Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com

Average Customer Rating:

Very Creative and Clever

Customer Rating:

I can see why this book has been winning awards. It is very creative and clever and Mr. Alexie is a very good writer. Except for the more mature language, I think it could have been a middle-grade novel (instead of young adult), because it seems almost more geered to a younger audience. But it is a good read and I am certain that whatever audience finds it will be grateful for Sherman Alexie's creation. There is a scene early on about his dog that struck me as I read it as profound and gutsy writing. The truth of it registered in my solar plexus. I kept waiting to be touched like that again but the book seemed to take more of a comic approach after that. Perhaps that's a good thing.

Wonderfully thought provoking

Customer Rating:

Good books are often challenging and provoke wonderful - if not always easy - conversations. This one certainly fit that bill and gave me a chance to talk to my son about topics that are sometimes hard to bring up. (Poverty, racism, privilege, sexuality, etc.) I've been a fan of Sherman Alexie for several years, so was very excited when he wrote a YA book just before my son was ready for it. I read it first as I usually do, and decided to hold it back a year and let him read it at the end of 7th grade when he was developmentally ready for it. (Different for each child.) But before he read it we talked about the language and situations depicted. (Criticized by some reviewers.) It was a good chance to talk about how we could read a book and be impacted by it, learn from it, enjoy it, get swept up in it, even be changed by it - but know that it is not okay to behave like characters in it. If you are, or know, a teen who enjoyed this book but are looking for a more challenging reading level, Alexie's "Flight" might be a good next step.

Great Book for Teens	Customer Rating:
This was a really great book. Reminiscent of JD Salinger, John Knowles, SE Hinton... Great stuff. If I were I teenager again, I think I would read this over and over.

Not Child Friendly!!!!	Customer Rating:
I am very upset this book is being recommended for children-I bought it for my son because of the "glowing reviews". I read it after he did and was appalled to find the "f"word in the book and lots of talk of masturbating!!! I will throw it in the trash just to be sure no other child gets his hands on it!

the many disadvantages

Customer Rating:

How many disadvantages can one person overcome? Junior, the narrator of this book, overcomes several disabilities at birth, and then must overcome the physical manifestations of those disabilities (oversize head, lisp, stutter, etc.) for the rest of his life. On top of that he faces the disadvantages that come with being a member of the Spokane Indian tribe: poverty, endemic alcoholism, and general hopelessness. But Junior is a determined and very smart kid. Taking the advice of one of his teachers at the reservation school, Junior decides to attend the white school 22 miles away. Here he overcomes the disadvantages of prejudice at his new school and the fact that many people on the reservation, including his erstwhile best friend, consider him a traitor. The story of overcoming so many disadvantages could easily become trite. But not in the hands of Sherman Alexie. In this semiautobiographical novel, Alexie gives his narrator such an engaging voice (not to mention Ellen Forney's drawings) that there is nothing trite about this book. This story rings true no matter what culture you come from, or what your personal disadvantages may be.