Originally published in 2007 by Little, Brown and Company

The black eye of the month club -- Why chicken means so much to me -- Revenge is my middle name -- Because geometry is not a country somewhere near France -- Hope against hope -- Go means go -- Rowdy sings the blues -- How to fight monsters -- Grandmother gives me some advice -- Tears of a clown -- Halloween -- Slouching toward Thanksgiving -- My sister sends me an E-mail -- Thanksgiving -- Hunger pains -- Rowdy gives me advice about love -- Dance, dance, dance -- Don't trust your computer -- My sister sends me a letter -- Reindeer games -- And a partridge in a pear tree -- Red versus white -- Wake -- Valentine heart -- In like a lion -- Rowdy and I have a long and serious discussion about basketball -- Because Russian guys are not always geniuses -- My final freshman year report card -- Remembering -- Talking about turtles

Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot

600L

Decoding demand: 95 (very high) Semantic demand: 100 (very high) Syntactic demand: 85 (very high) Structure demand: 84 (very high)

National Book Award, 2007