Night Bird: A Story of the Seminole Indians

by Kathleen V. Kudlinski, James Watling (Illustrator)

In 1840 Night Bird, whose clan of Seminole Indians is fighting to preserve its traditional way of life in Florida, must decide whether to seek land and an unknown future in distant Oklahoma.

Genres: Childrens, Historical Fiction

64 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Kathleen Kudlinski is the author of 40 children’s books. Her works range from picture books to the YA level and include natural history, biographies and historical novels.
When not writing, she is a popular speaker and writing instructor. Building on a BS in Biology and six years of classroom teaching experience, Kathleen later trained as a “Master Teaching Artist” with the Connecticut Commission on the Arts as well as presenting at regional and national conferences. Now she eagerly Skypes with classroom, book-, and home-school groups, world-wide.

In her spare time, she paints and leads several SCBWI (Society of Childrens Book Writers and Illustrators) critique groups, and teaches writing for children.

She writes at home beside a deep, wild lake in Guilford CT or at her woodland cabin in Weathersfield, VT with a a rescue macaw clinging to her shoulder and a pitbull warming her feet.

Reviews

[Andrea · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the book for what it was. I needed a short, quick book to read, and even though it's a child's book and I'm 21 I thought I would get some good information from it. The author had a way of weaving in the information in a realistic and natural way. She didn't force it on us like she was trying to get us to swallow it down, but said it at times where is was appropriate to do so. Unfortunately, only the information that pertained to this story was included. There was no general information, but at least I know a little more about Seminole Indians and their history. It was just such a short little thing that not much could be included.
Night Bird was a likable character, strong, obedient and a true leader for her family and her entire tribe. She did exactly what she was supposed to do at times when she needed to, like be quiet so the enemy didn't hear her, help her grandma out, lead her brothers and sisters to safety and identify helpful plants and their properties. Her cousin by contrast was loud, selfish, whiny, a mama's girl, and displayed all of the characteristics an Indian child wasn't supposed to. She was really irritating and I find myself you're going to get yourself or someone else shot and it'll be all your fault. It served to make Night Bird the definite better character, but Night Bird was really not tolerant or compassionate, and I don't like characters that are too strong they don't care about others or cut them any slack at all. Night Bird made the hard decision to leave her mother, father and younger siblings to stay on and be a leader for her people one day. That was admirable. I wish there had been more details about their way of life. Most of it wasn't new and I'd come across during my own research or readings somewhere else. The green corn ceremony was mentioned, how they lit a new fire and that represented a forgetting of wrongs that had been done and a starting over. The black drink the warriors drink that cleansed them and made them sick also wasn't new. Some information was new and a little insight was given, but again, only that pertained to the story.

[Heather · Rating 1 out of 5]

ok, ill admit. I picked this up because it was short and I needed some short books to cap off my reading challenge with. it seemed interesting and I thought I'd learn about Seminole Culture.
well, it just goes to prove that really short books do not make good stories. there's simply not enough pages to tell a story in.
The drawings were pretty bad. They were way too dark and raw looking. Nice, clear pictures would have been so much better.
The people looked white, they looked black, they looked Asian. They had facial hair.
Cant believe she would say she had a favorite sister.&then later say “Amitee. The smart one.” It’s rude to call your other siblings stupid, basically.
The talk in her was pretty modern, and it didn’t sound like a native American would have talked back then at all.
I wish the author would have explained more about, well, everything. Not much was explained in detail, such as why things were as they were. She called her parents “Wa-gi” and “Da-ti” but were those their names, or the words for “father” and “mother.”
She also didn’t explain why the girls received beads. Not everyone received them. Why? Books shouldn’t leave you with so many questions.
This wasn’t much of a story at all. When you read a book about a different culture, you expect to finish the book having a better understanding of that culture. Well, that didn’t happen. I feel like I know next to nothing about their lives. I didn’t really learn anything, besides that Seminoles lived in the everglades. It was really disappointing.
She should have explained their different customs and why they did them. I also don’t know why little mouse’s (bad name btw) family became slaves, and how they escaped. I don’t know if the white people found her parents and killed them for killing the white man. Idk anything.
The book was also ridiculously short. I thought the story was going somewhere. &then BAM it ended. That was not an ending. That was like ur editor called up, said “stop! You’re out of time!” and you submitted this in.
it seemed like this big, sacrificial thing that she decided to stay with her grandma, but they could all be found &killed a few days later. I mean, it was noble what she did, but it didn't really save her clan, because the white men knew where they lived. anything could have happened to the Seminoles after. what if she never made it to teach her clan and the future generations? you can't write something with no conclusive or even halfway conclusive end.

[Mellanie C · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story tells how some of the Seminole tribe moved from Florida to Oklahoma. I'm putting it in my classroom library.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fast, short read. It wasn't amazing, but it was good. We learned a little about the Seminole Indians and the boys stayed interested. I don't know that I'll use this next time through. It didn't teach more than we'd already learned with our other books and I had to get it through inter-library loan which screwed my schedule up. If your library has it you might want to give it a pre-read to see if you want to take a few days to read it. Or not. This would also work well to have your middle school child read themselves as it is short.

[Darla · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a sweet story about a Seminole girl who is being trained to take over the otter clan. When some family members return just in time for the Green Corn Dance everyone celebrates until they find out they have runaway and a white man was killed. Shortly thereafter they are given a choice.

While this was a simple chapter book its content is worth the read.

[Maureen · Rating 2 out of 5]

September 1995, first Scholastic printing edition, paperback

Not enthralling. The protagonist's name is Night Bird. It's not a story about birds.

One of the most important parts of this story is that I learned that the Seminole people were not from Florida. They arrived there from Georgia. That adds to my knowledge of the crimes the peoples of the Americas have endured.

[Flyp 2011 Tweens]

Set in Florida.

[Jadarrius Starks · Rating 2 out of 5]

its boring

[Nolan6619 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was small book about the night birds and the seminoles had to run for the dwindling clan to have a fresh in secret. It was a good a good small book.

[Jeanette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good story about the Seminole Indian tribe. There was alot of little tidbits in the story about how they lived and died (unfortunately) that we tied into our history lessons in homeschool.