Synopses & Reviews
This is an exceptional poetry collection written by Lakota students in the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth grades at Red Cloud Indian School on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. The historic school was founded in 1888 at the request of Chief Red Cloud of the Oglala Lakota. The poems enable readers to learn about the unique lives and heritage of students growing up in such distinctive circumstances and straddling cultures. The collection was compiled by a teacher at the school, working with school administrators, and contains never-before-published artworks by award-winning artist S. D. Nelson.
Praise for Walking on Earth and Touching the Sky
STARRED REVIEW
"This is an important collection that offers opportunities for insight into a culture that has too often been either ignored or misunderstood."
--Booklist, starred review
"A moving, fascinating glimpse across cultures. Vivid, polychromatic illustrations by Nelson accompany the studentsand#8217; evocative works." --Kirkus Reviews
"As a collection, the poems present an interesting, eye-opening look at the Lakota culture, which is one that is often overlooked. The paintings by S.D. Nelson are gorgeous and vibrant."
--Library Media Connection
Awards:
New York Public Libraryand#8217;s Children's Books 2012: 100 Books for Reading and Sharing list
HONORABLE MENTION - 2012 Aesop Accolade, American Folklore Society
Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People 2013
Review
"The line between dramatic monologue, verse novel, and standup comedy gets unequivocally and hilariously and triumphantly bent in this novel about coming of age on the rez....Junior's spirit...is unquenchable, and his style inimitable..." Horn Book
Review
"The teen's determination to both improve himself and overcome poverty, despite the handicaps of birth, circumstances, and race, delivers a positive message in a low-key manner." School Library Journal
Review
"Alexie nimbly blends sharp wit with unapologetic emotion in his first foray into young-adult literature." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Alexie's humor and prose are easygoing and well suited to his young audience, and he doesn't pull many punches as he levels his eye at stereotypes both warranted and inapt....Younger teens looking for the strength to lift themselves out of rough situations would do well to start here." Booklist
Synopsis
In his first book for young adults, bestselling author Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot. Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is based on the author's own experiences, coupled with poignant drawings by acclaimed artist Ellen Forney, that reflect the character's art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he was destined to live.
Synopsis
Bestselling author Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation, with a foreword from Jaqueline Woodson.Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.
Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is based on the author's own experiences, coupled with poignant drawings by Ellen Forney that reflect the character's art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he was destined to live.
With a forward by Markus Zusak, interviews with Sherman Alexie and Ellen Forney, and four-color interior art throughout, this edition is perfect for fans and collectors alike.
Synopsis
A New York Times bestseller Over one million copies sold
A National Book Award winner
A Boston Globe-Horn Book Award winner Bestselling author Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.
Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is based on the author's own experiences, coupled with poignant drawings by Ellen Forney that reflect the character's art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he was destined to live.
With a forward by Markus Zusak, interviews with Sherman Alexie and Ellen Forney, and black and white interior art throughout, this edition is perfect for fans and collectors alike.
Synopsis
Based on the author's own experiences, this first young adult novel by bestselling author Alexie features poignant drawings by acclaimed artist Ellen Forney that reflect the character's art as it chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy attempting to break away from the life he was destined to live.
Synopsis
With frizzy orange hair, a plus-sized body, sarcastic demeanor, and "unique learning profile," Danielle Levine doesn't fit in even at her alternative high school. While navigating her doomed social life, she writes scathing, self-aware, and sometimes downright raunchy essays for English class. As a result of her unfiltered writing style, she is forced to see the school psychologist and enroll in a "social skills" class. But when she meets Daniel, another social misfit who is obsessed with the cult classic film The Big Lebowski, Danielle's resolve to keep everyone at arm's length starts to crumble.
Synopsis
In her sixteen years of life, Starbird has never touched a dollar bill. Shes never been in a car. Shes never used a cell phone. Thats because Starbird has always lived on the Free Family Farm, a commune in the woods of Washington State. But all that is about to change. When Starbird gets her Calling” to be a waitress at the Free Familys restaurant in Seattle, she decides to leave behind the only home shes ever known. Nothing could have prepared Starbird for the World Outside, or for what it would teach her about the Familyand herself. From the author of The Sweet Revenge of Celia Door comes this hilarious and poignant story about finding your true calling in life.
Synopsis
A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist's memoir, in the spirit of Richard Rodriquezs
Hunger for Memory and Nathan McCalls
Makes Me Wanna Holler—an intimate look at the mythology, experience, and psyche of the Asian American male
Synopsis
An award-winning writer takes a groundbreaking look at the experience and psyche of the Asian American male. Alex Tizon landed in an America that saw Asian women as sexy and Asian men as sexless. Immigrating from the Philippines as a young boy, everything he saw and heard taught him to be ashamed of his face, his skin color, his height. His fierce and funny observations of sex and the Asian American male include his own quest for love during college in the 1980s, a tortured tutorial on stereotypes that still make it hard for Asian men to get the girl. Tizon writes: "I had to educate myself on my own worth. It was a sloppy, piecemeal education, but I had to do it because no one else was going to do it for me." And then, a transformation. First, Tizons growing understanding that shame is universal: that his own just happened to be about race. Next, seismic cultural changes - from Jerry Yangs phenomenal success with Yahoo! Inc., to actor Ken Watanabes emergence in Hollywood blockbusters, to Jeremy Lins meteoric NBA rise. Finally, Tizons deeply original, taboo-bending investigation turns outward, tracking the unheard stories of young Asian men today, in a landscape still complex but much changed for the Asian American man.
Synopsis
Ferris Bueller meets La Femme Nikita in this funny, action-packed young adult novel. Its prom night—and Perry just wants to stick to his own plan and finally play a muchanticipated
gig with his band in the Big Apple. But when his mother makes him take Gobija Zaksauskas—their quiet, geeky Lithuanian exchange student—to the prom, he never expects that his ordinary high school guy life will soon turn on its head. Perry finds that Gobi is on a mission, and Perry has no other choice but to go along for a reckless ride through Manhattans concrete grid with a trained assassin in Dads red Jag.
Infused with capers, car chases, heists, hits, henchmen, and even a bear fight, this story mixes romance, comedy, and tragedy in a true teen coming-of-age adventure—and its not over until its “au revoir.”
Synopsis
Double crossings, kidnappings, CIA agents, arms dealers, boat chases in Venetian canals, and a shoot out in the middle of a Santa Claus convention ensue in this laugh out-loud action packed sequel to the critically acclaimed Au Revoir Crazy European Chick.
Synopsis
When Perry ends up in Venice on a European tour with his band Inchworm, he cant resist a visit to Harrys Bar, where Gobi told him shed meet him someday. The last time he saw Gobi, five people were assassinated one crazy night in New York City. Well . . . Gobi shows up, and once again Perry is roped into a wild, nonstop thrill ride with a body count. Double crossings, kidnappings, CIA agents, arms dealers, boat chases in Venetian canals, and a shootout in the middle of a Santa Claus convention ensue.
About the Author
A National Book Award-winning author, poet, and filmmaker, Sherman has been named one of Granta's Best Young American Novelists and has been lauded by The Boston Globe as "an important voice in American literature." He is one of the most well known and beloved literary writers of his generation, with works such as The Long Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven and Reservation Blues and has received numerous awards and citations, including the PEN/Malamud Award for Fiction and the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Award.
Table of Contents
Killing Magellan 1
Land of the Giants 23
Orientals 43
Seeking Hot Asian Babes 63
Babes, Continued 81
Asian Boy 93
Tiny Men on the Big Screen 111
Its Color Was Its Size 129
Getting Tall 143
Wen Wu 159
Yellow Tornado 177
“What Men Are Supposed To Do” 197
“One of Us, Not One of Us” 209
Big Little Fighter 223
Authors Note 245
Acknowledgments 249
Selected Sources 251