Monday, November 3, 2008

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is by Sherman Alexie. This is a book I had read for my Children's Lit class. I first want to say that the whole reason I picked this book was for the illustrations. One of the things that draw me to books are if they are not written like a typical novel (The Cheese Monkeys, and Extremly Loud and Incredibly Close are two other examples.) I enjoyed this book because the author told part of the story through illustrations which were hilarious (my favorite being the main character Junior throwing a book at the geometry teacher.) Although this book was funny, the author would be making you laugh one minute and then in the next sentence say something that would make you reread it and go "oh no!" This book also looked at some of the serious cultural issues faced today among the remaining Native Americans, poverty, alcoholism, and a loss of culture that Junior's teacher describes as "killing the Indians."
Even though this book is classified as a young adult, this is something that adults can enjoy and appreciate as well.
-JB-
Next up: Walking in Circles before Lying Down by Merrill Markoe

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