The Absolute True Diary of a Part Time Indian

I loved this book. I think Alexie is brilliant with what he did with his novel The Absolute True Diary of a Part Time Indian. He was able to have a novel that is incredibly satirical and that interests young adults. They laugh and find it humorous, and maybe think deeper about what Alexie is trying to say. Junior goes through constant character development. Trying to understand who he is and where he fits in. The biggest scene for the novel was the basketball against his old high school (the second game). After Junior's team wins he has a realization that I think was huge to the plot overall and shows that the book is a satire--he starts to think about how yes, his team won . . . but his team would always win. They had scholarships for college. Their parents had money. But his peers that he won against don't have that, this was the one thing they had. Junior analyzes that one game and it really speaks for the book as a whole and what he's been noticing. I was going to say that the book doesn't bring up strong women but then I realized that was wrong--it doesn't bring up young white strong women. Junior's mom, grandma, and sister were all strong women, things just didn't always go right for them.
This book is great for adolescents. I think they would really respond to the humor and the problems that go on in the novel. All students go through struggles of trying to figure out how they are, but what Alexie does that is unique is also critique racism and peoples views on Native Americans. He does it in a way though that could be dangerous if students believe the stereotypes and instead of learning from it start to believe the stereotypes. I think this book would be great to teach 8th graders (because they are about to go into high school and are around the same age as Junior) or 9/10th grade. This book is good for younger students but still has enough touchy subjects that a high school student or older middle school student should read. The teacher would need to make sure they touch on Native American history and make sure students see the satirical aspects of the novel and don't take it only at face value. But I do think it would be an important book to teach.
My rating for this book is an A.