Geronimo's Ponies tells of a boy's quest for self-knowledge by learning about his family, particularly about the life of his mother. As a quest, his adventure shares a mixture of comic and frightening incidents typical of Don Quixote. Like Don Quixote, Davey finds himself involved in bizarre events, but unlike Don Quixote, Davey is an alert observer endeavoring to make sense out of what he experiences.

Numerous books have presented the idea of learning about oneself by learning about one's ancestors. For example, Alex Haley's Roots (1976) presents Haley's search into his own ancestry, going back seven generations, partly in an effort to show the significance of family relationships to African Americans. A similarly serious approach is taken in Theodore L. Kazimiroff's The Last Algonquin (1982), in which Joe Two Trees struggles to retain his family and cultural heritage by being true to his ancestors' way of life...