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The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time…
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The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (original 2007; edition 2009)

by Sherman Alexie (Author), Ellen Forney (Illustrator)

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11,554796563 (4.27)582
Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.
Member:gardnerschool
Title:The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Authors:Sherman Alexie (Author)
Other authors:Ellen Forney (Illustrator)
Info:Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (2009), Edition: Reprint, 229 pages
Collections:Tahoma
Rating:
Tags:tahoma

Work Information

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (2007)

  1. 50
    Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie (PghDragonMan)
    PghDragonMan: Contemporary fiction about searching for identity
  2. 50
    Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (Othemts)
  3. 73
    The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz (bbudke)
  4. 41
    Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata (whymaggiemay)
    whymaggiemay: There are many similarities of theme, not the least of which are loss and identity.
  5. 20
    The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint: A Novel by Brady Udall (kiwiflowa)
    kiwiflowa: A similar story for older teens/adults. Edgar is an American Indian orphan coming of age.
  6. 20
    A Step From Heaven by An Na (cammykitty)
    cammykitty: Different in feel altogether from Diary, but also another good novel about entering and adjusting to predominantly white-American culture
  7. 00
    Riding Invisible by Sandra Alonzo (meggyweg)
  8. 11
    Dakota Dream by James W. Bennett (meggyweg)
  9. 00
    Broken Glass Park by Alina Bronsky (Anonymous user)
  10. 00
    Red Sky at Morning by Richard Bradford (mysterymax)
  11. 00
    There There by Tommy Orange (teelgee)
  12. 23
    Looking for Alaska by John Green (BookshelfMonstrosity)
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» See also 582 mentions

English (787)  Dutch (2)  Italian (1)  Spanish (1)  Swedish (1)  German (1)  All languages (793)
Showing 1-5 of 787 (next | show all)
*Edit* 4 stars, down from 5. I originally gave this book a 5 but as I was thinking about it this morning, I realized that I wasn't that impressed with it. My inner dialoged was "well, I read it", not "what a great book! I'm so glad I finally read it! Why did I wait so long??". More like I had just checked it off my list.

*Another edit* 3 stars down from 4. Thinking back, I felt compelled to rate this high because Sherman Alexie is a Native American author and there was almost an expectation that I give this a high rating. Now I'm thinking that...I don't know...I feel that the book was not all that great. I read it and I've decided that I don't need/want to read anymore of his books.

I grew up on a reservation and so I was able to relate to many of the things he described, that's why initially I gave it a 5. I am more white than Native but my Reservation is home to two tribes that were traditional enemies. I went to a Catholic school on the other side of the rez so got discrimination as an Indian kid, a white kid and a kid from the enemy tribe! I didn't know any better, but it sucked. One thing that stands out to me now is that I was a rich kid by rez standards, but when I went to the white high school, I was a poor kid by white standards.

It was a fast read (for me anyway, it takes me forever to read books). It wasn't laugh-out-loud but there were enough moments and lots of things I think were "inside joke" funny. ( )
  tokenn | Feb 6, 2024 |
This is a very popular book that comes highly recommended from many quarters and it's strength is the voice of the main character, Junior, as he negotiates the two separate worlds he finds himself in. While I found some of the middle a big bogged down, but the eloquence of the end, the deep tragedies, and the complexity of the characters make this a very compelling book. ( )
  mslibrarynerd | Jan 13, 2024 |
It's been awhile since I have read a book that could make me laugh out loud, cry, get angry, feel depressed, and feel hope one after the other. ( )
  Dances_with_Words | Jan 6, 2024 |
Wow. I've always been a big Sherman Alexie fan and this may be my favorite book of his yet. Following the advice of Gordy, though, I have to read it two more times before I can really say I've read it. ( )
  LibrarianDest | Jan 3, 2024 |
The Short of It:

Very powerful account of life on the reservation.

The Rest of It:

Alexie shares his very personal experiences as a fourteen-year old boy on the reservation. Raised by two loving parents, he and his sister were two of the lucky ones. Most children on the reservation are abused in some way by their alcoholic parents. Beaten, hungry, often left to raise themselves. To survive, they hang with the wrong crowd and sometimes end up dead.

Alexie was relentlessly bullied due to water on the brain that he suffered at birth. The name calling, playground fights, the boy gangs that went out of their way to look for him made him very cautious when it came to spending time anywhere. Pow Wows were fun with a friend but would he become a target? Every day was a struggle and honestly, even his best friend, known as Rowdy, sometimes gave him a beat-down. What an odd friendship that was.

What struck me about this book is how accurate the storytelling is. As you may recall, my son’s last job in Seattle was for one of the tribes on the reservation, and what my son detailed to me in the way of rampant drug use, abuse, run ins with CPS and the like. All accurate.

The tribes have an abundance of money and provide a lot of much needed services. My son drove me through an area full of heath care offices, mental health resources, and the like, but in all honesty they offer it but don’t push it. If someone is in need of help, it’s on them to reach out for it and everyone else turns a blind eye to whatever is going on, even a kid who hasn’t eaten for days. Hearing these stories from my son made me so angry. It’s no wonder he had to leave such a toxic place.

Alexie was tired of it all. He knew that he’d die if he stayed on the reservation so he convinced his parents to let him go to a school off site. This was a huge deal because everyone on the res felt that he abandoned them. His friend Rowdy took this especially hard even though Alexie begged him to come with him.

Going to a predominately white school had its own problems but the teachers seemed to see past the Indian right into the person Alexie was. Alexie was smart. Brain damaged or not, he had something. His teachers saw it and some made it their goal to make something of him.

As you know from his accomplishments, Alexie is a highly regarded writer. I listened to part of this on audio and it was quite riveting. I highly recommend it. There is a lot to pick apart. We will be discussing this for book club this month. ( )
  tibobi | Jan 3, 2024 |
Showing 1-5 of 787 (next | show all)
Working in the voice of a 14-year-old forces Alexie to strip everything down to action and emotion, so that reading becomes more like listening to your smart, funny best friend recount his day while waiting after school for a ride home.
 

» Add other authors (7 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Sherman Alexieprimary authorall editionscalculated
Forney, EllenIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

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Epigraph
There is another world, but it is in this one. --W.B. Yeats
Dedication
For Wellpinit and Reardon, my hometowns
First words
I was born with water on the brain. Okay, so that's not exactly true. I was actually born with too much cerebral spinal fluid inside my skull. But cerebral spinal fluid is just the doctors' fancy way of saying brain grease.
Quotations
"No, I'm serious. I always knew you were going to leave. I always knew you were going to leave us behind and travel the world. I had this dream about you a few months ago. You were standing on the Great Wall of China. You looked happy. And I was happy for you."
During one week when I was little, Dad got stopped three times for DWI: Driving While Indian.
“Son,” Mr. P. said. “You’re going to find more and more hope the farther and farther you walk away from this sad, sad, sad reservation.”
I'd always been the lowest Indian on the reservation totem pole-- I wasn't expected to be good so I wasn't. But in Reardan, my coach and the other players wanted me to be good. They needed me to be good. They expected me to be good. And so I became good.
"I used to think the world was broken down by tribes," I said. "By black and white. By Indian and white. But I know that isn't true. The world is only broken into two tribes. The people who are assholes and the people who are not."
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Some editions, like ISBN 9780316013697, include study guide
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Wikipedia in English (2)

Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.

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Book description
Jr is struggling with being a poor Indian. He is given the opportunity to leave the reservation and start a new life outside of the Native American culture. And thus the story goes from chapter to chapter. This books crosses cultures of the Native American and Reardan, a white/christian culture in a rural setting. This story can be used on many fronts in a classroom. Racism, culture boundaries, friendship(Rowdy, Penelope), and having the ability to change your life. A great story with a lot of possibilities in a classroom.
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Hachette Book Group

3 editions of this book were published by Hachette Book Group.

Editions: 0316013684, 0316013692, 0316068209

Recorded Books

An edition of this book was published by Recorded Books.

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