Thoughtful Thursday: Banned Books Week Celebration,

My next feature is again from the 2010 banned books list, and this book was listed as #2 on that list. This is a story I first read back in 2008 after Stephenie Meyer recommended it as part of the Twilight Moms book of the month club.

By: Sherman Alexie

Published by: Little Brown

Released on: september 12th, 2007

4 stars- It's A Good Read

Purchase from: Amazon| Indie Bound

This story was based on Sherman's own experiences while growing up on a reservation in Spokane, WA, and he isn't afraid to lay it all out there for kids to get a look at what it's like to go up in poverty, deal with going to an all white school, death, growing up, racism and being bullied. What Junior deals with isn't much different from what a variety of teens deal with each day.

Sherman's writing of Junior's story allow readers the chance to see inside Junior's life. It's heartbreaking, it's moving, it made me cry and it made me laugh. Sherman has a way for creating humor and heart-retching scenes all on one engaging page. He introduced me to a character who's strong, witty, and lovable. I've never wanted to cry and laugh all at the same time with a character before, like I did with Junior. I'm in awe at all Junior has to deal with.

This story not only had me cheering Junior on, it made me think and it moved me. It's a great modern day story, and I admire Sherman for writing it and sharing it with others. There's something that at least every reader can take away from it, and I can see how Sherman's writing can have a powerful effect on teen readers, especially Native American youth who's YA selection is mostly made up of Sherman's book. I could be wrong, but when I started searching for Native American YA books, I found hardly any. Which makes me ask the question, why ban a book that 1) is based on the authors experiences growing up on a reservation and 2) is one of only a few YA books that's found that that's geared towards Native American youth. This book won't be for everyone, but it's definitely a read some teens will need.

Word of warning to those who don't like swear words- there's swearing in this book and the f word is mentioned more than a few times. This book is written from the mind set of a 14 yr. old male, so "things" are mentioned that teenage boys think about (not saying girls don't either, but you know what I mean).

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To date, this book has won I believe 5 different awards between 2007-2010 and yet, like many of it's other fellow banners, this book is still on banned book lists. The surprising think about this story, is that back in July of this year the Richland School Board REVERSED it's ban because, "none of the board members had read it" and yet it was banned (scratches head). You can read more about that here. Kudos to them for admitting their mistake and fixing it. I liked the quote from one of the board members who says, "When I'm voting a book out of the classroom, I'm denying parents the right to choose to have that book read by their students." *clasps* Exactly!! Which is why this week is such an important week.