Category: Multicultural
Author: Sherman Alexie
Publisher/Year: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers / 2007
Genre: Multicultural
Awards:
- National Book Award winner (2007)
- School Library Journal's "Best Book of 2007"
- California Young Reader Medal (2010)
Pages: 288pp
Summary: Junior lives on an Indian reservation in Spokane Washington with his dad, mom, sister and grandmother. Life on the rez is pretty dull. Everyone is really poor and the adults are drunk all the time. Junior was born with multiple problems that cause him to get picked on and beat up a lot. He's a smart kid and is excited to start high school. When he sees that the textbook he has to use is so old that was his mom's over thirty years ago he throws the book and it hits his teacher. He's suspended from school and decides to attend the "white" school off the reservation to try and change his destiny. Everyone hates him: the whites won't accept him and the Indians on the rez are mad at him for turning his back on them. Even his best friend wants to beat him up.
Comments: This was a book I could not put down. Junior is very sarcastic but tells a good story. He likes to draw comics so the book is full of them and that just adds to the message. There is excitement and sadness and even a little romance. It was an easy read and I loved how it ended. I also learned a lot about the problems American Indians face today.
Classroom Application:
Lexile: 600L
Age: 12-17 years old
This would be great to use in a Social Studies class when studying about American history and American Indians. I think it would just be a great book to read for enjoyment or book clubs. It wou;d be fun to start a "diary" or journal similar to Junior's with sketches and little vignettes.
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