Morning Girl by Michael Dorris.

A.Bibliographic Data:
Dorris, Michael. 1992. Morning Girl. Hyperion Books for Children: New York, New York. ISBN 1-56282-284-5 (trade), ISBN 1-56282-285-3 (lib. bdg.).

B. Plot Summary:
Morning Girl is a story of young girl named Morning Girl and her younger brother named Star Boy, living with their family among on a small Bahamian island. The book provides chapters where Morning Girl presents her thoughts and feelings on events that occur in, and chapters where Star Boy presents his thoughts and feelings on events that occur. Together they deal with the sadness of their mothers miscarriage, survive a hurricane, and as a family stand up for each other when one of them is humiliated. In the last chapter while swimming Morning Star encounters some strange visitors and warmly invites them to meet her people. To end the book Michael Dorris provides a short excerpt from Christopher Columbus's diary where he speaks of the island people being friendly, poor, naive, and easy to convert to Christianity.

C. Critical Analysis:
Michael Dorris takes us inside the harmonious family of a Taino tribe before they encounter the spanish conquistadores. Dorris uses beautiful language like, “Father taught me how to swim on land”, that helps readers relate to the calm, perceptive manner in which Dorris and her people viewed life. Readers will be able to identity with the characters in the story, because Dorris does a wonderful job of portraying the typical community, with families that live in peace, and others like Red Feathers whose family is always fighting, brothers and sisters bickering, parents teaching their children about manners, etc. Dorris also provides information, like, “Usually, when the air was still, people had to burn smudge fires or rub ashes and soot on their bodies to discourage the appetites of those bugs. At such times, we turn into a gray people, except for our hair and lips, and eyes.” that helps us understand that the things that the people was for a reason. The excerpt that Dorris includes at the end of the book which states that the people were poor in everything, shows just how ignorant Christopher Columbus's perception towards the tribe was. They were actually rich with their traditions and customs.

D. Review Excerpt:
From School Library Journal:
“Statements such as “he told a lie and never untied it” and the stars were like “grains of white sand” reflect an innocence and purity. “ By Julie Cummins.

E. Connections
After reading the section in the book where Morning Girl asks her mother what she looks like, discuss with the students the era of the story and the fact that they had no mirrors. Have students draw portraits of themselves without the use of a mirror. They can used the methods Michael Dorris used in the book or improvise and use other natural methods.

Discuss the importance of names in the book and the importance of students names in the classroom. Divide the students into groups of four and have them think of names for each other. (Rule: No hurtful names allowed).

After reading the section in the book where Morning Girl's mother returns “a turn of the moon later”, discuss with the students what that means and how people told time. Have students research and study the moon cycles, and them develop a graph of the moon through out the year, and have them connect that to how people may have used it to tell time.