Morning Girl By Michael Dorris

The Book Morning Girl By Michael Dorris falls under the historical-fiction genre.  I came to this conclusion because the book tells the story of a native american family and their lives before Christopher Columbus.  Most of the book discusses the lives of both Morning Girl and her brother star boy.  Morning girl has her name because she never misses a minute of the morning and star boy has his name because he never misses a minute of the night time.  I think the author used these names to show how different the siblings can be.  The story sets a very calm and cool setting with some family issues through out.  The family deals with the welcoming of a new family member as well as a bit of sibling rivalry.  Towards the end of this book the author does a great job at describing Morning Girls interaction with a strange man.  It shows the perspective of the Native Americans which is great for students to see.  The last chapter ties the while story together.  Through out the story I became close with these characters and then saw things through a different light.  I would keep this book in historical-fiction and refer to it if students wanted to see that time period in a different light,  Because of the touchy views on Columbus I would probably steer clear from using this book as a read aloud.  I would also steer clear of using this book because there were certain parts that I lost interest.  I think if I was able to lose interest my students might do so as well.

Note:  This is one of my Historical-Fiction books