“Life is a constant struggle between being an individual and being a member of the community” ~Sherman Alexie
Happy April Readers!
Sherman Alexie wrote this funny, heartbreaking and beautifully written novel based off his personal experiences with illustrations drew by Ellen Forney. This novel captivates the adolescence of one Native American boy, Junior, as he attempts to break away from the life he thought he was destined to live. He left his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town high school.
I remembered reading this novel in my senior year literature course for each novel that we read was on the ban book list for younger students; I believe this book is still on that list. This novel opened up many readers eyes as there’s not a lot of first person Native American perspectives in literature . Also, this novel tackles many themes such as:
- Alcohol
- Poverty
- Bullying
- Violence
- Sexuality
- Profanity and slurs talking about homosexuality and mental disability
Though this is another graphic novel that I’m talking about in this blog, I feel like this is novel to highlight due to the first person perspective of a Native American. The novel can also be looked as a semi-autobiographical for this experience is taken from Sherman Alexie’s life. What’s very interesting about the structure of this novel is that the section of his family started as a memoir, but was changed to be the basis of a young adult novel due to the suggestion of his editor.
Junior has a lot of birth defects, which will explain some of the themes, but is also one of the reasons for why he decided to leave the Reservation.
The plot is a span over a year as Junior faced many tragedies that helped shape more of his character. I could also describe this as a coming-of-age novel as Junior’s sense of hope shaped his outlook for a better future and had him wonder more about his culture.
“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.
I can do it.
Let’s do it.”
~Sherman Alexie
Destiny's Blog 
I find it crazy how this book could be on the book ban but understandable. This book tackles so much all while giving a heartwarming relatable tale or account. I say it’s crazy because this is literature and one thing about literature that I learned reading Huck Finn is that literature should never hold back especially if it’s true to it’s times. I believe it could be understandable because the book being open for such a young audience can be to some traumatizing or too much to take in at once. Once could say the text actually “Robs them of their innocence”.
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