Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Genre: Young Adult
Pages: 288
Challenges: Young Adult, TBR Challenge
New-to-me Author: Yes
Simple Description:
Junior, or Arnold Spirit, is a 14 year old boy who lives on an Indian reservation. He gets picked on by everyone but his best friend. He is smart but that doesn't really mean anything. Nobody on the reservation goes to college, they spend their time getting drunk. They don't have the means or the money to go to college, even if they wanted to.
Then things change. It'st he first day of school and Arnold is excited because he gets to start math class and he likes math. When he opens up his new math book he finds his Mom's name on the inside. The book is so old, his Mom used it in school. He gets frustrated and throws the book, hitting the teacher in the head. Later when the teacher comes to Arnold's house to talk to him about it, he tells Arnold that he is smart and suggests he go to a school off the reservation.
Arnold decides to do this even though he knows it means the other Indians will treat him even worse than they already do. He has some problems becoming adjusted to life at the white school. There are several deaths that Arnold deals with as well.
Now what you really want to know....my thoughts:
I thought this was a wonderful YA book. It touches on several subjects regarding Indian life. It also touches on one kid being very un-popular and not standing out, to slowly making friends and getting people to believe in him and like him for who he is. One thing to note is that Arnold likes to draw comics about things going on in his life. The fun thing with this book is that there are some illustrations, they are the comics that Arnold draws. I feel this enhances the book and fits in well with the story.
I definitely recommend this one to those who enjoy young adult books. I give this one 4 out of 5 stars.
This book is part of my collection and was either bought or given to me.
6 comments:
This book has been on my radar and my wish list for a while - I'm glad to see you enjoyed it.
I hope you like this one too..whenever you get it. I'm glad I waited to read it, I kept hearing great things about it and I think by waiting to do it I forgot why people liked it or just how much they liked it, so I wasn't disappointed.
I've been curious about this one, but keep going back and forth about whether to read it. Your review's convinced me I should give it a try, Kris.
Literary Feline - oh boy..I hope you like it then!
Oh I forgot about this book for a while! Thanks for posting about it. gonna add it to my wishlist. :) I've heard many times what a wonderful book it is.
Josette - I have had it on my shelf for awhile but kept forgetting about it too. lol! I hope you enjoy it whenever you end up getting a copy.
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