Thunder Boy Jr.

Thunder Boy Jr. is written by Sherman Alexie and illustrated by Yuyi Morales. In this book is a boy named Thunder Boy Jr. who tells the readers about his name and he got it. Thunder boy Jr. talks about how he hates his name because it is not his own. At the end of the book, Thunder Boy Jr.’s father gives him a new name that is unique to him—lightening boy! This book falls under the fiction genre; it is a fiction picture book for young readers. Picture books are a unique format of art and text that is used simultaneously to tell a story in a book. In these books, the illustrations are just as important as the words as they come together to tell the story in its entirety.

For me, the illustrations are what makes this book so amazing. According to the book description, the illustrations were made from the remains of an antique house in Mexico; when the rotted-out roof and walls came down, Morales picked out old wood and clay bricks which she scanned to digitally paint the images used in the book. This is such unique way to create illustrations and it really pays off. The varied textures and color pallet displayed in the images really gave them life and makes it jump off of the pages. The illustrations of course take up every page in their entirety. The first thing a reader in this book that a person is drawn to are the illustrations.

The setting in this book is not really clear, the way the story is told, the setting is not a relevant literary element. The main character, Thunder Boy Jr., is not really developed. All readers know about him is that he has this unique name that he does not like because it is not unique to him.  The plot of the story revolves around the main character coming up with ideas of what he thinks his name should be instead based on what he likes to do. As far as style, the vocabulary used by the author is really simple words. The point-of-view of this story is written in first person. The centralized theme in the story is that there are many things that make us different from one another—not just our names!

An activity that could be used with this book is to get students to draw a picture of what represents who they are, or what makes them unique. Students can then share their illustrations with other people in the class. This activity aligns with Saint Leos core value of respect, because as children share not only what makes them unique, but also their artistic potential it shows them to be respectful and courteous of others and their differences. A good reader response question that could be used for students to answer after they read the story is to explain why they believe the author wrote the story, what meaning they got out of the story. Another activity that students can do after reading this book is discussing how the pictures made them feel as they read the book. This activity will enable children to really think about the pictures in the book and gain a better appreciation of the illustrations as they reflect on how the textures and colors made them feel as they read the book.

Sherman Alexie and Yuyi Morales really collaborated well together to make such a great children’s book. I recommended all parents to get this book for their children. They will experience a book that teaches children to embrace their uniqueness.

Alexie, S., & Morales, Y. (2016). Thunder boy jr. Little, Brown and Company: New York, NY.