My Ramblings on Sherman Alexie and a tease for World Book Night.

Sherman Alexie Lecture

Rita Crayon Huang, Copyright ©2009, SCBWI
used under a cc license from flickr.com
This is NOT the event I was at, I was way
too far away to get pictures, but I can tell
what story he is telling and it was hysterical! 

Last night I went to an event hosted by our local library system. The Rosamond Gifford Lecture Series brings in about 6 authors a year to speak to the public, good authors, but usually not up my alley. Except this one. When they announced the speakers last year I zeroed right in on Sherman Alexie's name. He has long been one of my favorite authors. From his poetry to The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist-Fight in Heaven. From the movie Smoke Signals to my all time favorite book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, his books and writing have been a part of my life. In fact way back when this blog first started in September of 2009, Diary was the first book I rambled on about. 313 posts later it's still my favorite book.    So to get the chance to see him speak was a chance of a lifetime. It. Was. Awesome. I won't lie, I was slightly fan-girly about the whole thing, and I was way up in the nosebleeds. I can't imagine what I would have been like if I was up close!

I had never been to a Lecture Series event before, so I wasn't entirely sure the format or what to expect. What I got was essentially a hour long stand up routine that mixed social commentary and politics with heartfelt stories and gutter level humor. I literally laughed so hard that I was tearing up. All of Alexie's books and poems are part of who he is and tell personal stories, but his presentation most closely aligned with Diary. That brand of honest humor and self-deprecation was front and center. He managed to crack jokes about everyone in the room, himself included (and his dead father) while still getting a larger message across. I'd love to share some of the jokes, but I can remember an entire one that wouldn't put my blog on the restricted list. As a fan of gutter humor, this was right up my alley. It was never offensive, just funny. 

For me, as a school librarian, the message was this. You have to give kids a chance to make their own way, to follow their dreams and to succeed even amid struggles and failures. That's essentially the story of his life. A series of hurdles to leap over, of hardships to overcome. He definitely had some setbacks, but this lecture focused mostly on how and why he was able to succeed. He did it with determination, a positive outlook and a lot of humor. It's a pretty great story and I'm really glad I got the chance to see him speak live. I'd go again in a heartbeat. 

WORLD BOOK NIGHT

In related news I'm participating in World Book Night this year. If you haven't heard of this event it goes down like this. Book lovers everywhere sign up to receive 20 books and pledge to give them away to someone or someplace deserving, who might not have access otherwise. World Book Night provides a list of available choices, you choose the one you want to feature and at the end of April you pick them up and start handing them out. The list had some great choices on it including some of my favorites like Peace Like a River, Because of Winn Dixie and The Hunger Games. It also had The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. I give this book to everyone on holidays, I love it that much, so there was never really a doubt which one I would pick. I was stoked when I got my acceptance letter and the confirmation that in a few short weeks a pile of my favorite book would be ready for me to pick up and hand out. I've got a list of places I'm going to drop them, The Little Free Library and a few after school/community programs. It should be a lot of fun! 

Banned Book Week: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Summary: Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot. Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is based on the author's own experiences, coupled with poignant drawings that reflect the character's art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he thought he was destined to live.
(from goodreads.com)

Why it was challenged: This book was on the Most Frequently Challenged Book for 2009-2010- the ALA's listing reads "Retained on the summer reading list at Antioch, Ill. High School (2009) despite objections from several parents who found its language vulgar and racist." In addition this book was banned in both a Oregon HS and a Missouri HS for reasons of it including sexual language, off-color jokes, and discussions of masturbation, racism, alcoholism and violence and being generally "pretty trashy" (links to full articles here and here)

My thoughts: A year ago this week I started this blog- the first book I reviewed was Part-time Indian. It's not the best review I've ever written (I was a newbie, what can I say?) but my opinion of the book remains the same. This is one of my all time favorite books, from one of my absolute favorite authors. I was shocked to find out that not only was it challenged, but that it had successfully been banned from 2 High Schools. The book is written from the perspective of a 14 year old boy, and Junior deals with all the things that 14 year old boys deal with along with all the added things that kids on reservations deal with. I thought the book was hysterical. I read it while in the hospital and I can tell you that the nurse came in to check on me because I was literally laughing out loud and reading passages to my husband (who was trying to sleep). I think I ended up reading almost the entire book out loud- there were that many pages that I thought were worthy! To ban the book because one person thinks it's "trashy" is a shame. There is so much to be learned from this book- from what it's like to be picked on, to be an outsider, to be a reservation kid. The fact that Alexie has the ability to relate all these really serious issues to the reader without sacrificing humor and compassion is something that makes this book so special.

I really could go on and on about this book, but the bottom line is, it's worth a read, it's a fabulous book.

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To learn more about Alexie and his books, check out his website. Don't forget to enter my Banned Book Giveaway for your chance to win every book that was featured this week!