Purchase here If I Ever Get Out of Here by Eric Gansworth follows nearly two years in the life of Lewis Blake, a twelve-year-old Native American living on the Tuscarora reservation in 1975. He loves Queen and the Beatles—especially the
Beatles—and more than anything wants to fit in with his classmates. Lewis is the only Native American in his class at school, and the other kids, all white, pretty much pretend he’s invisible. When Air Force brat George Haddonfield moves to town, Lewis finally finds the friend he’s looking for—but can their friendship overcome the vast distance between life on the reservation and life on a military base? Straight up, this book made me cry. Gansworth’s depiction of Lewis’s poverty and
the discrimination he faces is honest and vulnerable, filled with simple heartbreaking truths. Lewis and George’s friendship is organic and nuanced, the relatively long period over which the novel takes places allowing it to feel entirely genuine. If that wasn’t enough, If I Ever Get Out of Here also manages to be an effective portrait of the era in which it takes place, filled with exuberant love for rock ‘n’ roll and a world awakening to some harsh realities after the 1960s era of
love. If you still need convincing, I’ll go on singing this book’s praises. Gansworth clearly has a talent for creating believable characters. Both Lewis and George feel like boys I actually knew in middle school, rather than the cartoonish depictions of them I generally see in books about twelve-year-old boys. They disagree from time to time, and can’t always completely understand where the other is coming from, but at the end of the day, none of that bothers them too much as long as they
can throw on a Wings album and listen to it together. Other standouts from Gansworth’s cast of characters include Lewis’s Uncle Albert, a veteran of the Vietnam draft, and George’s father, an air force officer, but every single person you’ll encounter in If I Ever Get Out of Here feels like they could walk right off the page. Out of the corner of your eye, it almost seems like the book is breathing—I kid you not. Ultimately, it’s a novel of family, friendship, and belonging. If I had to draw a comparison, I’d say that it’s almost like a bromantic Eleanor and Park. I can’t recommend it highly enough. Seriously, I’m not even doing this book justice. Go read it, and then give it to someone else so that they can. I, for one, am going to be eagerly awaiting anything else Eric Gansworth writes.
 If I Ever Get Out of Here centers around Lewis Blake, a Native American teenager in a gifted junior high program. Lewis might be academically successful, but he has no friends. All his white classmates don't have much to say to Lewis, and all of the kids from the reservation are just in the regular classes. It is 1976, and living outside of Buffalo, New York, Lewis wonders if the area's teachers are going to be surprised when they find that the Native American kids are not that excited about the country's Bicentennial celebration. His family has called this land "home" for much longer than a mere two hundred years. Lewis is determined to make a new friend at school this year, and his chance comes when a new kid named George enters his class. George is from an Air Force family, and he wastes little time in making friends, finding in Lewis a kindred spirit. They bond over music by Queen and The Beatles. There are still snags to the friendship. George mentions that his father knew Native Americans when he was a boy, but won't explain in what way. Meanwhile, Lewis is afraid to invite George to his house on the reservation, which would reveal just how embarrassingly poor his family really is. Plus, there is a terrible bully targeting Lewis, one whose father has deep pockets and basically runs the town. The book's title is a lyric from one of Paul McCartney's best post-Beatles songs, "Band on the Run." The song is a mini-suite, stitching together three smaller, disparate pieces. The fact that the book's title is culled from the moodiest, most churning segment is no coincidence. The line sums up both the song and the book quite concisely. Lewis feels like there is little chance in escaping reservation life, despite his good grades. Each chapter title is based on a different song, mainly by the Beatles, Wings, or Queen. Gansworth even provides a song playlist in the back of the book as well as on his website. If I Ever Get Out of Here does a solid job at depicting a male friendship over the course of two years. It also offers a nice portrayal of military families and how tough it can be to have to move around so much. There are a couple of fantastic teen books that this title reminded me of. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, also shows a Native American kid going to school with a white majority. Alexie's book is breezier and funnier, with some Wimpy Kid-esque illustrations. Gansworth's story rings truer to me, though. The detailed accounts of Lewis' poverty along with the bully situation seem authentic, like Gansworth is trying to get some pent-up feelings off of his chest. John Barnes' Tales of the Madman Underground is the other similar title. This book is also set in the mid-seventies and follows a number of high school students in a special therapy group. Though they are all from different cliques and backgrounds, they look out for each other through the worst of times. All three of these books, due to their content, are best for a high school reader. None of these authors pull their punches in terms of crafting a treacherous world for their protagonists to navigate. If you're a fan of classic rock, or just want to read a story about a great realistic friendship, If I Ever Get Out of Here is for you. Where does if I ever get out of here take place?If I Ever Get out of Here takes readers back in time to 1975 (the year before the United States' bicentennial) on the Tuscarora Nation's reservation in New York, where unpopular seventh-grader Lewis Blake is about to start his second year at the nearby “white school.” At the novel's onset, Lewis has one goal: to put an ...
Where does George live in if I ever get out of here?George Haddonfield
He is a native american who lives in the Tuscarora Nation Reservation. Lewis has a hard life because he isn't so popular at the school he goes to and because he has a bad home life.
What is the name of the main character in if I ever get out of here?If I Ever Get Out of Here centers around Lewis Blake, a Native American teenager in a gifted junior high program. Lewis might be academically successful, but he has no friends.
What grade is Lewis in if I ever get out of here?What's the Story? In IF I EVER GET OUT OF HERE, it's 1975, and seventh grader Lewis Blake, who's Tuscarora-enrolled, is the only Native American student in the gifted classes of his mostly White public school.
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Where does Lewis live in if I ever get out of here?
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