Tim Tingle

Dramatic, quiet, and warming, this is a story of friendship across cultures in 1800s Mississippi. While searching for blackberries, Martha Tom, a young Choctaw, breaks her village's rules against crossing the Bok Chitto. She meets and becomes friends with the slaves on the plantation on the other side of the river and later helps a family escape across it to freedom when they hear that the mother is to be sold. Tingle is a performing storyteller, and his text has the rhythm and grace of that oral tradition. — School Library Journal

Product Description: Danny Blackgoat is a teenager in Diné (Navajo) country when soldiers burn down his home, kill his sheep and capture his family. During the Long Walk of 1864, Danny is labeled a troublemaker and given the name Fire Eye. Refusing to accept captivity, he is sent to Fort Davis, Texas, a Civil War prisoner outpost. There he battles bullying fellow prisoners, rattlesnakes, and abusive soldiers until he meets Jim Davis. Jim teaches Danny how to hold his anger and starts him on the road to literacy. In a stunning climax, Jim aids Danny in a daring and dangerous escape.

"The hour has come to speak of troubled times. It is time we spoke of Skullyville." Thus begins Rose Goode's story of her growing up in Indian Territory in pre-statehood Oklahoma. It's a world where backwoods spiritualism and Bible-thumping Christianity mix with bad guys; a one-legged woman shop-keeper, her oaf of a husband, herbal potions, and shape-shifting panthers rendering justice. Tim Tingle — a scholar of his nation's language, culture, and spirituality — tells Rose's story of good and evil with understanding and even laugh-out-loud Choctaw humor.

Told in the words of Isaac, a Choctaw boy who does not survive the Trail of Tears, renowned author Tim Tingle tells tale of innocence and resilience in the face of tragedy. From the book's opening line, "Maybe you have never read a book written by a ghost before," the reader is put on notice that this is no normal book. Isaac leads a remarkable foursome of Choctaw comrades: a tough-minded teenage girl, a shape-shifting panther boy, a lovable five-year-old ghost who only wants her mom and dad to be happy, and Isaac's talking dog, Jumper.

Product Description: Inspired by the traditional Choctaw story "No Name," this modern adaptation features a present-day Choctaw teenager surviving tough family times — his mother left home and he is living with a mean-spirited, abusive father. The one place the teen can find peace is on the neighborhood basketball court. But after a violent confrontation with his father, the teen runs away, only to return home to find an unexpected hiding spot in his own backyard.

Bobby Byington has always had to navigate his father’s alcoholism and anger, but things are looking up. His father has stopped drinking, his mother is back home, and his basketball team is winning games. But two new problems surface when his "smart" girlfriend is bullied by a resentful schoolmate and a fellow team member is bullied by an abusive father. Book 2 of the Pathfinders series.

After overcoming years of trouble with his alcoholic father and surviving a near-death car accident, Bobby Byington ― for the first time in his life ― has a strong family. His parents are reunited, his father has turned away from the bottle, and Bobby is a starter on the high school basketball team. But the door to trouble never stays closed. Bobby's girlfriend, Faye, is suffering attacks from a school bully, and some of Bobby's basketball teammates are dealing with all-too-familiar problems at home.

Looking back to his childhood, Choctaw storyteller Tingle introduces his capable, comforting Mawmaw (grandmother); recalls his shock as a six-year-old at realizing that she was blind (possibly, he learns, as a result of a racially motivated assault in her own youth); and recounts a hospital vigil years afterward when she received an eye transplant…A lengthy afterword provides more details about Tingle's family and Choctaw culture, and offers much to think about regarding American Indian stereotypes. — Booklist

"At once eerie and compelling, sometimes gruesome and always satisfying, this highly readable collection effectively conveys the connection between the natural world and the world of the spirit common in Native American lore. Drawing on stories from the Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks, and Seminoles, an expert storyteller entrances readers with vivid language that conjures up all manner of supernatural creatures, from shape-shifters and tricksters to talking animals and witches." — School Library Journal

In this collection, Tingle reaches far back into tribal memory to offer this deeply personal collection of stories woven from the supernatural, mythical, historical and oral accounts of Choctaw people living today. The stories span a number of historic periods, from the Trail of Tears all the way through the Vietnam War.

Whether it is basketball dreams, family fiascos, first crushes, or new neighborhoods, this bold anthology—written by the best children’s authors and published in partnership with We Need Diverse Books (WNDB) — celebrates the uniqueness and universality in all of us. For more great stories, see the WNDB anthology Fresh Ink.