Best Children's Books of the Year, Bank Street College of EducationFrom the award-winning author of How I Became a Ghost, a tale of unlikely friendship and miracles. When Martha Tom helps Lil Mo and his family escape from the plantation across the river, it's just the beginning of a Choctaw adventure of a lifetime.Martha Tom knows better than to cross the Bok Chitto River to pick blackberries. The Bok Chitto is the only border between her town in the Choctaw Nation and the slave-owning plantation in Mississippi territory. The slave owners could catch her, too. What was she thinking? But crossing the river brings a surprise friendship with Lil Mo, a boy who is enslaved on the other side. Then Lil Mo discovers that his mother is about to be sold and the rest of his family left behind. But Martha Tom has the answer: cross the Bok Chitto and become free. Crossing to freedom with his family seems impossible with slave catchers roaming, but then there is a miracle—a magical night where...

A Choctaw boy tells in his own words the story of his tribe's removal from the only land its people have ever known, and how their journey to Oklahoma led him to become a ghost — one with the ability to help those he left behind. Isaac leads a remarkable foursome of Choctaw comrades: a toughminded 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. The first in a series, How I Became a Ghost thinly disguises an important and oft-overlooked piece of history.

After Bobby Byington's unforgettable winning high school season, Coach Robison recruits Choctaw players from several communities to play in a summer league. Coach selects the Panther as the team's mascot, saying, "To many Choctaws, young and old, the panther is an elder watching over us, helping us when we are in need." As the team gels and they move to the national tournament, they find out they are up against more than other basketball teams. They must deal with racist taunts and unsportsmanlike conduct on the court. The situation comes to a head when, on the eve of a key game against a bullying opponent, two Choctaw players are arrested for robbery. Never doubting their innocence, Coach Robison asks, "Who can we trust, and how can we find the truth?"

“The hour has come to speak of troubled times. It is time we spoke of Skullyville." Thus begins the House of Purple Cedar, Rose Goode's telling of the year when she was eleven in Indian country, Oklahoma. The Indian schools boys and girls had been burned, stores too. By the time the railroad came, all of Skullyville had been burned.

Tim Tingle's first novel in the contemporary No Name series depicts the struggles of Choctaw teen Bobby Byington. A strong-willed and determined high school basketballer, Bobby must carve a path through the dark world of his father's alcoholism and angry nature. In the second book, No More No Name, Bobby's mother returns home, and Bobby's basketball team, galvanized by his impressive shooting skills, begins to win. But new problems surface when Bobby's smart girlfriend is bullied by a resentful schoolmate and a fellow team member is abused by his own alcoholic father.

Inspired by the traditional Choctaw story "No Name," this modern adaptation features a present-day Choctaw teenager surviving tough family times––his mother leaving his mean-spirited father––with the help of a basketball coach, a Cherokee buddy, and a quiet new next-door girlfriend.Ages: 12 to 16. Reading level 4.0.

In the 1860s the United States Army forced thousands of Navajos off their land and imprisoned them in unsafe conditions at Fort Sumner. Through the eyes of teenager Danny Blackgoat, readers experience how the Diné people struggled to survive. In the concluding novel of the Danny Blackgoat trilogy, the major characters appear in a final scene of reckoning. Danny Blackgoat must face the charge of stealing a horse from Fort Davis––or reveal that his old friend, Jim Davis, stole the horse to help Danny escape. The penalty for horse theft in the 1860s? Death by hanging. Only the word of a Navajo woman can save both Danny and Jim Davis, but willshe arrive at Fort Sumner before the bugles sound and the hanging begins? Danny Blackgoat: Dangerous Passage is filled with history-based action, as the Diné people leave their imprisonment and return to Navajo country.

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 he is a starter on the basketball team at his high school. But the door to trouble never stays closed. Bobby's girlfriend, next-door-neighbor Faye, suffers attacks from a bullying classmate, and some of Bobby's basketball teammates are dealing with family problems that are all too familiar to him. Maybe Bobby's old backyard hideout will need to be uncovered again and the door reopened. Hoping to help his friends, Bobby shares the legend of No Name that Coach Robison had told him back when Bobby needed to hide from his father. Who knew Coach's wisdom would become so meaningful to others? As the playoffs near and the team plays to win, Coach delivers a message that extends well beyond the basketball court: "Your life is carved by...

Travis Lee takes his son Drew to England for his senior trip, and at the same time, he feels out his new publisher, Jester Books. But the real story is what is going on back home in Alabama while they are gone. With five restless teenage children living under the same roof, and 'colorful' neighbors dropping in, there is never a dull moment at the Lee household.

This second volume of a three-part series continues the dramatic story of Danny Blackgoat, a Navajo teenager who, after being labeled a troublemaker, is taken prisoner during the Long Walk of 1864. Danny escaped from Fort Davis in volume one (Danny Blackgoat, Navajo Prisoner), but he must still face many obstacles in order to rescue his family and find freedom. Whether it's soldiers and bandits chasing him or the dangers of the harsh desert climate, Danny ricochets from one bad situation to the next, but his bravery doesn't falter and he never loses faith. Like all of our PathFinders novels for reluctant teen readers, this contemporary story is by a Native American author, features a linear plot, and is written at a 4.0 to 4.5 reading level.

Danny Blackgoat is a teenager in 1864 Navajo country when United States soldiers burn down his home, kill his sheep, capture his family, and force them all to walk at gun point to an Army fort far from their homeland. This forced exodus of the Navajo people was called the Long Walk of 1864, and during the journey, 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. Davis teaches Danny how to hold his anger and starts him on the road to literacy. In a stunning climax, Davis—who builds coffins for the dead—aids Danny in a daring and dangerous escape. Set in troubled times, Danny Blackgoat, Navajo Prisoner is the story of one boy's hunger to be free and to be Navajo. A PathFinders novel for reluctant readers.