book
Call Number:
811.6 Smi
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Ever since her dad died three years ago, Julie has been surviving more than thriving. And surviving is sneaking into her parents’ closet when her mom is out, since it’s the only place that still sometimes smells like her dad. It’s roaming around the Mall of America. It’s pulling out the box of her dad’s VHS tapes, recordings of his favorite vintage professional wrestling matches. And it’s hearing the voice of the Masked Man in her head, running a commentary of her life. It’s embarrassing, really. Sure, he was her dad’s favorite wrestler, but that doesn’t mean she wants him in her head. As Julie finally starts to come out of the haze of grief, maybe she’ll finally figure out why that voice is there, and how to let it go.
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Book
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YA FIC Bli
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Evvie Chambers is doing her best to skate through the last month of high school to graduation. The only thing standing in her way is a biology report on foxes--and her teacher, Mrs. Audrey Dearborn. The same Mrs. Dearborn who’s been a thorn in Evvie’s side for years, refusing to acknowledge or accommodate her neurodiversity. Evvie would much rather be doing her report on Aretha, the octopus she cares for when she volunteers at the Minnesota Zoo but deviating from the exact assignment isn’t allowed--and Mrs. Dearborn isn’t going to make following the rules easy. Evvie’s only escape from high school hell is the Lair: a safe haven for kids whose brains need some time away. But when Mrs. Dearborn refuses Evvie’s pleas to finesse the final report assignment to her strengths, and persistent bully Vandal McDaniel directs his harassment toward Lair members, Evvie finds herself more desperate than ever for stability and support. When a shocking act of violence pushes the whole mess over the edge, Evvie, with the help of her friends and the others who love her, will have to figure out how to find her place in the wide world, while remaining true to herself. 8/5
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Book
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YA FIC Cro
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"Jordan Elliott is a fat, nerdy lesbian, and the first junior to be named editor in chief of the school newspaper. Okay, that last part hasn't happened yet, but it will. It's positive thinking that has gotten Jordan this far. Ever since Mackenzie West, her friend-turned-enemy, humiliated her at the start of freshman year, Jordan has thrown herself into journalism and kept her eyes trained on the future. So it's a total blow when Jordan discovers that she not only didn't get the editor in chief spot, but she's been assigned the volleyball beat instead. And who is the star and newly crowned captain of the volleyball team? Mackenzie West. But words are Jordan's weapon, and she has some ideas about how to exact a long-awaited revenge on her nemesis. Then things get murky when forced time together has Mack and Jordan falling back into their friendship, and into something more. And when Mack confesses the real reason she turned on Jordan freshman year, it has Jordan questioning everything--past, present, and future. If Jordan lets her guard down and Mack in, will she get everything she wants, or will she be humiliated all over again?" --
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Book
Call Number:
YA FIC Mil
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"Ezra Cloud hates living in Northeast Minneapolis. His father is a professor of their language, Ojibwe, at a local college, so they have to be there. But Ezra hates the dirty, polluted snow around them. He hates being away from the rez at Nigigoonsiminikaaning First Nation. And he hates the local bully in his neighborhood, Matt Schroeder, who terrorizes Ezra and his friend Nora George. Ezra gets into a terrible fight with Matt at school defending Nora, and that same night, Matt's house burns down. Instantly, Ezra becomes a prime suspect. Knowing he won't get a fair deal, and knowing his innocence, Ezra's family sends him away to run traplines with his grandfather in a remote part of Canada, while the investigation is ongoing. But the Schroeders are looking for him" --Amazon.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
YA FIC Tre