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 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

A fine book! So glad it’s on many high school reading lists. I saw the author speak a few months ago so I felt like I was hearing his voice as I was reading. ( )

This has been on my to-read list for a while, and I'm glad I finally got to it. I liked Arnold Spirit's voice a lot, although at first I wasn't sure what made this worthy of multiple awards. Seemed pretty straightforward to me. As I got further into the book, and Arnold's conflict with loyalty and belonging became more complicated, I started to see what was special about this book. There were some wonderful turns of phrase as the book progressed. I especially liked what he said to his teacher about there only really being two tribes in the world.

A good read. I plan to check out more of Alexie's work. ( )

I love the way Alexis writes. Wasn’t thrilled with the narrative voice, but it was pretty effective given the subjects - racism, alcoholism, suicide, racial tensions. ( )

Hilarious and also very emotional at times. Junior was a warrior dealing with not only racism, being poor, bullying and feeling obligated to his community, but also the effects & consequences of the deadliest drug in the US.

I am glad he eventually was able to get out of the Black-Eye-of-the-Month Club.

"So I draw because I want to talk to the world. And I want the world to pay attention to me. I feel important with a pen in my hand. I feel like I might grow up to be somebody important. An artist. Maybe a famous artist. Maybe a rich artist." Arnold Spirit Jr. ( )