Part I: Bibliographic information
Type: Fiction
Title: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian
Writer: Sherman Alexie
Illustrator: Ellen Forney
Copyright Date: 2007
Publisher: Little, Brown
ISBN: 9780316013680
Genre/subgenre: YA, crossover novel/diary, coming-of-age
Interest Age: Secondary school (15+)
Reading Level: Upper Grades (UG 9-12)
Pages: 230
Awards: Junior Library Guild selection; Odyssey Award, 2009; Notable Book for a Global Society award winner, 2008.
Part I: Reader’s Annotation, Plot Summary, Critical Evaluation
Reader’s Annotation -- As a freshman in high school, Junior decides to leave the reservation schools and attend the all-white school in the nearby farm town.
Plot Summary -- Junior is a slightly wimpy guy who was born with a brain disorder that makes him somewhat fragile. But that does not stop him from being picked on by his fellow Indians. He lives in a tough world in which poverty, violence and drinking in excess are the norm. His parents drink but his father is an alcoholic prone to benders that last multiple days. Junior has a best friend that is very though and protects him from the bullies. But Rowdy, his best friend, is also a problem kid due to his violent nature that is fed by his father’s abuse of him. Junior sisters has taken off to Montana with a man and they don’t see her much. His biggest hope in life is the start of high school and the possibility of playing on the basketball team.
During the first day of school, Junior acts out of character and tosses a text book that hits a teacher in the face. He is suspended for several weeks and during that time the teacher comes to visit him and confesses to how awful he feels about the way the Indian children are educated. The teacher tells Junior to get off the reservation. Junior tells his parents he wants to go to the nearby farm town’s high school, which is mostly white kids. His parents actually agree with the decision in spite of the additional gas and fact that the tribal population see his departure as a slap in the face. He’s ostracized by many but most tragically by his friend Rowdy who punches him and calls him names.
At the new school, Junior starts going by his given name, Arnold. He has to stand up to the jock bully early on and after that he’s picked on less. He meets a girl named Penelope that takes to him and they have a typically innocent high school relationship that involves pecks on the cheek and holding hands. He takes her to the Winter Formal but is torn up inside since he has no money to pay for anything. She realizes that he is poor finally but accepts it as part of his person. She is popular so he becomes somewhat popular. He goes out for the basketball team and actually makes varsity as a freshman due to his good outside shot. But in the first game against the reservation high school he is knock out cold and they lose badly. The entire tribe mocks him as well.
Later he loses two important people in his life -- his grandmother and his father’s friend who has looked after him some. Both deaths involve drunken behavior. Over two thousand people come to pay respects to his grandmother. She is a spiritual leader who had visited over 100 reservations and definite influence on his thinking -- and she has never had a drop of alcohol. Junior is at a low in life and takes three weeks off of school. He almost drops out. But when he returns his friends show support and his spirit is renewed. He goes on to lead his varsity basketball team to a victory over his former teammates on the reservation. This triggers some guilt feelings. Not long after he find out that his sister is killed in a fire when she does not wake up due to being drunk. He feels responsible for her leaving the reservation because he also left and inspired her to.
In the end, Junior finds a way to respect and love the culture he tried to escape from. He also unites with Rowdy, who has not changed much but they find a way to kid each other without resorting to fists. And his strange reaction to tragedy -- the way he can only laugh in its face but not cry -- is overcome when his best friend finally acknowledges that Junior is unique and his nomadic traits are a throwback to his Indian roots. This makes him cry.
Critical Evaluation -- This is a stand-out read about the high school experience toward from the perspective of a Native American youth. It tackles some serious issues like alcoholism, violence, bulimia and racism. But it’s also funny and this probably accounts for its popularity with young people. Sherman employs humor and exaggeration (yes, the title is ironic) as if these were a series of tall tales. But they are strung together artfully and made all them more vivid and engaging through the artwork of comic illustrator Ellen Forney. As with much powerful YA literature, this work has strong character development. We are introduced to Junior (aka Arnold), the freshman “indian” kid who wants to keep hope alive by reaching beyond the abysmal life he is surrounded with on the reservation, his white girlfriend Penolope who is bulimic, his stormy best friend from the reservation, Rowdy. He also develops his parents and grandmother by introducing them into the plot at various points. This book is part a coming-of-age story that explores the teen angst of having girlfriend and trying out for the high school basketball squad next to giant jock types. But Alexie also uses the work to contrast the white culture he introduces Arnold to with his native culture with all of its faults exposed. Not surprisingly Arnold himself begins to see the strength in his own culture as the weaknesses of the white experience are exposed -- the focus on success at the expense of living our lives now, the parents that are absent emotionally, the ignorance that often manifests as racism. This read is truly enjoyable and mind expanding at the same time.
Part III: Author Info
Sherman Alexie is the award-winning contemporary author whose books mainly relate to the Native American experience. He also writes poetry and has been involved in writing and making several movies. He is from the Spokane/Coure d’Alene area and grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. He was born in 1946 in Wellpinit, Washington and currently lives in Seattle, Washington.
Wikipedia.org site summarizes his literary works most succinctly: “Some of his best known works are The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (1993), a book of short stories, and Smoke Signals(1998), a film of his screenplay based on The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven....His first novel, Reservation Blues, received one of the fifteen 1996 American Book Awards. His first young adult novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, is a semi-autobiographical novel that won the 2007 U.S.National Book Award for Young People's Literature and the Odyssey Award as best 2008 audiobook for young people (read by Alexie himself). His collection of short stories and poems, entitled War Dances, won the 2010 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction” (Sherman, n.d.).
Part IV: Curriculum Ties, Diversity, Booktalk Ideas, Challenge Issues
Curriculum Ties, if any -- This work has a number of potential applications ranging from psychology/drug abuse awareness to sociology as a study in cultural differences to history of the Native American experience.
Diversity of Cultures -- The book explores the Native American coming-of-age experience. Alexie is a highly successful and literary voice coming out of a culture whose young people too often succumb to economic struggle and underachievement. He explores the keys to his own ability to overcome in this work but also reveals how the odds are most certainly stacked against him and his fellow reservation residents.
Booktalking Ideas -- The book has been criticized for exaggerating the plight of the Native American experience. What evidence do we have to back this up or defend Alexie’s vision of his own culture?
Challenge Issues -- The book describes masturbation in a positive light, which is to say from the perspective of a teenage boy. It also condones violence to some degree as the main character, Junior, is involved in an assault on a teacher and a fist fight in which he punches a bully. Some might find the book too mature for middle readers. The setting is high school and a typical secondary grades audience should be able to handle the themes addressed.
Part V: Reasons chosen
This books was on a summer reads list for our local middle school. Some remarked that it has some mature themes and seemed out of place for that age of reader. I felt that I should read it for myself and found the work in our adult fiction section. My reaction is that it’s certainly no worse than similar works like such as “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen
Part VI: Citations
Sherman Alexie. (n.d.) Wikipedia [website] Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman_Alexie
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