We are Water Protectors (2021)

Winner of the 2021 Caldecott Medaland #1 New York Times Bestseller

We are the Water Protectors was written by Carole Lindstrom, who is Ojibwe and illustrated by Michaela Goade, who is a member of the Tlingit and Haida tribes. Inspired by the many Indigenous-led movements across North America, this book issues an urgent rallying cry to safeguard the Earth's water from harm and corruption. The narrator is an Ojibwe girl who recalls her grandmother teaching her about the sanctity of water. Legend has it that a black snake will one day destroy their land and poison their water. The girl realizes that the black snake, in the form of an oil pipeline, has already arrived and she resolves to rally her people against it. They take a stand to defend Earth's most sacred resource.