Just finished reading Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. The school district's literacy director loaned it to me. It's a youth novel along the lines of Diary of a Wimpy Kid in that it's told by a young teen who's not completely satisfied with his life. But Alexie's book is soooooo much better! It's REAL.
Children of color in this country learn early on that race plays a huge part in all their interactions, yet books for youth rarely touch the subject. Alexie doesn't shy away from institutionalized racism, nor its legacies of poverty, addiction, and abuse. I also heard that this book was banned from at least one high school library.
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