The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Alexie, Sherman, and Ellen Forney. The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian. New York: Little, Brown, 2007.

Plot Summary: Junior has spent his entire life living on a Spokane Indian Reservation. Once he realizes that his life may never change for the better, he decides to change his plans dramatically and attend an all-white school twenty-two miles from his familiar home, friends, and family. The books diary entries and illustrations share Junior’s stories through life, death, betrayal, and love as he adventures to find his true self.

Critical Analysis: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian tells the story of high-schooler and Indian Reservation resident, Junior, and his challenges as he attends an all-white school.  Before moving to the all-white school, Junior was considered a nerd, and was bullied often. While attending the new school, Junior faces the challenges of racism, but is able to rise above and finish his first year successfully. This diary is emotional, honest, funny, and heart breaking at times. Junior’s story is well written and emotional. Themes of death, alcoholism, poverty and love are prevalent in the book. The setting and language are culturally accurate, since the author spent much of her life on a Spokane Indian Reservation. This book is full of accurate and sometimes painfully honest cultural markers. These include the financial situations of most Indians living on the reservation (most were extremely poor) and the issue of addictions (alcohol and gambling) on the reservations. The black and white cartoon drawings add life and truth to the text and supplement the story well. Teenagers are sure to enjoy this short novel. It is a fast, humorous, and encouraging read.  

Reviews:

Booklist: Arnold Spirit, a goofy-looking dork with a decent jumpshot, spends his time lamenting life on the “poor-ass” Spokane Indian reservation, drawing cartoons (which accompany, and often provide more insight than, the narrative), and, along with his aptly named pal Rowdy, laughing those laughs over anything and nothing that affix best friends so intricately together. When a teacher pleads with Arnold to want more, to escape the hopelessness of the rez, Arnold switches to a rich white school and immediately becomes as much an outcast in his own community as he is a curiosity in his new one. He weathers the typical teenage indignations and triumphs like a champ but soon faces far more trying ordeals as his home life begins to crumble and decay amidst the suffocating mire of alcoholism on the reservation. Alexie’s humor and prose are easygoing and well suited to his young audience, and he doesn’t pull many punches as he levels his eye at stereotypes both warranted and inapt.  A few of the plotlines fade to gray by the end, but this ultimately affirms the incredible power of best friends to hurt and heal in equal measure. Younger teens looking for the strength to lift themselves out of rough situations would do well to start here.

Kirkus: Alexie nimbly blends sharp wit with unapologetic emotion in his first foray into young-adult literature. Fourteen-year-old Junior is a cartoonist and bookworm with a violent but protective best friend Rowdy. Soon after they start freshman year, Junior boldly transfers from a school on the Spokane reservation to one in a tiny white town 22 miles away. Despite his parents' frequent lack of gas money (they're a "poor-ass family"), racism at school and many crushing deaths at home, he manages the year. Rowdy rejects him, feeling betrayed, and their competing basketball teams take on mammoth symbolic proportions. The reservation's poverty and desolate alcoholism offer early mortality and broken dreams, but Junior's knowledge that he must leave is rooted in love and respect for his family and the Spokane tribe. He also realizes how many other tribes he has, from "the tribe of boys who really miss . . . their best friends" to "the tribe of tortilla chips-and-salsa lovers." Junior's keen cartoons sprinkle the pages as his fluid narration deftly mingles raw feeling with funny, sardonic insight.

VOYA: Nerdy, fourteen-year-old Arnold Spirit lives on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Washington state. During his first day at high school, Arnold discovers that his geometry textbook is so old that his mother used it in school. In anger, he throws the book at his teacher and is suspended. Recognizing Arnold's potential, his teacher suggests that Arnold transfer to a school off the reservation. There Arnold attempts to bridge Indian and white cultures-sometimes successfully and sometimes not-while at home, he faces the controversy of leaving the reservation and his own culture. The tension reaches a peak when Arnold returns to his former school for a basketball game as the star player on his new school's team. Alexie's portrayal of reservation life, with the help of a great lineup of supporting characters, is realistic and fantastical and funny and tragic-all at the same time. The story is engaging, but readers will also gain insight into American Indian culture and politics as well as a sense for human nature and the complexities of living in a diverse society. Cartoonist Forney's drawings, appearing throughout the book, enhance the story and could nearly stand alone. It is clear that she and Alexie worked closely together on this project. Recreational readers, especially boys, will enjoy this book, but teachers will also find it filled with lots of material to rouse a good classroom discussion. This first young adult novel by the acclaimed Indian writer whose adult fiction is used in many high school classrooms is based on Alexie's own memoir.

Awards:

American Indian Youth Literature Award, 2008 Winner Young Adult United States

Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Excellence in Children's Literature, 2008 Winner Fiction and Poetry United States

California Young Reader Medal, 2010 Winner Young Adult California

Cuffies: Children's Booksellers Choose Their Favorite (and not-so-favorite) Books of the Year, 2007 Honorable Mention Favorite Book to Handsell United States

Cuffies: Children's Booksellers Choose Their Favorite (and not-so-favorite) Books of the Year, 2007 Honorable Mention Hottest Selling Book to Go Out of Stock United States

Cuffies: Children's Booksellers Choose Their Favorite (and not-so-favorite) Books of the Year, 2007 Winner Favorite Young Adult Novel United States

Cybil Award, 2007 Finalist Young Adult Fiction United States

Delaware Diamonds, 2009 Winner High School Delaware

Golden Inky, 2009 Shortlist Australia

Los Angeles Times Book Prize, 2007 Finalist Young Adult United States

Mind the Gap Award, 2008 Best book overlooked by the United States

National Book Award, 2007 Winner Young People's Literature United States

National Parenting Publications Award, 2007 Gold Book Ages 12 & Up United States

Odyssey Award, 2009 Winner United States

Pacific Northwest Book Award, 2008 Winner United States

Thumbs Up! Award, 2008 Honor Book Michigan United States

Connections: This book will be well received by both teenage boys and girls. While it wouldn’t make a great read aloud selection, I would recommend this title for reluctant teen boys. Since some of the content in this selection may be considered inappropriate to some, I would not suggest its use in a classroom setting, but encourage teens to read it independently.

Check out the following titles also about Native Americans for teen readers....

Johnston, Norma. Feather in the wind. New York: Marshall Cavendish, 2000.

Kadohata, Cynthia. Weedflower. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2006.

Lackey, Mercedes, and Rosemary Edghill. Dead reckoning. New York: Bloomsbury Childrens Books, 2012.

Rees, Celia. Sorceress. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press, 2002.

Steinmetz, Karen. The mourning wars. New York: Roaring Brook Press, 2010.