Awards & Honors

Sherman Alexie has won over fifty awards, honors, and certificates over the course of his career.  Some of his most notable include:

• 1992: National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship
• The New York Times Book Review Notable book of the Year for The Business of Fancydancing
• Granta Magazine: Twenty Best American Novelists Under the Age of 40
• New York Times Notable Book for Indian Killer
• 1999: The New Yorker: 20 Writers for the 21st Century
• 2007: National Book Award prize for Young People's literature for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
• 2010: Native Writers' Circle of the Americas Lifetime Achievement Award

Writing Style

• First-person past tense
• Narrator is satirical, emotional, determined, honest, witty.
• Illustrations every few pages, which compliment Arnold’s narration. Adds a visual component (often humorous) to the book which greatly helps the tone in achieving its lightheartedness, when dealing with tough issues of alcoholism, loneliness, and death.
• Narrator is very critical of himself, which helps the reader empathize with him and allows some leeway to poke fun at others without sounding condescending. With that said, he also takes pride in his accomplishments which is empowering to readers.
• Chapters are arranged in often-short sections that focus more on the significance of an event over chronology- a trait typical of nonfiction works.
• Some chapters are no more than a few pages, and lots of white space and illustrations makes reading a breeze and even more accessible for younger/less dedicated readers.
• Considerable amounts of dialogue over scene, but easy to read and always humorous.
• The language is occasionally crude, as the narrator explains Indians “love talking dirty.”
• Text is often set in large caps for emphasis, as well as italics.
• Easygoing prose is accessible to young audiences and adults alike.

Our Cover

Rationale:

     The transparent image of Arnold on the front cover is taken from one of the cartoons from the book. Cartoons play an important role in the novel as graphic representation, but cartoons and drawings also play an important role in Arnold's life. He often discusses how important drawing is to him, "I draw because I want to talk to the world. And I want the world to pay attention to me." We thought that it was appropriate to bring this vital part of Arnold to the front cover. He is split down the middle to represent the two different Arnolds: Native American Arnold and White Arnold. The white Arnold is wearing a watch, a Ralph Lauren shirt, a backpack with a cell phone pocket, khakis, and the latest Air Jordans. The Native American Arnold is wearing thick glasses, a K-Mart T-shirt, Sears blue jeans, canvas tennis shoes, and a Glad garbage bag for a back-pack. For Arnold, white represents hope, positive role models, and a bright future. Indians signify a bone-crushing reality, alcoholism and poverty, and a vanishing past. Although his perspectives on the two different cultures seem black and white, solely positive or negative, there are many moments in the text that Arnold contemplates both positives and negatives of both cultures.


     We included the road behind Arnold to portray the passage between his Native American life at the Rez and his white life at Reardon High School. Everyday, Arnold would have to travel 22 miles down the road to get to 'white' Reardon High School; often he would have to walk or hitchhike because his family couldn't afford gas or his dad was too drunk to drive. This road transported Arnold between the two different aspects of himself.

In the Classroom

Alexie’s young adult novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is an excellent choice for the high school English classroom.  The book addresses many issues that are common to the young adult genre and are of interest to adolescents of any culture.  Some of these issues include: cultural differences and perspectives, bullying, maturation, friendships, identity formation, isolation, alienation, hopelessness, independence, family issues, loss, death, depression, addiction, sex, poverty, class distinctions, discrimination and racism, white power, questions of education on Indian Reservations, and more. 

The way the book is written makes it an excellent read for students.  The book is comical, ironic, entertaining and non-stop fun.  As a National Book Award winner, this book provides students with a glimpse of the life of a teenage Indian and his struggles as a teenager.  Arnold experiences struggles that most teenagers would be able to relate to such as bullying, identity formation, alienation, and troubles with friends and family.  The use of cartoons and drawings throughout the text adds to the appeal to young adult readers as well.  Through them, readers are able to really get into the mind of Arnold, see what he is thinking that he doesn’t say out loud.  The cartoons also make the subject matter, which can be graphic and serious at times, easier to absorb.

The serious issues such as addiction, death, loss, cultural divides, and poverty have led to some controversy with the text.  It was banned in a few schools for reasons such as sexual language, “off-color” jokes, and discussion of racism, alcoholism and violence.  Although these issues are raised and discussed in the book, I think that those are beneficial issues to discuss in the classroom.  They are real occurances that are prevalent everywhere.  Teachers can introduce students to different cultures, how people represent their culture, and also the idea of taking pride in one’s own background.  The book also lets the reader, especially with young adults, build self-esteem, believe in their dreams and pursue their goals.  All in all, I think this is an appropriate and excellent book to introduce in the classroom. 

Assignments: draw your own cartoons/drawings of your favorite part or character from the novel.  How does this mode of expression help or change the way you’re able to express yourself, how have you put yourself into your drawing? 

Students will produce a diagram, drawing, or even prose making comparisons to Wellpinit and Reardon.  Comparing aspects such as the school, the students, the general population, social services, health care, problems, culture, house, geography, anything!

What’s going on today with schools and education on Indian Reservation?  Students will conduct a mini-research project about Indian Reservations (local if applicable) and the schools on and around the reservations.   They will also be able to discuss relations and thoughts that both natives and whites living in and around the area feel and think about their place and situation.

Students can keep their own diary or journal, much like Arnold does in the book.  They can include activities, events, thoughts, feelings, drawings, comics, whatever they want.  They can also journal about how they would respond to similar situations.