For the past several months I have been working on two wishlists for a book fair event as part of Operation Teen Book Drop and hosted at Guys Lit Wire.Tonight I put a detailed post up over there with all the pertinent information about the fair and the Readergirlz and YALSA and If I Can Read, I Can Do Anything and the two schools involved: Ojo Encino Day School on the Navajo Nation and Alchesay High School on the White Mountain Apache Reservation. But that is just what to do and where to go in order to buy books for these teens. It doesn't tell you what it was like to build these wishlists or talk to the folks at the schools over the past couple of months.

It was like nothing I've ever done before, that's what it was like.

I built a wishlist last year at GLW for teenage boys incarcerated in the LA County Juvenile Detention System. I worked with an excellent group on the ground there and we built a list around what the boys were interested in. This time I planned to do the same thing but there was a delay in choosing the second school (Alchesay) so I had to start building it without them and initial communications with Ojo Encino were not very helpful. I just couldn't get any information beyond the most basic as to what the kids might want and I really didn't want to add books they already had or could not use.

There was a lot of head banging during this period.

Other than the obvious, (Absolutely True Story of a Part Time Indian), finding books about Native American teens is fraught with worry. As we all know, there have been many books written by Native American wanna bes that are really not good (and often appalling) and then there are those that are downright insulting. On top of all that, there just are not many titles out there to choose from. So I started surfing the 'net looking all over the place for books that Native American teens might enjoy. I checked out Cynthia Leitich Smith's blog, Sherman Alexie's "stuff I like", Debbie Reece's list, I Can Read I Can Do Anything and on and on. When I found a book by one author that everyone liked then I looked for what else they had done and that led to some university presses that had essay collections, etc. Every time somebody mentioned someplace else to check out then I headed over there and picked up a few more titles. In this way I created lists comprised of books about all kinds of things, fiction and nonfiction that were also about or by Native Americans. I wanted the lists to be carefully reviewed however to make sure I didn't screw up. (I didn't, thank heavens.)

Then I finally had long conversations with both Mary at Ojo Encino and Marilyn at Alchesay. And after a few stops and starts I was able to explain to them that really these wish lists were all about people they would never know, from across the country and maybe even around the world, buying books for their kids. They were books that could be used in their libraries, or in the classrooms (there were several teacher requests from Alchesay) or given as awards to high achievers. The books were coming to them and as the librarian and reading specialist, they could decide best where to put the books to good use. And finally, in both cases, I figured out why it had been so hard to get responses from them via email.

They didn't believe this could be happening.

So that was the hold-up and once it got through - really through - that books could very well be coming their way then everyone got very excited and I could put more specific books on the lists. Both schools need graphic novels, both wanted nonfiction (the Scientist in the Field series was great for this), Ojo Encino wanted books on drawing, eagles, horses and basketball; Alchesay wanted everything by Jimmy Baca and Sherman Alexie and a lot of specific titles by Native American authors. I put a lot of bilingual English/Navajo titles on the Ojo Encino list at their request (from a Flagstaff, AZ small publisher) and for Alchesay added Jane Eyre, Alice in Wonderland and more at their specific request. I found what they wanted and needed and what worked for them and the lists became specific for these two schools while also largely remaining universal to any American middle or high school (every kid everywhere loves Neil Gaiman for example).

Through all of this I have been reminded of two very important things:

1. We need more diversity in children's and teen books in America. It shouldn't be so hard to find books with Native American characters or by Native American authors. And I don't want to hear anyone tell me they just don't sell because there is not nearly enough evidence of them not selling to prove it. (By this I mean there are so few out there period that I don't see how you can determine anything based on the sample size.)

2. Books are still gold. The emails I have received in the past week or so from Alchesay as the kids realized they could ask for books to come their way have been great. And with their internet hookup (more reliable than Ojo Encino) they are going to check their wish list everyday to see what is coming. They are so excited - both schools are so incredibly excited. Yes, the ipad and kindle and whatever else are all wonderful and good but these are kids who do not own a book.

Think about that. Not one single book.

I have learned again that what we need to do is change that reality everywhere it exists. It's something we can do and must do. And we can do it so cheaply. When Mary Nickless at Ojo Encino told me about the bilingual books they needed she cautioned that they were very expensive. As I added them to the Powells list I shook my head. All are less than $20 - and some are used so can be bought for less than $10. And they can't afford them for their students.

Days like this I feel like I matter a bit in the world - I feel like ALL of us matter. I feel like I've done something really really good. And now, by buying some books off those lists, I can do even more.

[If you want to buy books for the event, go to the GLW post and follow the steps. All the books pictured in this post are on the wish list for Alchesay High School.]