Eric Gansworth

How about a book that makes you barge into your boss's office to read 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 (Skin to the Core). The story of his family, of Onondaga among Tuscaroras, of Native folks everywhere. From the horrible legacy of the government boarding schools, to a boy watching his siblings leave and return and leave again, to a young man fighting to be an artist who balances multiple worlds.

Eric shatters that slur and reclaims it in verse and prose and imagery that truly lives up to the word heartbreaking.

Awards

• American Indian Youth Literature Award Winner

Reviews
"With language rich in metaphor, this is a timely and important work that begs for multiple readings."-Booklist, starred review

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 12 to 18.

Additional Information
352 pages | 6.50" x 9.40"

Thirteen of the most accomplished YA authors deliver a label-defying anthology that includes ten short stories, a graphic novel, and a one-act play from Walter Dean Myers never before in-print. This collection addresses topics like gentrification, acceptance, untimely death, coming out, and poverty and ranges in genre from contemporary realistic fiction to adventure and romance. It will inspire you to break conventions, bend the rules, and color outside the lines. All you need is fresh ink.

Authors Include: Schuyler Bailar, Melissa de la Cruz, Sara Farizan, Sharon G. Flake, Eric Gansworth, Malindo Lo, Walter Dean Myers, Daniel José Older, Thien Pham, Jason Reynolds, Aminah Mae Safi, Gene Luen Yang, Nicola Yoon

Reviews
"I absolutely love this mix of established and newer talents, and I'm really intrigued and excited by the mixed formats." --BookRiot

"Huge, huge names in YA participated." --Bustle

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 12+

This work includes an Indigenous contribution. Not all conributions are from Indigenous writers.  It's up to readers to determine if this work is authentic for their puproses.

Additional Information

Carson Mastick is entering his senior year of high school and desperate to make his mark, on the reservation and off. A rock band -- and winning Battle of the Bands -- is his best shot. But things keep getting in the way. Small matters like the lack of an actual band, or his brother getting shot by the racist owner of a local restaurant.

Maggi Bokoni has just moved back to the reservation with her family. She's dying to stop making the same traditional artwork her family sells to tourists (conceptual stuff is cooler), stop feeling out of place in her new (old) home, and stop being treated like a child. She might like to fall in love for the first time too.

Carson and Maggi -- along with their friend Lewis -- will navigate loud protests, even louder music, and first love in this stirring novel about coming together in a world defined by difference.

Reviews
"Gansworth's follow-up to If I Ever Get Out of Here has an incredible voice.... His characters are rich, well developed, and will stay with readers for a long time.... A stellar choice for YA realistic fiction shelves." -- School Library Journal, starred review

"Gansworth vividly captures the difficulties of reservation life and showcases his thoughtful protagonists' multidimensional interests and far-reaching aspirations." --Publishers Weekly

"An intimate look at the teens' lives.... A rich, honest story of family and friends, of a Nation within a nation." -- The Horn Book

"A 1980s Native American coming-of-age story grapples with the day-to-day details of teenagers’ lives on and off the reservation.... A classic teen novel, especially for Native youth and Beatles fans." - Kirkus Review

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 14+ 

Additional Information
432 pages | 5.50" x 8.25"

A frank and funny portrait of the transformative friendship between a Native American boy and an Air Force kid.

Lewis "Shoe" Blake is used to the joys and difficulties of life on the Tuscarora Indian reservation in 1975: the joking, the Fireball games, the snow blowing through his roof. What he's not used to is white people being nice to him - people like George Haddonfield, whose family recently moved to town with the Air Force. 

As the boys connect through their mutual passion for music, especially the Beatles, Lewis has to lie more and more to hide the reality of his family's poverty from George. He also has to deal with the vicious Evan Reininger, who makes Lewis the special target of his wrath. But when everyone else is on Evan's side, how can he be defeated? And if George finds out the truth about Lewis's home - will he still be his friend?

Reviews
"Lewis' desire to move between cultures, and his difficulty doing so, will resonate with readers of many backgrounds . . . a worthy exploration of identity and friendship between middle school boys who live in different worlds." -Kirkus 

Educator Information
Ages: 12+

Additional Information
368 pages | 5.25" x 8.00"

It's a rare book that can make the tried-and-true genre of the coming-of-age novel seem novel. There are the standard markers of the hero's journey - the trials, the dark night of the soul, the lesson learned. From Printz honor author Eric Gansworth comes My Good Man, a literary tour-de-force sure to turn the genre on its head.

Brian, a 20-something reporter on the Niagara Cascade's City Desk, is navigating life as the only Indigenous writer in the newsroom, being lumped into reporting on stereotypical stories that homogenize his community, the nearby Tuscarora reservation. But when a mysterious roadside assault lands Tim, the brother of Brian's mother's late boyfriend in the hospital, Brian must pick up the threads of a life that he's abandoned.

The resulting narrative takes us through Brian's childhood and slice of life stories on the reservation, in Gansworth's signature blend of crystal sharp, heartfelt literary realist prose.

But perhaps more importantly, it takes us through Brian's attempt to balance himself between Haudenosaunee and American life, between the version of his story that would prize the individual over all else and the version of himself that depends on the entire community's survival.

Reviews
“This masterwork of historical fiction asks whether peaceably straddling the realms of White and Indigenous people is possible. Rich, luxuriant, densely layered prose immerses readers in heartbreaking scenes and poignant dialogue as complex characters explore the confines and joys of male friendship. Riveting, timeless, and indispensable.” -Kirkus Reviews

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 14 to 18.

Young Adult Fiction / Coming of Age / Historical Fiction

Additional Information
400 pages | 5.90" x 9.00" | Hardcover