How I Became a Ghost by Tim Tingle Book Review

        










Written by Tim Tingle 

Published by Roadrunner Press in 2015

ISBN:978-1937054557

Plot Summary: Isaac who is a ghost is telling the story about when he learned that he was going to have to abandon his home in Mississippi and go on a journey to a new place that they don't know but while they are packing up Isaac sees visions of his people bursting into flames or becoming diseased and needing help. Isaac sees that his house is going up in smoke as the white men have set fire so his people go to the swamp to try and get away from the white men. Issac is helping out a family that he discovers when he is attacked by a wolf and is killed. He helps find a missing girl named Naomi and with the help of Joseph who is the grandson of the leaders of the tribe, he is able to keep her safe from the soldiers and find her way back to her family. 

Critical Analysis (Including Cultural Markers): Issac has many supernatural gifts but they don't become fully realized until he becomes a ghost. He was supernatural visions and also is able to talk to ghosts who help him figure out what to do with the white men and with his family and friends. Isaac realizes that nothing can hurt him anymore after he is killed by the wolf so he doesn't dread his visions anymore as he knows that he is dead and he can do many things to help from beyond the grave. 

Some of the themes that are prevalent in this book are the violence that the white man has done vs. the pacifism that the choctaw people have shown. Doing everything from burning their house, to giving them blankets that were filled with the smallpox violence, shows that there was no remorse on the side of the white men. Choctaw spiritualism is on full display as we learn more about the visions that protect the Choctaw people form the dangers and harm that is apparent in the natural world. There is a sense of community and connection to nature that propels the story of the Choctaw forward even when they were up against insurmountable odds. Death is a symbol of transition in this story and it isn;t the end of the people who die as they are able to help people out in the physical world even from their supernatural side. The blankets filled with smallpox shows the willingness of the white men to exploit the Choctaws sense of community and trust in order to destroy them. The cultural relevance of this time period shows the horrors that can be committed by people who believe they are following orders and a story of hope for those who want to believe the best in people. 

Review: Kirkus Review 

A 10-year-old Choctaw boy recounts the beginnings of the forced resettlement of his people from their Mississippi-area homelands in 1830.


He begins his story with a compelling hook: “Maybe you have never read a book written by a ghost before. I am a ghost. I am not a ghost when this book begins, so you have to pay very close attention.” Readers meet Isaac, his family and their dog, Jumper, on the day that Treaty Talk changes everything. Even as the Choctaw prepare to leave their homes, Isaac begins to have unsettling visions: Some elders are engulfed in flames, and others are covered in oozing pustules. As Isaac and his family set out on the Choctaw Trail of Tears, these visions begin to come true, as some are burned to death by the Nahullos and others perish due to smallpox-infested blankets distributed on the trail. But the Choctaw barrier between life and death is a fluid one, and ghosts follow Isaac, providing reassurance and advice that allow him to help his family and others as well as to prepare for his own impending death. Storyteller Tingle’s tale unfolds in Isaac’s conversational voice; readers “hear” his story with comforting clarity and are plunged into the Choctaw belief system, so they can begin to understand it from the inside out.


The beginning of a trilogy, this tale is valuable for both its recounting of a historical tragedy and its immersive Choctaw perspective . (Historical fiction. 8-12)

Connection: Students can learn more about the trail of tears and how it specifically affected the Choctaw people through this link: 

Trail of Tears Choctaw Nation

Other books by Tim Tingle 

When Turtle Grew Feathers: A Folktale from the Choctaw Nation  ISBN: 978-1939160218

House of Purple Cedar ISBN: 978-1935955245








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