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Jul 05, 2018DorisWaggoner rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
This young adult novel is highly autobiographical, giving us the 14th year in the life of "Junior," a poor Indian kid growing up on the Spokane Indian Rez, as he's careful to call it. Junior knows he's smart, likes being smart, but doesn't know what to do with his brains. He has only one friend, also an outcast on the Rez. Until they become enemies, which tears both of them apart. Junior gets some good advice from a teacher at the Rez school--go to the nearest white high school, where he'll not only get a better education, but be able to play basketball on a better team. Heart in mouth, Junior goes, with the backing of his parents and beloved grandma. There he learns what "tribe" he really belongs to, and in the following summer becomes friends again with his on again off again friend. The tone is just right, very funny, very emotional, and the cartoons by Ellen Fourney add immensely to both. A young friend of mine saw the book in my apartment and kept commenting on it. She'd read it in her high school, which was near a different Reservation. She said it was "quick and easy to read, but with a lot of important stuff you had to tease out of it." I've more recently read Alexie's memoir of his mother, which I think is why I gave this one a lot fewer stars. At my friend's age, I'd have given it 5 too.