The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Alexis, S. (2007). The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. New York, NY: Little Brown. Arnold Spirit, nicknamed Junior lives on the Spokane Indian Reservation (the rez) with his mother, father, sister and grandmother. Junior feels like an outcast among his peers on the rez. He’s always being made fun of or beat. He only has one friend, Rowdy. After about a week into the new school year, Junior subsequently gets advice from the geometry teacher to leave the rez or, he warns, Junior would not ever grow intellectually or get anywhere in life. Junior decides, with his parent’s permission to attend a predominantly white school a few miles away from the rez. The problem is that his peers on the rez, including Rowdy, considers him a traitor for leaving and he also has fears he won’t fit in at his new school. After becoming acclimated to his new environment, Junior is able to make friends and eventually reconnect with Rowdy too. For children in the 7^th grade and up that enjoy this book, I would also recommend they read American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang. This book is a similar read. The main character is a minority at his school. Both books tell of the personal obstacles the main characters had to endure throughout each story. This book definitely meets the criteria of Havighurst’s developmental task that suggests adolescents need to learn to get along with peers, as this was a major theme throughout the book.