Friday's Featured: The True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

One of my passions is reading and recommending young adult literature to students.  Well, not just students, young adult literature is for everyone.  So, every Friday I will review a book that I have read.  Let's call it Friday's Featured.  I will share the story (without giving the ending away, of course), recommend ages, and include my personal feelings about the book.  Sometimes I might share a related book I intend to read.  As I share books, please feel free to leave a comment about your reaction to them.  I would love to hear your opinion.

The first book is The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.

Image credit: PBS

A Personal Connection
Every reader likes to see themselves in the books they read and I am no exception.  Even though I was adopted as a young child, my parents encouraged me to learn about my heritage, Cherokee Indian.  I became fascinated with this tribe and read several nonfiction books, especially about Sequoyah, the man who invented the Cherokee language Syllabary.

When I was about 14, we took a family vacation to the capital of the Eastern band of Cherokees, Cherokee, North Carolina.  We visited the museum and living village, and attended the outdoor drama Unto These Hills.  I was in heaven.  The Cherokee Museum and Heritage Center had a bookstore where I was able to find books that included Cherokee characters.  Before this, I did not find many fiction books with Native American characters.

The Author
In 2007, Sherman Alexie, a well-known Native American poet and author, published his award winning book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.  Alexie grew up on the Spokane Indian reservation in Washington.  Alexie also wrote and co-produced the movie Smoke Signals.

The Story
The main character, Junior, lives in poverty on a reservations with his alcoholic parents.  Sadly, this is very common on the reservation.  Junior has dreams of leaving and breaking this cycle.  In his freshman geometry class, he discovers his textbook had been his mother's.  He become extremely frustrated.  Just one more thing demonstrating the extreme poverty of the reservation and school that continues to use out of date textbooks (over 30 years old).

After throwing the book and having a heart-to-heart talk with his teacher, Junior wants a better life for himself.  He does not want to end up like his parents or their parents, and so on, so he decides to enroll in the rich white high school 22 miles away.

My Thoughts
This is one of my all-time favorite books.  I highly recommend this book and consider it a must-read, especially for people looking for stories with diverse characters.  The next Native American book I want to read is I am Apache by Tanya Landman.

What I like:
Humor
Great writing
Illustrations support story
Tale of hope
Diverse characters

Recommended ages:
15 years and up - use of bad language and sexual references