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The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie

The Myers Park High School English Department has selected The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie as the school's summer reading book. The collection of short stories explores life on and around a Native American reservation and depicts the struggles of determining identity between Native and modern worlds. It is required reading for various AP and IB English courses. While some parents may be concerned about themes of alcoholism and coarse language, the department believes discussing such issues in an educational environment can help students maturely navigate real-world problems.

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The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie

The Myers Park High School English Department has selected The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie as the school's summer reading book. The collection of short stories explores life on and around a Native American reservation and depicts the struggles of determining identity between Native and modern worlds. It is required reading for various AP and IB English courses. While some parents may be concerned about themes of alcoholism and coarse language, the department believes discussing such issues in an educational environment can help students maturely navigate real-world problems.

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SUMMER READING 2014-2015

ONE BOOK. ONE SCHOOL.



The English Department at Myers Park High School is excited to announce continued participation in the One
Book. One School. Campaign! The work selected by the department is:

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie

Below is the book description taken from Amazon.com:
Vividly weaving memory, fantasy, and stark reality to paint a portrait of life in and around the Spokane Indian
reservation, this book introduces some of Alexies most beloved characters, including Thomas Builds-the-Fire,
the storyteller who no one seems to listen to, and his compatriot, Victor, the sports hero who turned into a
recovering alcoholic. Now with an updated introduction from Alexie, these twenty-four tales are narrated by
characters raised on humiliation and government-issue cheese, and yet they are filled with passion and
affection, myth and charm. Against a backdrop of addiction, car accidents, laughter, and basketball, Alexie
depicts the distances between men and women, Indians and whites, reservation Indians and urban Indians, and,
most poetically, modern Indians and the traditions of the past.

(Additional information regarding the choice of this pivotal work can be found on the back of this page.)

It is the students responsibility to obtain a copy of the assigned text. This work can be accessed through the
public library or through local bookstores, which have been notified of this selection. Accountability for the
reading will take place during the 2014-2015 academic year in conjunction with individual teacher syllabi.

Please see the list below for additional required texts in upper level English courses and TOK.

11th grade English:
Rising AP juniors are required to read: Thank You For Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson
Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion by Jay Heinrichs, in addition to Alexies The Lone Ranger and
Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.

Rising IB juniors should enjoy The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven this summer. Remember that
this is required reading for this course.

12th grade English:
Rising AP seniors should enjoy The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven this summer. Remember that
this is required reading for this course.

Rising IB seniors are required to read The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, in addition to Alexies The
Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.

TOK:
Rising IB seniors are required to read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M Pirsig, in
addition to the works listed above.

Remember: Summer Reading is REQUIRED for all AP and IB English courses. It is STRONGLY
RECOMMENDED for all students at all levels.

It is our hope that ALL students embrace The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven as strongly as the
English Department has.


Dear MPHS Parents and Families,

The 2014-15 school year marks the MPHS English Departments third consecutive year of our One Book, One
School summer reading project. This years selection is The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by
Sherman Alexie. First published in 1993, this collection of twenty-two short stories, interwoven with recurring
characters and themes, won Alexie the PEN/Hemmingway Book Award for Best First Book of Fiction, the
Readers Digest Award, and the Washington State Governors Award, catapulting him as one of the foremost
voices of Native American Literature.

In selecting our summer reading, the MPHS English Department chose The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in
Heaven for several reasons. Alexies stories contain characters from the Spokane Tribe, which originates in the
Northwestern United States. Native Americans are among the most underrepresented ethnic group within the
canon of American Literature. Most often, Native American literature is relegated to a few creation myths at
the beginning of the literature textbooks, but the longer, deeper works of Native American authors are largely
ignored. Alexies poetic prose writes a new page of the American experience, one from the perspective of
characters who struggle to determine identity with a foot in both worldsthe Native and the Modern.

In doing so, Alexies fiction is most often told from an adolescent voice. Though the style is mature and the
prose challenging, the narrators are often teens and young adults, working through their respective struggles:
growing into adulthood, rites of passage, struggles with authority, family dynamics, and navigating the line
between tradition and modernity. Coupled with its structure as a series of interrelated vignettes, the themes of
the book will be accessible to students of all academic and socioeconomic strataone of the founding
intentions of One Book, One School and a necessary component of engaging collaborative discussions with
all levels of classrooms.

It should be noted, however, that in dealing with such motifs, Alexie rarely pulls punches. Some parents may
be concerned that the book deals with darker, unpleasant themessuch as alcoholism and family dissolution
often with coarse language. In reaching a decision on this text, such issues were raised and discussed. It has
always been our hope that allowing students to discuss these issues in the context of the collaborative
discussions, in an enriching educational environment, will help them have the tools to discuss such issues in a
mature manner, as they have the last two years with the respective issues of crippling poverty and religious
conflict. Moreover, we hold that it is often the purpose of reading and teaching literature to provoke such
discussions for the edification of our students. It is often through dialogue and debate that we have a higher
understanding of ourselves and the world around us.

If you have any questions about the book or the process of One Book, One School campaign, our
collaborative discussions, or require additional information, please contact the English Department chair,
Kristen Ohaver, at kristen.ohaver.cms.k12.nc.us.

Regards,

The Myers Park English Department

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