About this item
Martha Tom knows better than to cross the Bok Chitto River to pick blackberries. The Bok Chitto is the only border between her town in the Choctaw Nation and the slave-owning plantation in Mississippi territory. The slave owners could catch her, too. What was she thinking But crossing the river brings a surprise friendship with Lil Mo, a boy who is enslaved on the other side. When Lil Mo discovers that his mother is about to be sold and the rest of his family left behind. But Martha Tom has the answer: cross the Bok Chitto and become free.Crossing to freedom with his family seems impossible with slave catchers roaming, but then there is a miraclea magical night where things become unseen and souls walk on water. By morning, Lil Mo discovers he has entered a completely new world of tradition, community, and . . . a little magic. But as Lil Mo's family adjusts to their new life, danger waits just around the corner.In an expansion of his award-winning picture book Crossing Bok Chitto, acclaimed Choctaw storyteller Tim Tingle offers a story that reminds readers that the strongest bridge between cultures is friendship.
About the Author
Tim Tingle is an Oklahoma Choctaw and an award-winning author and storyteller. His great-great grandfather, John Carnes, walked the Trail of Tears in 1835, and his paternal grandmother attended a series of rigorous Indian boarding schools in the early 1900's. Responding to a scarcity of Choctaw lore, Tingle began collecting tribal stories in the early 90's. In 1992, Tingle began mentoring with Choctaw storyteller Charley Jones. He retraced the Trail of Tears to Choctaw homelands in Mississippi and began recording stories of tribal elders. His family experiences and these interviews with fellow Choctaws in Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, and Oklahoma----and surprise encounters with Choctaws as far away as Bethel, Alaska----are the basis of his most important writings. His latest middle grade novel, HOW I BECAME A GHOST, (Roadrunner Press, June 2013) , pulls heavily from these interviews. It is a fictional first-person account of a young boy who "becomes a ghost" on the Trail of Tears, but stays on the walk to help family and friends survive. Filled with humor and elements of traditional lore to soften the tragedy, HIBaG includes a shape-shifting panther/teenager, a five-year old ghost sister, a talking dog, and a headstrong teenage girl who refuses to give up. In the June 28 issue of Kirkus, HOW I BECAME A GHOST received a Starred Review, Tingle's first! Also, in late June of 2013, DANNY BLACKGOAT, NAVAJO PRISONER will be released. A HiLo novel, for teens who read on a more basic level, this tale follows the misadventures of a tough sixteen year-old on the Navajo Long Walk of 1864. Danny fights bullying soldiers, rattlesnakes, and his own fiery temper, till he meets an older prisoner who devises a dangerous escape plan. HOUSE OF PURPLE CEDAR, Tingle's first adult novel, is set for release in January of 2014. Fifteen years in the crafting, this novel describes the struggles of Choctaws in pre-statehood Oklahoma, through the eyes of a young girl who witnesses the burning down of New Hope Academy boarding school. Filled with hope in the most tragic of circumstance, HoPC is Tingle's testiment to Choctaw elders who continue to watch over the well-being of the Choctaw Nation and its people. An adventure novel with strong elements of magic realism, HOUSE OF PURPLE CEDAR is already generating much interest among reviewers. Every Labor Day, Tingle performs a Choctaw story before Chief Gregory Pyle's State of the Nation Address, a gathering that attracts over ninety thousand tribal members and friends. In June of 2011, Tingle spoke at the Library of Congress and presented his first performance at the Kennedy Center, in Washington, D.C. He was also a tribal storyteller at "Choctaw Days," a celebration honoring the Oklahoma Choctaws at the Smithsonian. He has been a featured storyteller at festivals in forty-two states, including five appearances at the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tenn
