Not much but too wonderful not to share

I am currently babysitting my nephews and typing my final paper for my American Lit class. My paper is dealing with a book called Wolf Whistle, which is a fictional retelling of the death of Emmett Till. It is a "magical realism" book, and much of it is hysterically funny. Some of the students in my class were offended by the book because they did not feel that it was appropriate to have a book that deals with such a tragedy be so funny. My contention is that Lewis Nordan, who grew up in Itta Bena, Mississippi, just miles from where the murder took place, and was about 15 years old when it happened, is using magic and humor to deal with the horror of the event and his own feelings of blood-guilt. There is an essay in the back of the book by Nordan where he talks about how much he reveres the memory of Emmett Till and how hard it has been for him to deal with what happened.

My 7-year old nephew asked me what my paper was about. I told him it was about a book called Wolf Whistle, He practiced his wolf whistling for a minute, and then asked me what the book was about. I hesitated, and then said "Well, alot of it is really funny, but alot of it is sad too."

This was Aidan's reply:

"Funny and sad mix together goodly. Mean and sad don't go so well. Mean is the only one that doesn't mix with anything. Mean, to me, is a myth."

Profound doesn't even begin to cover it. I'm including Aidan's comment at the end of my paper.