home
books
movies
recordings
essays

calendar
biography
awards
articles

features
road trips
store
gallery

academic center
press center
links
contact
news

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Illustrated by Ellen Forney Published by Little, Brown Publication date: September 2007 cover readers guide (pdf file) Foreign publications: Brazil, Editora Record France, Albin Michel Germany, DTV Holland, Lemniscaat Hungary, Europa Kiado Italy, Rizzoli Japan, Shougakukan Korea, Darun Spain, Ediciones Siruela Sweden, Rabén & Sjögren Taiwan, Ecus Publishing (Complex Chinese only) UK, Andersen Press Other domestic publications: Unabridged audio CD and cassette - Recorded Books, LLC; Narrated by Sherman Alexie Large print - Thorndike Books summary audio awards reviews interviews

In his first book for young adults, bestselling author Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist who leaves his school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white high school. This heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written tale, coupled with poignant drawings that reflect the character’s art, is based on the author’s own experiences and chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he seems destined to live.

back to top

BookPage
Negotiating the Boundaries Between Two Worlds
Note: You will need Acrobat Reader to download this review, saved as a PDF file.
October 2007

print
Absolutely True Things Considered
Review posted on Ellen Forney's Web site.
September / October 2007

San Francisco Chronicle
Sherman Alexie's new novel takes teen off the reservation
by Reyhan Harmanci
September 30, 2007

Chicago Sun Times
A year in the life of a nerdy American Indian
by Karen Cruze
September 23, 2007

The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
September 2007
*“Who has the most hope?” Junior, a Spokane Indian, asks his parents. “White people” is their instantaneous and simultaneous reply, confirming for Junior what he already knew: if he is to have any hope of fulfilling his dreams, he has to leave the rez. Bracing the fierce anger of his best friend, Rowdy, Junior attends a white high school twenty-two miles from his home, where he falls in love, makes a few friends, and becomes a basketball legend. His triumph is always more bitter than sweet, though, as a boy caught between two conflicting worlds of loyalty and responsibility. His sense of humor and his cartooning become his salvation as he bears the loneliness of trying to escape the life of poverty and/or alcoholism that the perpetual grief of his community as they bury more people in a year than his white friends have lost in their whole lives; his pain reaches a peak when he loses his sister, who made her own escape from the rez by marrying a guy she met at a casino and moving to Montana, only to get drunk and die without waking up in a trailer fire. Through these experiences, though, he begins to get a sense of who he is and where he belongs, of which affiliations he can afford to keep and which he must walk away from; most poignant is the gift of identity that Rowdy give him as he too comes to terms with what Junior must do to survive. The grief in this narrative is enough to leave a reader gasping, with both the humor and the hope always deepened by sadness and the ever-present niggling of undeserved and impotent guilt. Nevertheless, what emerges most strongly is Junior’s uncompromising determination to press on while leaving nothing important behind. KC

Los Angeles Times
'The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian' by Sherman Alexie
by Susan Carpenter
September 16, 2007

Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune
Books: Straight shooter
by Jim Lenfestey
September 13, 2007

Newsday

Alexie entertains while taking on tough ideas
by Sonja Bolle
September 9, 2007

The Oregonian
Alexie pulls no punches in young-adult novel
by J. David Santen Jr.
September 9, 2007

KLIATT
September 2007
ALEXIE, Sherman. The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian.

Poet and writer Sherman Alexie, based this, his first YA novel, on his experiences growing up on a Spokane reservation, and it’s breathtakingly honest, funny, profane and sad. Illustrated with cartoon drawings by Ellen Forney, it’s the story of “zitty and lonely” Junior, a skinny, smart 14-year-old brave enough and crazy enough to dare go to a white school off the reservation for a better education. Of course, at first he’s roundly hated by all for his decision, accused by those on the rez of being an “apple” (red on the outside, white on the inside) and tormented by kids at his new school (one asks, “Did you know that Indians are living proof that niggers fuck buffalo?”). Even getting to the far-off school poses a major problem, as his dad is often too drunk to drive him, or lacks money for gas, or the car breaks down. Junior perseveres, even taking a white girl to a dance and earning a place on the basketball team, which leads to a whole new set of problems. In the end, though, it’s the deaths of people he loves that almost undoes Junior (he’s attended 42 funerals so far in his young life), but this also helps him realize that people both on and off the reservation care for him and share his grief.

Alexie has a unique story to tell, and he tells it with raw emotion leavened with humor. The b/w cartoons add a good deal to the tale (Junior dreams of becoming an artist), but it’s Junior’s voice that will stay with readers and help them understand the reservation experience, haunted by alcohol abuse but rich in family love, and know something about what it feels like to be Native American in a white world.

Paula Rohrlick, KLIATT

Seattlechild.com
The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian
Sept 2007

The book is based on Alexie’s own experiences growing up on a Spokane Indian Reservation. The boy called “Junior” is the son of two poor people who came from poor people and so on. The life Junior is to live has already been picked out for him and he has no hope of changing it around. He was born with “water on the brain”, forever making him a target for bullies on the “rez”. Entering ninth grade, he receives the encouragement of a regretful teacher and he decides to get off the reservation to look for hope. It comes in the form of an all-white school 20 miles away, called Reardan. With his decision to switch schools he angers the whole tribe and loses his best friend.

After a hard fight to win the respect of the “king” of Reardan and securing the love of the “queen”, he is happy, although a little self conscious. Then it’s basketball season and Junior (or his Reardan name Arnold) is on the varsity basketball team. The first game he plays is against his old school on the rez, and his ex-best friend is the star player. By the end of the game Junior needs stitches and has a concussion! Throughout the story Junior is dealing with the deaths of family and friends, all caused by alcohol. He finds differences in himself and the white people he now calls friends.

I won’t say any more, for fear of giving away the whole book, but Sherman Alexie wastes no time in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian with flowery sentences or detailed scenery. The story is written with a raw frankness and humor that most teenagers can relate to. I love a story that makes me laugh constantly, but brings me to tears the next sentence. This book was very successful at doing that.

The story gave me a perspective on growing up Native American that I have never had before. I’ve heard about tepees and berry picking, and names like Whispering Wolf and magical stories of how the sun came to be. This book brings me to a modern day reality, of alcohol and death. I would not recommend it to kids younger then 13 but to anyone older than that it is a story that involves laughter, hunger, death and friendship and you should definitely read it. - Lily Rorick is 13 years old and attends Seattle Academy of Arts and Sciences in Seattle.

Gaywatch
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
8/27/07

Publishers Weekly
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Sherman Alexie, illus. by Ellen Forney. Little, Brown, $16.99 (256p) ISBN 978-0-316-01368-0
Screenwriter, novelist and poet, Alexie bounds into YA with what might be a Native American equivalent of Angela’s Ashes, a coming-of-age story so well observed that its very rootedness in one specific culture is also what lends it universality, and so emotionally honest that the humor almost always proves painful. Presented as the diary of hydrocephalic 14-year-old cartoonist and Spokane Indian Arnold Spirit Jr., the novel revolves around Junior’s desperate hope of escaping the reservation. As he says of his drawings, “I think the world is a series of broken dams and floods, and my cartoons are tiny little lifeboats.” He transfers to a public school 22 miles away in a rich farm town where the only other Indian is the team mascot. Although his parents support his decision, everyone else on the rez sees him as a traitor, an apple (“red on the outside and white on the inside”), while at school most teachers and students project stereotypes onto him: “I was half Indian in one place and half white in the other.” Readers begin to understand Junior’s determination as, over the course of the school year, alcoholism and self-destructive behaviors lead to the deaths of close relatives. Unlike protagonists in many YA novels who reclaim or retain ethnic ties in order to find their true selves, Junior must separate from his tribe in order to preserve his identity. Jazzy syntax and Forney’s witty cartoons examining Indian versus White attire and behavior transmute despair into dark humor; Alexie’s no-holds-barred jokes have the effect of throwing the seriousness of his themes into high relief. Ages 14-up. (Sept.)

School Library Journal
ALEXIE, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.
August 2007
Gr 7-10 – Exploring Indian identity, both self and tribal, Alexie’s first young adult novel is a semiautobiographical chronicle of Arnold Spirit, aka Junior, a Spokane Indian from Wellpinit, WA. The bright 14-year-old was born with water on the brain, is regularly the target of bullies, and loves to draw. He says, “I think the world is a series of broken dams and floods, and my cartoons are tiny little lifeboats.” He expects disaster when he transfers from the reservation school to the rich, white school in Reardan, but soon finds himself making friends with both geeky and popular students and starting on the basketball team. Meeting his old classmates on the court, Junior grapples with questions about what constitutes one’s community, identity, and tribe. The daily struggles of reservation life and the tragic deaths of the protagonist’s grandmother, dog, and older sister would be all but unbearable without the humor and resilience of spirit with which Junior faces the world. The many characters, on and off the rez, with whom he has dealings are portrayed with compassion and verve, particularly the adults in his extended family. Forney’s simple pencil cartoons fit perfectly within the story and reflect the burgeoning artist within Junior. Reluctant readers can even skim the pictures and construct their own story based exclusively on Forney’s illustrations. The teen’s determination to both improve himself and overcome poverty, despite the handicaps of birth, circumstances, and race, delivers a positive message in a low-key manner. Alexie’s tale of self-discovery is a first purchase for all libraries.–Chris Shoemaker, New York Public Library

Publishers Weekly
An Absolutely Great Novel by Sherman Alexie
August 6, 2007

Booklist
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Note: You will need Acrobat Reader to download this review, saved as a PDF file.
August 1, 2007

Kirkus Reviews
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
July 15, 2007
Alexie nimbly blends sharp wit with unapologetic emotion in his first foray into young-adult literature. Fourteen-year-old Junior is a cartoonist and bookworm with a violent but protective best friend Rowdy. Soon after they start freshman year, Junior boldly transfers from a school on the Spokane reservation to one in a tiny white town 22 miles away. Despite his parents' frequent lack of gas money (they're a "poor-ass family"), racism at school and many crushing deaths at home, he manages the year. Rowdy rejects him, feeling betrayed, and their competing basketball teams take on mammoth symbolic proportions. The reservation's poverty and desolate alcoholism offer early mortality and broken dreams, but Junior's knowledge that he must leave is rooted in love and respect for his family and the Spokane tribe. He also realizes how many other tribes he has, from "the tribe of boys who really miss . . . their best friends" to "the tribe of tortilla chips-and-salsa lovers." Junior's keen cartoons sprinkle the pages as his fluid narration deftly mingles raw feeling with funny, sardonic insight. (Fiction. YA)

A star is assigned to books of unusual merit, determined by the editors of Kirkus Reviews.

Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA)
Alexie, Sherman - The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Note: You will need Acrobat Reader to download this review, saved as a PDF file.
July 2007

La Bloga
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
June 27, 2007

Richie's Picks: Great Books for Children and Young Adults
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
April 1, 2007

Interactive Reader - 11/8/07; Finding Wonderland: The YA Web Log: Winter Blog Blast Tour - 11/7/07; Texas Book Festival audio interview and panel presentation video - 11/07; Austin American Statesman - 10/31/07; Rick Simonson's PW Blog - 10/12/07; Seattle Times - 10/11/07; KUOW Weekday - 10/11/07; NPR Morning Edition - 9/21/07; The Buffalo News - 9/9/07; The Oregonian - 9/9/07; The Seattle Times - 9/8/07; Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune 8/31/07; School Library Journal (Note: This is a jpeg file, which may take time to download.) 8/07.

back to top