Chapter Book 9 / Morning Girl

Title	Morning Girl
Author	Michael Dorris
Illustrator	N/A
Publication Year	1992
Awards	Scott O’Dell Award
Publisher	Hyperion
ISBN	1-56282-285-3
Readability Score (GLE = Grade Level Equivalent)	Lexile	980L
	DRA	50
	GLE	6.3
	Guided Reading	S
Genre /      Sub-Genre	Chapter Book / Historical Fiction / Multicultural
Theme	Discovering who you are
Primary Character	Morning Girl / Star Boy
Secondary Characters	Family Members of Morning Girl and Star Boy
Classroom Use	·         I would use this book to introduce a discussion of Christopher Columbus.
Book Summary	A sister and brother live on an island in the Bahamas and tell a story by alternating chapters. Morning Girl is given her name because she likes to get up really early. Star Boy is the opposite and likes the night. They both live with their mom and dad. The kids are not the best of friends at the beginning of the book but seem to grow closer at the end. Their mother told them that they will be having a baby sister soon but she ends up losing the baby. This really bothers Morning Girl and Star Boy. This book gives the readers a view into the Taino Indian culture where the two children live.  In this book, nature is a main item in the lives of Morning Girl and Star Boy. They have to make their house with things on the island. There are no bricks and things like that. Their roof is made with leaves and they have to make sure that there is several on top so that it does not leak when it rains. In the book, it mentions a terrible storm and all of their belongings blew away along with the roof of their house. Star boy ends up running away and Morning Girl actually worries about him. At the end of the book Morning Girl is in the ocean and she sees a boat with several people on it. She yells for them and they are looking at her with a strange look of disbelief. She runs to tell her family that the island has new visitors on it. In the Epilogue it has a passage from Christopher Columbus about going to an island and seeing new people and he describes the way they look and act.