Apple: (Skin to the Core)

Powerful, beautiful, heartbreaking - This YA visual and poetic memoir of Eric Gansworth’s family and self is a raw and elegant testimony to his life as Onondaga on the Tuscarora Nation. Forever an outsider on the inside for many reasons, Eric builds the pieces of his family’s past and culture to preserve and understand them and who he is. Much of it is undone through systematic cultural genocide via boarding schools, mainstream media, and an inability for the Tuscarora and Onondaga to thrive upon this reservation land. Yet. Yet the spirit of community and love is tight knight. There is no escaping the nicknames bestowed upon one in your youth or any misstep taken. People gather and share stories of one’s elders until, one day, you discover you’re an elder and those nephews and nieces are carrying forward the traditions you didn’t remember so well. Beyond loss, family, laughter, his memoir is a book of hope.Details: Arranged like a music album with liner notes at the end explaining the significance of the art pieces and record labels. The Beatles White Album plays a heavy role here and readers familiar with Gansworth’s work shouldn’t be surprised. However, it is all beautiful and the perfect metaphor for what he accomplishes in this work.Personal note: I am not indigenous, but parts of this memoir struck my heart. My aunt was Yucci amongst the Creek, although scattered into a bigger city during the Depression. Her son, an enrolled member of her tribe, searches for information about the Yucci for she didn’t know much about her tribal customs. She married my handsome uncle out in California where they moved, and the economy seemed easier there. Did she also feel forever the outsider? I never asked her about her family or past, for I was young and these things you didn’t do as a kid in my family. You listened for whatever the elders choose to say when talking and learn. But my aunt was always silent on this.Thank you for not being silent, Eric Gansworth. More stories about contemporary indigenous life need to be shared. This is highly recommended for young adults on up.

I finished this book quickly. It is more of an autobiography than a book of poetry. Deeply moving Native American history of one person and his journey. I loved the childhood stories, good and sad. I could relate in so many ways although not Native American. It touched my heart as a child, a mother, and a victim of ethnic discrimination.

Book in good shape

The book was really good, what the book was about was really meaningful and it hit close to home. The quality is also really good

It was unique to have this written in verse when it is a memoir. In a way, I couldn't enjoy that fact, but I respect it.Eric Gansworth is an Onondaga who grew up on a reservation. He talks about what it was like to grow up with his mother struggling to do their best, and how he had to live with his sister for a while. There were a lot of hardships in his upbringing and education was important during it all. He addresses a lot of the way natives are looked at and the racism he suffered from.The author loves The Beatles, as I do as well. A lot of the book talked about music and used bits of The Beatles' lyrics.

My daughter loves it

This book is amazing. It powerfully reclaims the slur or ‘apple,’ while sharing the author’s own memories and experiences. It shows the importance of community and identity, and highlights the reclamation work being done. I 100% recommend it to everyone!

Lots of broken lines and forced returns. Recommend paper version instead. It’s less of a story and more of a poem so the formatting makes it difficult to read on screen.