Morning Girl

Dorris, Michael. Morning Girl. New York: Hyperion Books for Children, 1992.

Morning Girl by Michael Dorris is about a sister and brother who are living on an island in 1942.  The book alternates being told from the sister’s, Morning Girl, and the brother’s, Star Boy, point of view.  Morning Girl enjoys getting up early and exploring her world before others awake, and Star Boy enjoys the night.  Like many other novels for adolescents this story incorporates a question of identity.  Morning Girl, transitioning from childhood to adulthood, wants to know what she looks like and asks many people to help her with this exploration.  Star Boy, younger than Morning Girl, but also growing out of childhood questions his identity through the transition of his name going from Hungry to Star Boy. 

Native American aspects of the book include the names that are given to the characters along with the fact that “strangers” come at the end of the novel who are presumably Christopher Columbus and others, which is known from the epilogue written at the end of the story.  Themes of family importance and existence with nature which are important in Native American Literature are also found in the novel.  Dorris does a very nice job excluding any Native American stereotypes like being savages or animal like.  The brother and sister fight and disagree like any siblings would, but still love and support each other in times of need, which brings them closer together in the end.  Michael Dorris is an insider author. He is a part of the Modoc tribe. Dorris won the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction for Morning Girl.