The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Collector's Edition) by Sherman Alexie

Arnold Spirit, Jr., was born with water on the brain, bad eyesight, and suffocating poverty. On his Native American reservation in Washington, he sees people trapped in their lives -- hungry, drunk, and stuck, and, when a teacher on the reservation tell him that his only hope is to go to a white school over twenty miles away from the reservation, he decides that doing this, the unthinkable, is his only hope.

Facing racism at school and perpetual tragedies at home, Junior’s path is an uphill battle – one that he often has to walk alone, 22 miles to his school.

Full of the kinds of risky and controversial behaviors that teens see every day, Arnold has to deal with the trouble all around him, from alcoholism to life-crushing recklessness, child abuse to gambling addictions. Hilarious all the way through, Junior faces life’s dangers with a searing sarcasm and true grit.

Bibliotherapeutic value: All around him, the narrator sees his friends and family trapped in a cycle of poverty and alcoholism. This is a book about facing life’s most difficult challenges head on.

Note: Details below are for the collector’s edition because this one’s a keeper!

Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Collector’s Edition). New York: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2009.

ISBN: 0316068209. $19.99.