Monday, January 4, 2010

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian



This is our book for class for next week.  It is about an Indian boy who leaves the school on the reservation to attend an all white school in a farm community 22 miles away.  The boy faces rejection from his friends on the reservation because of this decision.  Fitting in is hard when the social rules are different.  The book also addresses poverty and several of his observations are as much about poverty as race. 

However - - why did the author include so much sexual content when the book would otherwise be terrific to recommend for middle school students?  Someone else in my class said she would like her freshman son to read the book after she edited it with a Magic Marker.  I'm not saying they don't read things like this or watch TV or movies, but I can't say, "Hey, read this good book but ignore this part."  Regardless, I liked it better than the previous book, Monster.

3 comments:

  1. I'm going to see if the library has a copy of that! I know what you mean. So many books I like, but don't want to defend my choice. I'm always thrilled when I can find a really thought provoking book that doesn't have sex or horrible language.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you! I thought is was hilarious and was laughing out loud! I was thinking, "The kids will love this!" Then it started in on masturbation... Lord knows those middle school boys don't...well...you get the idea...
    LOL!

    ReplyDelete
  3. That is exactly what I thought. We don't need that at the middle school, or at least I don't want to be the source of the most popular book ever.

    ReplyDelete