The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Before I had read this book, I had heard a lot about it. Teachers and students alike told me how easy the book was to connect to since the author was local. I had always wanted to read this book, and I finally got the chance. When I first opened the boo, the overwhelming feeling of this being a story about the home-town boy overcame me. However, it soon left as the story got more and more interesting. Throughout the whole book, Alexie speaks with an honesty about him based on his personal experiences. This was very refreshing, as I thought this would turn into a story of playing the victim.  I know quite a bit about the Indian reservations that Alexie talks about as I have lived on an Indian reservation  until the age of seventeen when I left my hometown to go to Eastern Washington University.As far as my life growing up was on the reservation, I can fully agree on Alexie's claims about life on the reservation.The development and the evolution of Junior's character is something that I enjoyed very much about the book. I would love to use this story in my class for that very reason. I think this text would be perfect for a senior class. I would like to read some more of Alexie's books after reading this one to find the best way to implement it into my class. However, there are some things in the book that would be inappropriate for seniors to read in this book. I do, however, feel the text as a whole has a lot bigger meaning than those two instances, so I would for sure teach this in a class of seniors. Any grade lower though, I could not see myself feeling comfortable teaching this book to.