The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie - 5 stars

[annapi]

I was not expecting this to be as good as it was. I'd heard about it but it never really intrigued me enough to pick it up. Which is why I love games that make me read books, because I discover gems I would otherwise have passed by.

This is a YA story of Arnold Spirit, a young boy living on a reservation. Arnold, or "Junior", is a book-loving nerd who was born with hydrocephalus, which sometimes causes seizures, and this oddity makes him a target for the school bullies all his life. One day a teacher tells him that his only chance at a life lies outside the reservation, so he takes the bold step of transferring to the white boys' school over twenty miles away, where he is the only Indian. This earns him the enmity and scorn of just about everyone on the reservation, including his former best friend Rowdy. But he perseveres and to his surprise actually makes friends at his new school.

I have no idea what day to day life is like on a reservation, but the bleak picture that this portrays is sobering even as the author's wry voice injects humor in Arnold's life; yet it never lets go of hope. It left me wishing the author had continued the story so I could find out how Rowdy's life turns out, as well as the other characters.

This won the National Book Award, and I think it's well deserved. I certainly would recommend it to young readers from middle school up. Avoid the e-copy, though, not just for the smattering of formatting errors, but because it's full of pictures that can't clearly be seen until they come up with a way to zoom in on illustrations.

[Cora]

I was pleasantly surprised by this one too. I also gave it 5 stars and bought a paperback copy for my 14 year old son to read.

[[deleted user]]

annapi wrote: "I was not expecting this to be as good as it was. I'd heard about it but it never really intrigued me enough to pick it up. Which is why I love games that make me read books, because I discover gem..."

Well, so glad this ended up being an unexpected gem. I own the book, but haven't gotten around to reading it yet.

[Ellen]

I enjoyed this one quite a bit.

[Karin]

annapi wrote: "I was not expecting this to be as good as it was. "

I agree as this was my experience. It wasn't 5 stars for me, but I think 4, and I expected that at the most it would be 3.

[annapi]

Karin wrote: "I agree as this was my experience. It wasn't 5 stars for me, but I think 4, and I expected that at the most it would be 3."

I dithered between 4.5 (round down to 4) and 5, but I could not stop thinking about the book, and felt its effect for a very long time after I finished it. Also, I really did not want it to end, wanted to find out more about the other characters and more about what Junior did. That's what pushed me to up the rating to 5.