Reviewed by Katie (who writes her own absolutely true diary of being a part-time reader)
As Junior enters high school you can’t help but cheer for him. He is the epic underdog. Not only is he goofy and poor and small; but he has seizures, one friend, and sometimes nothing to eat. He finds a turning point in his life when he gives one of his teachers a bloody nose. Junior leaves his school on the ‘rez’ to go to a ‘white’ school where he will have a better chance to make something of himself. As Junior enters another culture he finds himself a stranger to this new lifestyle, and also to the one he has at home.
Being fourteen is hard enough, but add on to that losing your only friend, no one at your new school acknowledging you (except to make fun of you), family members dying, walking umpteen miles to school when there isn’t enough money for gas and no one picks you up hitch-hiking, and dad taking off for a drinking binge at Christmas. For a boy in limbo between two worlds, trying to find an identity, Junior writes his story in a very witty and nonchalant way. Fortunately, people stop ostracizing him when that many hard things happen in one year. It turns out that he is a pretty good basketball player as well as a student. People in both cultures befriend him and he finds his balance as a ‘part time Indian.’ He has an insightful perspective into a spectrum of human issues like alcoholism, poverty, racism, and even eating disorders.
Market: Young Adult on Up
Language: moderate/foul
Sensuality: PG-13 to R
Violence: I didn’t know people could get beat up this much
Mature Themes: death, abuse, sexuality, identity, racism, poverty, alcoholism
Book formats:
4 comments:
Yay, Katie! I read this book for the first time about a month ago, and it became an instant favorite. It's on my "top 5 books everyone should read" list. It was full of humor, insight, gut-wrenching sadness, and that feeling of being torn between two worlds -- something that I think anyone who has ever grown up has faced.
Just a marvelous, marvelous read. I'm so glad you liked it and reviewed it here!
This is one of my absolute favorites!! I met Sherman Alexie at a book signing in college and he had such amazing things to say about this book- and so much of it spans from his own life story. Thanks for the great review- it truly is one of the best!
This is one of the most amazing YA novels I've ever read! Terrific review, Katie.
One of the best novels of the last few years.
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