I love a banned book don’t you?
Neil Gaiman’s back of book blurb snippet for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian says: “Excellent in every way, poignant and really funny and heart-warming and honest and wise and smart … I have no doubt that in a year or so it’ll be winning awards and being banned.”
He was right on both counts as Alexie’s book won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature in 2007, the 2010 PEN Faulkner Award and has clocked up a host of others since.
It has also been listed on the American Library Association’s top ten list of the most banned books of 2010. Reasons given for the book’s banning: offensive language, racism, religious viewpoint, sex education, sexually explicit, violence, unsuited to age group.
“I was half Indian in one place and half white in the other.”
Author of twenty-two books, Alexie’s first book for young adults is based on his own life and is beautifully illustrated by artist Ellen Forney. It tells the story of fourteen-year old Arnold Spirit Junior, a budding cartoonist living on the Spokane Indian Reservation. In his matter-of-fact tone, Junior tells us he born ‘with water on the brain’; he also had a stutter and a lisp, too many teeth and had to wear thick glasses. Naturally, this makes him a magnet for bullies and life on the rez poses many other challenges.
Eventually, taking the advice of one of his teachers, Junior makes the painful and difficult decision to leave the rez and go to an all-white high school only to find that life there isn’t any easier than it was back home. If anything, it’s even harder.
Others have written much more eloquently about this gem than I will. I’m just going to gush and say I loved it and it’s one of the best books I’ve read this year. Hilarious, sad, kick in the guts honest, confronting, heart-wrenching, it doesn’t avoid any harsh truths and although it deals with strong issues including disability, alcoholism and domestic violence, it is ultimately a story of hope, survival and a testimony to the importance of art. It’s definitely one for all you cartoonists out there.
“I draw all the time.
I draw cartoons of my mother and father; my sister and grandmother; my best friend, Rowdy; and everybody else on the rez.
I draw because words are too unpredictable.
I draw because words are too limited.”
The book carries a “not suitable for younger readers” label. I’m not sure what ‘younger’ means so I’ll leave that debate up to the YA specialists as I am not one but I’ve provided a link to a review (at the end of this post) from a young reader recently published in the Guardian.
According to the American Library Association, there were 348 challenges reported to the Office of Intellectual Freedom in 2010, and many more go unreported. The 10 most challenged titles of 2010 were:
And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
Reasons: homosexuality, religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
Reasons: offensive language, racism, religious viewpoint, sex education, sexually explicit, violence, unsuited to age group
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Reasons: insensitivity, offensive language, racism, sexually explicit
Crank, by Ellen Hopkins
Reasons: drugs, offensive language, racism, sexually explicit
The Hunger Games (series), by Suzanne Collins
Reasons: sexaully explicit, violence, unsuited to age group
Lush, by Natasha Friend
Reasons: drugs, sexually explicit, offensive language, unsuited to age group
What My Mother Doesn’t Know, by Sonya Sones
Reasons: sexism, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich
Reasons: drugs, inaccurate, offensive language, political viewpoint, religious viewpoint
Revolutionary Voices edited by Amy Sonnie
Reasons: homosexuality, sexually explicit
Twilight (series), by Stephanie Meyer
Reasons: sexually explicit, religious viewpoint, violence, unsuited to age group
Have you read this book or any other banned books on the list? Let me know what you think.
Sherman Alexie’s website is at: http://www.fallsapart.com
Related reading:
http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/node/1
Young reader review of Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian from the Guardian.
Words, Images, Voices: Social Justice Conference
© Paula Grunseit 2011
