One of the books I read this summer is The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. This book is about a 14 year old boy who lives with a poor family in a Spokane Indian reservation and has many medical problems. This boy's name is Arnold and he has a friend who starts hating him after Arnold moves into an all-white school. Despite all the people in the rez (reservation) who now accuse him of being a traitor, Arnold finds the power within himself to push that aside and move on. What impressed me about Arnold is that what other people said and thought about Arnold affected the way he thought of himself.

        After all those years of being bullied and being made fun of, Arnold believes that those people are right and that he is in fact weird and stupid. The negative influence that Arnold has experienced and has been exposed to throughout his life causes him to run into a sort of depression where he becomes almost ashamed of himself. But when he moves to the white school to obtain a better education he also finds the possibility for a fresh start. Some events occur where he starts to gain respect from other people. For example, he stood up for himself in front of kids who were bulling him by showing no fear of them. In basketball games, he plays his best and stands out by scoring points and leading his team to victory. In class he meets a girl and she becomes his girlfriend. All these cases lead people to change their view of Arnold and to respect him. Arnold then starts to realize that he is not as weird and stupid as he used to think he was and he gains self-confidence.

        All in all, I really liked this book and I think that Alexie did a great job in developing this character and his unique characteristics. I also liked very much the main problem he created in this book because the issue of identity in young adults is very important but it is not commonly talked about with the sarcastic tone used by the character.