This Indian kid A Native American memoir

Growing up in Oklahoma with Creek and Cherokee ancestry, Chuculate saw little of his father, and because of his unstable home situation when living with his mother, he moved frequently, attending five schools during his fifth-grade year alone. But for much of his youth, he was raised by his grandparents in a relatively small, racially mixed community. Its inclusive spirit served him well, and his grandparents gave him much-needed stability. A capable student, he did well in school but occasionally acted on impulse, which could get him into trouble. Senior year, his baseball coach noticed his writing ability and mentored him as a sportswriter, creating a path to a career that suited him well. Now a noted fiction writer, Chuculate offers a very readable, episodic memoir with little sense of nostalgia but plenty of appreciation for family members and friends who earned his respect with their words, actions, and treatment of others. He's an excellent storyteller, doing justice to dramatic moments in this vivid memoir of an "Indian kid" growing up in the 1980s and 1990s.

Debut author Chuculate, who is Muscogee (Creek) and Cherokee, delivers a plainspoken memoir that chronicles critical moments during his childhood in Oklahoma in the 1970s and '80s. Because of his parents' divorce early in his life, Chuculate remembers spending most of his time being "shuttled between my mom and her mother." Granny and Grandpa's home was the only constant as he cycled through 14 schools in nine years and experienced much uncertainty throughout his mother's rocky second marriage. His participation on his local baseball team provided focus and community, particularly with other kids, and fishing with his friends and Grandpa helped him feel connected to his Native roots. Via anecdotal, slice-of-life vignettes peppered with sensorial references to period TV shows, music, and clothing, the author develops a keen sense of time and place that aids in grounding the free-flowing narrative. While Chuculate's experiences with racism are present throughout, the author establishes in a concluding q&a that this is not a memoir of trauma, but a transformative interpretation of the life of an ordinary boy in America endeavoring to become "known for grander things." Ages 12--up. Agent: Alex Glass, Glass Literary Management. (Sept.)

Gr 7 Up--This autobiography takes a full circle journey through the childhood of author Chuculate. It is a portrait of growing up Native American in Middle America during the 1970s and 1980s. Chuculate finds himself wandering the pastures of his grandparents' rural Oklahoma farm "in habitual solitude" for much of his childhood. His young life is split enjoying the space and freedom of the Muskogee countryside and in town with his mother and stepfather. A love of sports and good mentorship guide Chuculate through middle school and into high school. He excels at writing and finds his way into journalism at the Muskogee Phoenix. With help from his coach Branan, he is recruited to Oklahoma's Northeastern State University. Overall, the characters are described in everyday circumstances from fishing and baseball to library visits and church service. Reading this memoir feels like sitting around the dinner table hearing about a relative's day. It explores themes of racism, poverty, and bullying, helping connect young readers to a story set in the past. VERDICT A good addition to any teen nonfiction collection.--Meaghan Nichols

This memoir by award-winning author Chuculate (Muscogee Creek) is a testament to the importance of support from family and friends in shaping identity. This work is largely centered on Muskogee, Oklahoma, during the 1970s in what was a racially mixed community. Chuculate shares episodes from his daily life that readers can reflect on and interpret to draw their own life lessons. These seemingly random memories collectively tell his story of growing up Native in an inclusive environment with white, Black, Native, and Latine friends; his best friend, Lonnie, was Black, and the multiracial environment felt completely ordinary. Growing up, Chuculate spent a great deal of time with his maternal grandparents, Granny and Homer; following his parents' divorce, he barely saw his father. But he was close to his mom and stepdad, Roman (Chickasaw), and his family's guidance provided Chuculate with a loving environment that nurtured him. Hearing Creek spoken by relatives and in church, he was fascinated and wrote down the words he learned. In high school, Chuculate began covering sports for the Muskogee Daily Phoenix, something that sparked his passion for writing and led to his work-study job writing about college athletics. The conversational style and family photographs throughout help bring this intimate, anecdotal memoir to life. Will make readers feel as if they're sitting beside a relative, listening to stories and shared knowledge. (map, author's note, Q & A with the author) (Nonfiction. 13-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.