Memoir
A form of autobiography which records personal thoughts and/or actions for the future. The focus is on a single period in the author’s life, and may be selected from longer, more detailed recordings of events, such as diary or journal entries. Memoirs are often characterized by their intimate focus on memories, feelings, and emotions.
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Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow by Susan Campbell Bartoletti Explores the various factors which led many of Germany’s young people to pledge their loyalty and support to the dictator and join the Hitler Youth during his rise to power. |
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Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges Provides the first-hand factual account of the six-year-old student who made history by having been one of the first black children to attend an all-white, segregated school in the 1960s. |
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Mama's Girl by Veronica Chambers In this memoir, a young African American writer describes growing up in Brooklyn with her mother and little brother as a member of the post-Civil Rights generation. |
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Boy: Tales of Childhood by Roald Dahl The British writer recounts humorous and memorable events from his childhood, including summer vacations in Norway and an English boarding school. |
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We Beat the Street: How a Friendship Pact Led to Success by Sampson Davis Making a pact to stick together through the rough times in their impoverished Newark neighborhood, three boys found the strength and determination to work through their difficulties in order to make their dreams come true by completing high school, getting through college, and attending medical school together. |
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When I Was Your Age, Volume One: Original Stories About Growing Up by Amy Ehrlich, editor A reflection of special childhood moments in ten writer’s lives demonstrates the similar, different, and life-changing experiences of children during various time periods and includes individual explanations of how they discovered the path toward becoming writers. |
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Anne Frank Remembered: The Story of the Woman Who Helped to Hide the Frank Family by Miep Gies The reminiscences of Miep Gies, the woman who hid the Frank family in Amsterdam during the Second World War, presents a vivid story of life under Nazi occupation. |
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Rocket Boys by Homer H. Hickam, Jr. The author traces the boyhood enthusiasm for rockets that eventually led to a career at NASA, describing how he built model rockets in the family garage in West Virginia, inspired by the launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik. |
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Bone Detective: The Story of Forensic Anthropologist Diane France by Lorraine Jean Hopping Discusses the life and many specific achievements of forensic anthropologist Diane France. |
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Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution by Ji-li Jiang A child’s-eye view of the fear, hardship, and persecution of the Chinese Cultural Revolution recalls the political reign of terror that led to the persecution of the author’s family, her father’s arrest, and her own struggle to choose between family loyalty and her future. |
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In the Company of Men: A Woman at the Citadel by Nancy Mace The author discusses how her military family encouraged her to fight the tradition of the corps and Southern culture, and endure the hardship of military life to become The Citadel’s first female graduate. |
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Bad Boy: A Memoir by Walter Dean Myers The author relates his experiences growing up in Harlem, the home of Sugar Ray Robinson and Langston Hughes, in the 1940s and 1950s. |
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The Lost Childhood: A World War ll Memoir by Yehuda Nir Describes six years in the life of a daring and resourceful Polish Jewish boy and his family, who survived the Holocaust by using false papers and posing as Catholics. |
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John Lennon: All I Want Is the Truth by Elizabeth Partridge An award-winning biographer paints a vivid picture of John Lennon’s life, from his tumultuous childhood in London to his rock-n-roll career writing, recording, and performing music with the Beatles, revealing how he struggled to come to terms with fame, marriage, and his artistic mind. |
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This Land Was Made for You and Me: The Life and Songs of Woody Guthrie by Elizabeth Partridge Offers an in-depth look at the life and music of this celebrated song writer and singer who performed songs from the late 1920s to the 1950s about daily life, racial equality, and the working man’s world in America. |
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Chicken Sunday by Patricia Polacco Stewart, Winston, and their new adopted Russian-American sister pool their money to buy their gramma, Miss Eula, an Easter bonnet, but they come up short and must think of an innovative way to earn the money. |
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Thank You, Mr. Falker by Patricia Polacco At first, Trisha loves school, but her difficulty learning to read makes her feel dumb, until, in the fifth grade, a new teacher helps her understand and overcome her problem. |
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The Trees of the Dancing Goats by Patricia Polacco During a scarlet fever epidemic one winter in Michigan, a Jewish family helps make Christmas special for their sick neighbors by making their own Hanukkah miracle. |
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Smoke and Ashes: The Story of the Holocaust by Barbara Rogasky An account of the tragic fate of the six million Jews killed during the Holocaust is set against a chronicle of the roots of Nazi anti-Semitism, Hitler’s rise to power, World War II, and the Nazi program of extermination. |
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Knots in My Yo-Yo String: The Autobiography of a Kid by Jerry Spinelli With all the warmth, humor, and drama of his best-selling fiction, a Newbery medalist presents a humorous account of his childhood in Norristown, Pennsylvania, which includes in his first kiss, first punch, and first trip to the principal’s office. |
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Once A Wolf: How Wildlife Biologists Fought to Bring Back the Gray Wolf by Stephen R. Swinburne Surveys the history of the relationship between wolves and humans, considers their part in the ecosystem, and describes the movement to restore them to the wild. |
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Behind the Secret Window by Nellie S. Toll The author recalls her experiences when she and her mother were hidden from the Nazis by a Gentile couple in Lwow, Poland, during World War II. |
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Desert Exile: The Uprooting of a Japanese-American Family by Yoshiko Uchida Tells the story of one Japanese-American family’s experiences in an internment camp in Utah during World War II. |
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Night by Elie Wiesel The narrative of a boy who lived through Auschwitz and Buchenwald provides a short and terrible indictment of modern humanity. |