The 100th new book I’ve read in 2007 is The Buffalo Tree by Adam Rapp. I reviewed this book for work, for our VOICES program, and although definitely not appropiate to be included in an educational curriculum, I was sucked in. The narrator is twelve-year-old Sura, one of the few white people in a juvenille detention home. Although the author never comes out and says anything, I gather the book is set in the 1970s. There are references to roller-skating and cars from the ’70s, as well as the afros most of his fellow inmates are sporting.
I loved looking at the world through Sura’s eyes, even if that world was downright horrific at times. Some of his observations and thoughts are so frank they’re funny. There is a lot of language in this book and the slang was hard for me to manage at first, but I think it fits with the flow of the story. I enjoyed it.