The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Part 2

     The second half of this book was kind of odd in my opinion. I feel this way because it seemed to focus a lot on death and basketball. So a large theme in this section was death. Some of the people that died were grandmother Spirit, Eugene (Junior’s fathers best friend), and Junior’s sister. The odd thing was that none of the deaths, even the grandmothers, was because of natural causes. They instead were a drunk driver, shot in the face in a 7-eleven parking lot, and a fire (didn’t wake up because she was so drunk). It seems that in most young adult novels the authors will try not to have such morbid causes of death due to the targeted audience, which is usually 13-18. The character that developed the most throughout the whole book was definitely Junior (or Arnold) because he tried very hard to make his life better and not just fall into the societal normalizations of everyone else that lives on the reservation. He ends up accomplishing this, even though he goes through obstacles such as not being able to find a ride to school and back. Through all of this he becomes a basketball star, has a girlfriend, and maintains A’s and B’ in all his classes. He achieved all of these things even though he was being discouraged by everyone on the reservation and even by someone who he has thought to be his best friend, but leaves him when he decides to switch schools to try and obtain a better life.

     I feel that in the second half that the author should have focused a little more on the idea of school and the struggles eh was facing. He could of added this and focused less on all of the basketball he was constantly playing. I also think there should have been a little more information about what was going on at the reservation when he was there and not just how they treated him the two basketball games that he played there. This novel definitely reveals all the cultural stereotypes that everyone expresses towards native americans. I never realized how horribly that these native americans can be treated by some people. 

     I feel that this text will particularly appeal to adolescents that feel discriminated in school. It may not even be discrimination of race but also because of poverty and even cliques. This book can help show that you can restart and build your own life. Junior was both native american and poor, but managed to make many friends and become well known by many people in his new school. 

     I would have to give this text a B because it is not my favorite format of all the books we have read so far. It kind of irritates me that it is in between a graphic novel and a regular novel> I would prefer it to be one or another and not a mixture of the two.

Rating: B