swap_horiz Studs Lonigan Alternatives

1

Black Boy

Richard Wright's 1945 autobiographical account of growing up Black under Jim Crow in the South and migrating north, a la...

American 20TH Century Race Autobiographical

9.0 Excellent

2

Ceremony

1977 novel by Leslie Marmon Silko, often cited as the first novel published by a Native American woman, about a Laguna P...

20TH Century Identity Native American Healing

9.0 Excellent

3

The Red Badge of Courage

Stephen Crane's 1895 American Civil War novel tracing young Henry Fleming's psychological journey from romantic illusion...

American 19TH Century Courage War

8.9 Great

4

The Woman Warrior

1976 memoir-fiction hybrid by Maxine Hong Kingston about growing up Chinese-American in California; won the National Boo...

20TH Century Identity Female Protagonist Kingston

8.8 Great

5

The House on Mango Street

Sandra Cisneros's 1984 American novel-in-vignettes following Chicana teenager Esperanza Cordero's coming-of-age in a Chi...

American 20TH Century Immigration Female Protagonist

8.7 Great

6

Bastard Out of Carolina

1992 debut novel by Dorothy Allison about a girl nicknamed Bone enduring poverty and abuse in South Carolina; a finalist...

American Contemporary Female Protagonist Trauma

8.5 Great

7

Lives of Girls and Women

1971 novel-in-stories by Alice Munro, her only full-length novel, following a girl named Del Jordan through adolescence...

Canadian 20TH Century Coming Of Age Female Protagonist

8.4 Great

8

The Way to Rainy Mountain

1969 work by N. Scott Momaday blending personal memoir with Kiowa oral tradition and history, tracing the tribe's migrat...

Heritage 20TH Century Identity Native American

8.4 Great

9

Childhood (Gorky)

First volume of Maxim Gorky's autobiographical trilogy (1913), depicting the author's harsh early years within a struggl...

Russian 20TH Century Autobiographical Poverty

8.3 Great

10

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

1976 Newbery Medal–winning novel by Mildred D. Taylor following a Black landowning family in 1930s Mississippi as they r...

American Family Historical Fiction Race

8.3 Great

11

Goodbye, Columbus

1959 debut by Philip Roth comprising a novella and five stories examining Jewish-American identity in New Jersey; the co...

American 20TH Century Identity Jewish American

8.3 Great

12

The Song of the Lark

Willa Cather's 1915 American novel tracing singer Thea Kronborg's artistic coming-of-age from a small Colorado town to o...

American 20TH Century Female Protagonist Artistic Growth

8.2 Great

13

Bless Me, Ultima

Rudolfo Anaya's 1972 Chicano novel set in post-WWII New Mexico, tracing young Antonio Márez's spiritual and cultural com...

American Identity Spirituality Chicano

8.2 Great

14

Obasan

1981 novel by Joy Kogawa tracing a Japanese-Canadian woman's memories of her family's forced relocation and internment d...

Canadian 20TH Century War Kogawa

8.2 Great

15

The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963

1995 Newbery Honor novel by Christopher Paul Curtis about a Black family's drive from Flint, Michigan to Birmingham, Ala...

American Historical Fiction Race Ya

8.2 Great

16

Hey, Kiddo

2018 graphic memoir by Jarrett J. Krosoczka about growing up with a mother imprisoned for heroin addiction; a National B...

American Family Memoir Ya

8.2 Great

17

My Name Is Asher Lev

1972 novel by Chaim Potok following a Brooklyn Hasidic boy whose compulsion to become a painter creates an irreconcilabl...

American 20TH Century Religion Artistic Growth

8.1 Great

18

Bud, Not Buddy

1999 novel by Christopher Paul Curtis, winner of the 2000 Newbery Medal, about a Black orphan in Depression-era Michigan...

American Family Race Depression Era

8.1 Great

19

Patron Saints of Nothing

2019 YA novel by Randy Ribay about a Filipino-American teenager who travels to the Philippines to uncover the truth behi...

American Identity Philippines Ya

8.1 Great

20

Maggie: A Girl of the Streets

Stephen Crane's 1893 American novella set in New York's Bowery, one of the earliest naturalist works depicting urban pov...

American Urban Female Protagonist Poverty

7.9 Good