Front and Center (Catherine Gilbert Murdock)

Title: Front and Center

Author: Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Length: 256

Rating: 4.5/5

After Dairy Queen and The Off Season, D.J. Schwenk is back, and hoping to fade back into the background. She just wants to be plain old DJ again, but everyone in her life has a different idea. Like her brother Win, and college scouts, and her basketball coach. And for some reason, as hard as she tries, D.J. can’t stop thinking about Brian Nelson. So as much as she wants to be in the background, it seems an unlikely fate for D.J.

I loved the first and second book so much, you know I started reading this one the minute The Off Season’s audio book finished. My only complaint with the early books is that D.J. was a little too shy and naïve about the world. But in this third book, D.J. is forced to face the future and what it might hold for her. Already grown up so much more from the events in the second book, the questions D.J. must answer in Front and Center really make her grow as a person, and will make the reader love her all the more as a character.

This entire trilogy is great for readers of all ages and comes highly recommended!

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Sherman Alexie)

Title: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Author: Sherman Alexie

Publisher: Hachette Book Group

Length: audio book: 5 hours

Rating: 4.5/5

Born dirt-poor on the Spokane Indian reservation with water on the brain, Arnold “Junior” Spirit emerges disadvantaged. But despite his alcoholic parents, recluse sister, violent best friend, and lopsided body used as target practice for many feet, this book-loving, comic-drawing narrator refuses to give up on his sizable dreams. He realizes that he can only fulfill his dreams if he leaves the reservation, so he transfers to Reardan High School, where he is the only non-white kid, and in doing so, becomes the most hated person on the rez.

Hearing all sorts of good reviews about this book, I picked it up in audio form for a road trip. You may remember that I usually dislike audio books, but this one was wonderful! The semi-autobiographical tale is narrated by the author himself, and his voice is full of humor, heart-break, and it perfectly captures the trials of a part-time Indian. Alone in my car, I laughed, I cried, and I felt like I really got to know Arnold and his many plights. The only thing I missed were the hand-drawn cartoons scattered throughout the physical version of the book (but a quick flip through a book story copy made it all better). Both the audio and regular book are definitely worth your time.

This book covered a lot of serious topics, but boy was it funny! It was very refreshing to read a book that didn’t take itself so seriously, yet dealt with serious subjects like racism and death. I learned a lot about Indian culture, and white culture too, as Arnold navigated both as an exile and an immigrant. And even though I’d read about basketball, first love, and friendship before, everything in Alexie’s voice seemed fresh and new and funny.

Is it too cliché to say “a wonderful addition to YA literature”? Well too bad, I just said it.