The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a first-person narrative novel by Sherman Alexie, from the perspective of a Native American teenager, Arnold Spirit Jr., also known as "Junior," a 14-year-old promising cartoonist.

Born with hydrocephalus, Junior is small for his age and suffers from seizures, poor eyesight, stuttering, and a lisp, making him a frequent bullying target for others on the reservation.

Angered and saddened that the reservation is so poor it cannot afford new textbooks, Junior violently throws the book, inadvertently hitting his teacher, Mr. P, and breaking his nose.

Junior also realizes that the white students have different rules than those he grew up with, evident when he reacts to an insult from the school's star athlete, Roger, by punching him in the face, as would be expected of him on the reservation.

Junior feels triumphant until he sees the look of defeat on the Wellpinit players' faces and remembers the lack of hope he had for his future while growing up on the reservation.

Bruce Barcott of The New York Times said in a 2007 review, "For 15 years now, Sherman Alexie has explored the struggle to survive between the grinding plates of the Indian and white worlds.

Working in the voice of a 14-year-old forces Alexie to strip everything down to action and emotion, so that reading becomes more like listening to your smart, funny best friend recount his day while waiting after school for a ride home.

Delia Santos, a publisher for the civilrights.org page, noted, "Alexie fuses words and images to depict the difficult journey many Native Americans face.

… Although Junior is a young adult, he must face the reality of living in utter poverty, contend with the discrimination of those outside of the reservation, cope with a community and a family ravaged and often killed by alcoholism, break cultural barriers at an all-White high school, and maintain the perseverance needed to hope and work for a better future.

"[20] In another review published in November 2016 by Dakota Student website, author Breanna Roen says that she has never seen the way that this book, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, conveys so much happiness, love, and grief.

[21] Alexie's work in this novel can't be compared to other Native American books; it is "a whole different ball game," Roen asserts.

[21] The review continues to state that the theme regarding identity, home, race, poverty, tradition, friendship, hope and success is seen throughout the entire book, leaving the readers on the edge of their seats and wanting more.

"[22] In the review "Using The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian to Teach About Racial Formation," Miami University professor Kevin Talbert says that Alexie chose to narrate the story through the eyes of fourteen-year-old Junior to transport his readers into "uncomfortable or incongruent spaces.

[23] The article also states that Junior's narration in the novel sends a message to society, "that adolescents have important things to say, that being fourteen years old matters.

Crandall points out that Arnold is never held back by his disability, but in fact laughs at himself: "With my big feet and pencil body, I looked like a capital L walking down the road.

[27] As detailed in Alyson Miller's "Unsuited to Age Group: The Scandals of Children's Literature," society has created an "innocence of the idealized child"; Alexie's protagonist is the opposite of this figure.

According to Weyland, Alexie doesn't play by the rules – the use of humor in the book is directed at established "power hierarchies, dominant social ideologies or topics deemed taboo.

[27] Weyland states that Alexie's book with Forney's black-comedy illustrations explore themes of "racial tension, domestic violence, and social injustice" in a never-before-done way.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a text that many English teachers use in order to educate their students about the Native American heritage.

[33][24] Teachers refer to the textbook, Sherman Alexie in the Classroom, to claim that the book provides an opportunity to educate non-Native American students to "work through their white guilt and develop anti-racist perspectives".

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian has been at the center of many controversies due to the book's themes and content, as well as its target audience of young adults.

[48] Some parents of students of a Sweet Home Junior High English class voiced concerns about the book's content, specifically the objectification of women and young girls.

[48] In April 2014, Diary was pulled from the Meridian district's supplemental reading list after significant parental disapproval of the novel's subject matter.

Alexie has defended the novel by emphasizing the positive learning opportunities readers gain from exposure to these harsh aspects of contemporary life.

"[59]Alexie said that students were also able to connect his story to their own difficult experiences with "depression, attempted suicide, gang warfare, sexual and physical abuse, absentee parents, poverty, racism, and learning disabilities."

He noted: "I have yet to receive a letter from a child somehow debilitated by the domestic violence, drug abuse, racism, poverty, sexuality, and murder contained in my book.

To the contrary, kids as young as ten have sent me autobiographical letters written in crayon, complete with drawings inspired by my book, that are just as dark, terrifying, and redemptive as anything I’ve ever read.

In an essay on censorship, young adult fiction author Raquel Rivera wrote:"It is an excellent book and happens to have much useful material for a boy entering his teens...

"[61]The author Sherman Alexie himself narrates the audiobook of The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian, which has won many awards for its creation of an idiosyncratic, first-person voice.

[62] Alexie, who has experience as an orator, won the Taos Poetry Circus World Heavyweight Championship award three years in a row for his oratorical virtuosity.