Landon Allen - The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

By Sherman Alexie

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is about a young Native American growing up on an Indian reservation with no promising future. Junior, the main character, is a small, scrawny freshman at one the high schools in the reservation and has a disease that puts to much fluid in his brain. Everybody in the town picks him on, except for his best friend, Rowdy. Rowdy is a big and tough kid and he used his size to protect Junior every chance he could. One day Junior gets fed up with one of his teachers and ends up getting suspended. His teach doesn’t get mad, but instead he gets sad because Junior is such a nice kid with so much potential. This teacher convinces Junior to transfer to an all-white school off of the reservation. Junior often wondered if he made to right decision to leave.

When Junior tells Rowdy that he is leaving, Rowdy beats him up and never talks to him again. He turns into an outcast from whole reservation. When he starts his first day at Rearden High School, his life doesn’t get any better. The girls make fun of his name, the boys still pick on him, and the teachers don’t give him a fair chance.

This book was written very well in a way that keeps high school students interested. Sherman Alexie used humor to make the hard to talk about subjects more comforting while still keeping the strong meaning. I enjoyed reading this book and I learned a lot of new perspectives from it. I recommend this to anybody looking for a funny book that still has significant values.