Starred Review ALA Booklist (Wed May 01 00:00:00 CDT 2019)

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.

Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews

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)

Horn Book

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.

Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

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)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

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. (May)