Heads up TRIGGER ... the dog dies. It hits very early on (second chapter) and it hits HARD. 

There are additional triggers, things people may not feel comfortable with (and why this book has been on the banned lists). Masturbation/boners/looking at pornography is talked/joked about. There's drinking, and consequences of alcohol.  The words "retarded" and "nigger" and one instance of proFanity. 

Lots  of thoughts on this one ... and ultimately, I think that's a good thing? It means I'll remember it. I'll likely hang on  to my copy for my personal library. Will I recommend it to others? Probably? It was engaging and kept my interest. Lots of notes/highlights, topics for discussion. LOTS of extras. 

YA - the main character is 14 years old, an American Indian on a reservation. He's got some health issues, poverty problems. After reading several middle-grade books where parental abandonment was central to the story, I was glad here at least the parents were still in the picture, not perfect (drinking, poverty) but there, loving and supportive. Junior states "my mother and father are the twin suns around which I orbit and my world would EXPLODE without them."

1st person/past tense - very conversational ... despite the title, this doesn't read like a journal, but more like a conversation to the reader. Lots of humor, quite a few pictures too. The MC likes to draw comics, so they are included in the book and feel like a very natural addition. 

I went with the audiobook ... read by the author, which was perfect. The slight accent, the emotion at times, felt more real that I think I've ever heard with an audiobook narrator. But as mentioned above ... there are pictures, which DO add a lot. I've gotten into the habit of putting both the audiobook and ebook on hold (plus in this case, I had a physical copy as well) as I like to have the text for reference, to SEE it, re-read portions, check if there are extras (like pictures or discussion questions,  etc) that weren't included in audio. It was interesting, because there was a PDF included with the audio (although I'm never quite sure how to access this) and the audio referenced it (a line added "so if you want to see my picture, be sure to check out the PDF ...") 

I was a little caught off guard ... not so much by how it ended, but that it ended when it did. Looking at my audiobook, there were almost two hours left! SO MANY EXTRAS! I like bonus content.  Maybe only in the 10th Anniversary edition? There's "A Note From Sherman Alexie" in which he talks a lot about the inspiration for one of the characters.  In the Kindle copy, there are some personal photos.  There's additional "chapters" from Rowdy's POV. There's an alternate first chapter.  There's a little from an Educator/English teacher with insight. There's fan artwork (Kindle copy), there's an author interview, there's an interview with the illustrator (this was in the physical copy too, but was one of the only extras other than discussion questions).  There were discussion questions, which I always appreciate. I thought this set of questions was especially profound, really made me stop and think about things I might not have otherwise. 

30 chapters ... which I had to count manually, as they were NOT labeled numerically/chronologically, but by descriptive headers (I love headers, but I must admit I like having numbered chapters, just for ease of knowing where I am and switching between formats more easily). After finishing the book ... I love to look back over the headers, and see what memories nudge from those few words. Per usual, the physical book doesn't even have a TOC.

Annoying music to start on audio (I've found this to be the case with most middle-grade/YA books, as I'm doing a #middlegradeMay ... and I guess I should have pushed this as it's NOT labeled MiddleGrade by most) and the narration was slow, I had to speed it up.