My Historical Fiction Skills Reflection

WALT: Reviewing Historical Fiction Skills                       December 12, 2011

Sing down the Moon

By Caroline Wilson

          The Historical Fiction book that I’m reading is called Sing Down the Moon by Scott O’dell.  I chose this book because I read another one of Scott Odell’s books called Island of the Blue Dolphins.  Sing down the Moon also has a Newberry medal.

          The main character, Bright Morning, shows a lot of bravery.  First of all, she was brave enough to even say hello to the enemy soldiers that were walking by her instead of hiding.  Also, throughout the whole journey of becoming a slave for a while, Bright morning showed no sign of fear.  Eventually, when Bright Morning got to her enslaved destination, when her kidnappers told her to walk around the kitchen, she didn’t budge.  Finally, Bright Morning has the bravery to even THINK about running away after hearing about the whipping she had gotten after being found.  Surely, after many slaves attempting to run away, one of them will end up dying.  If I were in that situation, I wouldn’t have to bravery to do that.

          I can tell that Sing Down the Moon is a historical fiction book because for one thing, Bright Morning and Running Bird aren’t very common nowadays.  Now, not many people (or tribes) live on an island or fight each other.  Instead of cars, trains, or buses, when this story takes place, everybody either walks or rides on horses.  Unlike now, Sing down the Moon took place; different tribes would fight each other.  Also, many people in the book live in tents and tipis.  Only members of THEIR tribe are around anywhere near wherever they lived.  If any rare occasions were to occur now in time and someone kidnapped someone else, the kidnappers aren’t generally as harsh.  Sing down the Moon shows very inhumane behavior that is illegal now.

          Running Bird, Bright Morning’s close friend has a pretty big impact on the story.  Without Running Bird there with Bright Morning, she would have a really hard time staying brave.  It is helpful to have a companion with you.  Without Running Bird with her, bright Morning may not have and the courage to make her escape plan or to escape.  Both of these instances have made two things come to my mind.  1) Running Bird has a very strong relationship with Bright Morning.  2) Bright Morning’s bravery comes a lot from Running Bird.

          Throughout the story, Bright Morning and Running Bird have very little power.  For instance, when both girls got kidnapped, they had no freedom of speech, and they couldn’t move around unless asked to.  Therefore, neither Bright Morning nor Running Bird had any power whatsoever.  Also, when Bright Morning and Running Bird arrived at the place they became slaves, they were not even allowed to speak to Senora, the boss, unless she asked them something.  Basically, nobody could even do anything to have any power.

While reading Sing down the Moon many voices have been heard and unheard.  Some examples of unheard voices would be when Bright Morning and her mother were in their house after Bright Morning had left her mom’s sheep in the meadow in the rain one spring day.  Although Bright Morning was trying to explain why she had come home without them, her mom wouldn’t listen and ended up not talking to her daughter the whole time they were waiting for the rain to stop.  An example of a heard voice is Bright Morning’s mom because evey thing that she says goes.  In the situation before, Bright Morning’s mom only said that she was ashamed of her and then never listened to her all night.

          This story, Sing down the Moon, is only from the perspective of Bright Morning herself and not anyone else.  If one scene was written by Running Bird it would sound something like this: On the first day of Spring, I met my best friend, Bright Morning, with her sheep at the meadow. We have a nice talk about…well, whatever comes to our minds.  Walking around, Bright Morning spots some of the Spanish Slavers in the distance.  I try to motion her to hide, not wanting the slavers to see my signal to her.  Unfortunately, she is staring at them and greeting them politely!  “What is she crazy” I think.  It was too late to think of anything to do, and before I knew what was happening, Bright Morning and I were tightly tied to one of their horses and carried away.  Where were we going? What were they going to do to us?  Would we ever return?

          In the story, there were 2 big ideas.  1)  Escape.  Bright Morning and Running Bird escape from the Spanish Slavers.  Bright Morning’s tribe starts to escape from the enemy tribe.  Tall Boy, the leader of the Hunters escapes from the Spanish Slavers after being shot in the arm.  2)  Suffering. Tall boy suffered in two ways.  He got shot in to arm.  He couldn’t fight or hunt anymore.  The whole tribe suffered when they had barely any food on the mountains.

          Sing Down the Moon is a 5 star book that I recommend many people read.  It really gets the reader thinking and has a skill to historical fiction writing.