Mrs. Reites recommends: “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie

Summary:

Junior is typical teenage boy other than the fact that he has a fairly severe medical condition and he is an Indian living on the Spokane Indian Reservation.  He details his life on the “rez” in a darkly humorous way through his cartoons and his diary.  Life as he knows it changes when he decides to attend Rearden, the middle-upper class white school about 20 miles away.  He handles the changes and the hardship with his usual humor, in his diary of a part-time Indian.

Mrs. Reites Review:

This is a powerfully moving book that will have you laughing and crying in turn.  Junior is hopeful about life and refuses to give in to dejection and despair despite all the odds.  It is his resilience that renders this book so affecting.  Alexie spares no punches in his realistic portrayal of life on the Indian Reservation, and the poverty, despair, and prejudice are displayed in full, but so are more positive aspects of the human race, such as friendship, hope, and love.  This book is highly recommended for young adults.