Multicultural: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Sherman Alexie was a featured guest at the Texas Book Festival in Austin, participating in a Young Adult novelists' panel on November 3, 2007. He reads a snippet from his new book "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" and then answers a few questions at the end.

Follow Sherman Alexie on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Sherman_Alexie

Listen to an Interview Sherman Alexie gave on NPR regarding the book in 2007: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14586575

Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. New York: Little Brown and Company, 2007. Print. ISBN: 978-0-316-01369-7; paperback, $8.99.

Annotation: The story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school

Book Awards

• National Book Award for Young People's Literature, 2007
• Boston Globe - Horn Book Award, Fiction and Poetry, 2008
• Odyssey Award, 2009
• California Young Reader Medal, 2010
• Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults, YALSA, 2008

Book Talk: 14-year-old Junior thinks he is a zero. Born with mental and physical disabilities, Junior is picked on for being and looking different [show self portrait of Junior on page 5]. Growing up on a poor Indian Reservation, Junior carries with him the dream of being a cartoonist. After being suspended for accidentally hitting his teacher with a book [show teacher's picture on page 29], Junior transfers off the reservation to a rich and almost all white high school. Throughout the story, Junior faces many hardships, a lot of which is feeling ashamed for leaving the reservation. His relationships with his best friend Rowdy, his parents and grandmother [show picture of grandmother on page 69], and a girl that Junior likes at his new school [show Penelope on page 113], all play integral parts in Junior's coming of age story.