Books with author Tim Tingle

A Choctaw boy with a taste for detective work teams up with a lonely old professor in this charming middle-grade mystery from a two-time winner of the American Indian Youth Literature Award. Timmy loves reading stories about great detectives, and soon he begins to spy mysteries all around his small Oklahoma town. Why was his next-door neighbor, the distinguished Dr. Moore, standing outside with a knife at midnight? Who's sneaking around their house, shining flashlights in the windows? And where did Mrs. Newberry's diamond necklace go? As Timmy and Doc work together to unmask the thief, Timmy also comes to understand the challenges Doc and his family face with his developing dementia, and discovers that a real detective needs a good heart as well as a sharp brain.

"The hour has come to speak of troubled times. It is time we spoke of Skullyville." Thus begins Rose Goode's story of her growing up in Indian Territory in pre-statehood Oklahoma. Skullyville, a once-thriving Choctaw community, was destroyed by land-grabbers, culminating in the arson on New Year's Eve, 1896, of New Hope Academy for Girls. Twenty Choctaw girls died, but Rose escaped. She is blessed by the presence of her grandmother Pokoni and her grandfather Amafo, both respected elders who understand the old ways. Soon after the fire, the white sheriff beats Amafo in front of the town's people, humiliating him. Instead of asking the Choctaw community to avenge the beating, her grandfather decides to follow the path of forgiveness. And so unwinds this tale of mystery, Indian-style magical realism, and deep wisdom. It's a world where backwoods spiritualism and Bible-thumping Christianity mix with bad guys; a one-legged woman shop-keeper, her oaf of a husband, herbal potions, and shape-shifting panthers rendering justice. Tim Tingle--a scholar of his nation's language, culture, and spirituality--tells Rose's story of good and evil with understanding and even laugh-out-loud Choctaw humor.Tim Tingle, responding to a scarcity of Choctaw literature, began interviewing tribal elders in the early '90s. His collection "Walking the Choctaw Road" was the Oklahoma Book of the Year. Tingle's children's book, "Crossing Bok Chitto," garnered over twenty state and national awards, including Best Children's Book from the American Indian Library Association, and was an Editor's Choice in the "New York Times Book Review."