The Best Classics All Teens Should Read

Are you looking for classics you can read? Is your child a lover of classics? Are you are looking for books to help build your child’s vocabulary?

These are 100 classics you can read to serve these purposes.

1. Swallowdale: Swallowdale is the second book in the Swallows and Amazons series by Arthur Ransome. It was published in 1931. In this book, camping in the hills and moorland country around Ransome's Lake in the North features much more prominently and there is less sailing.

2. Swallows & Amazons by Arthur Ransome: The Swallows and Amazons series of twelve children's books by the English author Arthur Ransome takes its name from the title of the first book in the series. The twelve books, set in the interwar period, involve group adventures by children, mainly in the school holidays and mainly in England.

3. The Borrowers by Mary Norton: The Borrowers is a children's fantasy novel by the English author Mary Norton, published by Dent in 1952. It features a family of tiny people who live secretly in the walls and floors of an English house and "borrow" from the big people in order to survive.

4. Stig of the Dump by Clive King: First published in 1963, the novel tells the story of a young boy named Barney who finds a caveman called Stig living in a dump at the bottom of a chalk pit, near his home.

5. Tom’s Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce: Tom is a modern boy living under quarantine with his aunt and uncle in a city flat, part of a converted building that was a country house during the 1880s–1890s. At night he slips back in time to the old garden where he finds a girl playmate, called Hatty. Hatty is a princess or so she says.

6. The Borrowers Afield by Mary Norton: "The Borrowers Afield" by Mary Norton is about how these tiny creatures who are like humans, just fifty times smaller run for their lives.

7. Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy: The novel is set in an impoverished rural England, Thomas Hardy's fictional Wessex, during the Long Depression of the 1870s. Tess is the oldest child of John and Joan Durbeyfield, uneducated peasants.

8. The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell: The Road to Wigan Pier is a book by the English writer George Orwell, first published in 1937. The first half of this work documents his sociological investigations of the bleak living conditions among the working class in Lancashire and Yorkshire in the industrial north of England before World War II.

9. Kipps by HG Wells: The Story of a Simple Soul is a novel by H. G. Wells, first published in 1905. Humorous yet sympathetic, the perceptive social novel is generally regarded as a masterpiece, and it was his own favorite work. It was adapted for stage, cinema, and television productions, and as the musical Half a Sixpence.

10. Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is an 1876 novel by Mark Twain about a young boy growing up along the Mississippi River. It is set in the 1840s in the town of St. Petersburg, which is based in Hannibal, Missouri where Twain lived as a boy. In the novel, Tom Sawyer has several adventures, often with his friend Huckleberry Finn.

11. The Mill on the Floss by George Elliot: Mill on the Floss is said to be a semi-biographical novel by George Eliot. The story is said to resemble some of her own struggles and her deep attachment and yearn for the approval of her brother.

12. Tobermory by H.H. Monroe: Tobermory is one of Saki’s (H. H. Munro) best-known short stories. Toby is a cat that learns to speak human to everyone's amazement.

13. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre is a Bildungsroman that follows the experiences of its eponymous heroine, including her growth to adulthood and her love for Mr. Rochester, the brooding master of Thornfield Hall. The novel revolutionised prose fiction by being the first to focus on its protagonist's moral and spiritual development through an intimate first-person narrative.

14. Great Northern: Great Northern is the twelfth and final completed book of Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series of children's books. It was published in 1947. In this book, the three families of major characters in the series, the Swallows, the Amazons and the Ds, are all reunited in a book for the first time since Pigeon Post.

15. Tom’s Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce: Recognised as a masterpiece of children’s literature and beloved by readers everywhere, ‘Tom’s Midnight Garden’ tells the story of a lonely boy sent to stay with his uncle and aunt when his brother gets ill.

16. The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge: Set in 1842, it features a recently orphaned teenage girl who is sent to the manor house of her cousin and guardian in the West Country of England. The estate, village, and vicinity are shrouded in mystery and magic; the "little white horse" is a unicorn.

17. Peter Duck: Peter Duck is the third book in the Swallows and Amazons series by Arthur Ransome. The Swallows and Amazons sail to Crab Island with Captain Flint and Peter Duck, an old sailor, to recover buried treasure. During the voyage the Wildcat (Captain Flint's ship) is chased by another vessel, the Viper, whose piratical crew are also intending to recover the treasure.

18. Winter Holiday: Winter Holiday is the fourth novel of Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series of children's books. It was published in 1933. In this story, the third set of major characters in the series, the Ds — Dick and Dorothea Callum—are introduced.

19. Coot Club: Coot Club is the fifth book of Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series of children's books, published in 1934. The book sees Dick and Dorothea Callum visiting the Norfolk Broads during the Easter holidays, eager to learn to sail and thus impress the Swallows and Amazons when they return to the Lake District later that year. Along with a cast of new characters, Dick and Dorothea explore the North and South Broads and become 'able seamen'.

20. Pigeon post: Pigeon Post is the sixth book in Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series of children's books, published in 1936. It won the first Carnegie Medal awarded for children's literature.

21. We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea: We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea is the seventh book in Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series of children's books. It was published in 1937. In this book, the Swallows (John, Susan, Titty and Roger Walker) are the only recurring characters.

22. Secret Water: Secret Water is the eighth book in Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series of children's books. It was published on 28 November 1939. This book is set in and around Hamford Water in Essex, close to the resort town of Walton-on-the-Naze. It starts only a few days after We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea ends. It brings the Swallows and the Amazons together and introduces a new group of characters.

23. The Big Six: The Ds are back in the Broads at the end of the holidays, but staying with Mrs Barrable on land. The bird protectors, The Coots, get a reputation for casting off boats and are on the run in their boat which has been refurbished by the grateful owners of the Hullabaloos’ salvaged boat.

24. Missee Lee: Missee Lee is the tenth book of Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series of children's books, set in 1930s China. The Swallows and Amazons are on a round-the-world trip with Captain Flint aboard the schooner Wild Cat. After the Wild Cat sinks, they escape in the boats Swallow and Amazon, but are separated in a storm.

25. The Picts And the Martyrs or Not Welcome at All: The Picts and the Martyrs is the eleventh book in Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series of children's books. It was published in 1943. This is the last completed book set in the Lake District and features the Blackett sisters, the Amazons and the Callum siblings, Dick and Dorothea, known as the Ds.

26. Great Northern: Great Northern is the twelfth and final completed book of Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series of children's books. It was published in 1947. In this book, the three families of major characters in the series, the Swallows, the Amazons and the Ds, are all reunited in a book for the first time since Pigeon Post.

27. Tom’s Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce: Recognised as a masterpiece of children’s literature and beloved by readers everywhere, ‘Tom’s Midnight Garden’ tells the story of a lonely boy sent to stay with his uncle and aunt when his brother gets ill.

28. The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge: Set in 1842, it features a recently orphaned teenage girl who is sent to the manor house of her cousin and guardian in the West Country of England. The estate, village, and vicinity are shrouded in mystery and magic; the "little white horse" is a unicorn.

29. To kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee: · Lee continues to build on the theme of courage by revealing that Boo was the one who saved the kids and that he came out of his house for the first time in what might be years in order to do so.

30. The Diary of a young girl by Anne Frank: a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl, while in hiding with her family for two years in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. When Anne died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945, her diary was given to her father, Otto Frank, the only known survivor of the family.

31. Pride and prejudice by Jane Austen: The arrival of the wealthy Mr. Bingley to the estate of Netherfield Park causes a commotion in the nearby village of Longbourn. In the Bennet household, Mrs. Bennet is desperate to marry Bingley to one of her five daughters— Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty, or Lydia.

32. Little woman by Loius May Alcott: “Little Women”, are unhappy with their domestic situation. They want something more than what society offers them as women. The girls’ desire is not just materialistic; they want to do more with their lives and be more than the limited existence that nineteenth-century society offers young women.

33. The Giver by Loius Lowry: The Giver is a 1993 American young adult dystopian novel by Lois Lowry. It is set in a society which at first appears to be utopian but is revealed to be dystopian as the story progresses. The novel follows a 12-year-old boy named Jonas.

34. The adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain: Huck Finn, he's in Missouri getting "sivilized" ("civilized") by two sisters, an unnamed widow and a woman named Miss Watson. See, Huck Finn came into a bit of money at the end of Tom Sawyer, and now he's supposed to stop being a street urchin and start learning to be a gentleman.

35. The catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger: Holden Caulfield was a student at Pencey Prep, a private school. Holden had a fight with his roommate, Stradlater.

36. A wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle: A high-school-aged girl who is transported on an adventure through time and space with her younger brother Charles Wallace and her friend Calvin O'Keefe to rescue her father, a gifted scientist, from the evil forces that hold him prisoner on another planet.

37. Animal farm by George Orwell: Snowball works at teaching the animals to read, and Napoleon takes a group of young puppies to educate them in the principles of Animalism.

38. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespare: An age-old vendetta between two powerful families erupts into bloodshed. A group of masked Montagues risk further conflict by gate-crashing a Capulet party. A young lovesick Romeo Montague falls instantly in love with Juliet Capulet.

39. Ender’s game by Orson Scott card: Ender Wiggin, the third in a family of child geniuses, is selected by international military forces to save the world from destruction. Before being chosen Ender wears a unique monitor that allows the heads of the military to see things as Ender does.

40. The Outsiders by S.E Hinton: The Outsiders is about a gang. They live in a city in Oklahoma. Ponyboy Curtis, a 14-year-old greaser, tells the story.

41. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery: an 11-year-old orphan girl, who is mistakenly sent to two middle-aged siblings, Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, who had originally intended to adopt a boy to help them on their farm

42. Lord of the flies by William Golding: A group of English schoolboys are marooned on a jungle island with no adults after their plane is shot down in the middle of a war. Two of the boys, Ralph and Piggy find a conch shell. Ralph blows into it like a horn, and all the boys on the island assemble.

43. I know why caged birds sing (Maya Angelou’s Autobiography, #1) by Maya Angelou: Although freedom, to the caged bird, is “fearful” because it is “unknown”, he still sings “a fearful trill” because he still longed for freedom. Here, the speaker reveals that his cry for freedom is “heard on the distant hill”.

44. The Screwtape Letters by C.S Lewis: It is a series of letters written by a senior demon to his young nephew, who is just beginning to learn the basics of the art of Temptation.

45. A Tale of Two Cities by James Butler: A Tale of Two Cities, or by its full title A Tale of Two Cities: A Story of the French Revolution, is an 1859 historical novel by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel tells the story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18-year-long imprisonment in the Bastille in Paris and his release to live in London with his daughter.

46. Sense and Stability by Jane Austen: Sense and Sensibility is a novel by Jane Austen, published in 1811. It was published anonymously; By A Lady appears on the title page where the author's name might have been. It tells the story of the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne as they come of age.

47. Oliver Twist by Charles Dicken: Oliver Twist; or, the Parish Boy's Progress is Charles Dickens's second novel, and was published as a serial from 1837 to 1839 and released as a three-volume book in 1838, before the serialization ended. The story centres on orphan Oliver Twist, born in a workhouse and sold into apprenticeship with an undertaker.

48. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley: Brave New World is a dystopian social science fiction novel by English author Aldous Huxley, written in 1931 and published in 1932. Largely set in a futuristic World State, whose citizens are environmentally engineered into an intelligence-based social hierarchy.

49. Matilda by Roald Dahl: Matilda, Roald Dahl Matilda is a book by British writer Roald Dahl. It was published in 1988. It was published in 1988. In a small Buckinghamshire village, Matilda Wormwood is a five-and-half-year-old girl of unusual precocity, but she is often ill-treated or neglected by her parents and older brother Michael.

50. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham: The Wind in the Willows is a children's book by Scottish novelist Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908. Alternatingly slow moving and fast paced, it focuses on four anthropomorphised animals: Mole, Rat, Toad, and Badger. They live in a pastoral version of Edwardian England.

51. Of Mice and Men by John Steinback: Of Mice and Men is a novella written by John Steinbeck. Published in 1937, it narrates the experiences of George Milton and Lennie Small, two displaced migrant ranch workers, who move from place to place in California.

52. The Once and Future King by T.H. White: The Once and Future King. T. H. White’s masterful retelling of the saga of King Arthur is a fantasy classic as legendary as Excalibur and Camelot, and a poignant story of adventure, romance, and magic that has enchanted readers for generations.

53. The Call of the Wild/White Fang buy Jack London: The Call of the Wild is a short adventure novel by Jack London, published in 1903 and set in Yukon, Canada, during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush, when strong sled dogs were in high demand.

54. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster: The Phantom Tollbooth is a children's fantasy adventure novel written by Norton Juster with illustrations by Jules Feiffer, published in 1961 by Random House. It tells the story of a bored young boy named Milo who unexpectedly receives a magic tollbooth one afternoon.

55. Siddhartha by Herman Hesse: Siddhartha is a 1922 novel by Hermann Hesse that deals with the spiritual journey of self-discovery of a man named Siddhartha during the time of the Gautama Buddha.

56. The Prince and The Pauper by Mark Twain: The Prince and the Pauper is a novel by American author Mark Twain. It was first published in 1881 in Canada, before its 1882 publication in the United States. The novel represents Twain's first attempt at historical fiction. Set in 1547, it tells the story of two young boys who were born on the same day and are identical in appearance.

57. The Time Machine by H.G Wells: The work is generally credited with the popularization of the concept of time travel by using a vehicle or device to travel purposely and selectively forward or backward through time.

58. The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein: The Giving Tree is an American children's picture book written and illustrated by Shel Silverstein. First published in 1964 by Harper & Row, it has become one of Silverstein's best-known titles, and has been translated into numerous languages. This book has been described as "one of the most divisive books in children's literature".

59. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck: The Grapes of Wrath, the best-known novel by John Steinbeck, published in 1939. The book evokes the harshness of the Great Depression and arouses sympathy for the struggles of migrant farmworkers beset by adversity and vast impersonal commercial influences.

60. The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway: It was the last major work of fiction written by Hemingway that was published during his lifetime. One of his most famous works, it tells the story of Santiago, an aging Cuban fisherman who struggles with a giant marlin.

61. Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbit: Tuck Everlasting is an American children's novel about immortality written by Natalie Babbitt and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 1975.

62. Gulliver’s Travel by Jonathan Swift: Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, first a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships is a 1726 prose satire by the Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift, satirising both human nature and the "travellers' tales" literary subgenre.

63. Sarah, Plain and Tall (Sarah, Plain and Tall, #1) by Patricia MacLachlan: “Did Mama sing every day?” asked Caleb. "Every-single-day?'' He sat close to the fire, his chin in his hand. It was dusk, and the dogs lay beside him on the warm hearthstones. "Every-single-day," I told him for the second time this week. For the twentieth time this month.

64. David Copperfield by Charles Dicken: The novel features the character David Copperfield, and is written in the first person, as a description of his life until middle age, with his own adventures and the numerous friends and enemies he meets along his way.

65. This Changes everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate by Naomi Klein: This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate is Naomi Klein's fourth book; it was published in 2014 by Simon & Schuster. In it, Klein argues that the climate crisis cannot be addressed in the current era of neoliberal market fundamentalism, which encourages profligate consumption and has resulted in mega-mergers and trade agreements hostile to the health of the environment.

66. The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss: The Swiss Family Robinson is a novel by Johann David Wyss, first published in 1812, about a Swiss family of immigrants whose ship en route to Port Jackson, Australia, goes off course and is shipwrecked in the East Indies.

67. The Illiad by Homer: The Iliad is an ancient Greek epic poem in dactylic hexameter, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy (Ilium) by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles.

68. The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Lrous: The Phantom of The Opera is a theatrical nightmare of a book. And that’s a compliment. It’s a fantastic and thrilling journey into the gothic that reveals the dark side of romance and music.

69. The little Prince & Letter to a Hostage by Antoine de Saint-Exupery: In the Little Prince, a small boy leaves the tiny planet on which he lives alone, on a trip to Earth, where he is introduced to the vagaries of adult behaviour.

70. The Call of the Wild by Jack London: The Call of the Wild is a short adventure novel by Jack London, published in 1903 and set in Yukon, Canada, during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush, when strong sled dogs were in high demand.

71. The Witches by Roald Dahl: The Witches is a British children's dark fantasy novel by the British writer Roald Dahl. The story is set partly in Norway and partly in England, and features the experiences of a young English boy and his Norwegian grandmother.

72. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (Extraordinary Voyages, #6) by Jules Verne: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: A World Tour Underwater is a classic science fiction adventure novel by French writer Jules Verne.

73. The BFG by Roal Dahl: The BFG, Roald Dahl The BFG (The Big Friendly Giant) is a 1982 children's book written by British novelist Roald Dahl. "Well, first of all, " said the BFG, "human beans is not really believing in giants, is they? Human beans are not thinking we exist."

74. Mythology by Edith Hamilton: Edith Hamilton’s mythology succeeds like no other book in bringing to life for the modern reader the Greek, Roman and Norse myths that are the keystone of Western culture-the stories of gods and heroes that have inspired human creativity from antiquity to the present.

75. The Red Badge of Courage and Selected Short Stories by Stephan Crane: Taking place during the American Civil War, the story is about a young private of the Union Army, Henry Fleming, who flees from the field of battle.

76. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain: In the book, a Yankee engineer from Connecticut named Hank Morgan receives a severe blow to the head and is somehow transported in time and space to England during the reign of King Arthur.

77. On the Road by Jack Kerouac: On the Road is a 1957 novel by American writer Jack Kerouac, based on the travels of Kerouac and his friends across the United State.

78. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe: The story chronicles pre-colonial life in the south-eastern part of Nigeria and the arrival of Europeans during the late 19th century.

79. The Story of My Life by Helen Keller: The Story of My Life, first published in 1903, is Helen Keller's autobiography detailing her early life, especially her experiences with Anne Sullivan.

80. Hatchet by Gary Paulsen: Hatchet is 1986 Newbery Honour-winning young-adult wilderness survival novel written by American writer Gary Paulsen. It is the first novel of five in the Hatchet series.

81. The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X: The Autobiography of Malcolm X was published in 1965, the result of a collaboration between human rights activist Malcolm X and journalist Alex Haley.

82. My Man Jeeves by P.G Wodehouse: My Man Jeeves is a collection of short stories by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom in May 1919 by George Newnes.

83. Danny the Champion of the world by Roald Dahl: The plot centres on Danny, a young English boy with a big wagon, and his father, William.

84. A Tree grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a 1943 semi-autobiographical novel written by Betty Smith. The story focuses on an impoverished but aspirational adolescent girl and her family living in Williamsburg.

85. Peter Pan by J.M Barrie: Peter Pan is a fictional character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and never grows up.

86. Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis: Ten-year-old Bud, a motherless boy living in Flint, Michigan, during the Great Depression, escapes a bad foster home and sets out in search of the man he believes to be his father—the renowned bandleader, H. E. Calloway of Grand Rapids.

87. Vanity Fair by William Makeplace Thackeray: Vanity Fair is an English novel by William Makepeace Thackeray, which follows the lives of Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley amid their friends and families during and after the Napoleonic Wars.

88. Heart of Ice (Emily Kenyon, #2) by Gregg Olsen: A missing woman has been found—too late, brutally murdered along with her unborn child. As a single mom and small-town sheriff Emily Kenyon investigates the widowed husband, another killer demands her attention with a trail of dead sorority girls.

89. Cannery Bow (Cannery Bow, #1) by John Steinback: In Cannery Row, John Steinbeck returns to the setting of Tortilla Flat to create another evocative portrait of life as it is lived by those who unabashedly put the highest value on the intangibles—human warmth, camaraderie, and love.

90. My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok: The book's protagonist is Asher Lev, a Hasidic Jewish boy in New York City. Asher is a loner with artistic inclinations.

91. The Host by Stephanie Meyer: The Host is a science fiction romance novel by Stephenie Meyer. The book is about Earth, in a postapocalyptic time, being invaded by a parasitic alien race known as "Souls", and follows one Soul's predicament when the consciousness of her human host refuses to give up her body.

92. The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights by John Steinback: The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights is John Steinbeck's retelling of the Arthurian legend, based on the Winchester Manuscript text of Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur.

93. Complete works of Oskar Wilde by Oscar Wilde: The Collins Complete Works of Oscar Wilde has long been recognised as the most comprehensive and authoritative single-volume collection of Wilde’s texts available, containing his only novel, The Portrait of Dorian Gray, as well as his plays, stories, poems, essays and letters, all in their most authoritative texts.

94. Me and Emma by Elizbeth Flock: I & Emma by Elizabeth Flock is a story of terrible childhood abuse and neglect. 8-year-old Carrie and her younger sister Emma are abused by their stepfather and their mother (also abused by him) does nothing to help them.

95. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess: Clockwork Orange is a dystopian satirical black comedy novel by English writer Anthony Burgess, published in 1962. It is set in a near-future society that has a youth subculture of extreme violence.

96. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte: Heathcliff lives at Wuthering Heights which corresponds to his character – cold and isolated. The “large jutting stones” that are set out the corners of the building’s buildings remind me as a reader of Heathcliff’s “black” eyes that are “full of black fire.”

97. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne: What he discovers is a new friend. A boy with the very same birthday. A boy in striped pyjamas. But why can't they ever play together?

98. A Man called Ove by Fredrik Backman: A MAN CALLED OVE BUYS A COMPUTER THAT IS NOT A COMPUTER Ove is fifty-nine. He drives a Saab. He’s the kind of man who points at people he doesn’t like the look of, as if they were burglars and his forefinger a policeman’s flashlight.

99. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, #1) by Ransom Riggs: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is a contemporary fantasy debut novel by American author Ransom Riggs. The story is told through a combination of narrative and a mix of vernacular and found photography from the personal archives of collectors listed by the author.

100. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a first-person narrative novel by Sherman Alexie, from the perspective of a Native American teenager, Arnold Spirit Jr., also known as "Junior", a 14-year-old promising cartoonist.