North Dakota’s wide-open spaces, small towns, and unique history make it a fascinating setting for stories. If you’re curious about tales that unfold under the vast Dakota sky, here are six books that bring the state to life in very different ways.
This story centers on Joe, a thirteen-year-old boy whose life on an Ojibwe reservation is turned upside down after his mother is attacked. She becomes deeply withdrawn after the assault, and the specifics remain unclear.
Joe, with his friends, decides he must find the attacker himself. The search pulls him into the complex world of tribal versus state jurisdiction, a place where justice seems frustratingly out of reach.
It’s a powerful story about family loyalty and the painful transition from childhood to adulthood.
Here we meet Chickadee, a young Ojibwe boy, and his twin brother Makoons in the 1860s. Disaster strikes when Chickadee is kidnapped from his family by a bitter man.
The story follows two paths: Chickadee’s frightening journey far from home across the plains, and his family’s desperate search for him. Chickadee has to be brave and clever to survive.
He finds strength in the memory of his family and guidance from the bird that shares his name. You really feel the family’s determination to reunite.
Imagine you’re a farmer near the fictional town of Fort Moxie, North Dakota, and you dig up... a sailboat. It’s thousands of years old and made of material nobody can identify. That’s the discovery that kicks off Ancient Shores.
Soon, scientists, government agents, and the local community converge on the prairie town. They try to understand the boat’s impossible origins and what other secrets might lie buried nearby.
It mixes the quiet feel of rural North Dakota with a huge, potentially world-changing mystery.
This novel takes you to a Sioux reservation in North Dakota. It tells the stories of several characters across different time periods. Their lives intertwine through family history, love, spiritual traditions, and sometimes, conflict.
You’ll encounter characters like Charlene Thunder, who feels the pull of ancestral spirits, and Harley Wind Soldier, the grass dancer of the title.
Ghosts and visions are part of their reality, and the book reveals how past events continue to shape the present on the reservation.
Welcome to Owl, North Dakota, a tiny fictional town in 1983. The story focuses on three people. Mitch is a high school backup quarterback who tries to seem tougher than he is. Julia is a new teacher from Minneapolis who finds small-town life more isolating than she expected.
Horace is an older resident who spends his days sipping coffee and remembering Owl’s past. Their ordinary lives run parallel until a massive blizzard hits the town. The storm forces unexpected connections and changes everything.
The book really captures the feeling of a specific time and place.
A young artist named Oliver arrives in a small, dusty North Dakota town near the Badlands. He finds himself drawn to the local saloon, a hub for the town’s eccentric characters.
Oliver begins painting the people he meets there – the bartender, the old-timers, the mysterious woman. As he spends time sketching and listening in the saloon, he gets caught up in their lives and dramas.
The stark, beautiful landscape of the Badlands mirrors the raw and sometimes strange experiences he has.