The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

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

Junior lives in an Indian Reservation near the town of Wellpinit.  His family was poor and so were the people who lived there.  One day at school, he opened up a book and noticed that it had his mom’s name in it.  He got upset and threw it and it hit his teacher, Mr. P.  Junior got expelled and went to a white school outside the Reservation in Reardan.  This made his best friend Rowdy very upset.  Even the other Indians in the reservation rejected him.  He develops a crush on a girl named Penelope. When they start dating, Junior becomes popular.   Junior even makes the basketball team.  There he goes up against Rowdy and is booed.  During the game, he gets knocked out and becomes unconscious.  He suffers through many deaths because of alcohol in his family.  He copes with this pain by embracing joy in his life. At the end of the book, Rowdy accepts that Junior has left the reservation and they play a game of basketball.  They do not keep score meaning they put their differences aside.  Because of the material covered in the book like racism, homophobia, sexual references, and alcoholism, I recommend it for high school students and older. The ages of 14 and older would be appropriatr.   As a teacher, I would before reading the book with my students, I would show a video of a summary of the story from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su_GVGWVHUs.  As I read the story, I we would discuss character analysis and show text evidence with how Junior acts, speaks, or thinks.  The author writes this story in a diary format in first person point of view.  The author writing style is divided this book by narrative, dialogues, and illustrations.  The illustrations represent supplement and provide storylines. For example on page 43, there is a drawing of Junior choosing a path of hope in Reardan or staying at home in Wellpinit.  Symbolism is also used in the story like the death of his dog Oscar.  They were so poor that they couldn’t afford to take him to the vet and the dad shot and killed him.  It showed that senseless destruction can be cause by their poverty.