The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
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50 free The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian follows Arnold Spirit Jr., known as Junior, a fourteen-year-old cartoonist from the Spokane Indian Reservation who decides to go to high school in the farm town of Reardan, twenty-two miles from home. It is funny, blunt and sad, often on the same page, which is a big part of why it is taught in so many English classes. This quiz covers the whole school year: Junior's family and his best friend Rowdy, the classmates he meets at Reardan, the two basketball games against his old school, and the losses that hit his family along the way. There are questions on well-known lines and the scenes they come from, plus a few on the author, the illustrations and how the novel was received. It works as a reading check before a test, a multiple-choice review for a class, or a refresher for anyone who read the novel years ago. Every answer comes with a short explanation that points back to the moment in the story it comes from.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In The Absolutely True Diary, whose name is written inside Junior's decades-old geometry textbook?
His mother's
His mother's name, Agnes Adams, is written inside, proof that his school has used the same books for at least thirty years. Enraged, Junior throws it.
Q 02In The Absolutely True Diary, why does Junior's dad shoot Oscar, the sick family dog?
A vet cost too much
A vet cost too much, and a bullet was cheaper. Junior calls Oscar the only living thing he could depend on; he runs away but still hears the rifle.
Q 03In The Absolutely True Diary, who do Junior's mom and dad both say has the most hope?
White people
White people, they answer at the same time. Junior promptly announces that he wants to transfer to Reardan, the rich farm-town school twenty-two miles away.
Q 04In The Absolutely True Diary, who is the only other Indian at Reardan High when Junior enrolls?
The school mascot
The school mascot is an Indian, so on his first morning the other kids stare at Junior, he says, like he was Bigfoot or a UFO.
Q 05In The Absolutely True Diary, what does Junior's grandmother say last after a drunk driver hits her?
Forgive him
Forgive him, she says of Gerald, the driver who struck her as she came home from a powwow. She had never had a drink in her life.
Q 06In The Absolutely True Diary, what has fourteen-year-old Junior already been to forty-two of?
Funerals
Funerals, he says, mark the biggest difference between his two worlds: none of his Reardan classmates has been to more than five.
Q 07In The Absolutely True Diary, what does the rez insult 'apple' say about Junior?
Red outside, white inside
Red outside, white inside: the nickname brands him a traitor for going to school in Reardan. When Junior first mentions it, his friend Gordy asks if they think he is a fruit.
Q 08In The Absolutely True Diary, how does the final one-on-one game between Junior and Rowdy end?
They don't keep score
They don't keep score, playing on past dark until bats swoop at their heads and the moon hangs huge and golden over the court.
Q 09In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, how does Junior's newly married sister Mary die?
In a trailer fire
In a trailer fire: after a party, a curtain blew onto a hot plate someone had left on, and Mary, passed out in the back bedroom, never woke up.
Q 10In The Absolutely True Diary, Junior jokes that his grease-drowned brain sounds like which food?
A giant French fry
A giant French fry, he says, sounds weirdo and funny, so he opts for the more poetic line that opens the book: he was born with water on the brain.
Q 11In The Absolutely True Diary, what does Mr. P, his nose broken by Junior's book, do on a home visit?
Apologizes to him
Apologizes to him, for the years he spent hitting Indian students and trying to wipe out their culture. Then he gives his advice: get off the rez, where everyone has given up.
Q 12In The Absolutely True Diary, how does Rowdy react when Junior says he is leaving for Reardan?
Punches him
Punches him, after first screaming and crying. Junior arrives for his first day at Reardan with a black eye and swollen nose he calls his going-away gifts.
Q 13In The Absolutely True Diary, which Reardan jock does Junior punch over a racist joke?
Roger
Q 21In The Absolutely True Diary, Mr. P says teachers had to 'kill the Indian to save the' what?
Child
Child, he says, confessing that teachers like him once beat students to make them give up their songs, stories, language and dancing. He was killing a culture, he admits.
Q 22In The Absolutely True Diary, which motorcycle-riding friend of Junior's dad is shot over wine?
Eugene
Eugene, a happy drunk who once gave Junior a ride to Reardan on his bike, is shot in a 7-Eleven parking lot by a friend too drunk to remember pulling the trigger.
Q 23In The Absolutely True Diary, which Reardan basketball squad does freshman Junior make?
The varsity team
The varsity team, though he had figured he was not good enough for even the C squad: Coach calls him the best shooter who has ever played for him.
Roger, a giant senior, is too stunned to hit back. By the unwritten rules Junior grew up with a fight should follow, yet the punch earns him respect instead.
Q 14In The Absolutely True Diary, what secret of Penelope's does Junior overhear in a bathroom?
She is bulimic
She is bulimic, not anorexic, as she is quick to explain. Junior tells her not to give up, and within weeks the two are a sort-of couple.
Q 15In The Absolutely True Diary, what do Junior and Penelope both dress as for Halloween?
Homeless people
Homeless people: she calls her costume a protest, so they agree to trick-or-treat for spare change to donate. Three guys in Frankenstein masks rob Junior of his.
Q 16In The Absolutely True Diary, to which state does Mary run off with a poker-playing husband?
Montana
Montana, home of her new husband, a Flathead Indian she likes because he is not afraid to gamble. Nobody in the family had ever lived off the Spokane reservation.
Q 17In The Absolutely True Diary, how does Rowdy punish the Andruss triplets for beating Junior?
Cuts off their braids
Cuts off their braids, and shaves their eyebrows too, after sneaking into the camp where the three thirty-year-olds lie asleep at the powwow.
Q 18In The Absolutely True Diary, what does tough Rowdy keep hidden in his bedroom closet wall?
Old comic books
Old comic books, and goofy ones at that: Richie Rich, Archie and Casper the Friendly Ghost. Junior comes over almost every day so the two can read them together.
Q 19In The Absolutely True Diary, why does the dentist pulling ten of Junior's teeth skimp on Novocain?
He thinks Indians hurt less
He thinks Indians hurt less: half as much as white patients, so half the Novocain will do. All ten of Junior's extra teeth come out in a single day.
Q 20In The Absolutely True Diary, what did basement-dwelling Mary once dream of writing?
Romance novels
Romance novels, her old teacher Mr. P reveals. Junior laughs at first, then wonders what made her stop writing and go hide in the basement.
Q 24In The Absolutely True Diary, what thrown object cuts Junior's head at the Wellpinit game?
A quarter
A quarter, flung from the stands as he runs onto the court, hits him in the head. He has the cut stitched in the locker room so he can go back into the game.
Q 25In The Absolutely True Diary, what does Coach do all night for concussed Junior in the hospital?
Tells him stories
Tells him stories, since a boy with a concussion is not supposed to sleep. Coach adds that he has never met anyone as committed as Junior.
Q 26In The Absolutely True Diary, which words from Coach does Junior call 'the four hugest'?
You can do it
You can do it, Coach says before the rematch with Wellpinit, right after picking him to guard Rowdy. Junior marvels at how amazing it is to hear that from an adult.
Q 27In The Absolutely True Diary, which biblical figure does Junior say Reardan was in the rematch?
Goliath
Goliath is how he sees his team once the cheering fades: every Reardan player has a car and a cell phone, while some Wellpinit kids may have had no breakfast. He cries from shame.
Q 28In The Absolutely True Diary, what does Junior do after snatching Rowdy's dunk in the rematch?
Sinks a three-pointer
Sinks a three-pointer, and the crowd goes wild. Junior says one play can change your momentum forever, and Reardan goes on to beat Wellpinit by forty points.
Q 29In The Absolutely True Diary, what does Junior wear to the Winter Formal with Penelope?
His dad's old suit
His dad's old suit, made of polyester. He expects to be laughed at, but Penelope finds the look retro and the two dance the night away.
Q 30In The Absolutely True Diary, which substance does Junior correct Mr. Dodge about in geology?
Petrified wood
Petrified wood, Junior points out, is not wood at all: minerals have taken its shape. Class genius Gordy backs him up, then says he did it for science.