There There by Tommy Orange

There There is Tommy Orange's debut novel and was published in 2018. I was lucky enough to find this one in a Little Free Library.

 In this novel, he tells the stories of several different Native people. All of their stories come together at the end of the book at a Powwow in Oakland. This book is about the power of stories, especially the personal narrative. One of the characters is gathering stories from Native Americans, and it is fitting to have his story as part of the novel.

The character development is really good. I liked that he made me feel like I was right there in the room with his characters. They seem like real people. I like that he shows what is it like to be Native in America and that each experience is different yet connected.

There are many quotes that I loved, but I didn't write them down because I listened to the audio version, which was wonderful because it had several different narrators. Each chapter is told by a different character and thus the story is woven together as characters step in and out of the story.

Although I didn't care for the ending of this book, I still think it is worth reading. I can't wait to see what Tommy Orange writes next as his writing is heartfelt and beautiful and often reads like poetry.

Read to a child today even if that child is you.

Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.