Crossing Bok Chitto: A Choctaw Tale of Friendship and Freedom by Tim Tingle

a. Bibliographic data
Tingle, Tim. 2008. CROSSING BOK CHITTO: A CHOCTAW TALE OF FRIENDSHIP AND FREEDOM. Ill. by Jeanne Rorex Bridges. El Paso: Cinco Puntos Press. ISBN 1933693207

b. Brief plot summary
Martha Tom, a Choctaw Indian girl, disobeys her mother’s warnings to not cross the Bok Chitto river and wanders into a meeting of a forbidden slave church. There she meets a boy named Little Mo who helps her find her way back to the Bok Chitto. Over the years Martha and Little Mo become friends, using the secret stepping stones under the river’s murky water as a path to friendship. When Little Mo’s mother is to be sold to another plantation, Martha and the rest of the Choctaws help the family cross the Bok Chitto to safety.

c. Critical analysis
Many cultural celebrations and events take place during the pages of this picture book. Crossing Bok Chitto begins with Martha’s mother preparing for a traditional Choctaw wedding and ends with a crossing ceremony to allow Little Mo and his family to pass safely across the river and away from the slave owners. When Martha first stumbles across the secret church meeting, she listens in to the sermon and song of the slaves who have come to gather. These moments in the story help the reader understand each child’s way of living.

Without reading the author’s notes at the end of the book, the audience (unless familiar with the Choctaw culture) is unaware of the accuracy in the details of the wedding ceremony and dress described in the story. If the reader had been armed with the knowledge that exists in the author’s notes, the story would hold even more power in its words.

Tingle does an excellent job in setting the stage of the story. His opening words echo the power that the Bok Chitto river held for these two groups of people. The conclusion of the book is equally well written and has a storyteller’s flair in the final page (The descendants of those people still talk about that night). Rorex’s illustrations on both the opening and ending spreads reflect both the tone and setting described in the text perfectly.

The illustrations in Crossing Bok Chitto showcase the cultural differences between the Choctaw Indians and African American slaves. Each group of people is depicted accurately in both physical attributes and time period clothing. Throughout the story, one character is drawn up close in great detail, while the others are in the background with blurred faces. This aspect of the illustrations helps to illuminate the emotions happening in the text, while offering more detail through the background images.

The underlying tone of this simple, yet beautiful book is acceptance. The two children become friends and are able to truly appreciate each other and where they come from. Both Little Mo and Martha have moments in the story when they are “deeply touched” by the others' way of life.

d. Reviews/Awards
• 2008-2009 Bluebonnet nominee
• 2007 ALA Notable Children’s Book
• Jane Adams Peace Award Honor Book
• From SLJ: “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…The paintings are dark and solemn, and the artist has done a wonderful job of depicting all of the characters as individuals, with many of them looking out of the page right at readers.”
• From Booklist: “In a picture book that highlights rarely discussed intersections between Native Americans in the South and African Americans in bondage, a noted Choctaw storyteller and Cherokee artist join forces with stirring results.”

e. Connections
• Readers can further examine the Choctaw culture by checking out any of Tingle’s other literary works below:
o Saltypie: A Choctaw Journey from Darkness to Light
o Walking the Choctaw Road: Stories from Red People Memory
o When Turtle Grew Feathers: A Tale from the Choctaw Nation