An outstanding book that uses humor to talk about hard issues of poverty, early death, and lives without hope. The story of a young Native American boy who crosses over into the white world might be new (I've not read enough native american YA to know), but the bigger issue of keeping a foot in an old culture while putting one in a new one has been done a lot of YA literature. Yet, the voice here is so strong, it seems like the first time this story's unfolded. With comics / drawings adding to the humor, and the circumstances of poverty adding to the tragedy, the tone is perfect. You get so caught up in the story and rooting for Junior that the cliche's (like his sudden emergence for dork to basketball star) seem right.

A strong contender for my Mock Printz vote