--- product_id: 286546 title: "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (National Book Award Winner)" price: "124.72 DT" currency: TND in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.tn/products/286546-the-absolutely-true-diary-of-a-part-time-indian-national store_origin: TN region: Tunisia --- # Includes Unique Cartoons & Illustrations National Book Award Winner Top #10,493 Bestseller Rank The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (National Book Award Winner) **Price:** 124.72 DT **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Summary > 📖 Unlock the story everyone’s talking about — don’t miss the voice shaping a generation! ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (National Book Award Winner) - **How much does it cost?** 124.72 DT with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.tn](https://www.desertcart.tn/products/286546-the-absolutely-true-diary-of-a-part-time-indian-national) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Key Features - • **Engaging Visuals:** Enjoy original cartoons that enrich the reading experience and keep you hooked from start to finish. - • **Culturally Insightful:** Gain eye-opening insights into Native American life rarely explored in mainstream media. - • **Award-Winning Storytelling:** Experience a National Book Award-winning narrative that blends humor and heart. - • **Authentic & Relatable Voice:** Dive into a raw, teenage perspective that resonates with millennial professionals who value genuine storytelling. - • **Emotional & Thought-Provoking:** Navigate themes of resilience, identity, and hope that inspire personal and professional growth. ## Overview The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie is a critically acclaimed young adult novel that combines humor, raw emotion, and unique cartoons to tell the story of Arnold Spirit Jr., a Native American teen navigating life between his reservation and an all-white high school. Winner of the National Book Award, this bestseller offers an authentic, eye-opening look at cultural identity, resilience, and hope, making it a must-read for millennials seeking meaningful and relatable literature. ## Description A New York Times bestseller—over one million copies sold! A National Book Award winner A Boston Globe-Horn Book Award winner Bestselling and award winning author Sherman Alexie tells the hearbreaking yet funny story about a boy living on the Spokane Indian Reservation who wants to break free of the life he was destined to live. Junior is a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot. Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian , based on the author's own experiences and coupled with poignant drawings by Ellen Forney that reflect the character's art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he was destined to live. Review: I learned to love reading by reading this book! - Before reading Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian I had very low hopes of the book being any good. Personally, I am not much of a reader, but I decided to give this book a try. Let me tell you, I enjoyed the book, from the comics to the actual story, it was so entertaining! As I flipped through the pages, absorbing more of the story, I found myself getting more into the book. Within a few hours, I was done with the book. As a teenager, I loved the humor carefully crafted by the author, it seemed like I was reading an actual book from a teenager. Before doing research on the book, it made me surprised the story was fiction. The story can be entirely made up, but I imagined the story was a close spitting image of what some Native-Americans on reservations have to go through. However, after I’ve done my research Alexie said, “If I were to guess at the percentage, it would be about seventy-eight percent true” (Horn Book Magazine). The book was published September 12 in 2007. Over 10 years later, the humor is still funny and it is pretty relatable. The author, Sherman Alexie, grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation and is best known for writing stories and films about his experiences as an Indigenous American. For this book specifically, he changed few details by making it more humorous to fit the category for young adult fiction. The overall plot of the book is a young teen named Arnold Spirit Jr. who lives on an Indian reservation and feels the whole world is against him. Born with birth defects easily prone to seizures and suffering from a stutter, he was raised by alcoholic parents who had very little to nothing money income. Junior was constantly bullied and to escape from this, Junior was passionate about drawing cartoons. After a talk with an important figure at school, Junior realizes he has to get out of the reservation. Junior transferred to an all-white high school called Reardon High School. There and then he faces even more bullying and tragedies in his life, from being called a traitor by his own people to important people in his life dying. Despite all this, Junior continued to draw cartoons and used humor to get over all the hardships and eventually found himself no longer feeling like an outcast. The most compelling part of the book was the characters. Overall, the characters were well developed. Every character has their own unique and distinct personality. I sometimes find myself confused or lost when a book has so many characters and very little information on them. However, Sherman Alexie was able to establish each character memorably. On another note, I wish more historical context of each character were provided, I really wanted to know more about the mysterious, drunk Eugene (when you read the book, you’ll know exactly what I mean). Sherman Alexie seemed to have put a lot of thought into the making of this book. Reading the book, everything flowed perfectly. The introduction of himself and his family to the transition of how life is like on the reservation then to Reardon High including all the hardships he had to face, the transitions were so smooth. I never found myself lost while reading this book. The book was not predictable at all, it is for sure an intriguing and original piece. While reading the book, there were few things that may seem controversial to other readers. There were few accounts where profanity and sexual references were used. The book also discusses alcohol, abuse, and bullying related to mental disabilities several times. However, I think all these controversial topics are important to learn about because it’s real life. In life, people use profanity, alcoholics exist, and those with mental disabilities do suffer from bullying. Topics like these make the book relatable in a way and the audience can have a good laugh from the dark humor. The overall message of the book appears to be a message of how important it is to have hope. Even if it seems like you are doomed to fail, you should have a positive hope and outtake for everything and you’ll achieve to what once seemed to be the impossible. From reading this, I have learned some of the few hardships of many that Native-Americans who live on reservations may have. I was close-minded to all the stereotypical things about Native-Americans to realize things like the stories in the book mentioned can actually happen. A reader can take away the hardships of a Native-American teenager who wants to live two lives as Junior from the Rez and as Arnold from Reardon High School. I would recommend teenagers in high school and young adults to read Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, the book would be most humorous and relatable to those in that age group. In addition, the book is a great tool to become open-minded of the issues that Natives who live in reservations must face. I would not recommend to younger children or even teenagers in middle school because of the few controversial topics, such as the profanity and sexual references that younger children may not understand. I can image parents being not so happy with their 10-year-old kid asking what an erection is. I highly recommend for everyone (young adults and up) to read this book! It was very entertaining and eye-opening. Review: Absolutely truly LOVE this book! - I was looking for a book to write an essay for my Race and Ethnicity class when I came across The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian. I had read an excerpt of it about a year ago in a humanities class and remembered that, although short, it was charming. Before I say how much I loved this book, I want to point out that I read a lot of the desertcart reviews about it. I read and five star and some one star. Some of the one star reviews almost scared me away from reading it calling it immature, vulgar, and unintelligent. They said it was wildly inappropriate for teens and some even said it was anti-Christian. I gave it a chance anyway and honestly none of those things are true. I'm not saying there wasn't strong language, or masturbation topics but it was very brief and didn't compromise the integrity of the overall message what so ever. So as a result of the negative reviews I proceeded with caution. My expectations were pretty low going in however I was immediately surprised. I was hooked right away. Junior is a complex and likable character. I was so completely blown away by how amazing this book is. Kids should read this book because it's so relatable. It's real, it's raw, and somehow manages to touch your heart and make you cry. Seriously, you laugh and cry with Junior. As a sociology major, I took a special interest in this book. I was captivated by how Alexie painted such a clear picture of the stereotypes of Native Americans, especially those on the reservations. He included how intimidating and difficult it would be to try to assimilate into a new culture, by using the metaphor that Junior had been rocketed to a different planet where he didn't know the rules. Junior represents minorities who feel oppressed or feel inclined to perpetuate that self fulfilling prophecy. He is the kid who had a dream and gave himself more credit than did the rest of the world. Junior comes from a long line of chronic poverty, alcoholism, addiction, and tragedy. In other words, not very much hope or promise. And although real life is much more complicated than a fiction book, it is a wonderful thing to dream and to be reminded to never sell yourself short. One of my favorite elements Alexie used to portray the racial inequality in his book was by creating two halves of the main character. One is Junior. He's Native American, poor, and lives on a reservation. He is everything traditional Indian, through and through. And you have his other half, Arnold, who identifies as white, who as this bright future, and his cup is overflowing with hope! But we're still talking about the same character. This is so important because it emphasizes how race is a social cultural construct. He says how in traveling between the two towns, the white town and the reservation, he experienced an extreme solitariness, where he was half-Indian in one place and half-white in the other. His identity was changing because he now has this outside influence that was Rearden in his life that was making him less of an Indian by making him more white. Surely the color of his skin or other Indian features did not change into Caucasian features. It's pointing out a very influential socially constructed idea that affects everyone on some level. It's an important thing for people to learn, especially early on. Overall I loved this book, I read it in two days, I will read it again, and I definitely recommend it. I loved following along with Junior in his journey to figure out what he really is capable of. It's an inspiring and down to earth story of a boy who faced stereotypes and racial inequity as well as many deep tragedies and overcame it all. This is a very easy and quick read with such a powerful message. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! ## Features - Great product! ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #5,146 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #1 in Teen & Young Adult Basketball Fiction #2 in Native American Literature (Books) #10 in Teen & Young Adult Fiction about Emotions & Feelings | | Customer Reviews | 4.6 out of 5 stars 10,946 Reviews | ## Images ![The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (National Book Award Winner) - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71hh7RdiLSL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I learned to love reading by reading this book! *by A***. on November 9, 2018* Before reading Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian I had very low hopes of the book being any good. Personally, I am not much of a reader, but I decided to give this book a try. Let me tell you, I enjoyed the book, from the comics to the actual story, it was so entertaining! As I flipped through the pages, absorbing more of the story, I found myself getting more into the book. Within a few hours, I was done with the book. As a teenager, I loved the humor carefully crafted by the author, it seemed like I was reading an actual book from a teenager. Before doing research on the book, it made me surprised the story was fiction. The story can be entirely made up, but I imagined the story was a close spitting image of what some Native-Americans on reservations have to go through. However, after I’ve done my research Alexie said, “If I were to guess at the percentage, it would be about seventy-eight percent true” (Horn Book Magazine). The book was published September 12 in 2007. Over 10 years later, the humor is still funny and it is pretty relatable. The author, Sherman Alexie, grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation and is best known for writing stories and films about his experiences as an Indigenous American. For this book specifically, he changed few details by making it more humorous to fit the category for young adult fiction. The overall plot of the book is a young teen named Arnold Spirit Jr. who lives on an Indian reservation and feels the whole world is against him. Born with birth defects easily prone to seizures and suffering from a stutter, he was raised by alcoholic parents who had very little to nothing money income. Junior was constantly bullied and to escape from this, Junior was passionate about drawing cartoons. After a talk with an important figure at school, Junior realizes he has to get out of the reservation. Junior transferred to an all-white high school called Reardon High School. There and then he faces even more bullying and tragedies in his life, from being called a traitor by his own people to important people in his life dying. Despite all this, Junior continued to draw cartoons and used humor to get over all the hardships and eventually found himself no longer feeling like an outcast. The most compelling part of the book was the characters. Overall, the characters were well developed. Every character has their own unique and distinct personality. I sometimes find myself confused or lost when a book has so many characters and very little information on them. However, Sherman Alexie was able to establish each character memorably. On another note, I wish more historical context of each character were provided, I really wanted to know more about the mysterious, drunk Eugene (when you read the book, you’ll know exactly what I mean). Sherman Alexie seemed to have put a lot of thought into the making of this book. Reading the book, everything flowed perfectly. The introduction of himself and his family to the transition of how life is like on the reservation then to Reardon High including all the hardships he had to face, the transitions were so smooth. I never found myself lost while reading this book. The book was not predictable at all, it is for sure an intriguing and original piece. While reading the book, there were few things that may seem controversial to other readers. There were few accounts where profanity and sexual references were used. The book also discusses alcohol, abuse, and bullying related to mental disabilities several times. However, I think all these controversial topics are important to learn about because it’s real life. In life, people use profanity, alcoholics exist, and those with mental disabilities do suffer from bullying. Topics like these make the book relatable in a way and the audience can have a good laugh from the dark humor. The overall message of the book appears to be a message of how important it is to have hope. Even if it seems like you are doomed to fail, you should have a positive hope and outtake for everything and you’ll achieve to what once seemed to be the impossible. From reading this, I have learned some of the few hardships of many that Native-Americans who live on reservations may have. I was close-minded to all the stereotypical things about Native-Americans to realize things like the stories in the book mentioned can actually happen. A reader can take away the hardships of a Native-American teenager who wants to live two lives as Junior from the Rez and as Arnold from Reardon High School. I would recommend teenagers in high school and young adults to read Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, the book would be most humorous and relatable to those in that age group. In addition, the book is a great tool to become open-minded of the issues that Natives who live in reservations must face. I would not recommend to younger children or even teenagers in middle school because of the few controversial topics, such as the profanity and sexual references that younger children may not understand. I can image parents being not so happy with their 10-year-old kid asking what an erection is. I highly recommend for everyone (young adults and up) to read this book! It was very entertaining and eye-opening. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Absolutely truly LOVE this book! *by A***Y on March 12, 2014* I was looking for a book to write an essay for my Race and Ethnicity class when I came across The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian. I had read an excerpt of it about a year ago in a humanities class and remembered that, although short, it was charming. Before I say how much I loved this book, I want to point out that I read a lot of the Amazon reviews about it. I read and five star and some one star. Some of the one star reviews almost scared me away from reading it calling it immature, vulgar, and unintelligent. They said it was wildly inappropriate for teens and some even said it was anti-Christian. I gave it a chance anyway and honestly none of those things are true. I'm not saying there wasn't strong language, or masturbation topics but it was very brief and didn't compromise the integrity of the overall message what so ever. So as a result of the negative reviews I proceeded with caution. My expectations were pretty low going in however I was immediately surprised. I was hooked right away. Junior is a complex and likable character. I was so completely blown away by how amazing this book is. Kids should read this book because it's so relatable. It's real, it's raw, and somehow manages to touch your heart and make you cry. Seriously, you laugh and cry with Junior. As a sociology major, I took a special interest in this book. I was captivated by how Alexie painted such a clear picture of the stereotypes of Native Americans, especially those on the reservations. He included how intimidating and difficult it would be to try to assimilate into a new culture, by using the metaphor that Junior had been rocketed to a different planet where he didn't know the rules. Junior represents minorities who feel oppressed or feel inclined to perpetuate that self fulfilling prophecy. He is the kid who had a dream and gave himself more credit than did the rest of the world. Junior comes from a long line of chronic poverty, alcoholism, addiction, and tragedy. In other words, not very much hope or promise. And although real life is much more complicated than a fiction book, it is a wonderful thing to dream and to be reminded to never sell yourself short. One of my favorite elements Alexie used to portray the racial inequality in his book was by creating two halves of the main character. One is Junior. He's Native American, poor, and lives on a reservation. He is everything traditional Indian, through and through. And you have his other half, Arnold, who identifies as white, who as this bright future, and his cup is overflowing with hope! But we're still talking about the same character. This is so important because it emphasizes how race is a social cultural construct. He says how in traveling between the two towns, the white town and the reservation, he experienced an extreme solitariness, where he was half-Indian in one place and half-white in the other. His identity was changing because he now has this outside influence that was Rearden in his life that was making him less of an Indian by making him more white. Surely the color of his skin or other Indian features did not change into Caucasian features. It's pointing out a very influential socially constructed idea that affects everyone on some level. It's an important thing for people to learn, especially early on. Overall I loved this book, I read it in two days, I will read it again, and I definitely recommend it. I loved following along with Junior in his journey to figure out what he really is capable of. It's an inspiring and down to earth story of a boy who faced stereotypes and racial inequity as well as many deep tragedies and overcame it all. This is a very easy and quick read with such a powerful message. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ For Teachers *by A***N on April 20, 2011* Having been in the classroom for over five years, few texts have served as many purposes and prompted more meaningful discussions with my students than this contemporary novel. Though I had heard of Sherman Alexie prior to reading Part-Time Indian, I had always thought of his writing as being much more mature and adult. It is evident in this novel, but lends itself brilliantly to teenagers as a classroom text study. The character of Junior is honest and vulnerable. He runs the gamut of teenage emotions, and Alexie is able to provide a connection for most teenage situations in this coming of age novel. However, the potential for this character is exponential, but at times only the surface of this character is scratched. He navigates the transition from his reservation school and life to that of the suburban Reardan school with ease, a transition in which most teenagers would flounder. For a rather short novel, very deep and penetrating topics are covered, such as race, socio-economic status, death, alcoholism, and domestic abuse. While these topics really lend themselves to meaningful dialogue with students, I would strongly suggest focusing on one or two of these, rather than trying to cover them all with equal merit. Though I have never gravitated toward graphic novels for pleasure reading, this text relies heavily on the illustrations that accompany the prose. This is one of the few times that I have enjoyed the graphics, and find that they compliment the text without distracting from Alexie's language. In fact, the cartoons are most beneficial to classroom instruction, and my students have enjoyed getting to see life through Junior's eyes. They allow conversation about perception and point of view, and the activities that are possible surrounding cartoons and graphic representations are endless. Overall, this book is more than valuable in the secondary ELA classroom. My students thoroughly enjoy the witty writing and the dynamic main character, and I would wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone looking for either a pleasure or instructional read. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.tn/products/286546-the-absolutely-true-diary-of-a-part-time-indian-national](https://www.desertcart.tn/products/286546-the-absolutely-true-diary-of-a-part-time-indian-national) --- *Product available on Desertcart Tunisia* *Store origin: TN* *Last updated: 2026-06-06*