Bibliographic Data
Alexie, Sherman. 2007. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time
Indian. Ill. Ellen Forney. New York: Little, Brown. ISBN: 9780316013680.
Brief Plot Summary
Junior aka Arnold Spirit is a nerd who has lived his
whole life on the impoverished Spokane reservation. Candidly, humorously, and
morosely he debunks stereotypes and recounts his seemingly doomed place in
life. After a violent episode, his teacher begs Junior to attend school outside
the reservation to save his future. Junior immediately transfers to Reardon
outside the reservation and his life is turned upside down, but for the best. He
reaches lows of losing friends and family and highs through kindness and
acceptance, but most importantly, through perseverance.
Critical Analysis
One of the strongest
and most charming aspects of this book is Sherman Alexie’s voice. As a somewhat
autobiographical story Alexie speaks through Arnold in first person and
genuinely. However this voice comes at the sacrifice of proper sentence
structure. Many paragraphs are a single sentence. He jumps from tangent to
tangent, but this is what it is to be inside Arnold Spirit’s Diary. True
sediments are not always in complete and correct sentences. We also get to see
what Junior looks like in his (Ellen Forney’s) cartoons. He is ideally
expressive for a teen, succinct, raw, and hilarious. He cleverly articulates
juxtapositions of depressing realities with goofy quips. This particular line
expresses both simultaneously, “When it comes to death, we know that laughter
and tears are pretty much the same thing” (p.166). It also gives us a clue as
to why Junior has the outlook he does.
Junior is highly race
conscious. Debbie Reese expressed on her blog that she was initially dismayed
at the negativity exhibited over the Native American culture as it exists
today. He airs all his family’s and the whole reservation’s dirty laundry for
everyone to read about. Throughout the book Junior tells us the various things
American Indians do and do not do. Then as the novel progresses we see how much
pride he has in his culture. How much he believes the people around him. He
debunks many stereotypes associated with American Indians and educates readers
about what is offensive.
Junior tells us about
one of the hardships he faces at his new school, Reardon, that they are racist.
We witness it when he is bullied. He is called names like Chief, Tonto, and
Squaw Boy. Another reason he may think that Reardon is racist is because the
school mascot is an offensive depiction of an American Indian, a red skinned
man with a feather. Refreshingly readers will see many examples of American
Indians living non-stereotypically in contemporary times. The cartoons depict
his Uncle Eugene as a handsome man riding a motorcycle, a man like any other living
in contemporary times. Rowdy looks like any other teen boy reading comics (once
you look under the angry face). Junior wears a t-shirt and jeans just like
anyone else. It is good for young readers to see American Indians of today this
way. They are still around and live in modern times.
Another hardship Junior
faces is similar to culture shock. He is used to living his life as he did on
the Reservation. When he starts his new school he tries to fight Roger after he
called him names. Clearly Roger and the other students were not expecting the
situation to escalate that way and Roger retreats. Junior is completely
confused. After all, his best friend just beat him up. Junior was used to a
variety of problems being solved with a fight. He even recounted the Spokane
rules of fisticuffs. He threw his textbook at Mr. P in anger when he reacted to
seeing that it belonged to his mother over 30 years ago. His mother slapped him
many times when she told him to never drink alcohol.
People on the
Reservation are also poorer than Reardon people. Junior felt the need to hide
his poverty from Penelope and Roger. He made his valentine for Penelope by
hand. He pretended to leave his wallet at home when they all went out to eat.
Junior also had to
deal with a tremendous amount of loss. Spoiler alert! His Uncle Eugene was shot
in the face. His grandmother was killed by a drunk driver. And he lost his dear
sister in a fire. All the deaths were alcohol-related.
One of the big themes
of this novel is dreams. Junior is not like other people on the Reservation in
terms of his dreams. His perception of other people’s dreams is modest. In the
cartoon depicted his parents if someone “paid attention to their dreams” his
mother is a teacher at a community college, instead of a university. His father
is the 5th best saxophone player in a particular region, not the
best. His sister wanted to be an author, but simply a cheesy romance one. It
makes the reader wonder about how the people of the Reservation valued
themselves. But Junior always had big dreams. He recounts how he always liked
girls that were out of his league like Dawn, the best traditional powwow
dancer, and Penelope. He dreams of getting out of the Reservation and it
motivates him even if it means going to a “racist” school and everyone at the
Reservation hating him. His father lovingly encourages him, “You have to dream
big to get big” (p.136).
Awards & Best Books
American Indian Youth Literature Award, 2008 Winner Young Adult
United States
Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Excellence in Children's
Literature, 2008 Winner Fiction and Poetry United States
California Young Reader Medal, 2010 Winner Young Adult California
Cuffies: Children's Booksellers Choose Their Favorite (and
not-so-favorite) Books of the Year, 2007 Honorable Mention Favorite Book to
Handsell United States
Cuffies: Children's Booksellers Choose Their Favorite (and
not-so-favorite) Books of the Year, 2007 Honorable Mention Hottest Selling Book
to Go Out of Stock United States
Cuffies: Children's Booksellers Choose Their Favorite (and
not-so-favorite) Books of the Year, 2007 Winner Favorite Young Adult Novel
United States
Cybil Award, 2007 Finalist Young Adult Fiction United States
Delaware Diamonds, 2009 Winner High School Delaware
Gold Inky, 2009 Shortlist Australia
Los Angeles Times Book Prize, 2007 Finalist Young Adult United
States
Mind the Gap Award, 2008 Winner Best book overlooked by the United
States
National Book Award, 2007 Winner Young People's Literature United
States
National Parenting Publications Award, 2007 Gold Book Ages 12
& Up United States
Odyssey Award, 2009 Winner United States
Pacific Northwest Book Award, 2008 Winner United States
Thumbs Up! Award, 2008 Honor Book Michigan United States
Amazon Editors' Picks: Top 10 Books, 2007
Best Children's Books of the Year, 2008 Bank Street College of
Education ; Outstanding Merit
Bulletin Blue Ribbons, 2007 The Bulletin of the Center for
Children's Books
Capitol Choices, 2008 The Capitol Choices Committee
Choices, 2008 Cooperative Children's Book Center
Horn Book Fanfare, 2007 Horn Book
Kirkus Best Young Adult Books, 2007 Kirkus
Kirkus Book Review Stars, July 15, 2007
Middle and Junior High Schoool Library Catalog, Ninth Edition
Supplement 2008, 2008 H.W. Wilson Company
Notable Books for a Global Society, 2008 Children's Literature and
Reading Special Interest Group IRA
Notable Children's Books, 2007 New York Times
Publishers Weekly Best Children's Books, 2007 Cahners
School Library Journal Best Books, 2007 Cahners
School Library Journal Book Review Stars, September 2007 Cahners
YALSA Best Books for Young Adults, 2008 American Library
Association ; Top Ten
YALSA Top Ten Best Books
for Young Adults, 2008 ; Top Ten
Review Excerpt(s)
“Alexie's humor and prose are easygoing and well suited to his
young audience, and he doesn't pull many punches as he levels his eye at
stereotypes both warranted and inapt.”
- Ian
Chipman (Booklist, Aug. 1, 2007 (Vol. 103, No. 22))
“He also realizes how many other tribes he has, from "the
tribe of boys who really miss . . . their best friends" to "the tribe
of tortilla chips-and-salsa lovers." Junior's keen cartoons sprinkle the
pages as his fluid narration deftly mingles raw feeling with funny, sardonic
insight.”
- Kirkus
Reviews, July 15, 2007 (Vol. 75, No. 14)
“His triumph is always more bitter than sweet, though, as a boy
caught between two conflicting worlds of loyalty and responsibility. His sense
of humor and his cartooning become his salvation as he bears the loneliness of
trying to escape the life of poverty and/or alcoholism that he sees as
inevitable for Indians who stay on the reservation.”
- Karen
Coats (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, October 2007 (Vol. 61,
No. 2))
Connections
Publisher, Hachette/ Little, Brown, and Company, provide bookmarks
that also feature discussion questions:
One of the questions asks about how
the title describes Junior’s identity which would be a fun discussion for a
book group or classroom.
Multnomah County Library presents a set of discussion questions
along with a reading list: https://multcolib.org/absolutely-true-diary-part-time-indian
This page could also be used in a
book talk, especially the excerpt.
This invaluable teaching guide from
Random House is extremely thorough and includes several fun activities: http://www.randomhouse.com.au/content/teachers/tsk%20absolutely%20true%20diary.pdf
