'Thunder Boy Jr.' is Sherman Alexie's beautiful new book about the power of a name
Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet?
According to Sherman Alexie's new picture book Thunder Boy Jr., the answer is... complicated.
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Illustrated by Yuyi Morales, Thunder Boy Jr. tells the story of Little Thunder, son of Big Thunder, as he tries to figure out what name best fits him. As Little Thunder grapples with his own moniker, he explores what's important to him, his relationship with his heritage and how he wants to establish his own identity.
For Alexie, Thunder Boy Jr. is an ode to outsiders and weird kids.
"I grew up on a tribe. The intense tribal background with the intense tribal expectations," Alexie told Mashable. "I rebelled early, and I felt isolated because of it. I was thinking of all those weird kids out there that are rebelling early, and that they’d have a book for them."
Mashable caught up with Alexie to chat about children's books, Thunder Boy Jr., heritage and identity.
What inspired you to write Thunder Boy Jr.?
When I was writing True Diary, I thought, “I want to write the book I wish was around when I was 15.” So with this picture book, I thought, “I want to write the picture book that I wish was around when I was 6.”
What is it that you were looking for when you were 6 -- what are you hoping 6-year-olds will take away from this?
The beginnings of finding yourself, of becoming an individual.
Did you find solace in books as a kid?
Big time! Books transported me to those places I never thought I’d get to go to.
What were some of the –
New York. Stephen King stuff. Even reading National Geographic. And Nova Magazine was big. I love Nova because of outer space and thinking of going to NASA. Everything, really. Other times, Jane Austen stuff really transported me. The Great Gatsby.
Why focus on naming?
Well, I’m a junior. I’m Sherman Alexie Jr. And at my father’s funeral -- he died 13 years ago -- at his funeral, the gravestone had my name on it. This is a gravestone on my reservation with my name on it.
That must have been so haunting.
I’ve always had issues with being named after my father. With sharing a name. But that really solidified how intense it is. The genesis of the book is there. That intense feeling of…you’re carrying your family’s burden, It just makes it feel exponentially heavy. And then being from an intense tribal background, with all those expectations and pressure -- I just thought about escaping tribal thinking.
How do you negotiate that balance -- escaping tribal thinking even as you're literally carrying your father’s name?
You have to find the balance point. You have to find the respect for the traditions but also the respect for the adventure, the new. As a kid, what really matters is when some adult validates your journey, validates your ambitions. You can have all the agency and dreams you want to as a kid, but you really need that mentor, that parent, that teacher -- and we all have one or more of those people, who really gave us permission to become ourselves.
Is that the mission of this book?
Yeah! I went back and forth between whether the kid was going to create his own name at the end. The name he’d go by. And for some drafts, I had him doing it all the way. But I thought it was really important to have this empathetic father.
An empathetic father, I don’t think, is a big character. Nobody associates empathy and fathers. They don’t. So that was big for me -- especially a brown father. To have an intact, loving supportive, brown family. And an emotionally present father.
Happiness is probably the most political thing there can be. Happiness is the rebellion.
I was wondering if you could say more about the power of names.
[At] the naming ceremony in many Indian tribes, you received your Indian name, your adult name. You received [it] when you distinguished yourself, when something you accomplished really separated you from childhood and launched you into adulthood. Some amazing thing you did, or some amazing character trait you demonstrated. “Crazy Horse.”
So it’s an old, traditional idea. And in my family growing up, we used it traditionally. But we also used it in a contemporary way. We would give each other Indian names based on something that just happened.
Like what?
If that recorder ran out of batteries, that’s your Indian name. "Ran Out of Batteries." So It’s mocking, teasing, loving.
“Tweet Storm.”
Yeah, yeah! Like that. I’ve continued that with my sons. We're always giving each other Indian names based on something that we’ve accomplished. So it’s the contemporary sense of the family dialogue, combined with traditional naming ceremonies. It’s a mix of the ancient and the very modern.
Did you have any nicknames?
Many, many. I mean, I was Junior. But also “Regret.”
Regret?
“Regret.” It’s based on a Western. There was a character named “Paul Regret,” and my Dad loved [him]. So he called me “Regret.”
How long did that last?
Through most of my childhood. My joke is that my nickname is Regret. This is my sister, Ennui.
Is there anything that you want readers to know about Thunder Boy Jr.?
It’s a love story. It’s a family love story. I think it’s probably. I think it’s the only example in my career of an utterly loving, healthy family.
And that’s political. Happiness is probably the most political thing there can be. Happiness is the rebellion.
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Topics Books
