Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Banned Books: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

For banned books week I dove into a young adult novel that has been hailed by as many as who have banned it.

THIS IS A FABULOUS BOOK! I read it in about two hours on the bus. I laughed out loud, I got teary eyed, most of all I appreciated the genuine-ness of this book. Quite a fun read.

This book tells the story of a teenage boy who, somewhat randomly, decides to attend high school off the reservation. This is a big deal, no one has done this before and causes him problems with many of his friends and members of his community who feel he is betraying the reservation. On his new campus he is the only person of color and feels the heat there too for being poor, for being Indian, for being different.

He is also faced with a series of tragedies. The author does a really wonderful job of portraying these tragedies realistically, for many Native Americans, these kinds of things really do happen regularly. Yet, and REALLY IMPORTANTLY I think, this book is not a sob story. The protagonist triumphs in his own way and handles tragedies as best he can. Furthermore, he is not the only one of his community to "press on", he is not the only Indian who finds a way to deal, who finds some measure of "success".

Recommendation: READ IT! IT'S WONDERFUL!

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