A review by calistareads
Crossing Bok Chitto by Tim Tingle

4.0

This is a beautiful story about friendship, freedom and faith.

Martha Tom is a Choctaw Indian living on the Knife river in Mississippi. This river is the boundary between freedom and slaves. The Choctaw have built a way to cross the river. They built up a bridge under the surface of the water so you can walk across and it looks like you are walking through water. Martha crossed one day to berry pick and she found slaves going to church. She became friends with a boy. Time moves on. Later, the slave owner sells this boys mother and the whole family decide to try and cross the river to freedom to stay together. I don’t want to give away the ending. It’s so beautiful how they cross that night!

This is the story that is told about what happened that night. It is before the trail of tears. I assume there is some historical accuracy about the story and I’m also sure the story has been crafted by time to make a good story.

My opinion of the book is this is a great story. I learned something and I enjoyed reading it. I’m glad I did. I think this type of story is what a children’s book can do so well.

The nephew thought parts of the book were sort of good. He liked the bridge under the water so it looked like you were somehow magic to cross that river. He did say it was a long story and he thought the ending was really good. He was tense during the finish of the story and he loved how the family got out of bondage. He ended up giving this 3 stars, which for him is a big deal.