How I Became a Ghost by Tim Tingle

Isaaac is a ten-year old Choctaw boy forced to leave his family’s home in Mississippi to travel the Trail of Tears to Oklahoma. The journey is frozen, dangerous, and fraught with peril. To thin the numbers of the Choctaw tribe, blankets with riddled with small pox are handed out. Isaac knows not to take them because he can see the people that will become ghosts, like himself before the end of the book. Isaac accepts his fate and embraces the ghosts that give him warnings to help keep his family and the rest of the tribe as safe as he can and to help find the kidnapped girl, Naomi, to spare her family more heartbreak. The white settlers, called Nahullo, threatened the family when they took Naomi, but what they threatened came to pass on its own. Now, Isaac and his new friend, Joseph, can do all in their power to save Naomi and return her to her family.

This book is the first in a series of books that focuses on the ghosts. This is big belief to the Choctaw tribe as shown by the use of the “bonepickers”, a group of women that prepare the bones of the dead to be buried so their spirits, or their ghosts, can pass to their afterlife. Author Tim Tingle is able to bring the realities of the Trail of Tears and the religious beliefs of the Choctaw tribe to the forefront while telling a compelling story that many young readers will enjoy. The use of language and the setting make a vibrant, heartbreaking tale, but one that is filled with hope.

Dean Schneider from The Horn Book said, “Maybe you have never read a book written by a ghost before.” So begins this haunting–and haunted–tale of the Trail of Tears, beginning in the Choctaw Nation in Mississippi in 1830. Isaac is alive and well when his story begins, part of a happy family with his mother, father, older brother Luke, and his talking dog Jumper. But soon there is Treaty Talk, followed by the arrival of Nahullo (white) men with shotguns and torches, and the Choctaw must begin their journey west. Tingle, a Choctaw storyteller, relates his tale in the engaging repetitions and rhythms of an oft-told story. The novel comes alive in Isaac’s voice and in the rich alliance of the living and the dead–Choctaw ghost walkers, a shape-shifting panther boy, the elderly bonepickers, a five-year-old ghost girl, a tough teenage girl, and the legions of Choctaw enduring their trek. Spare and authentic, this first book in a projected trilogy ends with much of the trail still ahead and legendary Choctaw leader Chief Pushmataha addressing his people by saying not good-bye but “Chi pisa lachike”: “I will see you again.” And in the next installments readers can expect to see Isaac again in the presence of ghosts, shape-shifters, and Choctaw heroes.” (2014).

Awards:

Spur Awards – Finalist; Oklahoma Book Award – Finalist; American Indian Youth Literature Award – Winner; Sequuoyah Book Awards– Nominee

 

Ingram (2017). [Awards – How I Became a Ghost by Tim Tingle]. Retrieved on October 31, 2018 from https://ipage.ingramcontent.com/ipage/servlet/ibg.common.titledetail.pd1000?queryString=H4sIAAAAAAAAABXKwQqCUBCF4Ve5nLUL3c5ShIooWuhKJK46lXRlxLkhGr174-77D-cL7UEPH5QTqAgozh_jFEHIRd4w6wbK0tQUbD1dDxfsZ_OtyotyjwlU11kC85nXReb-Xg4xsPVRFje4ljs_svPu-RKNaJrfH8gy6VJ7AAAA&R=24767776&dNo=2

 

Ingram (2017). [Digital Image – How I Became a Ghost by Tim Tingle]. Retrieved on October 31, 2018 from https://ipage.ingramcontent.com/ipage/servlet/ibg.common.titledetail.pd1000?queryString=H4sIAAAAAAAAABXKwQqCUBCF4Ve5nLUL3c5ShIooWuhKJK46lXRlxLkhGr174-77D-cL7UEPH5QTqAgozh_jFEHIRd4w6wbK0tQUbD1dDxfsZ_OtyotyjwlU11kC85nXReb-Xg4xsPVRFje4ljs_svPu-RKNaJrfH8gy6VJ7AAAA&R=24767776&dNo=2

Schneider, Dean (2014). [Book Review – How I Became a Ghost by Tim Tingle]. Horn Book. Retrieved on October 31, 2018 from https://ipage.ingramcontent.com/ipage/servlet/ibg.common.titledetail.pd1000?queryString=H4sIAAAAAAAAABXKwQqCUBCF4Ve5nLUL3c5ShIooWuhKJK46lXRlxLkhGr174-77D-cL7UEPH5QTqAgozh_jFEHIRd4w6wbK0tQUbD1dDxfsZ_OtyotyjwlU11kC85nXReb-Xg4xsPVRFje4ljs_svPu-RKNaJrfH8gy6VJ7AAAA&R=24767776&dNo=2

Bearwalker by Joseph Brucach

Barron Braun is the smallest boy in his class at Pioneer Junior High School. He faces bullies because of his size and his heritage – he is a member of the Mohawk tribe. Against his desires, he must join the rest of his eight grade class at Camp Chuckamuck (seriously?), but he hopes that he might be able to see a bear, an animal that he finds fascinating and spiritual.

Things at Camp start the way these things normally do. Bad councilors trying to teach kids about topics they know nothing about. The bullies doing what they can to make Barron miserable. But things take a turn for the worst. An explosion cuts the camp off from the rest of society, the electricity goes out and they discover the backup generator has been sabotaged.  The camp counselors are out to kill everyone in the hopes of helping greedy land developers.

To add a little more horror to the mix, Barron is certain one of the councilors, a man that tries to act like he is Native American but everything about him is fake and psychotic, is a Bearwalker. This is a creature from Mohawk tribal legend where a human becomes as predatory as a rabid bear. “That story I loved so much as a child has become all too real to me now. But I’m not the boy in that old story who could run forever without tiring. I don’t have a bow and arrow. No weapons at all.” (Bruchac).

Barron is sure this fake Native is one of them, and when the horrible truth comes out, things just get worse for the campers and their adult chaperones. It takes all the knowledge Barron has to keep everyone safe.

Hornbook  Guide to Children stated “Horror motifs mingle with traditional Mohawk legends in this fast-paced, spine-tingling tale of a misfit thirteen-year-old and a vengeful maniac. Baron Braun feels friendless and bullied until the opportunity to use his vast knowledge of bears and his (more limited) outdoorsmanship enable him to save his classmates and a wilderness preserve. Bruchac’s development of contemporary Native American identity issues adds heft” (2008).

The book gave a modern view of the Mohawk tribe, especially how the tribe is bound to different animals. Several of the characters that Barron speak to or of are referred to by their “clan”. The modern mix of Barron’s interest with the lingering touch of Mohawk legends make a believable and modern look at the Mohawk Natives.

 

Awards: Georgia Children’s Book Award (Ingram)

Works Cited

Bruchac, Joseph (2007. Bearwalker. New York: Harper Collin’s Publisher.

Goodreads (2008). [Book Quote – Bearwalker by Joseph Bruchac]. Retrieved on October 29, 2018 from https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/698959-bearwalker

Ingram (2008). [Awards – Bearwalker by Josephh Bruchac]. Retrieved on October 29, 2018 from https://ipage.ingramcontent.com/ipage/servlet/ibg.common.titledetail.pd1000?ttl_id=7817220

Ingram. (2008). [Book Review – Bearwalker by Joseph Bruchac]. Hornbook Guide to Children. Retrieved on October 29, 2018 from https://ipage.ingramcontent.com/ipage/servlet/ibg.common.titledetail.pd1000?ttl_id=7817220

Ingram (2008). [Digital Image – Bearwalker by Joseph Bruchac]. Retrieved on October 29, 2018 from https://ipage.ingramcontent.com/ipage/servlet/ibg.common.titledetail.pd1000?ttl_id=7817220

The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich

Omakayas lives on an island in Lake Superior in 1867. The novel, The Birchbark House, follows her through summer, the harshness of winter, and into the following spring. She lives with her family – her grandmother, her mother and father, her older sister, Angelina, her younger brother, Pinch, and her baby brother called Neewo until those that see names choose one for him. The story follows the family as they move from their house in the Objibwe village to their birchbark house on the lake shore so they can fish, farm, and prepare for the winter.

Pinch is Omakayas greatest annoyance. He is loud, unruly, and is always causing trouble, but she loves baby Neewo and would do anything for him she is asked, especially if that meant she does not have to help prepare the hides for the winter. She has a special connection to bears, they speak to her, and Old Tallow and her grandmother feel this is something to watch and they grow more interested as Omakayas shows a skill in healing.

However, Omakayas is helpless when small pox strikes her village. She does not fall ill, nor does her grandmother, and they work together to help their family. The disease, however, ravages her family and the village. Though the winter starts to fade and the village survived the lean rations, Omakays cannot find any hope, joy, or warmth in her life, not even with the crow, Andeg, she saved when he was a hatchling.

Old Tallow pulls her aside and reveals to Omakays why the small pox did not touch her like it did so many others. As a baby, Omakayas was the only survivor of small pox on a different island. Her family took her in and Old Tallow believes:

“You were sent here so you could save the others,” she said. “Because you’d had the sickness, you were strong enough to nurse them through it. They did a good thing when they took you in, and you saved them for their good act. Now the circle that began when I found you is complete” (Erdrich).

Though this does not bring back those that were lost, Omakaya begins to step into life again. Omakayas finding her life again fits the the review from Kirkus who felt the books is “a novel that is by turns charming, suspenseful, and funny, and always bursting with life” (2010).

Luise Erdrich is a member of an Ojibwe tribe. Her story is a realistic picture of how tribes lived their lives, how the cycles of the seasons were important to their daily lives, and how the small pox carried by the new citizens tore through their tribes. The Birchbark House is the first in a  series of books that follow Omakayas and is one worth reading.

Awards: WILLA Literary Award and Young Readers Choice Award (Ingram, 2018).

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

Erdrich, Louise (1999). The Birchbark House. New York: Hyperion Books for Children.

Goodreads. [Book Quote – The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich]. Retrieved on October 29, 2018 from https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/154105-the-birchbark-house

Ingram (2018). [Awards – The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich]. Retrieved on October 29, 2018 from https://ipage.ingramcontent.com/ipage/servlet/ibg.common.titledetail.pd1000?ttl_id=3147675

 

Kirkus Reviews (2010). [Book Review – The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich]. Retrieved on October 29, 2018 from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/louise-erdrich/the-birchbark-house/

Midland County Libraries (2018). [Digital Image – The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich]. Retrieved on October 29 from http://10.1.5.33:8080/#section=resource&resourceid=2715711&currentIndex=0&view=fullDetailsDetailsTab

 

Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Pena

The Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Pena has earned many awards: Caldecott Honor, Newberry Medal, Coretta Scott King, honors that have been granted to a simple story of a CJ getting on the bus with his nana after church. Every Sunday, this is their habit. CJ questions why they ride the bus. He questions why they have to go to their final stop. He questions things about all the people on the bus with them – a man with a guitar, teenagers with iPods, a blind man who gets on the bus with his seeing dog. Each question is painted with a child’s curiosity and innocence while the nana handles each question with kindness, patience, and wisdom.

CJ questions why they don’t have a car. His nana says, “Boy what do we need a car for? We got a bus that breathes fire and old Mr. Dennis, who always has a trick for you” (de la Pena, 2015). The side of the bus has a fire-breathing dragon on the side and when CJ and his nana enter the bus, the driver pulls a coin from behind CJ’s ear in an old, simple magic trick.

Each question is treated with the same hints of humor and truth. When CJ expresses his desire to have the iPods like the teenagers, his nana tells him to ask the man with the guitar to play him a song.

“To feel the magic of music”, the blind man whispered, “I like to close my eyes” (de la Pena, 2015).

They all close their eyes – the dog, too – CJ feels like he is flying over the city with the beautiful music giving him wings.

When they arrive at their stop, nana and CJ walk through an impoverished neighborhood and get into the line at the soup kitchen – behind the table where they give food to several of the people Nana and CJ talked about in their walk to the bus and their ride through the city. “When he spotted their familiar faces in the window, he said ‘I’m glad we came” (de la Pena, 2015).

Diversity and kindness carry the simple story through the underlying message of acceptance and caring. “Author and artist create a microcosm of society in that bus, and the serendipitous interactions of unlikely companions” (Shelf Awareness, 2015). Varying races, with CJ and nana being Hispanic, the disabled (the blind man, a man in a wheel chair), and people that look vastly different (a little old white woman with a jar of butterflies seated next to a bald, tattooed white man) help illustrated the message of diversity and acceptance. Kirkus felt the illustrated, Christian Robinson “Painted in a warm palette, this diverse urban neighborhood is imbued with interest and possibility” (Kirkus, 2015).

Last Stop on Market Street deserves the multiple awards and honors it has received.

 

Pena, Matt de la (2015). Last Stop on Market Street. New York: G. P Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers.

Ingram (2015). [Digital Image – Last Stop on Market Street]. Retrieved on October 5, 2018 from https://ipage.ingramcontent.com/ipage/servlet/ibg.common.titledetail.pd1000?queryString=H4sIAAAAAAAAABXKsQrCQBCE4Vc5pk6RtFuGWNlYnCCEIAdZQXK6x-0GUfHd3eu-f5gvdAXdUlbuoCIgq7uzGAijyAa3fkBD37uyr4dLnNDO7tN5nGKLAprnoYP7yO-X1PUa75bZOye1oCYlyDM8Ut24ZWU2LMvvD_BKgUOBAAAA&R=27519276&dNo=6

 

Graphic Mama-team (2018). [Digital Image – dragon_green_hola_sign]. Retrieved on October 7, 2018 from https://pixabay.com/en/dragon-green-hola-sign-spanish-1597583/

Kirkus (2015). [Book Review – Last Stop on Market Street]. Retrieved on October 5, 2018 from https://ipage.ingramcontent.com/ipage/servlet/ibg.common.titledetail.pd1000?queryString=H4sIAAAAAAAAABXKsQrCQBCE4Vc5pk6RtFuGWNlYnCCEIAdZQXK6x-0GUfHd3eu-f5gvdAXdUlbuoCIgq7uzGAijyAa3fkBD37uyr4dLnNDO7tN5nGKLAprnoYP7yO-X1PUa75bZOye1oCYlyDM8Ut24ZWU2LMvvD_BKgUOBAAAA&R=27519276&dNo=6

Shelf Awareness (2015). [Book Review – Last Stop on Market Street]. Retrieved on October 5, 2018 from https://ipage.ingramcontent.com/ipage/servlet/ibg.common.titledetail.pd1000?queryString=H4sIAAAAAAAAABXKsQrCQBCE4Vc5pk6RtFuGWNlYnCCEIAdZQXK6x-0GUfHd3eu-f5gvdAXdUlbuoCIgq7uzGAijyAa3fkBD37uyr4dLnNDO7tN5nGKLAprnoYP7yO-X1PUa75bZOye1oCYlyDM8Ut24ZWU2LMvvD_BKgUOBAAAA&R=27519276&dNo=6

Yum! Mm Mm! Que Rico!: America’s Sproutings by Pat Mora

Pat Mora is an award-winning poet and author of books for all ages. The list is vast, and you can check it out here if you like: http://www.patmora.com/pats-awards/. In her poetry book for children, Yum! Mm Mm! Que Rico: America’s Sproutings, she offers a series of haiku poems about food native to the Americas. Each poem is coupled with beautiful and whimsical illustrations by Rafael Lopez and short paragraphs that provide information about the fruit: where it’s from, what it’s used for, interesting details.

“Fudge, cake, pie, cookies

Brown magic melts on your tongue

Happy, your eyes dance” (Mora, 2007)

This glimpse of chocolate is fitting and the picture of a girl eating her chocolate chip cookie with a little chocolate on her lips and her eyes closed in bliss is fitting to the way many people view chocolate. In the informational section, Mora shares, “The word chocolate comes from the Nahuatl word xocolatl, which means bitter water” (2007).

Booklist gave the book a starred review and said, “This inventive stew of food haiku celebrates the indigenous foods of the Americas. Each of the 13 poems appears on a gloriously colorful double-page spread, accompanied by a sidebar that presents information about the origin of the food” (Booklist, 2007). There are 14 foods, from blueberry to prickly pear to vanilla that Mora has shared with readers. The paragraphs containing the information is short, a paragraph each, but when combined with the short haikus that are filled with sensual details including taste, small, appearance, and the emotional reaction of the readers makes the book a delightful, and tempting, exploration of foods from North and South America.

The pictures designed by Rafael Lopez (the same artist who did the illustrations for Bravo!: Poems about Amazing Hispanics – https://jhenrysetonhill.wordpress.com/2018/10/04/bravo-poems-about-amazing-hispanics-by-margarita-engle/), are vibrant and unique, offering a visual feast to accompany the food. Marilyn Taniguchi from School Library Journal said, ““The sense of whimsy is further underscored in López’s colorful acrylic on wood-panel illustrations. Artful compositions and brilliant complementary colors bear out the book’s multicultural themes” (2007). One of my favorite pictures in the book is the simplest. A map of the Americas, from Canada to the tip of Brazil, in a sea of water with a whale and a compass with a happy sun face. In the corners, there are small snippets of the food to be seen in the haikus: pumpkin, chile, papaya, and pineapple. This picture sets the stage for the book’s exploration of food and culture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Booklist. [Book Review – Yum! Mm Mm! Qur Rico!] Retrieved on October 4, 2018 from https://ipage.ingramcontent.com/ipage/servlet/ibg.common.titledetail.pd1000?queryString=H4sIAAAAAAAAAKtWKk5RskpLzClO1VEqzs9XsiopKgUyC0qUrJSc8vOzlYDs4iolK0MDAyArByjqGhHiogRSDGQHhDq5hIA4BUpW0dGGOkpAtmewkx-QsjS3MDS1MDE2MDI3NFSKja0FADQF87hrAAAA&R=8126653

 

Mora, Pat (2007). Yum! Mm Mm! Que Rico!. New York: Lee and Low Books.

Mora, Pat (2007) [Digital Image – Yum! Mm Mm! Que Rico!  Retrieved on October 4, 2018 from https://ipage.ingramcontent.com/ipage/servlet/ibg.common.titledetail.pd1000?queryString=H4sIAAAAAAAAAKtWKk5RskpLzClO1VEqzs9XsiopKgUyC0qUrJSc8vOzlYDs4iolK0MDAyArByjqGhHiogRSDGQHhDq5hIA4BUpW0dGGOkpAtmewkx-QsjS3MDS1MDE2MDI3NFSKja0FADQF87hrAAAA&R=8126653

Taniguchi, Marilun (2007). [Book Review – Yum! Mm Mm! Que Rico!] School Library Journal. Retrieved on October 4, 2018 from https://ipage.ingramcontent.com/ipage/servlet/ibg.common.titledetail.pd1000?queryString=H4sIAAAAAAAAAKtWKk5RskpLzClO1VEqzs9XsiopKgUyC0qUrJSc8vOzlYDs4iolK0MDAyArByjqGhHiogRSDGQHhDq5hIA4BUpW0dGGOkpAtmewkx-QsjS3MDS1MDE2MDI3NFSKja0FADQF87hrAAAA&R=8126653

 

Bravo!: Poems about Amazing Hispanics by Margarita Engle

Margarita Engle created a book of poems around Latinos from all over the world – El Salvador,  Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Venezuela. Those that Engle has chosen to highlight are a mix of historical figures that made great differences in their countries and America, such as George Melendez Wright who fought to keep animals from extinction and Aida de Acosta who was the first woman to fly. Engle also included lesser known people: Priest Felix Varela who fought against slavery and tried to help the Irish in America. The poems are simple, often presenting details abut the chosen figure in a straight forward manner. The offering on Julia de Burgos from Puerto Rico says “I struggled to become a teacher and a poet, so I could use word to fight for equal rights to women, and work toward meeting the needs of poor children” (2017). Though not as lovely and compelling as some of Engle’s other works, the information highlights the chosen person with alacrity. The last pages of the book are sort biographies about each person. The offering on Julia De Burgos opens with “As the oldest of thirteen children, Julia de Burgos had a difficult childhood in Puerto Rico. Six of her siblings died of malnutrition, but she managed to stay in school and become a teachers, writer, civil rights activist, and advocate of Puerto Rican independence from the United States” (2017).

Vibrant illustrations of each historical figure were created by Rafael Lopez. Ruth Quiroa from School Library Journal felt “Lopez’s distinctive artwork leaves a lasting visual impression, as the subjects, surrounded by images representing their vocations, look readers straight in the eye or are totally absorbed in their work” (2017). Sometimes, the artwork overshadows the poems, but the pairing leaves a lasting impression on the wonderful contributions each person offered to their society and to the world at large.

Booklist states “Latinos have made many wonderful contributions to the history of the United States, and Engle’s poems on 18 amazing Latinos provides a chronological overview of the impact these figures have had.” (2016). The information may seem simple and feel more like exposition than poetry, but the facts and the chosen people can lead many children to seeing what Latinos from all countries have offered  to everyone.

Engle, Margarita (2017). Bravo!: Poems about Amazing Hispanics. New York: Henry Holt and Company

Engle, Margarita (2017). [Digital Image – Bravo!: Poems about Amazing Hispanics]. Retrieved on October 3, 2018 from https://ipage.ingramcontent.com/ipage/servlet/ibg.common.titledetail.pd1000?queryString=H4sIAAAAAAAAABXKsQ6CMBSF4VepZ2aAtSPBycWhJiaEmItUbQRu01s0Ynx3L9v3n5wvZIC90Si-gDDD5rQoY4ZFzfyEWlbYqixVo677s2uwndXHU924LSJs21YF1Af_eXMaLi7k0Wv3iV68syayn8RQz0s2NNEa5rt5BIk0h6ug635_xjiGWowAAAA&R=45182604

Booklist (2016). [Review – Bravo!: Poems about Amazing Hispanics]. Retrieved on October 3, 2018 from https://ipage.ingramcontent.com/ipage/servlet/ibg.common.titledetail.pd1000?queryString=H4sIAAAAAAAAABXKsQ6CMBSF4VepZ2aAtSPBycWhJiaEmItUbQRu01s0Ynx3L9v3n5wvZIC90Si-gDDD5rQoY4ZFzfyEWlbYqixVo677s2uwndXHU924LSJs21YF1Af_eXMaLi7k0Wv3iV68syayn8RQz0s2NNEa5rt5BIk0h6ug635_xjiGWowAAAA&R=45182604

School Library Journal (2017). [Review – Bravo!: Poems about Amazing Hispanics]. Retrieved on October 3, 2018 from https://ipage.ingramcontent.com/ipage/servlet/ibg.common.titledetail.pd1000?queryString=H4sIAAAAAAAAABXKsQ6CMBSF4VepZ2aAtSPBycWhJiaEmItUbQRu01s0Ynx3L9v3n5wvZIC90Si-gDDD5rQoY4ZFzfyEWlbYqixVo677s2uwndXHU924LSJs21YF1Af_eXMaLi7k0Wv3iV68syayn8RQz0s2NNEa5rt5BIk0h6ug635_xjiGWowAAAA&R=45182604