The books, Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, are both on the Banned Book list. I don’t think they should be I have read both and these two books, same in some ways with slight differences, can be beneficial for young readers from the age of 13 and up
Perks of Being a Wallflower is a book about a young 15 year old boy going into high school named Charlie. He is just coping with the suicide death of his best friend, Michael. To help him lessen the fear of going into high school alone he starts writing letters to a stranger, someone he had never met before but had heard great things about him and that he was nice. He finds a role model in his advanced English class, Bill, his teacher. Bill gives him books and tells him to read them and write essays about them which Charlie gladly does. He also overcomes his shyness and approaches a classmate, who is a senior, named Patrick. Who, along with his step-sister Sam, become his two best friends. Throughout the school year Charlie experiments with many different things that he’s never really done or heard of before. He has a first date, first kiss, he deals with bullies, even experiments with drugs and drinking, and he makes friends, loses them, and then he gains them back. Through the book he makes mix tapes filled with many songs, reads classic books, and gets involved with the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Charlie has a stable home throughout this, parents to fall back on even if distant. But he has a severe mental breakdown putting him in the hospital. Charlie’s last letter is filled with hope, getting released from the hospital, and forgiving his aunt Helen for what she did to him.
The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian is a book about, once again, a 15 year old boy who is going into high school named Junior. Junior starts his story saying he has “water on the brain” a funny way of saying he is hydrocephalic. He then tells us about his best canine friend name Oscar who has a depressing fate early in the book where his alcoholic father ends up having to shoot the poor pup. We soon meet Juniors best friend, Rowdy, who is a big tough guy who is mainly Juniors protector as he is bullied for having a lisp and stutter. In geometry a few chapters later, he finds his mother’s name in his book, he then throws it and accidently hits Mr.P in the face. Junior gets suspended, but Mr.P comes to his house and tells him a few things. That he has hope, where as the rest of the Indians on the reservation seem to have lost it. Mr.P tells Junior that he needs to get out of the reservation so Junior goes to a white-people school called Reardan. Junior meets a beautiful=ul blonde names Penelope and a jock named Roger. This is when we find out, his full name is Arnold Spirit Jr. Junior gains respect from Roger by punching him the nose, Roger doesn’t fight back but begins to be friends. Later on, Junior hears Penelope puking in the school bathroom only to learn she is anorexic the two then become close, very close. During the last half of the book he goes through a lot of losses: his grandmother is hit by a drunk driver, then his dad's best friend Eugene is shot in the face at a 7-11. These are all alcohol-related accidents so is the death of his sister Mary, who dies in a trailer fire. The end of the book is a beginning to Rowdy and Arnold’s new friendship once again. They play a one-on-one game of basketball, Rowdy tells Arnold that Arnold is a nomad and that he accepts the fact that Arnold has left the reservation. During this Arnold has decides that he is multi-tribal.

These two books are similar for the obvious reasons both have main characters that are freshman in high school. Both also involve alcohol, and love interests. But they are different, Arnold goes through life as a judged Indian boy, and Charlie goes through life as a shy and not very social boy. But these are both beneficial, both show what drugs can do and what alcohol can do, and show that even when life is hard you can get through it. Both shows the life of two different life styles, one who is judged the other is just confused, both being shown as angry at points in the books and happy. This concludes my idea that they shouldn't be on the banned book list.