This is an update of my April 29 diary: Police Called on Student Passing Out Free Copies of Sherman Alexie Book.
From the Boise State University Updates:
Michael Strickland, adjunct instructor of literacy, was interviewed by Channel 6 about his efforts to raise money to buy copies of “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” by Sherman Alexie. The book recently was removed from the Meridian School District curriculum and Strickland wants to make sure the book is accessible to students because he believes the book addresses subjects teens are already talking about. See the report here. From April 29, 2014: Parents in Idaho called the cops last week on junior-high student Brady Kissel when she had the nerve to help distribute a book they’d succeeded in banning from the school curriculum. Read about how that move predictably backfired.We need your help here in Idaho.
Now Sherman Alexie is coming to Boise.
SHERMAN ALEXIE, MARCH 11, 2015THE EGYPTIAN THEATRE – 7:30 PM
Sherman Alexie March 11, 2015 Winner of the PEN Faulkner Award for Fiction, the PEN Malamud Award for Short Fiction, a PEN Hemingway Citation for Best First Fiction, and the National Book Award for Young People's Literature, Sherman Alexie is a poet, short story writer, novelist, and performer. He has published 24 books including What I've Stolen, What I've Earned, poetry and the novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Smoke Signals, the movie he wrote and co-produced, won the Audience Award and Filmmakers Trophy at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. A Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian, Alexie grew up in Wellpinit, Washington, on the Spokane Indian Reservation. He now lives in Seattle.
Thank you all for the vigorous and thoughtful dialogue on my diary:
Meridian, Idaho Public Schools Ban The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
This article summarizes my work with donating books: Many across Valley have joined together to support literacy.
I founded the Literacy Project years ago to support grassroots educational initiatives that directly affect the lives of children. Our goal is to get books into their hands. My wife and our kids love to help give away the books.
I have been able to like to distribute a copy of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, to wide variety of Boise-area parents, so that they can read it and choose, if, how, and when, they will share and discuss it with their children.
Alexie's upcoming visit hearkens as a good time for me to reopen this effort.
Will you help?
Here is my crowdfunding campaign:
