<P> 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". Weyland suggests that the outsized effect of this feature of the book is revealed in the controversy its publication caused, as it was banned and challenged in schools all over the country . 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 . As an example, Alexie uses the anecdote of the killing of Junior's dog, Oscar, to expand on the idea of social mobility, or lack thereof--Junior states that he understood why the dog had to be killed rather than taken to the vet, because his parents were poor and they "came from poor people who came from poor people who came from poor people, all the way back to the very first poor people ." Weyland notes how readers are likely to be uncomfortable with Junior / Arnold / Alexie making light of topics of such importance (racism, poverty, alcoholism) through the use of dark comedy . </P> <P> Alexie won three major "year's best" awards for Diary, a biannual award for books by and about Native Americans, and a California award that annually covers the last four years . The awards are listed below: </P> <Ul> <Li> 2007 National Book Award for Young People's Literature . </Li> <Li> 2008 American Indian Youth Literature Awards . American Indian Library Association Best Young Adult Book . In 2018 AILA rescinded this award . </Li> <Li> 2008 Boston Globe - Horn Book Award, Fiction and Poetry . </Li> <Li> 2009 Odyssey Award as the year's "best audiobook for children or young adults", read by Alexie (Frederick, MD: Recorded Books, LLC, 2008, ISBN 1 - 4361 - 2490 - 5). </Li> <Li> 2010 California Young Reader Medal, Young Adult Book (eligible to win once during its first four years). </Li> </Ul> <Li> 2007 National Book Award for Young People's Literature . </Li>

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