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Description
Featuring the voices of both new and acclaimed Indigenous writers and edited by bestselling Muscogee author Cynthia Leitich Smith, this collection of interconnected stories serves up laughter, love, Native pride, and the world's best frybread.
The road to Sandy June's Legendary Frybread Drive-In slips through every rez and alongside every urban Native hangout. The menu offers a rotating feast, including traditional eats and tasty snacks. But Sandy June's serves up more than food: it hosts live music, movie nights, unexpected family reunions, love long lost, and love found again.
That big green-and-gold neon sign beckons to teens of every tribal Nation, often when they need it most.
Featuring stories and poems by: Kaua Mahoe Adams, Marcella Bell, Angeline Boulley, K. A. Cobell, A. J. Eversole, Jen Ferguson, Eric Gansworth, Byron Graves, Kate Hart, Christine Hartman Derr, Karina Iceberg, Cheryl Isaacs, Darcie Little Badger, David A. Robertson, Andrea L. Rogers, Cynthia Leitich Smith, and Brian Young.
In partnership with We Need Diverse Books.
Publication date
August 26, 2025
Genre
Fiction
Page Count
352
ISBN-13
9780063314269
Publisher
Heartdrum
BISAC categories
YAF046150 - Young Adult Fiction | People & Places | United States - Native American YAF058110 - Young Adult Fiction | Social Themes | Emotions & Feelings YAF057000 - Young Adult Fiction | Short Stories YAF032000 - Young Adult Fiction | Lifestyles | City & Town Life YAF013000 - Young Adult Fiction | Cooking & Food
School Library Journal
Starred Review
"As readers take in the stories, they will be transported time and time again to Sandy June's, where the protagonists get more than just frybread. Each teen gets exactly what they need--and readers do too. Hand this collection to any reader who is looking for a place made for them; they will find it between these pages."
ALA/Booklist
Starred Review
"Welcome to the best-kept secret on Turtle Island! A mixture of award-winning authors and new voices use this liminal space in surprising and inventive ways, creating a microcosm of the interconnectedness of modern Indigenous life, one in which community and family, past and present, encourage its young visitors to inhabit their truest selves as they look toward the future. It is also simply a terrific collection of entertaining stories--full of laughter, music, delicious food, friendship, and romance--that will appeal to teen readers across age ranges, identities, and interests."
Kirkus
Starred Review
"Superlative."
Publishers Weekly
"This reverent compendium provides the setting for 17 loosely linked stories about Indigenous teens navigating evergreen concerns about love, life, and identity. Smith's uplifting poem "Open Mic at the Drive-In" closes this liminal-feeling collection, which pays tribute to the Native traditions and intergenerational relationships preserved by the "run-down, neon" drive-in."
Cynthia Leitich Smith is the New York Times best-selling, award-winning author of Hearts Unbroken, the Tantalize series, and the Feral trilogy. An NSK Neustadt Laureate and the author-curator of Heartdrum, a Native-focused imprint at HarperCollins Children's Books, she was named the inaugural Katherine Paterson Chair on the faculty of the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults. A citizen of the Muscogee Nation, Cynthia Leitich Smith lives in Austin, Texas.
