The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
By: Sherman Alexie
This National Book Award Winner does not shy away from difficult subjects: best friends, fights, death, hopes and dreams and accepting who we are.
Arnold Spirit (Junior) is a smart-alecky young Indian boy who has spent the majority of his life being picked on and beaten up. He doesn't even question this; it's just how it is for him. The only person that truly will stick up for him is his best friend, Rowdy, but Rowdy is also the class bully (to put it bluntly).
Junior and Rowdy live on a reservation with their families and go to a small school that's not quite as bad as the other schools in other parts of the reservation. Junior is excited to get his Geometry book, but when he opens it up he sees his mother's maiden name written in the book and it makes him angry. He's angry because he's still learning from the same book his mother did and he just throws it hoping to hit something. Well, he did. It hit his teacher and broke his nose. But it also turns out it was probably the best thing he could have done. His teacher was a white man who had lived on the reservation for years. He stops by Juniors house and tells him that when he started the accepted punishment was to hit/beat the students and that he had probably broken a few bones in the process. He was supposed to beat the Indian out of those on the reservation. The day that Junior hits him with the book opened his eyes - it wasn't fair and he realizes this. He also tells Junior that he has a lot of potential and he needs to leave the reservation. Junior makes a terrifying, life-changing decision. He's going to go to the white kids' school in Reardan, 22 miles away. Getting to and from school is not easy - some days he has to walk the whole distance, but most of the time he hitchhikes if his parents don't have enough gas money.
This decision isn't just about bettering himself. His decision affects his entire community. No one leaves the reservation. They stay on, maybe work, almost definitely get drunk and don't amount to anything. Junior's teacher and family realize that in order to make more of his life he needs to go. Junior's ability to make such a drastic decision that flies in the face of reservation conventions is a difficult one. It earns him more than one black eye, but he knows it's worth it in the end.
Junior takes us through his freshman year of high school in a diary format. This book will most definitely appeal to boys in grades 7 and up. Fighting, girls, basketball, honor, respect, language and other issues that will appeal to boys show up. This book does not sugar-coat life on the reservation - Alexie does not hold back on the tough issues, but in the end that's why we can learn so much from this book. Arnold's personal take on the issues he faces and the cartoons that he draws to accompany his text are fabulous. Arnold doesn't shy away, and his cartoons can be quite funny or even extremely sad, but that's how he deals with his emotions. Sometimes all of us need a healthy way to deal with our feelings.
Recommended To:
- Anyone interested in life on an Indian Reservation
- Boys! I don't do this often, but this is a definite boy book (not to say that girls won't like it - I did!)
- Anyone trying to adjust to a new school/home/environment
- People dealing with bullies
- Everyone
Notes on the Cover:
The authors name is what strikes me on this cover. It's larger than the title of the book! And it's in a bright green! True, there's room on the cover for the book award sticker, but it's just kind of lacking for me. I picked this one up because I'd heard so many great things about it. The cover definitely had nothing to do with my interest in this one! But this is a great example why you shouldn't always judge a book by it's cover (yes, I do it more than I should).
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