Skyview Library

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

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

- 5 stars

Junior is a teenager growing up on the Wellpinit Indian Reservation in Washington State – a terribly poor, hopeless world of alcoholic adults, fistfights and tragedy. But Junior is a little different than his classmates…he’s successful in school, a talented artist and a pretty good basketball player. But most of all, he actually dreams of a future off the reservation.

Things really start to change when he decides to transfer to a school in Reardon – the “rich, white school” in the town near the reservation. He finds himself caught in the middle of two worlds – truly a part-time Indian. His white classmates shun him because he’s Indian; his Indian friends shun him because he abandoned the reservation.

Part-Time Indian is told with humor and sarcasm and is full of Junior’s funny cartoon drawings
that are his way of dealing with the difficult life of the reservation. Read along as Junior struggles to overcome his tough upbringing and make something of his life.

The Boy Who Dared

The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

- 4 stars

The Boy Who Dared is a novel based on the true story of Helmuth Hübener, a 17-year-old boy who has been sentenced to death for speaking out against the Nazi government in Germany during World War II.

Told in flashback from Helmuth’s jail cell, we learn of his beginnings in the Hitler Youth, how he started to question the Nazi government and eventually realized he had to gather up the courage to take action and tell the German people the truth about the Nazis.