Books with author Tim Tingle

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 moves to the national tournament, they find out they are up against more than other basketball teams. They must deal with racist taunts and unfair sportsmanship 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?"

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 the choices you make. You earn your name by your actions.”

In this two-CD companion to his book, Choctaw storyteller Tim Tingle reaches far back into tribal memory to offer a deeply personal collection of stories woven from the supernatural, mythical, historical and oral accounts of Choctaw people living today. Joseph Bruchac, an admirer of Tim’s work, says, “…these stories will stay with you and lend you some of their strength.”Tim Tingle lives outside San Antonio, Texas, and travels throughout the country telling stories.

Name Your Mountain continues the exciting No Name series as the high-school team matures and faces new challenges. When the all American Indian high-school basketball team in Trust Your Name enters a national-level tournament, the team travels to big cities and has new experiences, but all is not well. Choctaw Bobby Byington and his new Creek friend, Eddie, are torn between struggles on the court and painful episodes back home. With the door of adulthood looming, Coach Robison urges his players to "never hesitate, never give up, in your struggle to reach the top."

In Walking the Choctaw Road, Tingle reaches far back into tribal memory to offer this deeply personal collection of stories woven from the supernatural, mythical, historical and oral accounts of Choctaw people living today. Native American storyteller Joe Bruchac says, “For a good many years now, Tim Tingle has been one of my favorite American story-tellers. Walking the Choctaw Road . . . will stay with you and lend you some of its strength. Cross the river with these stories—they’ll give you safe passage.”Tim Tingle lives in Canyon Lake, Texas. His appearances throughout the nation push book sales. The cloth edition of this book sold out in little more than a year and is now in its second printing.

Told in the words of Isaac, a Choctaw boy who does not survive the Trail of Tears, How I Became a Ghost is a tale of innocence and resilience in the face of tragedy. From the opening line, Maybe you have never read a book written by a ghost before, the reader is put on notice that this is no normal book. Isaac tells the story of his tribe's removal from the only land its people have ever known, and how that journey to what would become Oklahoma led him to become a ghostone with the ability to help those he left behind. Isaac leads a remarkable foursome of Choctaw comrades: a tough-minded 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 trilogy, How I Became a Ghost thinly disguises an important and oft-overlooked piece of history.

Tingle, Tim. Walking the Choctaw Road: Stories from Red People Memory. El Paso, Cinco Puntos Press, 2003. 15 x 23cm. 142 pages, with black and white photographs. Original softcover. Excellent condition with only very minor signs of external wear. Handwritten dedication by the author to Chuck Kruger on title page. Oklahoma, or Okla Homma, is a Choctaw word meaning Red People. In this collection, acclaimed storyteller Tim Tingle tells the stories of his people, the Choctaw People, the Okla Homma. For years, Tim has collected stories of the old folks, weaving traditional lore with stories from everyday life. Walking the Choctaw Road is a mixture of myth stories, historical accounts passed from generation to generation, and stories of Choctaw people living their lives in the here and now.