Alexie, Sherman. 2007. THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART-TIME INDIAN. Ill. by Ellen Forney. New York City, NY: Little Brown and Company. ISBN 978-0-316-01369-7.
Plot Summary:
Junior has lived his whole, poor-ass, life living on Spoken Indian Reservation or as Junior calls it "the rez." Junior was born with water on the brain and was supposed to have died when he was a baby but he has never allowed his disorder to be an excuse for living life, trying new things and aspiring to be more than what is expected of him. One day when Junior acts out in math class his teacher sees this as a sign that Junior is not satisfied with what he is being given so he encourages Junior to go to school outside of the reservation to allow himself more opportunities. When Junior starts school in Reardon he slowly feels like he is half-white in Reardon but half-Indian when he's on "the rez." During Juniors first year at Reardon he goes through many emotional highs such as being a basketball superstar and having his first girlfriend, to many lows such as feeling like he's betraying his family and friends for leaving the rez to losing his sister, grandmother and a close family friend. Junior never gives up and continues to realize what is truly important to him.
Critical Analysis:
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian deals with so many incredible and true issues that Native Americans deal with on a daily basis. Juniors and his family truly represents those struggles, alcoholism, poverty, bullying, lack of solid educations and death. Sherman Alexie has first hand experience with these issues being that he grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation just like Junior did. This story is a semi-autobiographical story so it really sheds light on difficult situations and how a courageous young boy deals with it through the support of his family and his comics.
What I found interesting in some of the comics is the stereotypes of what some people think Indians look like, it made fun of how naive some people are in their beliefs of Indians; long hair with a feather, no shoes, leather pants and no shirt with a very angry facial expression. This is not a true depiction of an Indian, especially today. I thought it was a very cleaver way of saying this isn't what we look like, so lets laugh at it. The way Indians look today was not really discussed in depth in this book but was depicted more in Juniors comics. I especially love the drawing of Junior where he is half-white and half-Indian to show the stark comparison of what the white kids have versus the Indian kids and the evident monetary difference between the two. Junior does mention when he first goes to school how incredibly white the kids at Reardon are compared to his darker skin. He also discusses how he is aware of this and that the Reardon kids look at him.
I did not find the way Junior, Rowdy, his parents or any of the other rez characters spoke to be very different that how the Reardon characters speak. I believe Sherman Alexie was very aware of making sure the characters didn't have many differences that way because Indians don't speak differently like they did 150 years ago and learning English.
Sherman Alexie approached many real topics in this story that statistics show are major issues. The rampant alcoholism is truly depicted in this story and how innocent people are hurt by this problem. The extreme poverty and how many children and adults go to bed hungry or go many hours without eating is horrifyingly accurate. Junior makes a comment about how he's sure that none of the kids at his school in Reardon haven't gone all day and night without a meal. The anger and bullying that takes place on the rez and how the rez people treat one another is also very different from what Junior sees at Reardon. Junior decides to physically fight back at Reardon when Roger harasses Junior a bit, Junior is use to unwritten rules of how to deal with someone harassing you and Junior is shocked when Roger doesn't physically fight back but actually walks away from the situation and looks at Junior like he's crazy.
Ellen Forney did an amazing job illustrating the comics on behalf of Junior, she worked collaboratively with Sherman Elexie and between the two of them they each represented the white characters and the Indian characters. They were each able to represent the cultures accurately and make sure they are depicted in Juniors comics. She did an amazing job and they added so much to the storyline.
Junior has lived his whole, poor-ass, life living on Spoken Indian Reservation or as Junior calls it "the rez." Junior was born with water on the brain and was supposed to have died when he was a baby but he has never allowed his disorder to be an excuse for living life, trying new things and aspiring to be more than what is expected of him. One day when Junior acts out in math class his teacher sees this as a sign that Junior is not satisfied with what he is being given so he encourages Junior to go to school outside of the reservation to allow himself more opportunities. When Junior starts school in Reardon he slowly feels like he is half-white in Reardon but half-Indian when he's on "the rez." During Juniors first year at Reardon he goes through many emotional highs such as being a basketball superstar and having his first girlfriend, to many lows such as feeling like he's betraying his family and friends for leaving the rez to losing his sister, grandmother and a close family friend. Junior never gives up and continues to realize what is truly important to him.
Critical Analysis:
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian deals with so many incredible and true issues that Native Americans deal with on a daily basis. Juniors and his family truly represents those struggles, alcoholism, poverty, bullying, lack of solid educations and death. Sherman Alexie has first hand experience with these issues being that he grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation just like Junior did. This story is a semi-autobiographical story so it really sheds light on difficult situations and how a courageous young boy deals with it through the support of his family and his comics.
What I found interesting in some of the comics is the stereotypes of what some people think Indians look like, it made fun of how naive some people are in their beliefs of Indians; long hair with a feather, no shoes, leather pants and no shirt with a very angry facial expression. This is not a true depiction of an Indian, especially today. I thought it was a very cleaver way of saying this isn't what we look like, so lets laugh at it. The way Indians look today was not really discussed in depth in this book but was depicted more in Juniors comics. I especially love the drawing of Junior where he is half-white and half-Indian to show the stark comparison of what the white kids have versus the Indian kids and the evident monetary difference between the two. Junior does mention when he first goes to school how incredibly white the kids at Reardon are compared to his darker skin. He also discusses how he is aware of this and that the Reardon kids look at him.
I did not find the way Junior, Rowdy, his parents or any of the other rez characters spoke to be very different that how the Reardon characters speak. I believe Sherman Alexie was very aware of making sure the characters didn't have many differences that way because Indians don't speak differently like they did 150 years ago and learning English.
Sherman Alexie approached many real topics in this story that statistics show are major issues. The rampant alcoholism is truly depicted in this story and how innocent people are hurt by this problem. The extreme poverty and how many children and adults go to bed hungry or go many hours without eating is horrifyingly accurate. Junior makes a comment about how he's sure that none of the kids at his school in Reardon haven't gone all day and night without a meal. The anger and bullying that takes place on the rez and how the rez people treat one another is also very different from what Junior sees at Reardon. Junior decides to physically fight back at Reardon when Roger harasses Junior a bit, Junior is use to unwritten rules of how to deal with someone harassing you and Junior is shocked when Roger doesn't physically fight back but actually walks away from the situation and looks at Junior like he's crazy.
Ellen Forney did an amazing job illustrating the comics on behalf of Junior, she worked collaboratively with Sherman Elexie and between the two of them they each represented the white characters and the Indian characters. They were each able to represent the cultures accurately and make sure they are depicted in Juniors comics. She did an amazing job and they added so much to the storyline.
Review Awards and Excerpts:
NEW YORK TIMES Notable Book of 2007
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY Best Book of the Year
SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL Best Book of the Year
The National Book Award Winner
A NAPPA Gold Book
Best Book of the Year by Amazon.com
A BBYA Top 10 Book for Teens
"Heartbreaking, funny and beautifully written" - Association of Booksellers for Children
Connections:
NEW YORK TIMES Notable Book of 2007
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY Best Book of the Year
SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL Best Book of the Year
The National Book Award Winner
A NAPPA Gold Book
Best Book of the Year by Amazon.com
A BBYA Top 10 Book for Teens
"Heartbreaking, funny and beautifully written" - Association of Booksellers for Children
Connections:
- This book opens all sorts of doors to discuss life lessons such as death and alcoholism as well as excluding someone and stereotyping them. I would use this book as a way to discuss difficult situations, how best to handle those situations and how to treat people justly. This book also discuses how difficult friendships can be especially if you are different, I would have the children discuss ways to be a good friend and how they would have helped welcome Junior to his new school. This book is for older children due to the content so the conversation is going to be of a more mature content.
- I would use Juniors comics as a guide to helping children express themselves through drawings and create their own stories. Art is a wonderful way to express yourself so I would leave it up to the children to tell whatever story they'd like to share with the group.
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