It's just now February, and I have read more than ten books... Oh, and I've also written responses and reflections on each of them. It is more time consuming than I can even begin to explain, but hey, I'll be a well-read individual after all is said and done. The funny thing about all of this reading? A great deal of it is composed of children's books and young-adult literature.
To my surprise, most of the books have been really amazing. I absolutely enjoy reading them. Here is one of my responses to one of my favorite books thus far,
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian
It
sounds cheesy and kind of ridiculous- but this book made me laugh; it made me
cry; it made me blush; most importantly, it made me think. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian might very well be
banned in some schools and challenged in others, and I can understand why.
However, this book encompasses the very essence of being human. Despite his
young age, Arnold has a lot of “life experience”. He sees so many aspects of
life throughout the book, some positive and some negative: death, poverty,
friendship, drunkenness, betrayal, revenge… His journey in creating an identity
for himself is truly moving- Through the struggles and triumphs, he becomes a
man. He begins to understand the world around him as well as understand his
place in that world. So many students can relate to such a journey- or at least
some aspects of it.
Though I could never completely
understand the perspective a hormonal, Native American, teenage boy, I definitely
can relate to him in different ways. His unscripted, comical account of the
events in his life captivated me throughout the entire book- I was immediately
hooked with his unguarded humor. I loved his candid honesty in both his writing
and his drawings. Although I have never experienced the kind of disownment that
Arnold experiences in the book, I have experienced a great deal of death in my
twenty years. I really identified with Arnold when he is first speaking to the
new reported before his final game against his previous team. On page
eighty-five, he says, “… I’ve had to grow up really fast, too fast, and… I’ve
come to realize every single moment of my life is important...” I thought this
same thought when I was about his age, maybe a year older. This line actually made
me cry, even though Arnold was really just mocking the camera guy at that
point.
So many students have such complex
struggles in their lives. I believe the vast majority of students would
experience the same sort of connection with Arnold as I did- whether it be death, whether it be drunkenness, whether it
be losing a friend, whether it be trying to figure out his or her place in the
world... Students can grasp one aspect of this book and make much deeper
connections. The basketball game, for example, can represent much deeper
elements instead of just a competitive basketball game. There is one drawing in
which Arnold draws his own self in two places: the Wellpoint Gym and the
Reardan Gym. In each picture, he questions himself, “Who am I?”
The basketball experience represents
his quest to discover himself. Along the way, he is aided with some advice from
his grandmother, his sister, Roger, Penelope, Coach, Eugene, Gordy, and even
Rowdy. Each character provides a different realization for Arnold as he
searches for truth and acceptance. I think my favorite part of the book is when
Mrs. Jeremy asks Arnold where he has been over the past couple of days. Of
course, Arnold has been dealing with grief, and everyone knows it. The entire
class defends Arnold. They don’t even use words; they simply stand up and drop
their textbooks, one by one. Then, they leave the classroom. This courageous
defense for Arnold, a student who “didn’t belong”, brought me to tears.
I would love to use this book in my
future classroom, if it is permitted. I think once students get past some of
the mature elements of this book, they will really identify with and take
valuable lessons from Arnold’s compelling diary. Each entry allows for much
more critical understandings than just the surface meaning. I believe this book
would certainly challenge students to think about their identities and why they
define themselves in that way. What struggles and triumphs have they gone
through to become who they are now?
Alexie, S. (2007). The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian. New York: Little, Brown, and Company.
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