SLJ Book of the Year

SLJ Book of the Year!

SLJ Book of the Year!

This book is about Junior, a cartoonist who dreams of becoming famous is from the Spokane Indian Reservation and he decides to attend an all-white school away from the reservation. Junior had a condition when he was young that the doctors thought he was going to die from but he survived. Junior's parents are alcoholics, He suffers from seizures. This book is also about the friendship he has with Rowdy who he has known his whole life. WIll his friendship survive Junior's changing life? Junior becomes the target of bullies. Junior experiences conflict between his life on and off the reservation. Teachers tell him the only way to live is off the reservation. This is a really good story that people can relate to. Will Junior ever be able to be one person both on and off the reservation? Will he form his identity? Will he gain acceptance? Read this book to find out!! ( )

*Edit* 4 stars, down from 5. I originally gave this book a 5 but as I was thinking about it this morning, I realized that I wasn't that impressed with it. My inner dialoged was "well, I read it", not "what a great book! I'm so glad I finally read it! Why did I wait so long??". More like I had just checked it off my list.

*Another edit* 3 stars down from 4. Thinking back, I felt compelled to rate this high because Sherman Alexie is a Native American author and there was almost an expectation that I give this a high rating. Now I'm thinking that...I don't know...I feel that the book was not all that great. I read it and I've decided that I don't need/want to read anymore of his books.

I grew up on a reservation and so I was able to relate to many of the things he described, that's why initially I gave it a 5. I am more white than Native but my Reservation is home to two tribes that were traditional enemies. I went to a Catholic school on the other side of the rez so got discrimination as an Indian kid, a white kid and a kid from the enemy tribe! I didn't know any better, but it sucked. One thing that stands out to me now is that I was a rich kid by rez standards, but when I went to the white high school, I was a poor kid by white standards.

It was a fast read (for me anyway, it takes me forever to read books). It wasn't laugh-out-loud but there were enough moments and lots of things I think were "inside joke" funny. ( )