The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

This year Banned Book Week was scheduled for September 27th through October 3rd.  I needed but a day to read a book for young adults, one that has been frequently pulled from school library shelves over the past several years.  The book is titled The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.  It was the first work of young adult fiction by poet and essayist Sherman Alexie.  And it's readily apparent why it has had such a broad appeal to young readers.

Sherman Alexie grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation where this story is set. It's semi-autobiographical. He knows where from he writes. Physically challenged from hydrocephalus, debilitating fluid in the brain, Alexie excelled academically. He lived on the reservation but attended a white school twenty miles away where he was the only Indian. He was, in his own words, "a part-time Indian." And there-in is the story of the book. We spend an academic year with our fictional fourteen-year-old hero, Arnold Spirit, known as Junior.

They call the reservation "the rez." The inhabitants come and go freely, but it is rare that any of them live elsewhere. And in that isolation there is senseless violence, alcohol addiction, and frequent death. There is also a strong appreciation of community, heritage, and belonging. That any author could sympathetically convey such a sense of environment to young readers is a remarkable achievement.  But there is more. Alexie creates a rich vein of humor combined with a generous sense of inclusion for all his characters. Much of this humor can be found in the cartoons spread throughout the book. The hero, Junior, is an aspiring cartoonist. Sixty-five comic illustrations by Ellen Forney highlight Junior's experiences and feelings. For all the challenges he faces, he responds, in words and pictures, with spunk and hope. "I think the world is a series of broken dams and floods," Junior tells us, "and my cartoons are tiny little lifeboats."

The New York Times may have best summed up this acclaimed book as "listening to your smart, funny best friend recount his day while waiting after school for a ride home." Sherman Alexie received the 2007 National Book Award for Young People's Literature for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.