Buffalo Tree

by Adam Rapp

Book Overview

Young men serving time in a detention center must discover themselves and find their own strength. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1886910197
• ISBN13: 9781886910195
• Release Date: April 1997
• Publisher: Front Street, Incorporated
• Length: 112 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.8" x 8.6"
• Age Range: 12 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 7 and higher

Customer Reviews

A welcome addition to the world of young adult fiction.

Being an active fantasy reader (and not usually daring to go any further than the bounds of wizards and dragons), I don't know why I picked up this book. Maybe name recognition--I'm a big Broadway fan, and when I saw the last name Rapp, well... oh, you theater rats know. But I read the back, and my imagination started to tingle... I bought the book (eleven dollars, OUCH) and read it in the car as my parents shopped.Four hours later, I was mesmerized as I finished the last page. Sura's journey is poignant, breathtaking, and has changed the way I view young adult fiction. No longer with contempt, but perhaps that the books are like this one--plain-speaking, but speaking nonetheless. Adam Rapp is a fantastic storyteller, and I hope that his later novels are as good as this one.I'm sorry, this wasn't a true review--but for the plot, read the official critiques. Just know that The Buffalo Tree is a moving novel, and reading it is a wonderful idea.

My favorite book.

I loved this book. At the time I read this, a friend of mine was in a juvinile detetion center, and The Buffalo Tree painted a very vivid picture for me. Sura was one amazing kid....hes someone I wish I could be. He dealt with a lot, he learned a lot, and he became a very good person during those months. This was on of the most intriging books I've read, and I never went anywhere without it, always trying to find and extra two or three minutes to read some of it.This book ruled.

A great writer

Adam Rapp's style is vivid and enchanting; he's the first stylist I've encountered in a long time whom I'd call "original", and that's as high a compliment as I can give an artist. But 'The Buffalo Tree' is tremendous because his powerful writing is at the service of a story and characters more humane and thoughtful than most writers could make possible. Like 'The Catcher in the Rye', I'd also suggest that Rapp's novel shouldn't be restricted to the Young Adult category, although it does credit to the genre; everyone can appreciate this kind of nuanced, compassionate perception. I certainly think he's a more powerful writer than most "literary" (ie. adult) writers of his generation.

One Beautiful book

Thank you Adam Rapp for a truly touching novel. A book about true friendship even during the most trying times...I loved this book and I too, love that kid.

An incredibly humane, incisively written tale of redemption.

At first glance, the subject matter seems to lend itself to the stuff of melodrama: a young man, Sura, incarcerated in a juvenile detention center for stealing hood ornaments ("hoodies," as he calls them), is subjected to terrible degradation at the hands of its staff and his fellow "juvies." But where some lesser writers would manufacture a simplistic morality tale, Adam Rapp has constructed what is ultimately an incredibly humane, incisively written tale of redemption. In Sura, Rapp has created a truly unforgettable hero, whose distinctive voice propels this moving, absorbing story forward with remarkable humor and insight. I can't recommend this book highly enough