If I Ever Get Out of Here

A heart-healing, mocs-on-the-ground story of music, family and friendship. -- Cynthia Leitich Smith, author of Tantalize and Rain is Not My Indian Name.

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? Acclaimed adult author Eric Gansworth makes his YA debut with this wry and powerful novel about friendship, memory, and the joy of rock 'n' roll.

Author: Eric Gansworth
Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books
Published: 07/30/2013
Pages: 368
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.05lbs
Size: 8.30h x 5.70w x 1.30d
ISBN: 9780545417303
Audience: Young Adult

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 5.6
Point Value: 16
Interest Level: Middle Grade Plus
Quiz #/Name: 159824 / If I Ever Get Out of Here


Award: Alabama Camellia Award - Nominee
Award: American Indian Youth Literature Award - Honor Book


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 06/15/2013
Publishers Weekly 07/01/2013
School Library Journal 09/01/2013 pg. 142
Booklist 09/01/2013 pg. 103
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 09/01/2013
Horn Book Magazine 09/01/2013 pg. 97
Voice of Youth Advocates 10/01/2013 - Recommended - Better Than Most
Hornbook Guide to Children 01/01/2014 - Superior,Well Above Average

About the Author
Eric Gansworth is Lowery Writer-in-Residence and Professor of English at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York, and was recently NEH Distinguished Visiting Professor at Colgate University. An enrolled Onondaga, he was born and raised at the Tuscarora Indian Nation, just outside Niagara Falls, New York. His debut novel for young readers, If I Ever Get Out of Here, was a YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults pick and an American Indian Library Association Young Adult Honor selection, and he is the author of numerous acclaimed books for adults. Eric is also a visual artist, generally incorporating paintings as integral elements into his written work. His work has been widely shown and anthologized and has appeared in Iroquois Art: Power and History, The Kenyon Review, and Shenandoah, among other places, and he was recently selected for inclusion in Lit City, a Just Buffalo Literary Center public arts project celebrating Buffalo's literary legacy. Please visit his website at ericgansworth.com.