{"id":70,"date":"2008-02-04T23:07:06","date_gmt":"2008-02-05T03:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/2008\/02\/04\/review-of-the-absolutely-true-diary-of-a-part-time-indian-by-sherman-alexie\/"},"modified":"2008-02-04T23:19:44","modified_gmt":"2008-02-05T03:19:44","slug":"review-of-the-absolutely-true-diary-of-a-part-time-indian-by-sherman-alexie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=70","title":{"rendered":"Review of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"part_time_indian.jpg\"\u00a0<\/div>\n
\n
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian<\/div>\n
by Sherman Alexie
\nart by Ellen Forney<\/div>\n

Reviewed February 4, 2008.
\nLittle, Brown, and Company, New York, 2007. 230 pages.
\nWinner of the National Book Award for Young People\u2019s Literature 2007
\nStarred Review<\/p><\/div>\n

This book is awesome.<\/p>\n

I read it simply because it had gotten a lot of attention on the listserv for young adult librarians. Some complained about some edgy content\u2014like masturbation\u2014and I tend to be sensitive to content like that, and don\u2019t like things like that thrown in gratuitously, so I suspected I wouldn\u2019t like it. It also sounded like a book with an agenda\u2014the Native Americans were pushing it so hard\u2014that I suspected I wouldn\u2019t like it.<\/p>\n

Well, I loved it. I don\u2019t blame the Native Americans for urging us all to read it. I\u2019m going to urge everyone to read it, and if I had a background at all similar to his, I know I\u2019d be that much more vehement. If the book has an agenda, it\u2019s so sensitively carried out, you don\u2019t feel like you\u2019re reading a message\u2014just a wonderfully crafted story. I\u2019m going to try very hard to get my 13-year-old son to read it, though if he ends up waiting a few years, that\u2019s okay, too. Yes, conservative parents will probably want to prescreen this book before giving it to a younger teen. The book presents a hard look at tough realities of poverty\u2014while keeping the readers laughing.<\/p>\n

\u201cJunior\u201d Arnold Spirit, at fourteen, is a budding cartoonist.<\/p>\n

I draw because words are too unpredictable.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I draw because words are too limited.<\/p>\n

If you speak and write in English, or Spanish, or Chinese, or any other language, then only a certain percentage of human beings will get your meaning.<\/p>\n

But when you draw a picture, everybody can understand it.<\/p><\/div>\n

When Junior starts high school, and is given a math book so old it has his mother\u2019s name in it, he gets mad.<\/p>\n

The consequences of his angry reaction include Junior being advised to leave the reservation and attend the high school in Reardan, twenty-two miles outside the rez.<\/p>\n

Junior goes to Reardan, but the others on the rez hate him for it\u2014especially Rowdy, who\u2019s been his best friend all his life.<\/p>\n

They stared at me, the Indian boy with the black eye and swollen nose, my going-away gifts from Rowdy. Those white kids couldn\u2019t believe their eyes. They stared at me like I was Bigfoot or a UFO. What was I doing at Reardan, whose mascot was an Indian, thereby making me the only other<\/em> Indian in town?<\/div>\n

The story of Junior\u2019s freshman year at Reardan includes basketball showdowns between his new school and the reservation\u2019s team\u2014featuring his friend Rowdy. He navigates the scary world of a white high school, makes some friends, and suffers way more than his share of tragic losses.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the true genius of this book. Sherman Alexie deals with some dreadful situations, but he effectively mixes in laughter, and the reader comes away with overwhelming hope, instead of the despair you would think you\u2019d feel after reading a book about poverty and death and limited opportunities.<\/p>\n

This book gave me a window into a world I knew little about, and it did it with affection, compassion, and pride.<\/p>\n

I picked up this book at bedtime, and kept reading until I finished it. When I did, I set it down with a smile on my face. A wonderful and satisfying read. World-broadening, moving, and uplifting.<\/p>\n

The review of this book on the main website is found at:<\/p>\n

www.sonderbooks.com\/Teens\/part_time_indian.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie art by Ellen Forney Reviewed February 4, 2008. Little, Brown, and Company, New York, 2007. 230 pages. Winner of the National Book Award for Young People\u2019s Literature 2007 Starred Review This book is awesome. I read it simply because it had gotten a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-contemporary","category-teen-fiction-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=70"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=70"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=70"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=70"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}