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In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie tells Junior’s story with a lot of humor, but pulls no punches in depicting the brutal truths of alcoholism, poverty, and bigotry both on and off the reservation. Does humor have a place in a realistic novel about tragic circumstances? If you’ve had classroom experience with this book, how have your students responded to Junior’s story?
Adult/Teen Librarian Danielle Dreger-Babbitt from Mill Creek Library WA is here to Roar with readergirlz for Banned Books Week Welcome Danielle.
Tell us about Banned Books Week Banned Book Week was started 32 years ago to celebrate the freedom to read after more and more books were being challenged in libraries and schools. According to the American Librarian Association, over 11,000 books have been challenged since 1982. Over 200 of them happened in 2013! You can learn more about Banned Book Week on the ALA website.
What do you do to spread the word about Banned Books Week and Intellectual Freedom Issues? I do a banned book display each year.My favorite displays are the ones I did in 2011 when library patrons wrote about their favorite banned books and the 2012 display that took up a whole shelving unit. I love being able to showcase these banned and challenged books.
Along with each year’s display, I include Banned Book lists and pamphlets as well as bookmarks and buttons for library customers to take home. We’ve had essay contests where readers write about their favorite challenged or banned books and win copies of banned books. When I visit the middle schools to talk about books in the fall I often bring along books that have been challenged from other parts of the country and have the students guess why they might be banned or challenged.
Readers Roar: (Let’s hear what teens have to say about banned books)
“If people read the books before they banned them, they might have a better understanding of why the book is important. If you ban a book, it only makes me want to read it more.”- Jessica, Grade 11
Any Banned Books you would like to highlight? Some of my favorite banned and challenged books include Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, Shine and TTYL by Lauren Myracle, and 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher. And my absolute favorite banned/ challenged book is Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Most teens are amazed to hear that it has been taken out of some schools and libraries!
What can readergirlz do to celebrate Banned Books Week? Check out the activities on the BannedBooksSite . Readergirlz can celebrate their freedom to read by reading one or two banned or challenged books during Banned Book Week. Bonus points for reading these all year long, not just in September and for sharing these titles with their friends and family.
More ideas from readergirlz diva Janet Lee Carey: Grab your favorite Banned Book and RIP = Read in Public. Do a selfie while reading your favorite banned book and post it on your favorite social networks. Use twitter hashtag #BannedBooksWeek and @readergirlz when you post on twitter.
Use the site Support Banned Books Weekto add a temporary banner below your profile photo. Divas Janet Lee Carey and Justina Chen's photos:
ONE LAST BIG ROAR from guest poster, Danielle The best way to support libraries is to use them! Check out books and DVDs and CDs, use the databases to find information, and attend as many library programs and events as your schedule allows. By doing these, you are showing us that you think libraries are important. There are many ways to give back to your library. Consider becoming a volunteer or join the library board or Friend’s Group. Teens can join the library’s Teen Advisory Board and help make decisions about future library programs and purchases. You can also donate books to the library for the Friends of Library Book Sale. The money from these sales supports library programs and special events!
About Danielle Dreger-Babbitt I’ve been a teen librarian for over 10 years and have worked in libraries in Massachusetts and Washington. I’ve been an Adult/ Teen Librarian at the Mill Creek Library for over 5 ½ years. I’ve been active in ALA’s YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association) for the last decade and have served on committees including Outreach to Teens With Special Needs, The Schneider Family Book Award, and most recently The Alex Awards, for which I was the 2014 committee chair.
In my spare time I write for children and teens. I love to read YA and MG fiction and cooking memoirs/ cookbooks. I own two cats and two badly behaved (but adorable) dogs. I also love to travel and recently visited Uruguay, Brazil, and Argentina.
I finally got around to reading Sherman Alexie’s bestseller, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. There’s just times in your life when you’ve got to rectify old wrongs, and this was one of them. I had to read that book.
I’d heard that it was a great book from many sources, including some trusted friends. (A curious phrase, by the way, “trusted friends.” As opposed to all those other friends we have, with crappy taste, the friends we can’t possibly trust.)
So I took Alexie’s book out of the library and read it. Now I am a member of the club and say without hesitation: Stop wasting your life and read it already! Today I’m not looking to review a book that’s already been reviewed hundreds of times. My focus is on the book’s final two paragraphs. To me, those six sentences felt exactly right, forming a poignant, understated conclusion.
I don’t think that reproducing it here involves any spoilers, or anything that could diminish your enjoyment of the book, so here goes:
Rowdy and I played one-on-one for hours. We played until dark. We played until the streetlights lit up the court. We played until the bats swooped down at our heads. We played until the moon was huge and golden and perfect in the dark sky.
We didn’t keep score.
I love the repetition of “we played,” repeated four times, the rhythmic, accumulative power of that device, the simplicity of the word choice, the interplay between light and dark, and that great, four-word conclusion. We didn’t keep score. Perfection.
Back four years ago, I wrote a decent post titled “Best Last Lines from Books,” and I think you might enjoy it. So click away, folks. It’s absolutely free.
Hello all! I know it's been awhile but Summer Reading has been keeping me hopping (also fighting dog gone Jedi). I hope some of you guys and gals (I know you are there) out there are participating. It's really a cool program. Anyway here are some cool reads I have done recently that maybe you will want to check out if you have not already.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie - This YA book is really one of the most excellent I have read in a long time. This is the story of a young Native American teen named Junior and his transition from his familiar surrounding of the reservation he lives on to the more frightening and certainly more confusing world outside his familiar home. This book holds no punches as Junior describes in detail the poverty, depression, alcoholism and other plain truths related to reservation life. When Junior decides to go to school outside the "Res" he finds that the mostly white upper class school he picks to attend and the new kids he meets are also far from perfect and face challenges and problems, although somewhat different, not so different than those he has seen his while life. Same crap, different place. This book deals with difficult topics such as death, poverty, alcoholism, racism; yet as seen through the eyes of Junior they are presented in such a way that does not send the reader into a deep depression, but just as "this is how life is." Hope and love are always injected in dealing with these topics. One of the best books I have read in a very long time. Recommended for readers 13 years and up.
Wolverine: Weapon X, Vol. 2: Insane in the Brain by Jason Aaron & Yanick Paquette -This Graphic Novel collects issues 6 - 10 in the comic series. Wolverine wakes up in a Insane Asylum with no idea who he is or any memories at all. The Asylum is run by the
0 Comments on Part-Time Indians, Insane Asylums and The Beyound! as of 1/1/1900
Earlier this year, in "I come to school for this class," I wrote about a terrific project in Arizona through which students at Westwood High School in Mesa, Arizona read literature by American Indian writers. The project was developed by James Blasingame and Simon Ortiz at Arizona State University.
I was pleased to see more about the project in "The Answer Sheet" --- a blog in the Education section of the Washington Post. Blasingame was their guest blogger. His wide ranging "An unusual introduction to Native American YA lit" touches on the writing of Joseph Bruchac and Sherman Alexie.
I have a vivid memory of when I was six years old and pulled The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats, off the shelf in the elementary school library. On the cover was a dark boy in a red coat out in the snow. I instantly figured he was Indian, he wasn't, but I thought he was. I connected to that main character almost instantly in a lot of ways.
Alexie won the National Book Award for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. There's a lot in the book that I really like because I connect with the character, the setting, the experiences... It is real and brutally honest. In one sense, I find it a bit too real, and I wonder if it didn't need to be quite that way... I'm thinking of his character's use of "faggot." I hear kids back home at Nambe toss that word around and I look at the young boys and wonder how that feels to those who may be gay?
Anyway, I am glad to learn that Alexie identified with the little boy in The Snowy Day and that he shared that memory with Jim. At the start of each semester, I ask students to bring in a book they remember. Tomorrow, I'll let them know about Alexie and his memory of The Snowy Day.
2 Comments on Sherman Alexie on THE SNOWY DAY, last added: 9/13/2010
I remember reading that book too. Funny I never really thought about the race of the boy. I remember seeing that he was brown, but apart from that I didn't think about it much. Funny how certain children's books stay in your mind years after you've read them. Blessings. Ravynwolfe.
Anonymous said, on 9/13/2010 11:24:00 AM
While Alexie is brutally honest, I don't think he is heavy-handed with his message. So there's no narrative voice that breaks in to explain to the reader that the word is inappropriate, but I think Alexie expects readers to realize that it's a little rich to be so aware of prejudice and still use a word like "faggot." Will some readers miss the point? Yes. But I don't think you can write a really good book while constantly catering to your stupidest reader. You just have to write the book and have some faith in your audience.
We welcome Nancy Bo Flood to PaperTigers for this, her second Guest Post for PaperTigers (you can read her first one here):
Wanted: Books written by or about contemporary Native Americans.
Needed: Books that include contemporary Native American children presented without stereotypes or clichés.
Every child needs to see their own people and their own experiences in the books they read: yet in the United States less that 5% of children’s books published are written by or about Native Americans.
All young people need books that describe contemporary children who are Native American, not just historical accounts as though Indian children lived “past tense”, only a long time ago. The following books have “real” characters and engaging stories that include traditional celebrations continued in contemporary ways – with food, family, dance.
Picture books:
Secret of the Dance by Alfred Scow and Andrea Spalding (Orca, 2006); Whale Snow by Debby Dahl Edwardson, illustrated by Annie Patterson (Charlesbridge, 2003); Jingle Dancer by Cynthia Leitich Smith, illustrated by Cornelius Van Wright and Ying-Hwa Hu (HarperCollins, 2000); The Butterfly Dance by Gerald Dawavendewa (Abbeville, 2001); Powwow’s Coming by Linda Boyden (University of New Mexico Press, 2007); Little Coyote Runs Away by Craig Kee Strete (Putnam, 1997); When the Shadbush Blooms by Carla Messinger with Susan Katz, illustrated by David Kanietakeron (Tricycle Press, 2007).
With each of these books, if one asks, “Is this how an American Indian child would want to be perceived?” I think the answer is, “Yes.”
For Older Readers:
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, illustrated by Ellen Forney (Little Brown, 2007); Rain Is Not My Indian Name by Cynthia Leitich Smith (HarperCollins, 2001); Bowman’s Store: A Journey to Myself by Joseph Bruchac (Lee & Low, 1997); Eagle
0 Comments on Guest Post: Nancy Bo Flood – Wanted: Books written by or about contemporary Native Americans as of 1/1/1900
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie YA
It's a bit daunting to review a book that's won the National Book Award. I mean, does it get any better than that? Okay, there is the Pulitzer, or maybe the Nobel Prize, but hey, this is the National Book Award. Wow.
Does Alexie live up to the hipe?
In a word, yes.
This is a character driven piece about a topic - reservation life and the hopelessness it breeds - that, in this generation, is little spoken about. Alexie brings it to life in a deeply emotional way. Death, alcoholism, hopelessness. Love, family, tribal bonds. Heavy topics handled with an honesty that makes the emotional cartharsis at the end of the piece feel very real.
This isn't about fixing the mess the U.S. created when it set up reservations. It isn't about doing away with reservations, or rethinking them. It's about one boy, Junior's, journey to create a new life for himself, a life with hope. It's about his love for his family. His love for his friends. And how he straddles two worlds to become one person. At the same time, his experiences aren't so heart-wrenching you'll be looking into Prosac by the time you're done. It's good, well thought-out, clean writing.
If you feel like honesty, like a solid read, like letting literature change you, read True Diary. Junior lives up to his potential and beyond.
And for more fun and exciting tales, hop over to Barrie Summy's website for the complete list of The Book Review Club's reviews this month!
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Sherman Alexie is going to be near D.C. next week! He spoke at the SCBWI Conference in L.A. this year, but I couldn't go, so this is my chance. Anyone want to join me?
WhereConcert Hall, Center for the Arts, George Mason University, 4400 University Drive, Fairfax, VA (map)
DescriptionNovelist, poet and filmmaker Sherman Alexie, author most recently of the National Book Award winning young adult novel "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian," will receive this year’s Mason Award and read selections from his work.
The Inkys are the award in Australia that reflects what teenagers want to read. Voted for online by the readers of Insideadog (a project of the Centre for Youth Literature, State Library of Victoria), there are three awards: the Golden Inky for an Australian book, the Silver Inky for an international book, and the Creative Reading Prize, won by a young person for a creative response to a book they love, in any format they choose.
Today, August 20, the 2009 Inky Awards have been launched online with the announcement of the award longlist by two of this year’s judges, Steph Bowe and Adele Walsh. Australian youth, their teachers and anyone else interested in Australian youth literature were encouraged to join in the free, interactive on-line launch - but if you missed it, you can still watch it by following the link at the end of Insideadog’s announcement here. It’s great to see The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie and Skim by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki up for a Silver Inky!
On October 9 the shortlist will be announced and on-line voting begins. The winners will be announced on Thursday, November 26 at the State Library of Victoria. Everyone is invited to join in this free event, meet the winners, talk books and enjoy some special surprises!
The Centre for Youth Literature promotes reading as an active, pleasurable and essential activity for all young people. It also offers exciting and affordable book events for young people and professionals. Teenagers and children meet great writers and talented young actors - bringing reading to life. Professional learning programs and the biennial Reading Matters conference keep adults in touch with crucial issues and ideas in youth literature - read about events at this year’s conference in May here, here and here.
The Insideadog website is Australia’s number one website for teenagers about books. It’s chock full of features including news, book reviews, a writer-in-residence blog, author interviews, links, competitions and lots of opportunity for contributions from young readers! For anyone interested in youth literature, teens or otherwise, I highly recommend taking some time to browse this amazing site!
0 Comments on Australia’s Inky Awards On-line Launch is Today! as of 8/20/2009 9:45:00 AM
June is always a busy time in my household! Year-end school activities, dance recitals, birthday celebrations and Father’s Day seem to make the month fly by. In addition, this year we are in the final stages of preparation for our trip of a lifetime - a 2 month boat trip from Vancouver, BC to Juneau, Alaska. Most people are excited for us: however there are definitely some people that think we are crazy (2 adults, 2 kids and 1 dog on a boat for 8 weeks!!!??) and wonder how the kids keep occupied during long passages. The obvious answer - books!!! As long as there is plenty of reading material on board we shouldn’t suffer mutiny.
Knowing that this trip will take us to many First Nation communities, I have attempted to select books which will enrich my children’s understanding of the First Nations people, their culture and history. Charlotte had some great resources in her post Aboriginal Illustrators and Writers and Debbie Reece has a wonderful blog entitled American Indians in Children’s Literature. Another resource is the American Indian Library Association (AILA) - an affiliate of the American Library Association (ALA). The ALA is holding their annual conference June 26 - July 2 in Anaheim, CA and on June 30th the American Indian Library Association presents their 2008 awards for Best Native American Picture Book, Best Middle School Book, and Best Young Adult Book to this year’s recipients. “This new literary award was created as a way to identify and honor the very best writing and illustrations by and about American Indians ” says the ALA. ” Books selected to receive the award present Native Americans in the fullness of their humanity in the present and past contexts”.
The following winners will each receive a cash award of $500 and a custom made beaded medallion. Reviews have been provided by the AILA Book Awards committee.
Picture Book Winner:
Crossing Bok Chitto: A Choctaw Tale of Friendship and Freedom by Tim Tingle, illustrated by Jeanne Rorex Bridge. Cinco Puntos Press, 2006.
A beautifully inspired story of a friendship between Martha Tom, a Choctaw girl and Li’ Mo, a slave boy and how their relationship brought wholeness and freedom to Mo’s family and also to many slaves. Bridge’s illustrations enhance the story by resonating the joy of friendship, the light of faith, and the leadership of children.
Middle School Winner:
Counting Coup: Becoming a Crow Chief on the Reservation and Beyond, by Joseph Medicine Crow. National Geographic, 2006.
This appealing autobiography of Dr. Joseph Medicine Crow (Absarokee) is a winner with the young and old. The author recounts his adventures and training as a traditional Crow warrior and his service as a decorated World War II veteran. Walk, run and ride with him as you learn first-hand about real-life on the Crow reservation before during and after encounters with newcomers. In a text that is not preachy, but and honest read, Joseph Medicine Crow tell how he over came many challenges to fulfill his role as Chief of the Crow Nation.
Best Young Adult:
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. Little Brown Publishers, 2007.
A realistic, bitter-sweet yet, humorous look at the life of Arnold, a Spokane Indian teenager making his way in life on the reservation while attending an all white high school. Alexie brings to life the challenges many young native people experience as they learn to navigate and balance Indian life in a modern world. Part autobiography, Alexie’s Arnold reminds us of the complexities of coming of age, bigotry, bullies, loyalty to family and the meaning of love.
The winners will be in attendance at the gala reception on the 30th. The reception will also feature a traditional blessing and keynote address by Georgiana Sanchez and traditional cultural dancing by local California Native people. “We are grateful to have this opportunity to honor authors and illustrators who best portray Native American culture for young readers,” says Naomi Caldwell, Chair, AILA American Indian Youth Literature Award committee. “We celebrate the official recognition American Indian literature for youth. “
0 Comments on American Indian Youth Literature Awards as of 6/21/2008 1:35:00 PM
There's something in the trash can. It's moving. Do you hear it? It's kind of a rumbling. Or maybe it's mumbling. Whatever it is... don't get near it.
There's something in the trash can. It's moving! I fear the worst. It might be a rat! Or it could be the cat. I guess we should check.... You go first.
(I'm posting an original poem-a-day through April in celebration of National Poetry Month. Links to this and other poems here on GottaBook (and there are lots of others, because poetry is NOT just for April) are collected over on the right of the blog under the headline "The Poems".)
In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie tells Junior’s story with a lot of humor, but pulls no punches in depicting the brutal truths of alcoholism, poverty, and bigotry both on and off the reservation. Does humor have a place in a realistic novel about tragic circumstances? If you’ve had classroom experience with this book, how have your students responded to Junior’s story?
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Every child needs to see their own people and their own experiences in the books they read: yet in the United States less that 5% of children’s books published are written by or about Native Americans.
Picture books:
Press, 2007);
illustrated by Ellen Forney (Little Brown, 2007);
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I remember reading that book too. Funny I never really thought about the race of the boy. I remember seeing that he was brown, but apart from that I didn't think about it much. Funny how certain children's books stay in your mind years after you've read them. Blessings. Ravynwolfe.
While Alexie is brutally honest, I don't think he is heavy-handed with his message. So there's no narrative voice that breaks in to explain to the reader that the word is inappropriate, but I think Alexie expects readers to realize that it's a little rich to be so aware of prejudice and still use a word like "faggot." Will some readers miss the point? Yes. But I don't think you can write a really good book while constantly catering to your stupidest reader. You just have to write the book and have some faith in your audience.