Crossing the Starlight Bridge

Hazel Rochman

Far from the stereotype of American Indians lost in the mists of history, this story about nine-year-old Rayanne Sunipass is rooted in the everyday world of contemporary Maine. When her father takes off to find himself, Rayanne and her mother are forced to leave their home on the island reservation and move in with Gram in a town on the mainland. Rayanne holds her pain tightly inside herself. She's alone in the big new school, where she's the only Penobscot student. Her mentor is her beloved Gram, who plays rummy, is learning chess, makes the best waffles, loves Chinese takeout--and also remembers the traditional stories that help keep Rayanne close to her heritage. Gram's a bit too wise to be true, but she's no solemn tribal elder. She knows you have to be able to "cross the bridge back and forth," and she shows in her daily life that you can "make new ways from the old." Some of the minor characters aren't well developed, but Rayanne is a compelling adventurer, just like King Arthur's knights in the library book Rayanne is reading, just like the hero in Gram's stories. The precise, beautiful writing reveals Rayanne's love of the natural world. She misses the physical things of her reservation home: the smell of the river, the rushing noise of moving water, the loon's hooting cry "cool and echoing and odd," which lets her know that something wild is always there. Her Penobscot identity connects her with the people around her and with the universe. An author's note explains that the small, ink double-curve designs that appear at the end of each chapter are an integral part of Penobscot culture.