My introduction to literature via Mrs. Garland's ninth grade English class in 1978. Up until then, I'd mostly read books about sports or comics. With this book, I found that there was a big, awesome world out there called literature, and I've been exploring and loving it ever since. Of course, being an assigned reading, I didn't want to read this book, but, Mrs. Garland's daily quizzes and class discussions were great motivators. With each night's reading, I found something happening to me, a kind of magic. I stepped into another life, another world, and forgot about my adolescent craziness for a while.
Over the years, I've often fondly thought of this book as the one that opened up the world of literature to me, though I could remember very little of it, only that I really liked it. I decided to read it again a few years ago to see if I could find a little of that first magic I felt so long ago. Of course, it wasn't the same after so many years and so many books, but I found it to be good writing and a good story, and I will read it again. ( )

Here's what I wrote in 2008 about this read: "No clear memory on this book. Online info suggests this may be typically assigned to students (high school). Young, orphaned brave who renouces the white man's world and returns to the wilderness." ( )

This is the story of Tom Black, an Ute Indian, set in the western hills. It tells the story of a young warrior that is slowly forced into a white man's world, and losing his identity as a warrior. He became a rodeo star by riding his broncos to death, becoming a legend for this. Forgetting his lessons of respect for all living things.....Finally he finds his way back to his inner peace, and reunites with his heritage and past, learning from the lessons he learned as a young warrior, and from the white mans world. Very good story and lesson. Awesome book. ( )

Tom Black Bull is raised in the old ways of the Ute, by his mother and father, but when tragedy strikes, he is forced to live in the white man's world, living, but never belonging.

This was an intense read, the story that could be that of any of us, with pain in our past, confusion of who we are, and fear of what we are to become. Recommended. ( )

A sad novel of an AmerIndian struggling to find balance in the white man's world. Rejected by one world and betrayed by the other, this makes a great children's book about choice and facing reality. ( )