The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

The book I had read was The Absolutely True Diary of a PartTime Indian. It was published in 2007 by Sherman Alexie, he is a novelist, story writer, poet, and filmmaker.  Other books he had written are Indian Killer, War Dances, Ten little Indians, Reservation Blues and other many great books.  The books that he had wrote are very similar, it is about Native Americans or Indians and how they have to live in reservations and are very poor.  The theme of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian is finding hopes, in the book Junior was told to move to a white school to find “hope” but finding hope can be hard when you are a Native American.

This book is about Junior a Native American kid and live with his sister, mom, dad, and grandmother. He is born with too many of cerebrospinal fluid on his brain that made him had many brain surgery, also had more teeth than a normal person have, and his eyes don't use the same glasses. Soon he was told to move away to a school to find a place full of hopes and white people are full of hopes, but going to a white school means betraying your tribe, losing your best friend (Rowdy is his friend), and the whole tribe will also hate you. For example his mother said “the Indians around here will be angry with you”, and then he replied, “shoot, I figure that my fellow tribal members are going to torture me.” Even though knowing all these terrible things that will happen to him, Junior take the courage and went to Reardan, but will he survive his freshmen year at Reardan and create friendship read the book and you'll find out what he did.

I really enjoyed this book because there were many surprises in the book, but you have to read it to know. This book is written for people who like young Adult fiction, and also if you like to kinda know more about Native American or Indian then read this because it does talk about it a little but most part is Junior life. Definitely go read this book online or buy it it can be enjoyable to you, and if you not interested in this book, forget about everything I just said.

Book Review by YangPao V.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

This Book is a story depicting the story of a young Indian (Native American) that has to go through many struggles in life. At a young age Arnold Spirit was born with a damaged brain, he had to much fluid in his skull which in turn lead to surgery which damaged his brain giving him a lisp and a stutter and abnormal growth of hands and feet. The story of this young man is very sad and very tragic, it just shows you how awful things can be even in our county and how racism is still out there.

               

This young warrior’s life started out as a challenge; he was born with multiple injuries, faced impossible odds, had seizures, speech troubled, and just had it rough from the start. This main character didn’t come from a family who can afford all that treatment or from a family who can provide the best in anything other than in love for their child. These Native Americans were poor. And even after that h manages to pull through; In the beginning of the story Arnolds fist aful thing to happen to him (other than the physical disabilities) was the lost of his best friend, his dog. His family was in such a tough economical spot that they couldn’t afford the treatment for the dog, so they did what they had to do, they put an end to his misery.

               

During that time we meet his best human friend, Rowley. Rowley is the bully on the block, he has an abusive father who treats him and his mom like nothing forcing him to be the big tough guy that he needs to be. He is feared by every one, adults, kids, seniors, everybody knows that he is not to be messed with. He is the kid who has given up on everything, just like every one lese in the reservation they have given up. Except for Arnold.

               

His first day of high school he realizes that he deserves better that he needs to go out there and find hope, he needs to be able to expand and broaden his horizons to have a better life and to achieve everything he wants to achieve.

               

As you can see this is a very hopeful book; I don’t want to give everything away, after all this is a review. But hopefully I’ve told you enough for you to understand what is happening in our world, your world, I hope that you will like this book and that you will look at the hope and determination of Arnold Spirt and that you will peruse what you want with that exact same passion. 

 Book Review by Rony M.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

My book is The  Absolutely True Diary of a Part-TimeIndian.14 year old Arnold Spirit lives on a Spokane Indian Reservation. He was born with lots of mental problems. He has brain damage and is prone to seizures. During the surgery he underwent after being born to remove the cerebral spinal fluid in his skull because he had to much in his head he nearly died. As Arnold got older his feet and hands grew bigger than what was necessary for being in fifth grade. Arnold also had problems with his eyes. In one eye  he is nearsighted and in the other farsighted he wears really think and black glasses  because of this eyes. The reservation is very poor sometimes Arnold and his family sometimes don’t eat dinner and it’s really rough at the reservation to there are fights. Arnold was picked on when he was little because of his head. Arnold is called Junior because  people know his name is Arnold Spirit Junior. Arnold’s best friend Rowdy is really rough he gets into fights with boys and girls. They know each other since they were babies and are best friends ever since. He knows Rowdy will fight for him and knows his friend has a damaged brain. One night while going to the powwow Arnold gets into a fight with these three twins brothers who are in their thirties. After they beat him and walk away Rowdy makes sure Arnold is ok. Rowdy  takes revenge because of what they did to his friend. He sneaks into their tent and shaves off their eyebrow and cuts off their braids. After a while Arnold tells his parents he wants to transfer schools and go to Readen High School. Readen is a rich white school. His parent let him go. He’s scared about his first day. People on the rez learned this and are mad at him especially  his friend Rowdy who is now  his worst enemy .After  while he likes Readen there is hope there and that’s what is looking for is hope and not to give up on dreams like his mom, dad, sister ,grandma. His sister lives in their basement and gave up her dream for writing romance novels. Arnold becomes friends with a pretty blonde girl Penelope. She is really nice and doesn’t give up. Evenly Arnold’s sister gets married and moves to Montana.He also meets a guy named Gordy who is a genius .He finds hope.

Book Review by Anna N.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Sherman Alexie is a fulfilled writer with over seventeen novels and a variety of short stories. My favorite out of the books that have read is The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.  Other book by Sherman Alexie like The LoneRanger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven are similar in the style of writing but this book is more distinctive with the character and is easier to follow along with.  An Indian boy that lives on a reservation is approached by one of his teachers that tells him that he has potential but he is never going to get anywhere unless he leaves the reservation. With times being hard on the reservation, people depend on temporary fixes like alcohol, which they spend what little money they have on often over the necessities.  

This insightful novel walks you through a story of how a boy with an uncountable amount of odd stacked against him, perseveres though many challenges.  From being viewed as a traitor by his whole tribe, losing his best friend, and learning to survive being the only Indian in an all-white school. Not only does the book show the struggle that Junior is going through but also what goes on within the reservation and how tragedy is a regular thing in everyday life. When he moved school he expected his best friend Rowdy to come with him but instead he lost him and he became one of the biggest challenges he would have to face.

I really enjoyed reading this book because of how real the story was and how the author made it known what people on reservations go through on a daily basis but still in a way that made it seem less serious that it is.  This book was written in a very different writing style; the way that the author writes is very blunt and strait to the point, but it doesn’t take away from the story it shows what a harsh life he lead and how horrible things like dying in a car accident because they were drunk is a normal everyday thing.  It makes the book even more interesting to read. The author portrays the characters as very real and down to earth people it makes it easy to relate and get connected to the characters.  Over all it was a great book and I would absolutely recommend it.      

Book Review by Hanna W.