Unexpected

Sometimes it is good to blog in the moment so I don't lose some of the thoughts that are rattling around in my brain. I do think that when so much can happen in any given day (work, commute, meals, kids, sports, cats, laundry, food shopping, friends, Facebook) if you don't stop to reflect for a few moments, you can truly lose so much as it just becomes a bit of white noise in your life.

This was a great YA book.  It seems that there have been many more YA books peppered in to my daily reading in the last few years. I am so grateful I opened my eyes and my heart to different books.

I never thought that the first time I read about someone with hydrocephalus it would be in a book such as this.  First line in the book essentially talks about this kids' water on the brain and how he was lucky to be alive.  And then life moved on.

Isn't that just the thing? Life is complex. Life is many things.  At one point, our main character comes to realize that he may be a Spokane Indian, and more nomadic than his peers, he is also part of the people that love basketball, and comics, and reading.  This is a book about community, and growing up poor and Indian and on the rez, and how it can be such a terrible cycle to break to get out of a life without hope and to get farther than two miles from where you are born. I did some googling, and apparently this book is BANNED in some schools! THIS IS A GREAT read!! It is a coming of age novel that tackles some pretty heavy topics, but isn't that life? We cannot pretend for our kids that crappy things don't happen.  We can't put our kids in plastic bubble wrap and think they will never get hurt, or their heart's broken.  We need to build resilience.  Foster hope.  Encourage joy.  Keep them curious.  This is a great book and would be an interesting addition to grade 8 - 10 curriculum, especially from a different perspective that we don't always hear from.

So many different things you could say about this book.  I enjoyed it.  I thought so, until I read the first few lines, wigged out a bit, slept on it, and carried on.  I laughed, and I ached for this poor kid.  Human experiences, I think we can all relate to a part of a book like this.