The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (Little Brown, $9.99)
I finally got a chance to sit down and read this book, which has been on my to-do list since it won the National Book Award, became one of the One Book, One Philadelphia choices, and was talked about in length on NPR with the wonderful Sherman Alexie. My favorite anecdote by Alexie during the interview was when he was talking about the many movie offers the book has had but how he won't do it unless they find a kid who can REALLY play basketball. He joked about not even caring if they were Indian, as long as they could play basketball right.
This book is definitely for young adults and older- there are some mature themes that might be too intense for some middle graders. Alexie's coming of age story of a high school boy named Junior (real name Arnold) from the Spokane reservation is both heart-wrenching and hilarious simultaenously. The comics drawn by Ellen Forney throughout the book are right on point. Simply put, life on the reservation is hard. Kids deal with alcoholism, poverty, and depression on a regular basis. When Junior decides on his own to attend a school outside of the reservation to get a better education he realizes how different his perspective is just by the amount of funerals he has attended in his young life. His white friends at his new school have barely lost any of their immediate and extended family. He has seen countless people close to him die. The balance of tragedy and humor is so solid. I was choked up with tears and smiling, finishing the book with countless sighs and silent prayers. I wish I had been able to read this book when I went to high school.
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