Sherman Alexi sure can write. This is the fourth book of his that I've read and, like the other three, it made me feel all the emotions. It's an easy read, but will stay with you long after you've finished. The only thing that prevents me from giving this book five stars is the amount of cop love. ( )

I hate Sherman Alexie. I started reading this book to my son*. I mean, what could go wrong? I liked other books of his. It had good reviews, was about a teen boy. But somewhere in the first chapter I had to stop, I was embarrassed to be reading it, I had to constantly substitute better word choices.
And I remembered talking my mother into going to see Alexie talk at UW-SP: a great writer and we have a chance to hear him in person! I was so embarrassed. I think he was drunk or wired, or maybe his life was falling apart but he had to go thru with his contract to speak. He used all kinds of 4-letter words and spent most of the time talking about sex. Maybe he thought that's what college students wanted to hear.
Then I finally had an evening when I didn't have to be a parent, so what else would I do but finish reading the book. And it tore my heart open. This strong, tough, half-breed kid named Zits is learning that fighting back is no answer, that we are all one blood under the skin, that love is painful and we'll likely get hurt, that really there is no other choice if we want to live.

*my son is 38, blind, has autism and not the high-functioning kind, loves to hear stories, and probably understands much more than people think he does. I want him to learn about the world beyond his reach, but I don't really want him to learn about the ugliness. ( )

Three pages in, I was prepared not to like this book. It had all the indications of being a Catcher In The Rye-type novel, and I have no great love for that book. I stuck with it, however, and soon I realized that Alexie had a far different story to tell that was much larger than the angst of his teenage protagonist, Zits. He keeps it edgy without being obnoxious, and the questions that the book invokes are never fully answered but you realize at the end that it matters not. Here is an author that understands that violence is perhaps a universal potential that we conveniently put in racial and ethnic boxes when it suits us to think better of ourselves. Fantastic book! ( )

Fifteen year-old Zits has been placed in twenty-one foster homes since he was six, when his mother died. The string of foster parents has ranged from indifferent to abusive, and an assault on his latest foster mother lands Zits in a cell, where he meets an older boy named Justice. For the first time in years Zits has a friend, someone who cares for him and looks out for him, though the reader knows to be wary of Justice. This manipulative friend leads Zits to a strange series of awakenings that explore Native American and White relations in American history.
A thought-provoking book that addresses race and the foster care system, while also switching the main character back and forth from victim to victimizer. ( )

Zits becomes Michael. It was very clever when armed and trained by Justice, Zits goes into the bank and a man says to him, "You aren't real" or something to that effect. He then walks in the shoes several different people, including his father. Then he is back in himself. Back at the bank. He is not going to shoot these people. Yes, his life has been unfair but he doesn't have to take it out on everyone else around him. He grows up. He gets fostered by people who want him and Zits becomes Michael. I always hoped that somewhere along the way that Michael goes to Tachoma and finds his Dad. ( )