Year 2 - Day 177 - June 27

Today's another true summer vacation day - minus the summery sunshine. We went swimming this morning, but got to the pool just as it thundered. There was no rain and no more thunder so eventually they did let us get in. He swam laps in the regular pool, I opted for the smaller but warmer therapy pool. They keep it at 90 and it's salt water instead of chlorine, so it's pretty much built for me. After exhausting myself (how did I survive all those morning swim practices of my childhood in a colder, longer, pool!?!) I read while he finished. This is the One Book One Maryland title for 2011, so I figured I should jump on the bandwagon.

The main character, Junior, decides that rather than attend the local school on the reservation, he's going to go miles and miles away to the white school in a local town. It's a hard decision because the new school doesn't embrace him with open arms but he doesn't feel welcome on the reservation either. In addition to the regular high school stresses and pressures, Junior has to deal with the realities of reservation life - alcoholism, abuse, and loss. It's a really good current day coming of age story, but I'm sure that plenty of people are going to be annoyed and hate it due to the language and things the main character talks about. There's a ton of bad and crude language, but I think it's all pretty realistic because it's a 14 year old boy who is using it. There's also violence but it's almost always related to alcohol use. I'm interested to see what people have to say about it when the One Book One Maryland events begin!