Kathryn Erskine (Children's Literature)
In this blunt yet poignant story of a teenager wanting to make the best of himself, Alexie uses his own experiences to give us a feel for an Indian boy crossing over into a white world. Not only does Junior feel guilty for selling out, but his tribe members and best friend, Rowdy, add to that guilt, while his new white school mates either tease him or ignore him. Finally connecting with an equally unpopular geek as well as the popular girl, because he cares enough to address her bulimia, Junior tentatively carves out a place for himself and makes friends. His basketball prowess gains him admiration although his victory against his reservation high school is bittersweet. He is a thinking, caring kid, who eventually manages to reunite with his buddy from the reservation, Rowdy. Multiple alcohol related deaths in Junior’s family are particularly hard-hitting but make the point that alcohol is still a significant problem on many reservations. The sarcastic, self-deprecating humor should add to this book’s appeal. 2007, Little Brown and Company, $16.99. Ages 14 up.

CCBC (Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices 2008)
Arnold Spirit, known as Junior on the Spokane Indian reservation where he lives, has always been teased and picked on by his peers because of his multiple physical disabilities. Only his family and his best friend, a tough kid named Rowdy, understand that beneath Junior’s odd exterior there is a brilliant, artistic, athletic, and extraordinarily witty kid. When Junior decides to start ninth grade at the nearest white high school, twenty-two miles off the reservation, he is thought of as a traitor by those he left behind on the reservation, and as a weird Indian kid by his new peers. But Junior is smart and resilient, and manages to prove himself to the students and staff at his new school through his academic prowess and basketball skills. The reservation kids, however, are not so quick to accept Junior’s new life, especially Rowdy, who feels rejected and betrayed. Sherman Alexie’s first novel for young adults is hilarious and touching at the same time. With occasional cartoons, frequent self-deprecating humor, and unwavering depth, Junior struggles with his cultural identity as an Indian teenager who wants a different kind of life from his that of his parents and friends. CCBC Category: Fiction for Young Adults. 2007, Little Brown, 240 pages, $16.99. Ages 13-16.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, July 15, 2007 (Vol. 75, No. 14))
Alexie nimbly blends sharp wit with unapologetic emotion in his first foray into young-adult literature. Fourteen-year-old Junior is a cartoonist and bookworm with a violent but protective best friend Rowdy. Soon after they start freshman year, Junior boldly transfers from a school on the Spokane reservation to one in a tiny white town 22 miles away. Despite his parents' frequent lack of gas money (they're a "poor-ass family"), racism at school and many crushing deaths at home, he manages the year. Rowdy rejects him, feeling betrayed, and their competing basketball teams take on mammoth symbolic proportions. The reservation's poverty and desolate alcoholism offer early mortality and broken dreams, but Junior's knowledge that he must leave is rooted in love and respect for his family and the Spokane tribe. He also realizes how many other tribes he has, from "the tribe of boys who really miss . . . their best friends" to "the tribe of tortilla chips-and-salsa lovers." Junior's keen cartoons sprinkle the pages as his fluid narration deftly mingles raw feeling with funny, sardonic insight. 2007, Little, Brown, 256p, $16.99. Category: Fiction. Ages 13 up. Starred Review. © 2007 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Paula Rohrlick (KLIATT Review, September 2007 (Vol. 41, No. 5))
Poet and writer Sherman Alexie, based this, his first YA novel, on his experiences growing up on a Spokane reservation, and it’s breathtakingly honest, funny, profane and sad. Illustrated with cartoon drawings by Ellen Forney, it’s the story of “zitty and lonely” Junior, a skinny, smart 14-year-old brave enough and crazy enough to dare to go to a white school off the reservation for a better education. Of course, at first he’s roundly hated by all for his decision, accused by those on the rez of being an “apple” (red on the outside, white on the inside) and tormented by kids at his new school (one asks, “Did you know that Indians are living proof that niggers fuck buffalo?”) Even getting to the far-off school poses a major problem, as his dad is often too drunk to drive him, or lacks money for gas, or the car breaks down. Junior perseveres, even taking a white girl to a dance and earning a place on the basketball team, which leads to a whole new set of problems. In the end, though, it’s the deaths of people he loves that almost undoes Junior (he’s attended 42 funerals so far in his young life), but this also helps him realize that people both on and off the reservation care for him and share his grief. Alexie has a unique story to tell, and he tells it with raw emotion leavened with humor. The b/w cartoons add a good deal to the tale (Junior dreams of becoming an artist), but it’s Junior’s voice that will stay with readers and help them understand the reservation experience, haunted by alcohol abuse but rich in family love, and know something about what it feels like to be Native American in a white world. Category: Hardcover Fiction. KLIATT Codes: S*--Exceptional book, recommended for senior high school students. 2007, Little, Brown, 256p. illus., $16.99. Ages 15 to 18.

Emily Garrett (Library Media Connection, January 2008)
This novel features a hard-luck teenager who is dealing with several issues. Arnold was born with encephalitis, and he has several disabilities. He grew up on a reservation, and every aspect of "rez" life is discussed; it is not a flattering portrayal. When Arnold throws his math book in frustration, it hits his teacher. Events spiral and Arnold decides to attend school off the reservation, which causes major conflict. Author Sherman Alexie writes with humor and wit. The story is bittersweet and intense; events are sometimes shocking, but the author does an excellent job of keeping the novel moving at an interesting pace. Reluctant readers would enjoy the changes of fonts and the humor of our not-so-mainstream hero. Additional Selection. 2007, Little, Brown & Company, 256pp., $16.99 hc. Ages 13 to 17.

Karen Coats (The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, October 2007 (Vol. 61, No. 2))
Who has the most hope?” Junior, a Spokane Indian, asks his parents. “White people” is their instantaneous and simultaneous reply, confirming for Junior what he already knew: if he is to have any hope of fulfilling his dreams, he has to leave the rez. Braving the fierce anger of his best friend, Rowdy, Junior attends a white high school twenty-two miles from his home, where he falls in love, makes a few friends, and becomes a basketball legend. His triumph is always more bitter than sweet, though, as a boy caught between two conflicting worlds of loyalty and responsibility. His sense of humor and his cartooning become his salvation as he bears the loneliness of trying to escape the life of poverty and/or alcoholism that he sees as inevitable for Indians who stay on the reservation. Meanwhile he shares the perpetual grief of his community as they bury more people in a year than his white friends have lost in their whole lives; his pain reaches a peak when he loses his sister, who made her own escape from the rez by marrying a guy she met at a casino and moving to Montana, only to get drunk and die without waking up in a trailer fire. Through these experiences, though, he begins to get a sense of who he is and where he belongs, of which affiliations he can afford to keep and which he must walk away from; most poignant is the gift of identity that Rowdy gives him as he too comes to terms with what Junior must do to survive. The grief in this narrative is enough to leave a reader gasping, with both the humor and the hope always deepened by sadness and the ever-present niggling of undeserved and impotent guilt. Nevertheless, what emerges most strongly is Junior’s uncompromising determination to press on while leaving nothing important behind Review Code: R* -- Recommended. A book of special distinction. (c) Copyright 2006, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2007, Little, 256p.; Reviewed from galleys, $16.99. Grades 7-10.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Spring 2008)
Junior makes the iffy commute from his Spokane Indian reservation to an off-rez high school where he's the only Indian. Though short, nearsighted, and disabled, he joins the basketball team, which leads to a showdown with his home team. Junior's inimitable and hilarious narration is intensely alive with short paragraphs, one-liners, and take-no-prisoners cartoons (expertly depicted by Forney). Category: Older Fiction. 2007, Little, 232pp, 16.99. Ages 12 to 14. Rating: 1: Outstanding, noteworthy in style, content, and/or illustration.

Jenny Ingram (VOYA, August 2007 (Vol. 30, No 3))
Nerdy, fourteen-year-old Arnold Spirit lives on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Washington state. During his first day at high school, Arnold discovers that his geometry textbook is so old that his mother used it in school. In anger, he throws the book at his teacher and is suspended. Recognizing Arnold's potential, his teacher suggests that Arnold transfer to a school off the reservation. There Arnold attempts to bridge Indian and white cultures-sometimes successfully and sometimes not-while at home, he faces the controversy of leaving the reservation and his own culture. The tension reaches a peak when Arnold returns to his former school for a basketball game as the star player on his new school's team. Alexie's portrayal of reservation life, with the help of a great lineup of supporting characters, is realistic and fantastical and funny and tragic-all at the same time. The story is engaging, but readers will also gain insight into American Indian culture and politics as well as a sense for human nature and the complexities of living in a diverse society. Cartoonist Forney's drawings, appearing throughout the book, enhance the story and could nearly stand alone. It is clear that she and Alexie worked closely together on this project. Recreational readers, especially boys, will enjoy this book, but teachers will also find it filled with lots of material to rouse a good classroom discussion. This first young adult novel by the acclaimed Indian writer whose adult fiction is used in many high school classrooms is based on Alexie's own memoir. VOYA CODES: 5Q 4P J S (Hard to imagine it being any better written; Broad general YA appeal; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12). 2007, Little Brown, 256p., $16.99. Ages 12 to 18.

Daniel Antell, Teen Reviewer (VOYA, August 2007 (Vol. 30, No 3))
This book would really appeal to high school and junior high boys for casual and interesting reading. People who are interested in reservation life would find that this book gives a wonderful insight to Native American culture. Alexie makes a good storyteller. The pictures in the book give great detail to the story and writing. Within the story, there are two worlds that a boy must distinguish between and live in. VOYA CODES: 4Q 3P J S (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses; Will appeal with pushing; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12). 2007, Little Brown, 256p., $16.99. Ages 12 to 18.

Holly Johnson (WOW Review, Reading Across Cultures, December 2009 (Vol. 1, No. 2))
From Wellpinit, on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Eastern Washington, to Reardon, Washington, Arnold Spirit “Junior” must negotiate the geographical and psychological distances that exist between his Indian and White worlds. Born on the rez with a series of medical problems, Junior eventually recognizes that he has to leave the reservation to preserve his dreams for the future. His hope is not in a reservation school that has books twenty years older than he is, and he doesn’t have hope in a system that will allow students to languish when they could thrive. Junior decides to leave the reservation for Reardon, a school over twenty miles away and a psychological distance that is much longer. It is his cross-cultural experiences and Junior’s cross-cultural identity that drive this story.
    Told as a first person account, this piece of autobiographical fiction holds the reader’s interest through both humor and horror. As the character Junior negotiates what it means to be an Indian away from the reservation and an Indian who has decided to leave the rez, or as some would suggest, to become “White,” the reader is presented with the inequities that frequent reservations across the United States. Alexie creates such a strong narrative that many middle and high school students will be compelled to explore more about how such inequities can exist in school systems. The text reads quickly, chapters are driven by dialogue, and the prose is well written and accessible to young adult readers. The novel is more than storytelling–readers are drawn into the storyline and find themselves hoping that Junior will be able to work through his situation. And while Junior is a truly likable character, his situation is a stunning example of injustice laced with courage, hope, and truth. Alexie holds no punches, yet each is delivered with compassion and humor. A remarkable piece of literature, True Diary will stay with readers long after the last page is turned.
    Based on incidents from the author’s own life, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian is a blending of the author’s memories and experiences growing up as a Spokane Indian. It is the author’s first text to address a younger adolescent audience, but could serve as entrée into his other texts including The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (Sherman Alexie, 2005). Coupling this text with other pieces of fiction for a unit on issues of identity and cross cultural existence could include The Skin I’m In (Sharon Flake, 2000) and When I Was Puerto Rican (Esmeralda Santiago, 2006). Little Brown, 230 pp.