We Still Belong
We Still Belong by Christine Day is such a beautiful, bite-sized story about a young girl whose big dreams for Indigenous People’s Day—people reading her poem about the holiday in the student newspaper and asking her crush, Ryan, out to the middle school dance—don’t go according to plan.
Seventh-grader Wesley Wilder is beyond nervous about her big day at school. As a descendant of the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe, she feels proud of her Native heritage. Even if she sometimes struggles with feeling not “Native enough” because of the tribal laws that prevent her from being eligible for citizenship. So when her poem on Indigenous People’s Day is published in the school newspaper, Wesley feels like this is her moment.
Only, nothing seems to be going the way she expected…. No one at school seems to remember it’s Indigenous People’s Day or read her poem in the newspaper. To top it off, her crush is going with someone else to the dance!
However, at the inter-tribal powwow that evening, Wesley encounters some familiar faces that give her the push to use her voice. Set over the course of a single day, We Still Belong, at its heart, highlights the value of connection—to family, to friends, and to the community.
Christine Day writes in such a genuine and thoughtful way to where the heart of the main character just leaps off the page. Reading it feels like a warm hug and a promise of belonging, despite everything the world may say or throw at you. Like the title of Wesley’s poem, We Still Belong is an important reminder and a celebration of all the ways Native people and communities exist today.
It is available as a physical copy through Alamance County Public Libraries as well as an audiobook via NC Kids Level Up (Libby). It can also be found as an ebook through Hoopla.
Sara D. is a Library Assistant at Graham Public Library.