Hearts Unbroken

This week I read Hearts Unbroken by Cynthia Leitich Smith. The book is about Louise Wolfe and her senior year. It starts off with her first real boyfriend making fun of Native people right in front of her. Louise strongly identifies as a Native. In the book, she says, "I'm Native. One Muscogee (Creek) Nation citizen, live and in person, right here" (Smith 7).  When hearing this, she decides to break up with her boyfriend. During her senior year, Louise decides to join the school newspaper. The editors of the paper pair her up with a boy named Joey Kairouz. Joey is an ambitious photojournalist. Louise and Joey start off to a rocky start because they are both fighting for the same position in the paper. When they are both assigned to the same section, they are forced to work together. Over time they start to form feelings and grow into a relationship. While trying to find stories for the paper, Louise finds herself in a bit of a crisis. Her brother Hughie auditions and gets the role of Tin Man in the schools The Wizard of Oz play. Most of the parents of the school are not okay with having a Native Tin Man or an African American Dorthy. A group forms a Parents Against Revisionist Teater and starts treating all the families. Louise's house was vandalized, and she found threating letters in the family mailbox and in her locker.
I'm not going to spoil the ending, but this is a must-read book. The story the author took us to open my eyes about what is actually happening to the people around us. We think that this kind of prejudice and racism is gone, but it still happens every day. We hear about this on the news, but we don't feel it first hand. Reading Louise's words made me feel like I was there. I could sense her fears and her anger. I will be definitely be recommending this book to everyone!