--- description: TIME talks with the author of 'The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian' title: Sherman Alexie Talks Banned Books and Hillary Clinton image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcdeaac033b4de29b/698891f02dce0171fd9e8eed/sherman-alexie.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Ideas](/section/ideas/) ## Ideas Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Books](/tag/books/) ## Books Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Sherman Alexie Talks About Why He's 'One of the Brown Folks for Clinton' by [Sarah Begley](/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 4, 2016 8:09 PM CUT  Lee Towndrow; Little, Brown Books for Young Readers by [Sarah Begley](/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 4, 2016 8:09 PM CUT On May 10, the author of _Reservation Blues_ and _The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian_ publishes his first picture book, _Thunder Boy Jr_., about a Native American boy who wishes he had a different name. **TIME: What was your aim in writing this?** **Alexie:** There’s a real lack of Native Americans in contemporary picture books. I mean, there’s a lack of us in all genres, but I couldn’t find a picture book about a contemporary Native American family. **Why is writing for a young audience important to you?** The books I read when I was younger, they could change me overnight. That doesn’t really happen as an adult. Maybe there are people like that, but I’m not one of them, and I never hear from them. But I get these amazing letters from kids since I wrote _True Diary._ **The American Library Association has called** **_True Diary_** **the most banned book in America. How do you feel about that?** It’s awesome. It helps sales. But \[the banning is\] not just about the sexual content, which is pretty minor. It’s about the race, the ethnicity and the politics. I think that all blends together for certain people so that the book feels completely strange and threatening to them. **Why do you think the question of free speech vs. “political correctness” is on the public’s mind these days?** Internet communication is making people more impulsive. That said, it’s also because we brown folks are sick of this sh-t and we exercise our power. That makes old power structures uncomfortable—and that’s conservatives _and_ liberals. You can see that dynamic with Sanders vs. Clinton, where brown folks are hanging with Clinton. **Why do you think that is?** Because the government has actually worked for us. So I’m one of the brown folks for Clinton. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4292771/sherman-alexie-part-time-indian-thunder-boy/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4292771/sherman-alexie-part-time-indian-thunder-boy/"},"headline":"Sherman Alexie Talks About Why He's 'One of the Brown Folks for Clinton'","datePublished":"2016-05-04T20:09:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T16:43:03.897Z","description":"TIME talks with the author of 'The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian'","url":"https://time.com/4292771/sherman-alexie-part-time-indian-thunder-boy/","keywords":["Books"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcdeaac033b4de29b/698891f02dce0171fd9e8eed/sherman-alexie.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcdeaac033b4de29b/698891f02dce0171fd9e8eed/sherman-alexie.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"sherman-alexie","caption":"","creditText":"Lee Towndrow; Little, Brown Books for Young Readers","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4292771/sherman-alexie-part-time-indian-thunder-boy/","name":"Sherman Alexie Talks About Why He's 'One of the Brown Folks for Clinton'"}}]}] ```