Tim Tingle
Tim Tingle is an Oklahoma Choctaw and an award-winning author and storyteller. Tingle performs a Choctaw story before Chief Batton’s State of the Nation Address at every Choctaw Nation Labor Day Festival.
In June of 2011, Tingle spoke at the Library of Congress and performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. From 2011 to 2016, he was featured at Choctaw Days, a celebration at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian.
Tingle’s great-great grandfather, John Carnes, walked the Trail of Tears in 1835. In 1992, Tim retraced the Trail to Choctaw homelands in Mississippi, a journey that inspired his first book, Walking the Choctaw Road.
Tim’s first Pathfinders novel, Danny Blackgoat: Navajo Prisoner, was an American Indian Youth Literature Awards Honor Book in 2014. He has authored eight novels for the PathFinders collection.
In 2018, Tingle received the Arrell Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award from the Oklahoma Center for the Book. That same year, A Name Earned, the third book in his No Name series for young readers, earned a Kirkus Star review.
Tim resides in Canyon Lake, Texas.
Tim Tingle
Danny Blackgoat is a teenager in Navajo country when United States soldiers burn down his home, kill his sheep, capture his family. They are forced, along with other captured Navajo to march on the Navajo Long Walk of 1864. During the journey, Danny is labeled a troublemaker and given the name Fire Eye. Refusing to accept captivity, he is sent to Fort Davis, Texas, a Civil War prisoner outpost. There he battles bullying fellow prisoners, rattlesnakes, and abusive soldiers, until he meets Jim Davis. Davis teaches Danny how to hold his anger and starts him on the road to literacy. In a stunning climax, Davis—who builds coffins for the dead—aids Danny in a daring and dangerous escape. Set in troubled times, Danny Blackgoat, Navajo Prisoner is the story of one boy’s hunger to be free and to be Navajo.
“Danny Blackgoat, Navajo Prisoner, a fast-paced historical novel, adds a memorable perspective to Native American literature for teens. This exciting novel will be enjoyed by readers interested in stories about hidden, unjustly imprisoned, or marginalized teens who seek to escape and get justice.”
VOYA October 2013
"Tingle, a Choctaw storyteller, spins a good yarn and, along with other respectful references to Navajo culture, ingeniously leverages its particular aversion to mention of or contact with the dead to magnify the terror of Danny’s climactic challenge. Not an angry indictment, despite plenty of explicit brutality and prejudice, but a positive tribute to the fortitude of Danny and his Navajo community.
Kirkus Reviews June 2013
ISBN: 9781939053039
Author: Tim Tingle
Lexile Level: HL550L
Fry Reading Level: 4.5
Page Count: 144
Width: 7.50
Height: 4.50
Publication Year: 2013
Publisher: 7th Generation Native Voices Books
Tim Tingle
Book 3 in the best-selling historical fiction series. Suspected horse thief Danny Blackgoat narrowly escapes capture by the authorities as he makes the dangerous journey to reunite with his family being held in prison. Along his route, Danny helps old friends, continues to dodge capture and falls in love. As he nears his destination, he knows he must be very diligent to avoid danger but when Danny is told his beloved friend Jim Davis is charged with the horse theft, Danny surrenders. Now the fate of both men lies in the balance between the hangman’s noose and an unlikely turn of events
ISBN: 9781939053152
Author: Tim Tingle
Lexile Level: 710
Fry Reading Level: 2.5
Page Count: 160
Width: 4.50
Height: 7.00
Publication Year: 2017
Publisher: 7th Generation
Tim Tingle
Inspired by the traditional Choctaw story “No Name,” this modern adaptation features a present-day Choctaw teenager surviving tough family times. Abandoned by his mother, Bobby Byington is left alone with his mean-spirited, abusive father.
The one place the teen can find peace is on the neighborhood basketball court. But after a violent confrontation with his father, the teen runs away, only to return home to find an unexpected hiding spot in his own back yard that becomes his home for weeks. When Bobby has a chance to play on the high school basketball team, he decides—with the help and encouragement of his coach, a Cherokee buddy, and a quiet next-door girlfriend—to face his father.
2015 Wordcraft Honors and Awards Winner - Middle Grade
In a simply but lyrically told tale, a Choctaw boy builds himself a hole in the ground to hide from his alcoholic father. Bobby finds support from his Cherokee basketball-player friend Johnny, his neighbor Carolina Faye, and his dad's friend Mr. Robison, who tells him a Choctaw story about a boy called No Name and his fraught relationship with his father. Bobby's mixed emotions toward his own flawed father, and his father's toward him, are conveyed in straightforward yet revealing lines of dialogue and first-person narration ("He might be the biggest bully in town, but he was still my dad"). Expressive and many-layered. (Fiction. 12-16)
—Kirkus Reviews September 15, 2014
“The No Name series deals head-on with heavy topics, such as racism, alcoholism, bullying, teamwork, and familial forgiveness. It’s good to see the language and traditions of the Native American experience so prominently woven throughout a straightforward sports story.”
—Booklist, September 2017
ISBN: 9781939053060
Author: Tim Tingle
Lexile Level: HL530L
Fry Reading Level: 2.5
Page Count: 168
Width: 4.00
Height: 7.00
Publication Year: 2014
Publisher: 7th Generation
Tim Tingle
We heard a loud crashing sound and froze. Shattered glass flew from the coach’s office and onto the court. Lloyd’s dad still held the chair he used to break the window. He turned and faced Coach Robison. “You might think everybody’s happy with a wild Indian coaching our kids, but you’re wrong!” he shouted, waving the chair back and forth in front of our coach.
In No Name, the first book in the series, Bobby Byington has to navigate his father’s alcoholism and anger, but in No More No Name, life is looking up. Bobby is learning to trust his alcohol-free father and is finally able to return to his beloved game of basketball.
But off the court is a different matter. New problems surface when Bobby’s smart girlfriend is bullied by a resentful schoolmate and a fellow team member is abused by his own alcoholic father. With the confidence Bobby learned from the Choctaw legend “No Name,” he is determined to find a way to help his friends.
ISBN: 9781939053176
Author: Tim Tingle
Lexile Level: 570
Fry Reading Level: 2.5
Page Count: 164
Width: 4.50
Height: 7.00
Publication Year: 2017
Publisher: 7th Generation
Tim Tingle
Starred Kirkus Review!
“This story of friendship shows how a supportive Native American community comes together to support a wounded family. Tingle highlights the resilience that young people have as they navigate family challenges. What is most special is the bond that develops between Bobby and his father, a father-son relationship that defies the odds, depicting a healed father on the other side of sobriety. An empathetic story that any teen dealing with family alcoholism can connect to.”
KIRKUS STARRED REVIEW!
December 2017
Tim Tingle is an enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and a frequent speaker at tribal events and the author of twelve books. His great-great-grandfather, John Carnes, walked the Trail of Tears in 1835, and memories of this family epic fuel his writing and storytelling. Tingle has lectured and performed across the United States, Canada, and Europe and is a frequent speaker at the American Library Association.
ISBN: 9781939053183
Author: Tim Tingle
Lexile Level: 580
Fry Reading Level: 2.5
Page Count: 138
Width: 4.50
Height: 7.00
Publication Year: 2018
Publisher: 7th Generation
Tim Tingle
“Though dramatic threads of family alcoholism, domestic violence, and bullying introduced in previous stories are mentioned, they take second team to the overarching stand-alone theme of ‘always trying to do what's right.’ The boys of team Achukma score with veteran readers and recruits alike.”
Tim Tingle is an Oklahoma Choctaw and an award-winning author and storyteller. Tingle performs a Choctaw story before Chief Batton’s State of the Nation Address at every Choctaw Nation Labor Day Festival.
In June of 2011, Tingle spoke at the Library of Congress and performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. From 2011 to 2016, he was featured at Choctaw Days, a celebration at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian.
Tingle’s great-great grandfather, John Carnes, walked the Trail of Tears in 1835. In 1992, Tim retraced the Trail to Choctaw homelands in Mississippi, a journey that inspired his first book, Walking the Choctaw Road. Tim’s first Pathfinders novel, Danny Blackgoat: Navajo Prisoner was an American Indian Youth Literature Awards Honor Book in 2014.
In 2018, Tingle received the Arrell Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award from the Oklahoma Center for the Book. That same year, A Name Earned, the third book in his No Name series for young readers, earned a Kirkus Star.
ISBN: 9781939053190
Author: Tim Tingle
Lexile Level: 700
Fry Reading Level: 2.5
Page Count: 154
Width: 4.50
Height: 7.00
Publication Year: 2018
Publisher: 7th Generation
Tim Tingle
Name Your Mountain is an action-packed sports novel whose earnest, hard-working, smart, and loyal lead character helps his friends, speaking to the intensity of teenage friendships.
-Camille-Yvette Welsch, Foreword Reviews
Refreshingly, the book normalizes male characters’ close friendships and displays of emotion, tying into Tim Tingle’s (Choctaw) mountain metaphor: We encounter challenges every day, but they do not need to be climbed alone. The text uses basketball to emphasize the importance of teamwork both on and off the court.
An engaging sports-infused mystery for reluctant readers. - Kirkus Reviews
The final title in the No Name series, follows the basketball players Choctaw Boby Byington and his best friend Cherokee Johnny as their high school basketball team prepares for an important game. But just when things seem to be going really well, someone tries to take the life of Cherokee Johnny’s father.
ISBN: 9781939053206
Author: Tim Tingle
Fry Reading Level: 4
Page Count: 145
Width: 4.50
Height: 7.00
Publication Year: 2021
Publisher: 7th Generation
E-book available here or through your favorite platform.
This bundle contains one copy of each title in the series. Five books total.
Follow Bobby Byington as he works through teenage struggles on and off the basketball court with the help of his friends, his coach and his family.
An enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, Tim Tingle brings his knowledge of culture and his love of basketball to all the books in this series.
1 × NO NAME, BOOK 1
1 × NO NAME, BOOK 3: A NAME EARNED
1 × NO NAME, BOOK 2: NO MORE NO NAME
1 × NO NAME, BOOK 4: TRUST YOUR NAME
1 × NO NAME, BOOK 5: NAME YOUR MOUNTAIN
This bundle contains one copy of each title.
1 × Danny Blackgoat: NAVAJO PRISONER
1 × Danny Blackgoat: RUGGED ROAD to FREEDOM
1 × Danny Blackgoat: DANGEROUS PASSAGE
Tim Tingle
This second volume of the trilogy continues the dramatic story of Danny Blackgoat, a Navajo teenager who, after being labeled a troublemaker on the Long Walk of 1864 is separated from his family. After a daring escape from prison in the first volume, in this second volume Danny must face many dangerous obstacles in his effort to rescue his family and find freedom. Whether it’s soldiers and bandits chasing him or the dangers of the harsh desert climate, Danny ricochets from one bad situation to the next, but his bravery doesn’t falter, and he never loses faith.
A resourceful young Navajo’s efforts to rescue his family are complicated by dustups with a violent gang of slave traders in the second episode of this Civil War–era trilogy. A suspenseful middle volume. (Historical fiction. 10-13)
Kirkus Reviews April 2014
Building upon a rich history, Tingle eloquently and accessibly shares the story of Danny Blackgoat, a Navajo teenager in 1864. Tingle, a Choctaw storyteller, uses these skills to mix adventure and history, highlighting the desert climate and Danny's tricks, for an audience of thrill-seekers and historical fiction fans who can discover the past and grow with Danny on his journey to manhood.
VOYA June 2011
A great resource for young readers is the exemplary Native Pathfinders series. Published by 7th Generation, which is dedicated to using “culturally accurate content to preserve the history and stories from the past, to highlight the beauty and wisdom of Native cultures, and to address contemporary issues,” the series’ novels are action driven and well written.
Tribal College Journal of American Indian Higher Education January 2015
ISBN: 9781939053053
Author: Tim Tingle
Lexile Level: HL510L
Fry Reading Level: 4.5
Page Count: 176
Width: 4.50
Height: 7.00
Publication Year: 2014
Publisher: 7th Generation