 I want to thank everybody for inviting me to this opportunity. I feel very grateful for being here. I also would love to think that Sherman Alexia at some point would be here for one book, one postman these years. It's been talked about. Very important, my father. I love this book. A show of hands. How many of you have read this? Okay, that's good. And you're not even in eighth grade. This is a treasure. I chose it because I love humor. But it's also very poignant. It's also about a young Indian boy taking a risk to achieve an education and going to a white community from his reservation where he was not being served, his intelligence was not appreciated. And what I remember about this when I first... I didn't read aloud. I was teaching in Hawaii and I had a classroom of eighth graders. And I said, look, let's just shut the door. And at my school, you didn't ask if you could do something. You would just do it and then you would do three percussions afterwards. And so we would read this over the months. And the kids loved it. And it was like her little secret. Just shut the door. And everything would be good. So this portion is the part where Junior has left the reservation and taken the gutsy step of going over to Reardon, which is a white farm school. And as you can imagine, he is an outcast. He is searching for friends. When he eventually, over time, he meets a geek. And the geek's name is Gordie. So I'd like to take you to where I read this, pretend you're in eighth grade, and pretend that you are enjoying this book and every time you hear the word boner, think back to your childhood. Gordie and Junior have just met. And Junior says, I draw cartoons. What's your point? I take them seriously. By the way, this is about reading too. I take them seriously. I use them to understand the world. I use them to make fun of the world, to make fun of people. And sometimes I draw people because they're my friends and family. And I want to honor them. So you take your cartoons as seriously as you take books? Yeah, I do, I said. That's kind of pathetic, isn't it? No, not at all, Gordie said. If you're good at it and you love it, and it helps you navigate the river of the world, then it can't be wrong. Wow, this dude was a poet. My cartoons weren't just good for giggles, they're also good for poetry. Funny poetry, but poetry nonetheless. It was seriously funny stuff. But don't take anything too seriously, either, Gordie said. The little dork could read minds too. He was like some kind of Star Wars alien creature with invisible tentacles that sucked your thoughts out of your brain. You read a book for the story, for each of its words, Gordie said, and you draw your cartoons for the story for each of the words and images. And yeah, you need to take that seriously. But you should also read and draw because really good books and cartoons give you a boner. I was shocked. You should get a boner. You have to get a boner. Gordie shouted, come on. I'm going to the Reardon High School Library. Look at all these books he said. There aren't that many, I said. It was a small library, a small high school, a small town. There are 3,412 books here, Gordie said. I know that because I counted them. Okay, now you are officially a freak, I said. Yes, it's a small library, it's a tiny one, but if you read one of these books a day, it would still take you almost 10 years to finish. So what's your point? The world, even the smallest parts of it, is filled with things you don't know. Wow. What a huge idea. Any town, even when as small as Reardon, was a place of mystery. And that meant that, well, Pinnott, that smaller Indian town was also a place of mystery. Okay, so it's like each of these books is a mystery, every book is a mystery, and if you read all the books ever written, it's like you've read one giant mystery. And no matter how much you learn, you just keep on learning, there is so much more you need to learn. Yes, yes, yes, yes, Gordie said. Now, doesn't that give you a boner? I am rock hard, I said. Gordie blushed. Well, I mean, I don't mean boner in a sexual sense, Gordie said. I don't think you should run through life with a real erect penis, but you should approach each book, you should approach life with the real possibility that you might get a metaphorical boner at any point. A metaphorical boner, I shouted. What the heck is a metaphorical boner? Gordie laughed. When I say boner, I really mean joy, he said. Then why didn't you say joy? You didn't have to say boner. Whenever I think about boners, I get confused. Boner is funnier and more joyful. Gordie and I laughed. He was an extremely weird dude, but he was the smartest person I'd ever known. He would always be the smartest person I'd ever known, and he certainly helped me through school. He not only tutored me and challenged me, but he made me realize that hard work, that the act of finishing, of completing, of accomplishing the task, is joyous.