10. Audio Book

Y A L O L O G Y

YAL lover, librarian and Metro State professor, Adela Peskorz, asserts the study of Adolescent Literatures . . .

"is not about exploring the 'great books' that often populate curricular reading lists year after year (and as research has proven, often decade after decade), gathering more dust than fans and -- sometimes doing more harm than good in terms of cultivating a lifelong love and appreciation of reading."

"It is far more important to cultivate an avid appreciation of reading than to be restrictively selective about content. There are wonderful classics to consider, but they should be folded into the broader landscape of genres and formats available and shared through a spectrum of vibrant and active techniques."

Saturday, August 13, 2011

10. Audio Book

12:01 AM

Vance Holmes

The Absolutely True
Diary of a Part-Time Indian
By Sherman Alexie

Annotation:

Junior Spirit journeys “off the rez,” and going beyond the cycle of impoverished hope and desecrated dreams -- learns to navigate the river of the world.

Recommendation:

Sherman Alexie’s absolutely tremendous, absolutely transcendent, Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a triumph of vision and voice.

Determined to live out his dreams, protagonist, Arnold "Junior" Spirit, leaves his friends and his failed school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend all-white, Reardan High. Through words and drawings, Junior shares the ugly - beautiful lessons learned on his journey “off the rez,” out of the cultural comfort zone, and into manhood.

With Alexie’s audio-book narration, which manifests every moving moment of the mystical text, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian becomes poetry in motion. As Junior Spirit takes flight, the narrative soars.

A unique and absolutely amazing feat of literary magic, Sherman Alexie’s heart-wrenching, painfully funny masterpiece speaks for itself . . .

I think the world
is a series of broken dams and floods,
and my cartoons are tiny little lifeboats.

I draw because words are too unpredictable.

I draw because words are too limited.

Poverty doesn’t give you strength

or teach you lessons about perseverance.

No, poverty only teaches you how to be poor.

I grabbed my book and opened it up.

I wanted to smell it. Heck, I wanted to kiss it.

Yes, kiss it. That's right, I am a book kisser.

Maybe that's kind of perverted or maybe it's just romantic and highly intelligent.

If you let people into your life a little bit, they can be pretty damn amazing.

Do you understand how amazing it is to hear that from an adult? Do you know how amazing it is to hear that from anybody? It's one of the simplest sentences in the world, just four words, but they're the four hugest words in the world when they're put together.

You can do it.

Nomination: Absolutely!

Genre Classification: [Audio-Book] Coming of Age, Realistic/Edgy, Multicultural

Citation: Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. New York: Recorded Books, 2008. CD.

Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2007. Print.

Sherman Alexi home page:
http://www.fallsapart.com/