* "Richly descriptive and leavened with humor, Tingle's complex novel offers valuable insights into rarely told history." -- Publishers Weekly , starred review * "[Stone River Crossing] is a potent mix of history, folkways, and friendship, often wrapped in a gossamer web of magic realism. Tingle, a member of the Choctaw Nation, draws on the group's own stories to spin a tale that begins slowly but builds and twists, until the tension and intensity will have readers at the edge of their chairs." -- Booklist , starred review * "As he did in his picture book Crossing Bok Chitto (illustrated by Jeanne Rorex Bridges, 2006), Tingle (Choctaw) captures a rarely explored bond that formed during colonization between enslaved Africans and Native Americans, an alliance of survival under white colonial tyranny. He evokes a 19th-century Southern landscape, presenting it through the lens of Americans whose perspectives are too rarely shared. This vital story will deepen readers' understanding of the nation's complex history." -- Kirkus Reviews , starred review Tingle's narrative, set in 1808 Mississippi, brings to life a multitude of fascinating characters while illuminating a little-known moment in history, when the Choctaw risked their lives and lands to help free slaves. First told by Tingle in a picture book, Crossing Bok Chitto: A Choctaw Tale of Friendship & Freedom (2006), the story is expanded here.

Throughout the tale--told with heart and much humor--runs the refrain "we are all in this together," a fine message for our current divisive times. -- The Horn Book Best Children's Books of the Year - Bank Street College of Education.