The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

I finally got around to reading Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. It won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature back in 2007 and I've been hearing fantastic things about it ever since.

Wow, talk about a one-two punch.

The narrator of the tale, Junior, is now quite possibly one of my favorite characters. Ever. He will break your heart with his story even as he leaves you in stitches. He's funny and fearless and lovably human. And though hardly immune to his circumstances, nevertheless he forges resolutely on.

Junior has been beating the odds since the day he was born.

He wasn't expected to live past a procedure to remove cerebral spinal fluid from his brain as an infant. Instead, we find he's made it to his teen years in pretty good shape, if you can overlook the crippling poverty, rampant alcoholism and general malaise that afflicts the Spokane Indian Reservation.

It sucks to be poor, and its sucks to feel that you somehow deserve to be poor. You start believing that you're poor because you're stupid and ugly. And then you start believing that you're stupid and ugly because you're Indian. And because you're Indian you start believing you're destined to be poor. It's an ugly circle and there's nothing you can do about it.

Poverty doesn't give you strength or teach you lessons about perseverance. No, poverty only teaches you how to be poor.

Junior, as you can see, is not afraid to tell it like it is.

His parents are drunks. His best friend has an abusive father. His school is so underfunded that it hasn’t updated its textbooks in least 30 years. Junior himself is a skinny, spectacle-wearing, book-kissing nerd, which doesn’t exactly earn him a lot of fans around the rez.

Then one day, prodded into action by his teacher, Junior decides to take his fate into his own hands. He decides to transfer to the all-white school in the neighboring town of Reardan, 22 miles away. His parents support the move, recognizing that it will allow Junior to get a better education and access to more opportunities. But they’re pretty much the exception. Junior's community proceeds to treat him like he's betrayed them. The Reardan High School kids ignore him.

Junior's beauty is how he weathers his hardships with such aplomb and good humor. Though lonely and confused, he hangs in there, funneling his energy into positive outlets, from doodling comics to joining the basketball team. And slowly but surely, things begin to change.

I recommend this book to anyone who's looking for a pick-me-up. Diary is a daring book, too, pushing the boundaries of young adult lit with its dark humor, language and examination of race, all of which has frequently landed it on Top 10 lists for most frequently challenged titles. We have it in book form (YP FIC ALEXIE; you'll get to see Junior's awesome doodles, drawn by Ellen Forney), audiobook (AD YP FIC ALEXIE), and downloadable audio. I listened to the audio version, which is narrated by the author. I'm sometimes leery of authors reading their own stuff but Sherman really knocks it out of the ballpark and brings 14-year-old Junior to life.

Junior may endure, at times, the unimaginable, but it's a statement to Sherman's talent how we still feel optimistic and hopeful for Junior’s future.

Tall Story by Candy Gourlay YP FIC GOURLAY

Everything about Bernardo is tall. Not only is he eight feet at 16, but also he is seen as a Folk Hero that protects form earthquakes in his small village in the Philippines. Everything about Andi’s life is coming up short. She’s considered too short for basketball and when she FINALLY gets to join a team her parents move her. Then when her GIANT half-brother Bernardo moves to London to live with them nothing is the same. But Bernardo is more than he seems, and after he comes miracles begin to happen.

What works so well about this book is that each chapter is told from the perspective of either Bernardo or his sister Andi, each taking turns. This helps to highlight how different they are and makes the times that Bernardo causes Andi trouble all the funnier, because we see it through both their eyes. A lot of the comedy comes from Bernardo being such and outsider to modern society and the rest comes from how spunky and quick witted Andi is. This is a funny, lighthearted read that will definitely grab sports fans. Andi’s basketball storyline provides some of the funniest and most exciting moments of the book. When the more magical (although the author never makes clear if it is magic or chance) elements appear they seem natural, because Bernardo has been talking about magic for so long. This is a kind of fun, quirky hidden gem that is filled with true to life but larger than life characters and lots of genuine heart.

On the Devil's Court / by Carl Deuker

Aspirations of a dream senior season in basketball seem to be imploding for Joe Faust when he completely bombs his first day of tryouts. A new kid in a new school, he knows he has to impress if he stands any chance of starting at point guard; but the ball just wouldn't bounce his way. Everything seemed to be against him, like he was somehow cursed. So later on when an eerie sequence of events presents Joe with a bargain of a rather eternal nature, the chance for earthly redemption's just too much to pass up, even if something else gets sold off forever.

Needless to say, Joe's second day of the two-day tryout couldn't be more flawless, leaving the others dumbfounded at the difference in his performance and even coercing the coach into a "I must have pegged you wrong" statement. But this is only the beginning as Joe's dream season quickly starts to manifest itself; things like an injury to the team's starting point guard conveniently creating opportunities as wins, stats and adulation pile up at seemingly every turn. It's almost as if nothing stands too far out of reach as even his most fantastic ambitions now appear feasible. But while temporary achievements seem endless, they can't keep Joe from wondering about his situation in the long run and beyond. With stress bearing down hard as the championship game approaches, Joe's prompted to make some surprise maneuvers off the court and readjust his feelings in regards to the game he loves.