the absolutely true story of a part-time indian written by sherman alexie and art by ellen forney

Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Art by Ellen Forney. New York: Little Brown Books for Young Readers, 2009. ISBN: 9780316013697

Plot Summary:
     Arnold "Junior" Spirit is a Native American teenager who resides on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Through his observations of the lack of educational emphasis among his reservation, he decides to transfer to a high school outside of his reservation. Junior tells his story of his journey as the outcast of his new school and as an outcast for leaving the reservation to attend a new school. Through his journey, he loses his best-friend on the reservation for being a traitor and he also endures many accomplishments at his new school.

Critical Analysis:
     The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is the story of a Native American teenager who endures the everyday struggles of a typical highschooler; however, this story incorporates some of the struggles that a Native American teenager may endure. The author, Sherman Alexie, incorporates a great deal of Native American culture within this novel such as details of reservation living to some to details of annual Native American celebrations. For instance, Sherman details how "the Spoke Tribe holds their annual powwow celebration over the Labor Day weekend," and how "there would be singing, war dancing, gambling, storytelling, laughter, fry bread, hamburgers, hot dogs, arts and crafts, and plenty of alcoholic brawling." This description is culturally accurate to Native American practices, as well as depicting some of the foods included among their culture. Another culturally authentic inclusion presented is when the author details how Junior is called an "Apple" by the kids from his reservation for leaving the reservation school to attend a white highschool. The author describes the insult as an Apple because Junior is seen as red on the outside and white on the inside. This insult coincides with the well known insult of an African-American person being called an oreo.
     Throughout this whole novel, Sherman Alexie incorporates a whole culture within his writing, especially with the inclusion of language relative to Native Americans such as rez (slang term for reservation), powwow, and the stereotypical names that Native Americans endure such as Chief, Tonto, and Squaw Boy. This story is the story of your everyday teenager, but through the eyes and life of a Native American teenager. Alexie does a great job incorporating accurate cultural depictions so well that his audience can understand and learn a vast amount of understanding for Native American culture as well as how inaccurate some stereotypes are portrayed.

Review Excerpts:

"Nimbly blends sharp with unapologetic emotion....fluid narration deftly mingles raw feelings with funny, sardonic insight." - Kirkus Reviews

"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." - Publishers Weekly

"This book would really appeal to high school and junior high boys for casual and interesting reading. People who are interested in reservation life would find that this book gives a wonderful insight to Native American culture. Alexie makes a good storyteller. The pictures in the book give great detail to the story and writing. Within the story, there are two worlds that a boy must distinguish between and live in." - VOYA

Connections:
Customers who purchased this title also bought the following titles: Rain is Not My Indian Name, Indian Shoes, and Skysisters.

Interactivity:

• Ask audience if they ever recall a time where they had to leave or made the choice to leave somewhere they grew up to go somewhere new and how people treated them from their old residence in comparison to their new residence. 
• Contemplate how the life of a Native American teenager may differ from a teenager from another culture. Would it be different? Should it be different? Should they be treated any differently because they come from a different culture?
• Ask audience to find words or phrases that are significant to the Native American culture.