Thursday, January 3, 2013

Blog 88 - Part Time Indian Book Review


The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian


Author: Sherman Alexie
Format: Paperback
Pages: 230
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date: April 2009
ISBN-13: 9780316013697

About the book
In his first book for young adults, bestselling author Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot. Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is based on the author's own experiences, coupled with poignant drawings by acclaimed artist Ellen Forney, that reflect the character's art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he was destined to live.

My Review
Things that I liked: I liked how the cover is simple and show little figurines to give insight to what the book is about without actually giving it away. I really like how the author wrote the book in a way that he builds the story off of his own life experiences. I really enjoyed reading about the obstacles that Junior, or Arnold, had to go through to rise above what people expected of him. It was interesting to see how the main character went through those obstacles, and I also like how throughout the book there were sketches of certain things that he had to deal with, with his friends, family, obstacles, and other things.

Things I didn’t like: While the pictures or sketches helped throughout the book, I felt like some of the pictures didn’t do the story justice, but that could just be my thoughts or interpretations of the pictures and everything. There were some parts, some sentences, that felt redundant but it was hard to tell if it was really needed or not. It just seemed like some things were repeated when they didn’t need to be.  

Overall: I really enjoyed this book, and I recommend it to everyone!

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