The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Little, Brown and Company, Sherman Alexie
2007, 230 pp., $16.99


ISBN 0-315-01369-2



Have you ever been viewed as a traitor by your community? Well that’s the way Junior felt after he transferred to Reardan, an all white, farming town High school. The reservation (rez) was all he has ever known. Junior is a fourteen-year-old Spokane Indian and a gifted cartoonist who has always been different from the day he was born. To start he suffered from water on the brain and other medical problems. But the main reason he is different is because he strives to succeed. He doesn’t want to give up like the rest of the rez. He wants to be someone and that is the reason he went to Reardan.
Everyone on the rez looks down at him. How could he betray them like that? Junior faced the most adversity at home in the rez where everyone viewed him as a traitor. The bullies and people from the rez had more of a reason to harass him and bully him. His best friend Rowdy, the only person who had ever looked after him, won’t talk to him anymore. The only people he found comfort in were his heartening Mom and Dad, his sympathetic and loyal school friends from Reardan, and his wise and astute grandmother who talked him through his troubles.
The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a remarkable story of a teenage Indian boy who fights for change. This book intrigued me and I couldn’t put it down. I sympathized with the character and walked in his shoes. The way Sherman Alexie and Ellen Forney worked together to create this artsy tale made me feel as though I was reading Junior’s journal and was seeing his magnificent cartoon ability and his creativity unfold before me. Sherman Alexie has written a superb realistic fiction, young adult novel. The style of writing that Alexie has chosen is fresh and one of a kind. He uses the unique perspective of Junior in a diary form.

The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a moving, humorous, and a heart throbbing book. I strongly recommend this novel to anyone who is ready for an adventure and would like to join Junior in a new and thrilling world.