Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian Review By: Michael Nicolella

He ends up getting suspended. He realizes during his suspension that he needs to leave the reservation or else he will end up like everyone else in his reservation, poor and drunk. Here is a little taste of one of his moments where he realizes he needs to leave:

“‘Who has the most hope?’ I asked.

Mom and Dad looked at each other. They studied each other. They studied each other’s eyes, you know, like they had antennas and were sending radios signals to each other. And they both looked back at me.

‘Come on,’ I said. ‘Who has the most hope?’

‘White people,’ My parents said at the same time....

‘I want to transfer schools,’ ...

‘I want to go to Rederan,’ I said.

Rederan is the rich, white farm town that sits in the wheat fields exactly twenty-two miles away from the rez.” (P.45)

The way the author writes is obviously in first person. I think that this is the best way to show the development of the character. You hear all of his thoughts and know what is going on within him. The way Sherman Alexie writes is hard to describe, but I would call it an informal way of writing. He writes in a simple way, like a kid would think or talk which makes it makes it much better when he is thinking or talking because nobody speaks perfect english and this adds a little more authenticity to the characters. Also, it’s easy to read and funny sometimes too.

Sherman Alexie is almost exactly like his character. He grew up on a Native American reservation and was born into a poor family (like most Native Americans). He was born with a condition where spinal fluid was in his skull and it made his head big. He  had surgery and the risk of his brain being damaged was very high but he turned out to be fine. He was also bullied as a kid because of the size of his head. Also just like in his book, he left his reservation school and went to Rederan high school to get a better quality of education.

Good:

One of the best things about this book is that I actually laughed from this book. I genuinely liked it. One cool thing that made the world actually real was the main character, Arnold who is actually Sherman. The book is about his early life and the struggles that he had to go through being born with a deformation that made his head huge. It really shows that people can achieve anything no matter what holds them back. Also the drawings usually add a bit of humor to the situations. They usually make fun of people and he also says that they are his escape from the hard things.

Bad:

I wish I could say something bad about the book itself, but I really liked it. I can relate to and understand what happens to Junior and why he chooses what he does. Some people think that talking about sex and girls in a book is a bad thing (and it was actually banned in a few schools because of that) but that stuff is in everyones life if you like it or not. It’s something that cannot be ignored.

I would think that this book is for almost everyone as long as you can get past some of the sex and language in the book. I don’t find it that bad but it did get banned in a few places so it must be for some people. I think what makes it good for everyone is that everyone was once a teenager and had to deal with the pressures of going to high school for the first time.

Book Info:

Title: The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian

By: Sherman Alexie

Publisher: Brown and Company

Date of Publication: September 2007

Pages: 230

Genre: Fiction, Young adult literature, Children’s literature