Indigenous boy Jamie lives in a country town with his Aunty Dawn and Uncle Bobby after his parents were deemed unfit to care for him and his brother. Although he does very well at school, he hangs around with the wrong crowd at night, drinking and doing drugs and then one night, after some white boys in the town give him major grief, he and his mates decide to steal one of the boy's car. They take the car for a ride and then the cops spy them and start a after them. After a terrible chase at night through the bush, the four boys wind up crashing and Jamie finds himself arrested.
He is not granted bail and ends up in Juvenile prison where her participates in a riot that ends up in him being put in segregation. The only two good things to come form his arrest are he re-connects with his estranged brother and the social worker Shae introduces him to poetry writing as a way to express his feelings. Eventually Jamie is let out but will he just make the same mistakes again when the white boys decide to hunt him and his mates down for what happened to the car?
Very engrossing book which is part poetry. Jamie is a likeable character although his anger at the world and the way it influences him to make poor decisions is so frustrating to the reader - he makes similar mistakes over and over. Eye-opening book I think for the privileged students that I teach who have little knowledge of the struggles of indigenous youth in this country. ( )