The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (National Book Award Winner)

I absolutely adored this book! Well written and the cartoons really added to the story.

Arnold Spirt, a Spokane Indian, goes to a white school by choice. Trouble ensues for Arnold when he decides to go to the all-white high school of Reardon.

I highly recommend this book.

I started this a while back when I thought I might be asked to teach it, but never finished it. Which is strange because it is not a hard book. It is quite funny and an easy, quick read, so I made it my gym exercise bike book. I think it is great as a book to teach in, for example, 8th or 9th grade. But for someone who has read a lot more books, it doesn't present anything surprising or new. It's just a really solid but fairly predictable story about feeling torn between the white and the indian reservation world - dealing with the notion of authenticity, betrayal of your community, the need to escape poverty and insularity, feeling ostracized from both sides of the divide, loss, grief, alcoholism. I think it's a great entry point for younger readers who may never have had much experience of or education about the issues facing present day Indian communities/tribes. I, however, grew up and went to college (as an English major, no less) in Oklahoma. So it just didn't do that much for me beyond the laughs.

At first the auhtor's in flection (audiobooK), but then became part of the charm. I loved this book. I lauighed, I teared up. Everyone should read this book.

I enjoyed reading this book and the stories that Junior shares. The illustrations were good too. It is heartbreaking to read some of the things that happened to Junior as a young boy. Some of the language in it, for it being a "young adult" book, I did not care for, but it was still a good read.

I love the theme of hope in this novel. Everyone uses it differently.