I picked up The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian from Indigo because my son will be reading it for his grade 9 English class.
Junior is a 14 year old boy that lives on the Spokane Reserve. Throughout the book he describes the life of living on a Reserve. One day he finds himself in class and notices that his mom's name is written in a text book. This makes him furious to think that they don't have new resources. As a result, Junior makes a major decision to attend white school off the reserve. Risking the hatred of his community, family and best friends Junior sets off each day off the reserve to find out how the other half live,
I was a bit surprised at a few of the pages. I think the author could have shared the truths and reality of life on reserve and still left out a few of the stories/words. My son believes that it will be a story that each student will read a chapter out loud in class and I think that will make a few students uncomfortable if they have to read certain chapters. However; I do think it is age appropriate and an important subject matter.