The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Summary:
"Junior" Arnold Spirit is a Native American teenager living on the rez in Spokane, WA. His coming of age story focuses on the poverty and alcoholism that goes hand in hand with living on the reservation. Junior is frustrated with the unfairness of the inequity between his school and other off reservation schools and his diary follows his decision to transfer to a different high school where he feels he can find better opportunities to improve his future and the problems and triumphs that arise as a result of this decision.

Strengths:
What I really found compelling about this book was how Junior's frustration and his world view is so well communicated. Junior sees the obvious disparity between his life and the life of others outside the reservation. He is keenly aware of the effect of alcoholism and poverty on the lives of his family and friends. Unlike many in his situation, instead of shrugging it off as "the way things are," Junior takes his life into his own hands and makes the difficult decision to leave the familiar behind and enter a world where he truly is one of a kind. The unflinchingly real look at the differences in the mindset and expectations of children and parents living in poverty and those in middle or upper class made this book both heartbreaking and incredibly important.

If you liked this book, you may also enjoy:

The Diary of Anne Frank
Reservation Blues

Alexie, S., & Forney, E. (2007). The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian. New York: Little,

Brown.

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