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Apple: (Skin to the Core)
by
How about a book that makes you barge into your boss' office to recite a page of poetry from? That you dream of? That every movie, song, book, moment that follows continues to evoke in some way?
The term Apple is a slur in Native communities across the country. It's for someone supposedly red on the outside, white on the inside.
Eric Gansworth is telling his story in Apple ( ...more
The term Apple is a slur in Native communities across the country. It's for someone supposedly red on the outside, white on the inside.
Eric Gansworth is telling his story in Apple ( ...more
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Audiobook, Audible Edition
Published
October 6th 2020
by Dreamscape Media
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Start your review of Apple: (Skin to the Core)
This is the third book written-in-verse that I have read this year, and the format has yet to disappoint me!
Apple: Skin to the Core is a memoir recounting the author's experiences, identity and family history in an engaging and often beautiful way. As a white Australian, I was ignorant to many aspects of Native American culture and history. Even the significance of the title and cover were unbeknownst to be when I began, signifying a slur used in Native communities for someone who is "red on th ...more
Apple: Skin to the Core is a memoir recounting the author's experiences, identity and family history in an engaging and often beautiful way. As a white Australian, I was ignorant to many aspects of Native American culture and history. Even the significance of the title and cover were unbeknownst to be when I began, signifying a slur used in Native communities for someone who is "red on th ...more
Stunning, powerful, breathtaking. Make room on your shelf because you’re going to want a copy of your own.
I received a copy of this work on audiobook via as part of their advanced listener copy program.
Recommended for fans of memoirs and novels told in verse. I will say what Gansworth says at the beginning of this: this story isn't for you. It's a life story steeped in reclaiming a history and a present. It is both specific to Gansworth's experience as an Onondaga living amongst Tuscaroras, but gives a lot of insight and context to the Indigenous experience in the US.
This is connected by its forma ...more
Recommended for fans of memoirs and novels told in verse. I will say what Gansworth says at the beginning of this: this story isn't for you. It's a life story steeped in reclaiming a history and a present. It is both specific to Gansworth's experience as an Onondaga living amongst Tuscaroras, but gives a lot of insight and context to the Indigenous experience in the US.
This is connected by its forma ...more
Printz Honor 2021
Important perspective, and the historical context is interesting. Poetry left me completely cold and disengaged. I'd argue there is hardly a teen that will be moved by this work. ...more
Important perspective, and the historical context is interesting. Poetry left me completely cold and disengaged. I'd argue there is hardly a teen that will be moved by this work. ...more
Apple by Eric Gansworth is a memoir on growing up into Native American culture and dealing with the racism that comes with it. It's written in verse which I love books that are written that way but since this was an audiobook, I wasn't really able to experience it the way it was written. I think I would have preferred reading this rather than listening but that's okay. Gansworth narrates his own book which puts a personal touch on it. Overall, I liked this and thought it was eye-opening as well
...more
I just finished this manuscript (Gansworth's memoir in words and pictures--a book in verse). I genuinely don't think my life will ever be the same. This is one of the best books I've ever read.
...more
Hmm. I really love Eric Gansworth's YA fiction, so I was excited to pick up his memoir in verse. I'm maybe not sure who the audience here is? It's published as a YA memoir but to me, I feel like it would have more appeal to older people who can relate more directly to Gansworth's love of the Beatles? There are a lot of Beatles references woven throughout this book. But the Beatles aren't exactly obscure?
Also like, poetry isn't super my thing but this didn't exactly feel like poems to me, for the ...more
Also like, poetry isn't super my thing but this didn't exactly feel like poems to me, for the ...more
Apple is an amazing memoir in verse about Eric Gansworth’s time growing up in an Onondaga family living on a Tuscarora reservation. He details how his grandparents were taken away to boarding schools by the US government to try and strip them of their culture and how the impact of that carried over through generations.
Something I’ve discovered that I really like is when people use pop culture in their memoirs to show ideas they were learning and how they impacted them. Gansworth uses Beatles so ...more
Something I’ve discovered that I really like is when people use pop culture in their memoirs to show ideas they were learning and how they impacted them. Gansworth uses Beatles so ...more
I enjoyed this a lot! The author-narrated audiobook was great (I listened at 1.5-1.75x speed) and I really enjoyed Gansworth's free verse.
Content Warnings: (view spoiler)
...more
Content Warnings: (view spoiler)
...more
Feb 20, 2020
Alicia
rated it
it was ok
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
politics-justice,
novel-in-verse,
male,
biography-memoir,
nonfiction,
family,
amexperience,
voices
I don't see this as being a YA memoir and for my students, it would be a hard sell. There's nothing particularly memorable about the choice to write in verse. Actually I don't think the verse does Gansworth's memoir justice at all and would have likely been more comfortable reading it narratively (or even as a graphic novel).
Likewise, Gansworth's choices in iconic moments of his life to highlight aren't told in a particularly riveting way, instead the historical perspective that he provides abo ...more
Likewise, Gansworth's choices in iconic moments of his life to highlight aren't told in a particularly riveting way, instead the historical perspective that he provides abo ...more
Thank you to Libro.FM for an ALC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
I cannot recommend this book enough. I've made it a goal of mine to read more Indigenous lit in 2021. And I am so happy to have read this book. Gansworth's poetry is lyrical and imaginative, every poem easily painted a picture in my head. He also did a great job narrating.
This story is about identity and how as a Onondaga family living among Tuscaroras, identities can be lost and changed. Gansworth also t ...more
I cannot recommend this book enough. I've made it a goal of mine to read more Indigenous lit in 2021. And I am so happy to have read this book. Gansworth's poetry is lyrical and imaginative, every poem easily painted a picture in my head. He also did a great job narrating.
This story is about identity and how as a Onondaga family living among Tuscaroras, identities can be lost and changed. Gansworth also t ...more
I don't typically rate memoirs, so that's why there's no rating. Still, this was incredible and I highly recommend, especially if you like poetry!
...more
Apple is a memoir written in the format of verse poetry. It follows Eric as he traces his family’s heritage through generations. From recounting his grandfather’s experiences at a boarding school for Indigenous peoples they were forced to attend by the government to Eric’s poverty growing up, the reader gets a glimpse into the lasting impact colonialism has left on the First Nations people. This work reflects on the suffering endured by the Indigenous peoples and how they have worked to overcome
...more
"..but I am hypnotized by this gathering of these dead presidents who wiped out most of my ancestors..."
This is my first memoir written in verse and I have to say that I enjoyed how it was laid out. I love the references to the Beatles, superheroes and pop culture aspects of his childhood that were interwoven with historical facts of the oppressive situations the Onondaga faced. However I wish I would have read this instead of listened to it. The narration is choppy and I felt it took away from ...more
This is my first memoir written in verse and I have to say that I enjoyed how it was laid out. I love the references to the Beatles, superheroes and pop culture aspects of his childhood that were interwoven with historical facts of the oppressive situations the Onondaga faced. However I wish I would have read this instead of listened to it. The narration is choppy and I felt it took away from ...more
Another book that I highly recommend, this memoir is about a Native American guy who grows up in the 60's and 70's on a reservation, and his (early) life and experience being indigenous, but also being part of a community that is perpetually trying to be assimilated and whose culture is trying to be erased. It's called Apple because that is an insult that is used for Native Americans who are "red on the outside, white on the inside." I liked this book because it was written in verse, and it also
...more
Valuable as a YA book (might be better for those on the older end to understand some of the references) - but do not think it should be limited at any in the YA ranger AND adults
I started reading this well before the YMAs were announced, and while I can understand why it was selected for a Printz honor, I just didn't care for it at all. It took me 3 weeks to slog through it, which is an eternity for me.
...more
Thank you to both Levine Querido Publishing for an Advanced Readers Copy and Libro FM for an Advanced Listeners Copy of this book.
I really enjoyed this.
Despite being from a different generation, Indigenous Entity and geographic location, I found myself relating to the experiences Gansworth talks about in this memoir.
From Commod mac and cheese (despite having the funds to not have to choose this dish, we do so out of nostalgia) to calling a reservation home but still being treated as an "outside ...more
I really enjoyed this.
Despite being from a different generation, Indigenous Entity and geographic location, I found myself relating to the experiences Gansworth talks about in this memoir.
From Commod mac and cheese (despite having the funds to not have to choose this dish, we do so out of nostalgia) to calling a reservation home but still being treated as an "outside ...more
2nd time around: Reread this to prep for a review I'm writing on it...sometimes it is just all about the timing because I really liked this the first time around but this reread of it just FLOORED me. I'm going to teach this in Studies in Young Adult Lit next quarter. It needs to be experienced.
1st time around: A powerful memoir told in a structure that wow'ed me. Sure, memoir in verse is nothing new these days, but I really appreciated Gansworth's experimentation with form--his choice to paral ...more
1st time around: A powerful memoir told in a structure that wow'ed me. Sure, memoir in verse is nothing new these days, but I really appreciated Gansworth's experimentation with form--his choice to paral ...more
I found the poetry sophomoric.
The experiences told are reminiscent of the stories told in other memoirs by Indigenous People.
My favorite part was the liner notes.
The experiences told are reminiscent of the stories told in other memoirs by Indigenous People.
My favorite part was the liner notes.
Free ALC received in exchange for a review from Libro.fm
Shout out to @erins_library and her great review for giving me the nudge to listen to Apple (Skin to the Core) sooner rather than later! I really enjoyed this one, the latest in my mini binge of books in verse. I think I've decided that for memoirs told in verse, audiobooks read by the author are the way to go! However, the print edition of this book does also appeal, since Gansworth also incorporates illustrations and photos to tell his st ...more
Shout out to @erins_library and her great review for giving me the nudge to listen to Apple (Skin to the Core) sooner rather than later! I really enjoyed this one, the latest in my mini binge of books in verse. I think I've decided that for memoirs told in verse, audiobooks read by the author are the way to go! However, the print edition of this book does also appeal, since Gansworth also incorporates illustrations and photos to tell his st ...more
I bookmarked so many pages that my book began to look like a collection of sticky notes and assorted papers, but I was really struck by these stanzas:
“As we stare at this station. Image, we realize that even on color tv,/Indians are frozen in the past, designed for a black and white world/instead of the brightly colored one where we live together, and breathe/current air, feeding trees and taking oxygen from them, an exchange/we did for centuries before others arrived, claiming new borders,/ an ...more
“As we stare at this station. Image, we realize that even on color tv,/Indians are frozen in the past, designed for a black and white world/instead of the brightly colored one where we live together, and breathe/current air, feeding trees and taking oxygen from them, an exchange/we did for centuries before others arrived, claiming new borders,/ an ...more
Gansworth's writing is beautiful. I'm not sure I had read any of his work before this, but I'm going to go back and look at it. This book details his life growing up on a reservation, and his eventual moving away. In some ways he is an outsider on the reservation as well--Tuscarora on Onondaga land. The title of the book refers to someone who is Native on the outside, white on the inside. I wonder if this has to do with the effect of Indian boarding schools on tribes. That experience is also men
...more
Among a stack of other awards Gansworth won a Michael L. Printz Honor Award for this book in January 2021. Written in verse it told a beautiful and heartbreaking story of Gansworth's childhood. Over the years I bought many books for my libraries by Sherman Alexie. I felt that he had a voice that I and my students could hear. In the last few decades many, many native writers have come to the forefront. Gansworth stands strong among these remarkable writers. I will remember images that came to min
...more
Memoir?
Book in verse?
Indigenous author?
Music allusions?
I'm here for all of it. Eric Gansworth's beautiful memoir in verse lived up to the hype, and I cannot wait to share it with students. His life on Dog Street in the Rez reveals so much about challenges faced generations removed from stain that was the Indian Boarding School. This book was heart breaking, heart mending, and full of life and hope and raw emotion that I am so grateful Gansworth shared with readers! ...more
Book in verse?
Indigenous author?
Music allusions?
I'm here for all of it. Eric Gansworth's beautiful memoir in verse lived up to the hype, and I cannot wait to share it with students. His life on Dog Street in the Rez reveals so much about challenges faced generations removed from stain that was the Indian Boarding School. This book was heart breaking, heart mending, and full of life and hope and raw emotion that I am so grateful Gansworth shared with readers! ...more
Feb 07, 2021
Libriar
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
young-adult-nonfiction,
read-in-2021
3.5 I wanted to like this memoir-in-verse more than I did. I liked the actual poetry in the book but I think I would have preferred actual text to tell Gansworth's story. (I also think some of my mental images from his fiction book "If I Ever Get Out of Here" distracted me to the point that I wasn't fully paying attention to this book and making some assumptions from his fiction book. - That's on me.)
...more
I must eventually get my own copy of this book. I listened to Apple: Skin to the Core on audiobook and it's narrated by the author and a devastatingly beautiful listen. But I do want to see the layout of the poetry and the illustrations I've heard are interspersed throughout the story.
This story is so important and heart achingly beautiful. A must read. ...more
This story is so important and heart achingly beautiful. A must read. ...more
This was so good. I had to listen to it slowly as it's not always the happiest read and dealt with family issues, and I have my own family issues I don't want to deal with/face. But wow. What a book.
Also, I really like poetry when it's read to me, and I don't read it to myself. ...more
Also, I really like poetry when it's read to me, and I don't read it to myself. ...more
So, so good. In a collection of poems and essays, Eric Gansworth reflects on his childhood, the lives of his ancestors, and Native life in America. This is definitely thoughtful and poignant reading that's a perfect choice for Native American Heritage Month or any time of year.
...more
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Gansworth is an enrolled citizen of the Onondaga Nation; however, he grew up in the Tuscarora Nation as a descendant of one of two Onondaga women present among the Tuscarora at the foundation of the nation in the 18th century. Gansworth originally qualified in electroencephalography, considered a profession useful to his nation; however, he went on to study literature and to continue a lifelong in
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