Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. New York: Brown Books for Young Readers, 2007.Summary
After hitting his teacher with a book and having the teacher apologize to him for destroying his life, Junior Spirit realizes he has to get off the reservation if he wants a chance at life. He transfers to an all-white high school 22 miles off the reservation. There he finds himself playing basketball on a great team and excelling academically, but not fitting in with the white kids and no longer fitting in with the native kids at home. Things never work out quite the way Junior wants, and so he feels like a, "Part-Time Indian." In the end, Junior realizes that he can be equal parts whatever he wants to be.
Impressions
I love this book. Within the first 30 pages it establishes itself firmly on the challenged list- racism, sex, alcoholism, etc.- yet this book never crosses into the obscene. It is simply the honest, at times beautiful, story of Junior and his struggle to have hope like a white kid yet stay close to his roots like a native kid.
Reviews
Publishers Weekly, 8/20/2007, Vol. 254 Issue 33, p70-71.
"Screenwriter, novelist and poet, Alexie bounds into YA with what might be a Native American equivalent of Angela's Ashes, a coming-of-age story so well observed that its very rootedness in one specific culture is also what lends it universality, and so emotionally honest that the humor almost always proves painful. Presented as the diary of hydrocephalic 14-year-old cartoonist and Spokane Indian Arnold Spirit Jr., the novel revolves around Junior's desperate hope of escaping the reservation. As he says of his drawings, "I think the world is a series of broken dams and floods, and my cartoons are tiny little lifeboats." He transfers to a public school 22 miles away in a rich farm town where the only other Indian is the team mascot. Although his parents support his decision, everyone else on the rez sees him as a traitor, an apple ("red on the outside and white on the inside"), while at school most teachers and students project stereotypes onto him: "I was half Indian in one place and half white in the other." Readers begin to understand Junior's determination as, over the course of the school year, alcoholism and self-destructive behaviors lead to the deaths of close relatives. Unlike protagonists in many YA novels who reclaim or retain ethnic ties in order to find their true selves, Junior must separate from his tribe in order to preserve his identity. Jazzy syntax and Forney's witty cartoons examining Indian versus White attire and behavior transmute despair into dark humor; Alexie's no-holds-barred jokes have the effect of throwing the seriousness of his themes into high relief. Ages 14-up."
Melgaard, Tricia. School Library Journal, Jun2008, Vol. 54 Issue 6, p74.
"Gr 8 Up --Arnold Spirit, aka Junior, is an unlikely hero in this semiautobiographical novel (Little, Brown, 2007) by Alexie Sherman. He was born with water on the brain, lives in abject poverty on an Indian reservation near Spokane, and is surrounded by the hopelessness of alcoholism. When a caring teacher recognizes that the boy still has hope, he insists that Junior leave the reservation school. Junior defies his tribe and enrolls in an all-white school 22 miles from the reservation. At Rearden he becomes known as Arnold, but acceptance comes very slowly. At first his classmates are wary and many are racist. When the football captain delivers a jaw-dropping racial slur, Arnold slugs him and is baffled by the fear he sees in the other boys' eyes. He realizes that the rules are different off the rez and he doesn't know the new rules. Through tenacity and humor, Arnold eventually finds a way to balance his part-time life on the reservation with his part-time life at school. The narration by the author is delivered in what Arnold might describe as the sing-song cadence of Indian speech. Poetic, deeply funny, politically incorrect, slightly naughty, and heart-wrenching, the story makes a flawless transition from print to audio. Sherman provides a glimpse into an unfamiliar culture and maintains a balance between the bleak reality of reservation life and the stunning beauty of a loving family and friendship. An essential purchase for all libraries serving older teens."
Suggestions for Library Use
This book should be recommended to teens, especially teen boys. It's written in "teen" language and deals very openly and respectfully with issues teens face.
I would also pair this book with others discussing multicultural teens- Does My Head Look Big in This?, American Born Chinese, etc.
No comments:
Post a Comment