Friday, September 7, 2012

The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian (Realistic, Multicultural)





Citation:  Alexie, S. (2007).  The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian.  New York, NY:  Little, Brown and Comapany.  Tr. $7.99.  ISBN:  9780316219303.  Format:  eBook (iPad).

Annotation:  Junior lives on an Indian reservation and is afraid of being stuck there forever.  He decides to make a move to a high school off the reservation which leads to turmoil and tragedy in his life.

Book Talk:  Junior feels like he’s going nowhere in life.  Everyone on the reservation stays on the reservation…forever.  He’s tired of being bullied, he’s tired of going nowhere, and after a heart-to-heart with a teacher he hit in the face with a book; Junior decides to take control and change his life.

“You’ve been fighting since you were born,” he said.  “You fought off that brain surgery.  You fought off those seizures.  You fought off all the drunks and drug addicts.  You kept your hope.  And now you have to take your hope and go somewhere where other people have hope.” (Mr. P, p. 62)

So that is what Junior does; he goes to a new school.  His path is going to be hard, because he is a poor Indian boy who is going to go to a rich white school and the people on his reservation are going to disown him.  With a lot of wit and some great cartoons, he just might get through it.

Awards: National Book Award for Young People's Literature (2007), A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year (2007), American Indian Library Association Award, Horn Book Fanfare Best Book (2007), South Carolina Book Award Nominee for Young Adult Book Award (2010), Michigan Library Association Thumbs Up! Award Nominee (2008), Florida Teens Read Nominee (2009), American Indian Youth Literature Award for Best Young Adult Book (2008), ALA's Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults (2008), Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Fiction and Poetry (2008), Abraham Lincoln Award Nominee (2011), James Cook Book Award Nominee (2009)

More:
To learn more about the author and his other books, visit http://www.fallsapart.com/index/

To learn more about the artist and her other work, visit http://ellenforney.com/index.html

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