Book banning is shameful and outrageous. It attacks the very foundations of learning, freedom of expression and erodes the capacity to think independently. Banning of books in schools, or anywhere is the demise of democracy. LAWN BOY by Jonathan Evison is a Y/A coming of age novel. Michael "Mike" is a teen living with his single mother and mentally challenged brother on a reservation. Mike speaks to the reader of his struggles to get ahead when it's barely possibly to stop from falling behind. This is an American Dream story told from a young voice reminiscent of Huck Finn or Holden Caulfield. Like these two iconic literary characters, Mike is an outsider burdened with responsibilities but endowed with kindness and perspective are well beyond his years. Mike's indefatigable spirit and loyalty is admirable and at times, cringe worthy. Lesson for youung as well as old is the ability to question one's affirmations. "Maybe loyalty was conditional, after all. Maybe my burgeoning sense of self, my developing identity as a socially engaged, newly gay, working-class half-Mexican topiary artist demanded such wholesale sacrifices as leaving my old friends in the dust." The novel's hero asserts his self- homosexuality. This is likely the reason this literary novel is banned in some states. Mike's journey discovery is within a world far less than accepting of deviating from a misguided perceived norm. Tending lawns is how Michael earns a living. It's mostly enjoyable work if it weren't for the clients. "The tasks were mostly satisfying...a heady mix of concentration and abstraction....The only downside of landscaping was the clients, specifically, those that went out of the way to let you know your place." Mike's quips on the wealthy, elitist treatment of those assumed to be beneath them are hilarious and shaming. As he contemplates what's limiting himself he questions, "If he was only willing to think beyond the confines of his experience, if he could summon the courage and wherewithal to break the patterns that defined him. If only he could believe in himself. And I was beginning to." Mike's burgeoning self-determination causes us to root for his success. "I never wanted to be the guy that leveraged himself at at the cost of everything else." As it turns out, "I'm mowing your lawn on my terms now. I'm making my own rules and punching my own clock. I'm blazing my own trail." There's much to admire from Evison's inspiring book It's a stentorian voice for independence. "Maybe the biggest lesson I've learned, in art and in life, is that when the questions become too numerous and the considerations begin to feel a little overwhelming, you just have to look away for a minute and regather your vision for the thing, try to see it the way it originally came to you." Ban book banning. Put this on top of your reading list.
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