For Further Reading

Other books by Sherman Alexie

The Business of Fancydancing : stories and poems
First Indian on the Moon
Flight: a novel
Indian Killer
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
Old Shirts & New Skins
The Pale Indian
Reservation Blues
The Summer of Black Widows
Ten Little Indians: stories
The Toughest Indian in the World

Fiction with Similar Themes by Other Authors

Based on Alexie’s own memoir, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian gives the reader insight to the realities of American Indian life and its unique challenges. The following titles tell similar stories based on life in Native and other cultures.

Teen Titles

Buried Onions by Gary Soto
Street Love by Walter Dean Myers
Who Will Tell My Brother by Marlene Carvelle
Rain is not my Indian Name by Cynthia Smith
Offsides by Erik Eskilsen
The Trap by John Smelcer
Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen
Crossing the Panthers Path by Louise Alder

Adult Titles

Watermelon Nights by Greg Sarris
Faces in the Moon by Betty Louise Bell
Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich
The Listening Ones by Naomi Miller Stokes
Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson
Whale Song by Cheryl Kaye Tardif
Hundred in the Hand by Joseph Marshall
Reservation Nation by Dave F. Cook

Other Popular Authors of Native American Fiction

Bittner, Roseanne
Momaday, N. Scott
Conley Robert J
O’Dell, Scott
Eagle, Kathleen
Ortiz, Simon
Edwards, Cassie
Owens, Louis
Gear, W. Michael
Power, Susan
Harjo, Joy
Silko, Leslie Marmon
Hogan, Linda
Thom , James Alexander
King, Thomas
Welch, James
Whitson, Stephanie Grace

Alcoholism

The debilitating influence of alcoholism overshadows the lives of Arnold and his family. In one year, Arnold loses his grandmother to a drunken driver, his sister to a blackout during a fire and his father's best friend to a drunken gunfight.

Before, After and Somebody in Between by Jeannine Garsee
Lush by Natasha Friend
Blue Mirror by Kathe Koja
Blindsighted by Peter Moore
A Room on Lorelei Street by Mary E. Pearson
Stetson by S.L. Rottman
Comfort by Carolee Dean
Buried by Robin Merrow MacCready
Runner by Carl Deuker

Overcoming Adversity

Arnold is determined to improve himself despite enormous odds. In his love of drawing, he finds a voice and the strength to cope with his traumatic existence. “I think the world is a series of broken dams and floods, and my cartoons are tiny little lifeboats.”

The Stone Goddess by Minfong Ho
Tears of a Tiger by Sharon M. Draper
With a Hammer for my Heart by George Ella Lyon
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah
Bad Boy: A Memoir by Walter Dean Myers
Breathing Underwater by Alex Flinn
Hole in my Life by Jack Gantos Farrar
Hurricane Song: A Novel of New Orleans by Paul Volponi
Buried Onions by Gary Soto Strays by Ronald Koertge
Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson
Buffalo Tree by Adam Rapp

Teens – Coming of Age

Teens from all walks of life have embraced Arnold’s character. When asked why this might be so, Sherman Alexie said, “Teenagers, of every class, color and creed, feel trapped by family, community and tribal expectations. And teenagers have to make the outrageous and heroic decision to re-create themselves.”

Banana Heart Summer by Merlinda Bobis
Leftovers by Laura Wiess
Falling Boy by Alison McGhee
Walk Away Home by Paul Many
Grist by Heather Waldorf
Guitar Highway Rose by Brigid Lowry
Lucy the Giant by Sherri L. Smith
Tulsa Burning by Anna Myers

Ethnic Identity

When Junior is in Reardon (the white town) he is “half Indian,” and when he is in Wellpinit (the reservation), he is “half white.” He says, “It was like being Indian was my job, but it was only a part-time job. And it didn’t pay well at all.” In Sherman Alexie’s words: “I think we're all struggling with our identity. Literature is all about the search for identity, regardless of the ethnicity. Southern, New Yorker, black, white, Asian, immigrant -- everyone's trying to find a sense of belonging.”

Macho! by Victor Villaseñor
Kim/Kimi by Hadley Irwin
Born Confused by Tanuja Desai
Hidier Mudbound by Hillary Jordan
Babylon Rolling by Amanda Boyden
Finn by John Clinch
Jump at the Sun by Kim McLarin
26a by Diana Evans
High Cotton by Darryl Pinckney

Poverty

Arnold’s struggles include trying to escape a life of extreme poverty. When his dog Oscar gets sick and there is no money to see a vet, Arnold’s father has to shoot the dog. "Dad just looked down at me with the saddest look in his eyes. He was crying. He looked weak. I wanted to hate Dad and Mom for our poverty.”

True Believer by Virginia Euwer Wolff
Thursday’s Child by Sonya Hartnett
Street Love by Walter Dean Myers
Walking on Air by Kelly Easton
White Oleander by Janet Fitch
Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck
The Pigeon Pair by Elisabeth Ogilivie
Mothers and Daughters by Gwen Madoc

Native American Culture

Almanac of the Dead by Leslie Marmon Silko
Bead on an Anthill: A Lakota Childhood by Delphine
Red Shirt Blood Struggle by Charles Wilkinson
Counting Coup: a true story of basketball and honor on the Little Big Horn by Larry Colton
Custer Died For Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto by Vine Deloria, Jr.
God is Red: A Native View of Religion by Vine Deloria, Jr.
A Good Medicine Collection: Life in Harmony with Nature by Adolf Hungry Wolf
How the Indians Lost Their Land by Stuart Banne
Indian Legends of the Pacific Northwest by Ella Clark
Ledgerbook of Thomas Blue Eagle by Jewel Grutman Adam Cvijanovic and Gaye Matthaei
The Mud People: Testimonios, Chronicles and Remembrances by Patrisia Gonzales
Navajo: Visions and Voices Across the Mesa by Shonto Begay
Now that the Buffalo’s Gone by Alvin M. Joseph
A Whale Hunt by Robert Sullivan