This book is not written like a diary as the title might suggest, but it is written in the first person from the perspective of a young man from the Spokane Indian tribe who lived with his family on a reservation. It is a beneficial novel for teens because it helps the reader to understand a culture that very few people know about. Arnold Spirit was not satisfied with life on the reservation because the people in his tribe seemed to have given up on life. Almost everyone he knew was an alcoholic, and no one he knew ever ended up going to college. Arnold decided to go to a public school outside the reservation where he was the only Indian. His people back at the reservation mostly thought he was a traitor, including his best friend, Rowdy.Arnold was able to get along well with the white kids at the school he went to, and he even ended up playing varsity basketball and having a girlfriend. Even though he wanted to do better than the people he grew up with, he noticed that while the white people seemed to be very successful, the parents did not seem to pay much attention to their kids. For Arnold, even though his father was an alcoholic and would often use the last of his money on alcohol so that sometimes the family did not have food and Arnold had to hitchhike over 20 miles to school because they did not have enough gas, he knew his family cared about him and made sacrifices for him.
This is a sad story in many parts, because life is often hard for Indians on a reservation, but it is still hopeful. Even though it is about a different culture, I still felt like I could identify with what Arnold experienced in several ways, and that is important for people to understand.
Review by David Dunkerton
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