Not Quite Wordless Picture Book

Although I know we were tasked with bringing in wordless picture books, I recently read "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian".  This text actually ties in a bit with the genre of memoir as well, since it is a semibiographical chronicle of Arnold Spirit, a Spokane Indian from Washington.  This story is an incredible combination of tragedy, comedy, perseverance, and one person's true dedication to his spirit.  The story is of a fourteen-year-old boy who was born on a reservation that is full of colorful and tragic characters.  To make matters worse, Arnold was born with water on the brain, and is the recipient of relentless bullying.  However, when he has had enough, he decides to transfer to a school off of the "rez" and begin a new journey.  This one is also wrought with difficulties, but somehow, Arnold is able to persevere and find a balance that includes a new community, without abandoning his beloved community on the reservation.  You might be asking why then did I include this in the wordless picture books?  Well, one of the beauties of this particular books is the way in which Arnold portrays the many characters within the stories with simple cartoons, which are woven perfectly within the text on almost every page.  The illustrations are a way in which Junior can express himself and make light of many heavy and emotional situations.  Another thing that I loved about this approach is that these cartoons make the book accessible to many different levels of readers as they can be followed on their own and one can easily make sense of the literary story.  Although I will not be in class this week, I left a copy with Dr. Nickel for anyone interested in checking it out.
Kelly Sporrer
EDRL 524