Status
Available
Publication
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (2009), Edition: Reprint, 229 pages
Library's review
Alexie nimbly blends sharp wit with unapologetic emotion in his first foray into young-adult literature.
Fourteen-year-old Junior is a cartoonist and bookworm with a violent but protective best friend Rowdy. Soon after they start freshman year, Junior boldly transfers from a school on the Spokane
Junior’s keen cartoons sprinkle the pages as his fluid narration deftly mingles raw feeling with funny, sardonic insight. (Fiction. YA)
-Kirkus Review
Fourteen-year-old Junior is a cartoonist and bookworm with a violent but protective best friend Rowdy. Soon after they start freshman year, Junior boldly transfers from a school on the Spokane
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reservation to one in a tiny white town 22 miles away. Despite his parents’ frequent lack of gas money (they’re a “poor-ass family”), racism at school and many crushing deaths at home, he manages the year. Rowdy rejects him, feeling betrayed, and their competing basketball teams take on mammoth symbolic proportions. The reservation’s poverty and desolate alcoholism offer early mortality and broken dreams, but Junior’s knowledge that he must leave is rooted in love and respect for his family and the Spokane tribe. He also realizes how many other tribes he has, from “the tribe of boys who really miss . . . their best friends” to “the tribe of tortilla chips-and-salsa lovers.”Junior’s keen cartoons sprinkle the pages as his fluid narration deftly mingles raw feeling with funny, sardonic insight. (Fiction. YA)
-Kirkus Review
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Subjects
Awards
National Book Award (Finalist — Young People's Literature — 2007)
Boston Globe–Horn Book Award (Winner — Fiction & Poetry — 2008)
Soaring Eagle Book Award (Nominee — 2010)
Sequoyah Book Award (Nominee — High School — 2010)
LA Times Book Prize (Finalist — Young Adult Literature — 2007)
BCCB Blue Ribbon Book (2007)
Eliot Rosewater Indiana High School Book Award (Nominee — 2010)
Kentucky Bluegrass Award (Nominee — Grades 9-12 — 2009)
Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice Award (Nominee — Young Adult — 2010)
Pacific Northwest Library Association Young Reader's Choice Award (Nominee — 2010)
Great Lakes Great Books Award (Winner — 2009)
Iowa Teen Award (Nominee — 2010)
Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award (Winner — 2008)
Indies Choice Book Award (Honor Book — Children's Literature — 2008)
Green Mountain Book Award (Nominee — 2010)
Thumbs Up! Award (Honor — 2008)
Lincoln Award: Illinois Teen Readers' Choice Award (Nominee — 2011)
South Dakota Teen Choice Book Awards (Nominee — 2010)
Grand Canyon Reader Award (Recommended — 2010)
Colorado Blue Spruce Award (Nominee — 2009)
California Young Reader Medal (Nominee — 2010)
Florida Teens Read Award (Nominee — 2010)
NCSLMA Battle of the Books (High School — 2018)
Odyssey Award (Winner — 2009)
Delete Key Award (Finalist — 2008)
The White Ravens (2008)
Georgia Peach Book Award for Teen Readers (Nominee — 2009)
Rhode Island Teen Book Award (Nominee — 2009)
CYBILS Awards (Finalist — Young Adult Fiction — 2007)
National Parenting Product Awards (Winner — 2007)
Peter Pan Award (Winner — 2009)
James Cook Teen Book Award (Honor Book — 2009)
American Indian Youth Literature Award (Winner — Picture Book — 2008)
Best Fiction for Young Adults (Selection — 2008)
CCBC Choices (2008)
Capitol Choices Noteworthy Book for Children and Teens (Audiobooks — 2009)
Great Reads from Great Places (Washington — 2008)
Books From All 50 States (and Washington, D.C.!) (Washington)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2007-09-12
ISBN
9780316013697
UPC
884829688034