Poems recounting family and personal history, twined with artwork and musical references, accompanied by occasional photographs, Eric Gansworth's memoir is a love letter to his family and Native community-he's an enrolled Onondaga born and raised at the Tuscarora Nation. His poems tell stories buoyed by keen, poignant details bringing people and places and events into sharp focus. His mother is a compelling, enduring presence, but even individuals who make fleeting appearances come alive on the page. Poverty is an indelible character, too, while the setting, especially Dog Street (Mount Hope Road), the main road that ran through the reservation and his youth, and the house that was his home, are vividly realized. A visual artist too, Gansworth's pieces include a rendering of Dog Street echoing the cover of the Beatles' Abbey Road but with self-portraits in place of the musicians. It's one of many ways the importance of music in his life, especially the Beatles, is incorporated throughout the structurally complex narrative following him from childhood into college. "Liner Notes" at book's end provide additional information on the musical connections, narrative structure, and some of the imagery, including the "apple" of the title, a derogatory term among Native people meaning "red on the outside, white on the inside," and also the Beatles' record label icon. Gansworth speaks truths about survival, include adaptation in a world in which Indigenous people and cultures have faced attempts at erasure and ongoing racism yet endure. (Age 14 and older)