The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Alexie, S. (2007). The absolutely true story of a part-time Indian. New York, NY: Scholastic.

At age fourteen, Arnold Spirit, Jr. (he goes by "Junior") has been dealt a rough hand in life.  He lives in poverty with his alcoholic father, former-alcoholic mother, sister and grandmother on a Spokane Indian Tribe reservation, also known as the “rez”.  He realizes that his key to overcome his situation is to get a better education, so he starts going to school off the rez.  Tragedy hits Arnold pretty hard towards the end of the book and although he starts doubting his decision to attend school off the rez, he realizes that it is a path he must follow to try to break out of the cycle and curse that is rez life.

This book does not hold back.  Told from Arnold's point of view, his first-person voice uses every cuss word with the exception of the F-bomb to narrate his tale.  To be honest, if I had to suffer through his life, I'd be using the F-bomb frequently to punctuate my story.  Also, Arnold discusses masturbation in the book a couple of times.  That being said, I would recommend this book to teenagers 13 and up.  I've never read a book like this before, but having read it, I feel that there needs to be a lot more Native American-centric literature for young adults out there.  Joseph Bruchac can't do it all on his own.  With an admirable, real character like Arnold and a message about hopes and dreams that endures to the very end of the novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian nails the criteria for a quality specimen of young adult literature.