Apple - by Eric Gansworth

Book Synopsis

PRINTZ HONOR AWARD
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD LONGLIST

A moving memoir-in-verse that chronicles one Native teenager's search for belonging

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."

In Apple (Skin to the Core), Eric Gansworth tells his story, 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.

P R A I S E

WINNER, AMERICAN INDIAN YOUTH LITERATURE AWARD

Best of the Year: TIME - NPR - Shelf Awareness - American Indians in Youth Literature

"Stirring.... Raw and moving."--TIME

"Beautiful imagery and with words that soar and scald."--The Buffalo News

"Easily one of the best books to be published in 2020. The kind of book bound to save lives."-- LitHub

"A powerful narrative about identity and belonging." --Paste Magazine

★ "Timely and important." --Booklist (starred)
★ "Searing yet dryly funny." --The Bulletin (starred)
★ "Exceptional." --Shelf-Awareness (starred)
★​ "Captivating​." --S​chool Library Journal (starred)
​

Review Quotes

"Exceptional....A stirring depiction of Indigenous life likely to evoke empathy from and resonate with all who venture into Gansworth's world." - SHELF-AWARENESS (starred review)

"Easily one of the best books to be published in 2020. The kind of book bound to save lives." - LIT HUB

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

"A powerful narrative about identity and belonging." - PASTE MAGAZINE

"A searing yet dryly funny, at times intimate and at times highly literary picture of life hemmed in by majoritarian expectations and gutted by exploitation that made staying in the family home intolerable but leaving it unthinkable." - BCCB

"A raw, layered story about love and loss of community, culture, and place."- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

About the Author

Eric Gansworth, S˙ha-weñ na-saeˀ, is an enrolled Onondaga writer and visual artist, raised at the Tuscarora Nation. His award-winning books include If I Ever Get Out of Here, Give Me Some Truth, Extra Indians, and Apple (Skin to the Core) - winner of the Printz Honor and the American Indian Youth Literature Award. He is a Professor and Lowery Writer-in-Residence at Canisius College.