Image: LBYR
Happy Thursday! My students, colleagues and I have a long weekend because the NJ Teachers Convention is convening.
#tbt features The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie and illustrated by Ellen Fornay. This semi-autobiographical novel was the poet, screenwriter and novelist's YA debut. It landed with a splash in 2007 earning many starred reviews, the National Book Award, The Boston Globe/ Horn Book Award and was a New York Times Notable Book.
Budding cartoonist and angry teen, Arnold Spirt narrates and illustrates this frank, hilarious and heartbreaking story. Arnold, who goes by Junior, was born with hydrocephaly, or, water on the brain. This required several surgeries. He lives on an Indian reservation in Spokane, Washington with his extended family, many of whom are alcoholics. Junior is bright, artistic and also loves to play basketball with his best friend, Rowdy. He both recognizes and resents the poverty and hopelessness on the rez and wants out. His decision to leave the reservation school to attend a white high school twenty miles away causes a rift in his friendship with Rowdy. Even though his family members understand and are supportive, the rest of the tribe is not. He straddles two worlds, never quite fitting in in either one.
The book's frank language and frank depiction of poverty, addiction and racism brought many challenges by censors across the country, enough to land the title on ALA's top ten Banned/ Challenged Books more than once, most recently for sexual harassment claims against the author.
Budding cartoonist and angry teen, Arnold Spirt narrates and illustrates this frank, hilarious and heartbreaking story. Arnold, who goes by Junior, was born with hydrocephaly, or, water on the brain. This required several surgeries. He lives on an Indian reservation in Spokane, Washington with his extended family, many of whom are alcoholics. Junior is bright, artistic and also loves to play basketball with his best friend, Rowdy. He both recognizes and resents the poverty and hopelessness on the rez and wants out. His decision to leave the reservation school to attend a white high school twenty miles away causes a rift in his friendship with Rowdy. Even though his family members understand and are supportive, the rest of the tribe is not. He straddles two worlds, never quite fitting in in either one.
The book's frank language and frank depiction of poverty, addiction and racism brought many challenges by censors across the country, enough to land the title on ALA's top ten Banned/ Challenged Books more than once, most recently for sexual harassment claims against the author.
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