The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Alexie, Sherman, and Ellen Forney. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. New York: Little, Brown, 2007.

Follow the trials, triumphs and travails of 14-year-old Arnold “Junior” Spirit through his drawings and entries in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.

Fourteen-year-old Arnold is the punching bag of the reservation – for the other kids and even some of the adults. He is defended by his best friend Rowdy, the toughest kid on the reservation. But, heck, even Rowdy hits him sometimes.

Still Arnold hangs in there. He loves basketball and he loves learning. He enters Wellpinit High School on the reservation with hopes of making the team and learning all he can. On the first day of school, Arnold opens his geometry book only to find it’s the same one his mother used 30 years ago. He loses his cool and throws the book at his teacher. This gets him suspended.

The events that follow lead Arnold to transfer to the white high school in Reardan, 22 miles away. He has hope of a better education, maybe even a future in college. Folks on the reservation feel betrayed by Arnold’s decision. Even Rowdy tells Arnold he hates him, and then punches him in the nose to prove it. About his first day at the new school, Arnold writes:

Reardan was the opposite of the rez. It was the opposite of my family. It was the opposite of me. I didn’t deserve to be there. I knew it; all of those kids knew it. Indians don’t deserve shit.

Yet Arnold prevails, and extraordinary things start to happen.

He punches the biggest kid in the high school over an insult. The kid doesn’t hit him back.

Arnold becomes friends with Gordy, the smartest student in the school. Gordy introduces Arnold to all the knowledge that can be found in the school library’s books. He teaches him how to study. Arnold reflects: In Wellpinit, I was a freak because I loved books. In Reardan, I was a joyous freak.

Arnold wins a spot on the basketball team. He’s the hero of the biggest game of the year.

He gets the girl – sort of.

Arnold doesn’t leave the tragedy and the poverty of the reservation behind, however. His grandmother, his sister, and his dad’s best friend die in alcohol-fueled calamities.

He’s too poor to take his girl to the school dance so he meets her there, wearing one of his Dad’s suits from the 1970’s.

Sometimes his father can’t afford the gas for the car to drive Arnold the 22 miles to school. Sometimes Arnold has to walk the whole way.

Sometimes there isn’t enough to eat.

Through it all – the good and the bad – Arnold succeeds in his first year of high school. You can read all about it in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.

Awards
2009 Odyssey Award for audio version, produced by Recorded Books, LLC; 2008 Washington Book Award - the Scandiuzzi Children's Book Award for middle grades and young adults; 2008 Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards for Excellence in Children’s Literature in Fiction; 2008 Capitol Choices Noteworthy Books for Children; 2008 Book Sense Book of the Year Children's Literature Honor Book; 2008 Pacific Northwest Book Award; 2008 American Indian Library Association American Indian Youth Literature Award; 2007 National Book Award for Young People's Literature; Publishers Weekly 2007 Best Books of the Year - Children's Fiction; The New York Times Notable Children's Books of 2007; Los Angeles Times Favorite Children's Books of 2007; National Parenting Publication Gold Winner 2007; School Library Journal Best Books of 2007; Kirkus Reviews Best Young Adult Books of 2007; Horn Book Fanfare Best Books of 2007;
The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books Blue Ribbon Winner.

Illustrations © 2007 by Ellen Forney. Design by Kirk Benshoff. Scanned May 14, 2009.

Alexie, Sherman, and Ellen Forney. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. New York: Little, Brown, 2007. 0-316-01368-4. $16.99