I laughed, I cried, I was horrified by this look into reservation life -- but it was a great book.
Fourteen year-old Arnold Spirit, a goofy-looking dork with a pretty good jumpshot, spends his time complaining about life on the Spokane Indian reservation until a teacher pleads with him to want more.
Arnold transfers to a rich white school and immediately becomes as much an outcast in his own community as he is in his new school. He handles the typical teenage indignations and comes out like a champ, but soon faces far more trying ordeals as his home life begins to unravel amidst the alcoholism on the reservation.
Arnold's parents are deeply flawed, but he understands that most of their problems stem from the crushing poverty they have endured.
For a story about a poor teen on an Indian reservation who has an alcoholic father and faces bullies and racism and the deaths of several close realtives, I sure laughed a lot. The cartoons, by Arnold, move the story along and add greatly to the humor..
Although this is a "teen" novel, most adults would appreciate Arnold's triumphs and tribulations.
Winner of the 2007 National Book Award for Young People's Literature.
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