Trivia / The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

• Orphaned Reference: One of the illustrations in the first chapter shows Arnold juggling a book of poems, a rabbit, and a chainsaw while screaming "Love me!". At first glance, it might seem like just random humor, but it's actually a remnant of an earlier draft, where the drawing was preceded by Arnold saying, "So what can I do to make you love me? Should I pull a rabbit out of a hat? Read poems to go? Juggle chainsaws? Draw cartoons?".
• What Could Have Been:
  • The book was originally called Water in the Brain. The first chapter of the rough draft, shown in the tenth anniversary edition, is very different from the final version. This Arnold is much more bitter: the first chapter opens with Arnold describing what the reservation looks like and how much he hates his life. There's a longer version of the "poverty only teaches you how to be poor" rant, as well as a part where he mocks Naïve Animal Lover types for not realizing how annoying and mundane animals can be.
  • Sherman also planned to write sequel called Rowdy, Rowdy, Rowdy. It would have basically been The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian but told from Rowdy's point of the view and would have followed a more conventional diary format, being split by date. The excerpt shown in the tenth anniversary shows him embarking an extended rant about meteors versus meteorites that is very clearly meant to stand in for him (he's the meteorite, because he's survived extreme conditions but no one cares about him) and Arnold (he's the meteor, because everyone focuses on him and his brilliance), before realizing he needs to explain what the metaphor is. It also has a part where Rowdy mocks people for objecting to his use of strong language in his diary, which has some Reality Subtext because True Diary has also been banned and challenged by Moral Guardians for the same thing.
• Write What You Know: The book was inspired by Sherman's life, from having water in the brain as a child to his high school years in Reardon.

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