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

Over at ReadingYA: Readers’ Rants, my co-blogger TadMack and I write about young adult books that have caught our eye–whether we feel like a formal critique or an informal discussion. It’s the sister site of Finding Wonderland, our writing and literary news blog, and we started both blogs to share our observations and discoveries with our writing group and anyone else.

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I was especially excited to read Sherman Alexie’s new novel for young adults, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, because TadMack and I will be interviewing Mr. Alexie for an upcoming blog tour. His YA novel prompts just as many thought-provoking questions as his work for adults, and manages to be laugh-out-loud funny to boot. It was also recently announced as a finalist for the National Book Award in the category of Young People’s Literature.

My review on Readers’ Rants discusses the story of Arnold "Junior" Spirit, who attends an all-white high school hoping to move beyond what seems a stifling, fatal lifestyle on the reservation. The story, with excellent cartoon illustrations by Ellen Forney:

reflects the complexity of real life, with painful and haunting details
that could only come from real experiences of reservation life–making
Junior a sort of every-boy who both suffers greatly and finds strength
and friendship in unlikely places.

Read the full review here.

–Sarah Stevenson, Graphic Novels organizer

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