Stone River Crossing

Starred review from April 8, 2019
Tingle, an Oklahoma Choctaw, expands on his 2006 picture book Crossing Bok Chitto in this immersive tale of the friendship between people on opposite sides of the Bok Chitto River in 1808. Based on oral histories of Native Americans helping enslaved people gain their freedom, the novel focuses on Lil Mo, a boy enslaved on a Mississippi plantation, whose accidental meeting with Martha Tom, a Choctaw girl, brings about his family’s escape. After Martha Tom shows Lil Mo and his family the stone bridge that lies just beneath the river’s surface and they flee the plantation’s guards, they begin a new life in Choctaw Town, protected by Choctaw law. Lil Mo eagerly adapts, making friends such as Funi Man, a squirrel hunter with magical powers, and honing his skills at moving and hiding in the woods, but he faces dangers, too, from the plantation owners’ henchmen as well as from an otherworldly witch owl. The story builds slowly but gradually grows gripping as Lil Mo’s Choctaw friends try to destroy the powerful forces that have taken him over. Richly descriptive and leavened with humor, Tingle’s complex novel offers valuable insights into rarely told history. Ages 8–12.

June 14, 2019

Gr 5 Up-The Choctaw Nation lives on a reservation, deeded to them after they were forcefully relocated during the Trail of Tears. Just across the Bok Chitto River is a slave plantation. Everyone knows that crossing the river is dangerous. A young Choctaw girl wanders across the river while picking blackberries. A young enslaved boy helps her find her way back. Soon after, the enslaver threatens to sell the boy's mother. The Choctaw community takes in the family to protect them and, in the process, they experience a two-way cultural exchange. The richness and the humor depicted in the Choctaw community are beautifully developed. The narrative details are based on oral histories from Choctaw people and families who developed an underground railroad, digging bunkers to hide enslaved people throughout Mississippi and Alabama. VERDICT This is a well-researched and compelling work of historical fiction. Highly recommended for any middle grade collection.-Amy Thurow, Northside Elementary School, Sun Prairie, WI

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from April 1, 2019
A friendship between an enslaved black boy and a Choctaw girl leads to freedom. Lil Mo is one of two children in a black family enslaved on a Mississippi plantation in 1808. He meets Martha Tom, a Choctaw girl, when she crosses the Bok Chitto River to pick blackberries. Martha shows Lil Mo the secret river crossing, a shallow underwater pathway made of stones the Choctaw laid long ago. When the plantation owner decides to sell Lil Mo's mother, Martha's family helps Lil Mo's family escape across the river, where they are adopted into the Choctaw nation. Thus Lil Mo inherits an uncle, an elder by the name of Funi Man, whose humor and wisdom lighten the air of vigilance maintained to protect Lil Mo's family. As Lil Mo's family learns the language and way of life of the Choctaw, all seems well until an old witch lays a curse that impels Funi Man onto a dangerous journey to once and for all save Lil Mo's spirit. As he did in his picture book Crossing Bok Chitto (illustrated by Jeanne Rorex Bridges, 2006), Tingle (Choctaw) captures a rarely explored bond that formed during colonization between enslaved Africans and Native Americans, an alliance of survival under white colonial tyranny. He evokes a 19th-century Southern landscape, presenting it through the lens of Americans whose perspectives are too rarely shared. This vital story will deepen readers' understanding of the nation's complex history. (Historical fiction. 10-14)

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Starred review from May 15, 2019
Grades 5-8 *Starred Review* On one side of Mississippi's Bok Chitto River is the plantation where Lil Mo and his family are enslaved. On the other is a settlement whose residents are members of the Choctaw Nation. After a Choctaw girl, Martha Tom, shows Lil Mo an underwater stone bridge, Lil Mo and his family are able to escape when his mother is about to be sold away. The story that follows is a potent mix of history, folkways, and friendship, often wrapped in a gossamer web of magic realism. Tingle, a member of the Choctaw Nation, draws on the group's own stories to spin a tale that begins slowly but builds and twists, until the tension and intensity will have readers at the edge of their chairs. Tingle does a particularly fine job depicting relationships. Lil Mo finds a wise yet funny "uncle" among the Choctaw, who helps him acclimate to a different way of life, while showing him how to see through new eyes. But other relationships are examined beyond the primary ones. Lil Mo has left behind a white friend, whose father, though one of the guards on the settlement, is not unsympathetic to Mo's family's plight. Even the maneuverings of the plantation owner are explored. The book soars, almost literally, when Lil Mo's soul is stolen by an Owl Man, a witch, whose dramatic machinations, along with those of other spirit-filled characters, give this an indelible glow.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2019
Martha Tom crosses the Bok Chitto River, which separates the Choctaw Nation from a white-owned plantation, and she meets enslaved boy Lil Mo. The two become friends, and she helps his family cross the river to freedom. Tingle's narrative, set in 1808 Mississippi and told with heart and humor, brings to life a multitude of fascinating characters while illuminating a little-known moment in history. Glos.

(Copyright 2019 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

July 1, 2019
Martha Tom is forbidden to cross the Bok Chitto River, which separates the Choctaw Nation from a white-owned plantation. But one morning she's lured to the other side by the blackberries growing there and meets ten-year-old Lil Mo, a boy enslaved on the plantation. The two become friends, and later she helps him and his family cross the river to freedom. Tingle's narrative, set in 1808 Mississippi, brings to life a multitude of fascinating characters while illuminating a little-known moment in history, when the Choctaw risked their lives and lands to help free slaves. First told by Tingle in a picture book, Crossing Bok Chitto: A Choctaw Tale of Friendship & Freedom (2006), the story is expanded here. With the help of Martha Tom and other new friends, Lil Mo begins to learn Choctaw customs, teachings, and language. The story turns harrowing when Lil Mo is ensnared by an evil owl witch who makes the boy believe that his new friends are in fact his enemies. Lil Mo's adoptive Choctaw uncle Funi Man and friend Koi Loosa embark on a dangerous journey to vanquish the witch and heal Lil Mo. The book ends with a wedding that unites Choctaw friends, Lil Mo and his family, and even Lil Mo's friend Joseph, the white son of a plantation guard? so different by our skin, yet so alike in so many ways. Throughout the tale?told with heart and much humor?runs the refrain we are all in this together, a fine message for our current divisive times. A glossary/?pronunciation guide is appended. dean schneider

(Copyright 2019 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)