Biographies & Autobiographies
(more than 100 pages, not more than 350 pages)
YA-RM B ABA
Abagnale, Frank
Catch Me if You Can
277 p.
Cynics might say that Frank Abagnale had the makings of a great politician. After all, he has written $2.5 million in
bad checks, posed successfully as a physician, a lawyer, a bank deposit collector and a CEO, taught in colleges
without any real credentials, and convinced people that he was an FBI agent. All of which he did before he was
twenty-one. Alagnale's creative skein came to an end when a flight attendant recognized the glowering face on
the Interpol poster. After a five year prison sabbatical, Alagnale received an offer he couldn't refuse: parole for the
price of his knowledge.
YA-RM B Ahmedi
Ahmedi, Farah
Other Side of the Sky 249 p.
The Story of My Life: An Afghan Girl on the
Farah Ahmedi is born into the world just as the war between the mujahideen and the Soviets reaches its peak in
Afghanistan. Bombs are falling all over her country, and her native Kabul is swelling with hundreds of thousands
of people looking for homes and jobs. The sounds of gunfire and fighter planes are as normal to Farah as the
sounds of traffic or children playing are to a schoolgirl in America. When Farah steps on a land mine on her way
to school, her world becomes much smaller than the dreams and hopes in her heart. She begins to learn -- slowly
-- that ordinary people, often strangers, have immense power to save lives and restore hope.
YA-RM B Ali & B Ali Ali, Nujood
I am Nujood: Age 10 & Divorced
176 p
Forced by her father to marry a man three times her age, young Nujood Ali was sent away from her parents and
beloved sisters and made to live with her husband and his family in an isolated village in rural Yemen. There she
suffered daily from physical and emotional abuse by her mother-in-law and nightly at the rough hands of her
spouse. Flouting his oath to wait to have sexual relations with Nujood until she was no longer a child, he took her
virginity on their wedding night. She was only ten years old. Unable to endure the pain and distress any longer,
Nujood fled—not for home, but to the courthouse of the capital, paying for a taxi ride with a few precious coins of
bread money. When a renowned Yemeni lawyer heard about the young victim, she took on Nujood’s case and
fought the archaic system in a country where almost half the girls are married while still under the legal age. Since
their unprecedented victory in April 2008, Nujood’s courageous defiance of both Yemeni customs and her own
family has attracted a storm of international attention.
YA-RM B Ali
Ali, Rubina
Slumgirl Dreaming
188 p.
Young Rubina is a one-in-a-million star. Plucked from among five hundred slumkids who auditioned for Danny
Boyle's multi-Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire, she saw her fairy-tale dream of stardom come true. Now
that she has stepped into the limelight, what will life hold for a young girl from the Mumbai slums? Rubina tells
her own incredible story, bringing to life a world of wastelands and rat-infested shanty dwellings, where she
played marbles with her friends beside the sewers of Garib Nagar. She introduces her beloved father, a
hardworking rickshaw puller, and her siblings. And then Rubina tells of the kindness of Danny Boyle and of the
time she spent on the film sets--including the hilarious incident when her costar came to be covered in chocolate
from head to toe. After her brief encounter with red-carpet glamour, how will Rubina come to terms with the
conditions in which she, her family, and her friends continue to live since Hollywood came knocking? This is her
compelling story.
J & YA-RM B Ali
Myers, Walter Dean
The Greatest: Muhammad Ali
172 p.
The full story of who Muhammad Ali is, where he came from, what he accomplished and what it all means.
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J & YA-RM B AND
Freedman, Russell
The Voice That Challenged a Nation 114 p.
This beautiful biography is about one of the nation's greatest African American vocalist—Marian Anderson.
Although she was from a poor family, Marian says she never felt poor or different from the other diverse
individuals who lived in her neighborhood; the children played together every day just having fun and not thinking
about differences. This biography contains photographs from all phases of her life and of people and incidents
that played an important part in her success as both a singer and a person. Under the title of each chapter is a
quotation made either by Marian or by an individual who was touched by her. In chapter seven, "Breaking
Barriers," is the quotation that I believe explains Marian Anderson. "The essential point about wanting to appear in
Constitution Hall was that I wanted to do so because I felt I had that right as an artist." Such an intelligent
individual. Freedman has captured the person and the history.
YA-RM B ANG & B ANG Angelou, Maya
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
289 p.
In this first of five volumes of autobiography, poet Maya Angelou recounts a youth filled with disappointment,
frustration, tragedy, and finally hard-won independence.
YA-RM B Arnold Sheinkin, Steve
Heroism & Treachery 307 p.
The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of
Most people know that Benedict Arnold was America’s first, most notorious traitor. Few know that he was also
one of its greatest war heroes. This accessible biography introduces young readers to the real Arnold: reckless,
heroic, and driven. Packed with first-person accounts, astonishing battle scenes, and surprising twists, this is a
gripping and true adventure tale.
J & YA-RM B Barnum
Fleming, Candace
The Great and Only Barnum: The
Tremendous Stupendous Life of Showman P.T. Barnum 151 p.
The award-winning author of The Lincolns: A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and Mary, Our Eleanor, and Ben
Franklin’s Almanac brings us the larger-than-life biography of showman P. T. Barnum. Known far and wide for his
jumbo elephants, midgets, and three-ring circuses, here’s a complete and captivating look at the man behind the
Greatest Show on Earth. Readers can visit Barnum’s American Museum; meet Tom Thumb, the miniature man
(only 39 inches tall) and his tinier bride (32 inches); experience the thrill Barnum must have felt when, at age 60,
he joined the circus; and discover Barnum’s legacy to the 19th century and beyond.
YA B & B Baszile Baszile, Jennifer The Black Girl Next Door
307 p.
At six years of age, after winning a foot race against a white classmate, Jennifer Baszile was humiliated to hear
her classmate explain that black people "have something in their feet to make them run faster than white people."
When she asked her teacher about it, it was confirmed as true. The next morning, Jennifer's father accompanied
her to school, careful to "assert himself as an informed and concerned parent and not simply a big, black,
dangerous man in a first-grade classroom." This was the first of many skirmishes in Jennifer's childhood-long
struggle to define herself as "the black girl next door" while living out her parents' dreams. Success for her was
being the smartest and achieving the most, with the consequence that much of her girlhood did not seem like her
own but more like the "family project." But integration took a toll on everyone in the family when strain in her
parents' marriage emerged in her teenage years, and the struggle to be the perfect black family became an
unbearable burden.
YA-RM B Beah & SR-12
218 p.
Beah, Ishmael
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
This is how wars are fought now: by children, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s. Children have become
soldiers of choice. In the more than fifty conflicts going on worldwide, it is estimated that there are some 300,000
child soldiers. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them. What is war like through the eyes of a child soldier? How
does one become a killer? How does one stop? Child soldiers have been profiled by journalists, and novelists
have struggled to imagine their lives. But until now, there has not been a first-person account from someone who
came through this hell and survived. In A Long Way Gone, Beah, now twenty-five years old, tells a riveting story:
how at the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By
thirteen, he'd been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was
capable of truly terrible acts.
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YA-RM B Brown
290 p.
Marcus, Leonard S. Margaret Wise Brown: Awakened By the Moon
Nearly fifty years after her sudden death at the age of forty-two, Margaret Wise Brown remains a legend and an
enigma. Author of Goodnight Moon, The Runaway Bunny, and dozens of other children’s classics, Brown all but
invented the picture book as we know it today. Combining poetic instinct with a profound empathy for small
children, she understood a child’s need for security, love, and a sense of being at home in the world. Yet, these
were comforts that had eluded her. Her sparkling presence and her unparalleled success as a legendary
children’s book author masked an insecurity that left her restless and vulnerable.
YA-RM B Brown
Positive 228 p.
Brown, Marvelyn
Naked Truth: Young, Beautiful, and (HIV)
At nineteen years of age, Marvelyn Brown was lying in a stark white hospital bed at Tennessee Christian Medical
Center, feeling hopeless. A former top track and basketball athlete, she was in the best shape of her life, but she
was battling a sudden illness in the intensive care unit. Doctors had no idea what was going on. It never occurred
to Brown that she might be HIV positive. Having unprotected sex with her Prince Charming had set into swift
motion a set of circumstances that not only landed her in the fight of her life, but also alienated her from her
community. Rather than give up, however, Brown found a reason to fight and a reason to live.
The Naked Truth is an inspirational memoir that shares how an everyday teen refused to give up on herself, even
as others would forsake her.
YA B BUR
Hamilton, Virginia
Fugitive Slave
193 p.
Anthony Burns: The Defeat and Triumph of a
A biography of the slave, who escaped to Boston in 1854, was arrested at the instigation of his owner, and whose
trial caused a furor between abolitionists and those determined to enforce the fugitive slave acts.
YA-RM & B Burroughs
Burroughs, Augusten
Running With Scissors
304 p
To say that Augusten Burroughs had an unusual childhood would be an understatement. His eccentric mother -- a
poet -- left him in the care of her shrink, a man who might have benefitted from a little therapy himself. Somehow,
Augusten survived, and the result is this memoir, one both horrifying and hysterical.
COMICS B Carey
Carey, Percy
Sentences: The Life of M.F. Grimm
128 p.
Carey covers his experiences from his years as a child performer on Sesame Street through hip-hop stardom as
"MF Grimm." His simultaneous life as a dope dealer leads to a darker turn, as a drug-feud ambush leaves him
paralyzed from the waist down. The story follows his subsequent time in prison and his current career as an
entertainment producer. Along the way, he gives glimpses of the mother who fiercely defended him and the
neighborhood that nurtured him, but he gives more stress to his exploits as a thug, his meetings with hip-hop
stars he considered rivals and/or peers, and the hunger for money and recognition that led him to take dangerous
risks.
YA-RM B Cavell
Cavell 135 p
Batten, Jack
Silent in an Evil Time: The Brave War of Edith
Dutiful nurse, hospital matron, courageous resistance fighter, Edith Cavell was all of these. A British citizen, the
forty-eight-year-old Cavell was matron of an institute for nurses in the suburbs of Brussels at the outbreak of
World War I. Dedicated to the methods of Florence Nightingale, her intelligence and ferocious sense of duty had
transformed the institute into a leading training center.When the Germans captured Belgium in the fall of 1914, an
organization was formed to assist British and French soldiers trapped behind German lines. Edith was asked to
help and she didn’t hesitate. From that moment forward, Edith sheltered escaping soldiers in her hospital, using
trickery to keep the suspicious Germans from discovering them. She helped arrange a secret route to neutral
Holland and back to England at great personal risk, enabling soldiers of all ranks to slip through German lines.
Using the institute as part of an elaborate Allied escape route, Edith Cavell was responsible for one thousand
soldiers eventually making their way home.But Cavell’s role was discovered and a German military court put her
on trial in Brussels, where she was sentenced to be executed by firing squad. On October 12, 1915, she put on
her nurse’s uniform and met her fate, immediately becoming a worldwide martyr and rallying point for the British in
their war against Germany.
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YA-RM & B Chen
Chen, Da
Colors of the Mountain
300 p.
Da Chen was born in 1962, in the Year of Great Starvation. Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution engulfed millions of
Chinese citizens, and the Red Guard enforced Mao's brutal communist regime. Chen’s family belonged to the
despised landlord class, and his father and grandfather were routinely beaten and sent to labor camps, the family
of eight left without a breadwinner. Despite this background of poverty and danger, and Da Chen grows up to be
resilient, tough, and funny, learning how to defend himself and how to work toward his future. By the final pages,
when his says his last goodbyes to his father and boards the bus to Beijing to attend college, Da Chen has
become a hopeful man astonishing in his resilience and cheerful strength.
J & YA-RM B CLE
Cleary, Beverly
A Girl From Yamhill
279 p.
Generations of children have grown up with Henry Huggins, Ramona Quimby, and all of their friends, families,
and assorted pets. For everyone who has enjoyed the pranks and schemes, embarrassing moments, and all of
the other poignant and colorful images of childhood brought to life in Beverly Cleary books, here is the fascinating
true story of the remarkable woman who created them.
B COB
Cobain, Kurt
Journals
280 p.
Kurt Cobain filled dozens of notebooks with lyrics, drawings, and writings about his plans for Nirvana and his
thoughts about fame, the state of music, and the people who bought and sold him and his music. Over twenty of
these notebooks survived his many moves and travels and have been locked in a safe since his death. His
journals reveal an artist who loved records, who knew the history of rock, and who was determined to define his
place in that history.
J & YA-RM B COH
Cohen, Sasha
Fire on Ice
172 p.
Champion figure skater Sasha Cohen captured the world's attention with her exquisite spiral and outstanding
layback spin at the 2002 Winter Olympics. Today she is the reigning queen of winter's most competitive sport and
the most serious contender for the gold medal in 2006. For the first time, Sasha tells her amazing story, in her
own words.
J & YA-RM B Colvin
Hoose, Phillip
Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice 130 p.
On March 2, 1955, an impassioned teenager, fed up with the daily injustices of Jim Crow segregation, refused to
give her seat to a white woman on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Instead of being celebrated as
Rosa Parks would be just nine months later, fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin found herself shunned by her
classmates and dismissed by community leaders. Undaunted, a year later she dared to challenge segregation
again as a key plaintiff in Browder v. Gayle, the landmark case that struck down the segregation laws of
Montgomery and swept away the legal underpinnings of the Jim Crow South.
B COP
Copeland, Adam
Adam Copeland on Edge 254 p.
A biography on the life of the WWE wrestler Edge.
YA-RM B CRU
Crutcher, Chris
King of the Mild Frontier 272 p.
Chris Crutcher, author of young adult novels such as "Ironman" and "Whale Talk," as well as short stories, tells of
growing up in Cascade, Idaho, and becoming a writer.
J & YA-RM B DAH
Dahl, Roald
Boy: Tales of Childhood
176 p.
As full of excitement and the unexpected as the stories he writes, Roald Dahl’s tales of his own childhood are
completely fascinating, often very funny, and are not to be missed!
YA-RM B DAH
Dahl, Roald
Going Solo
209 p.
Going Solo, the second part of Roald Dahl's compelling and colourful autobiography, creates a world as bizarre
and unnerving as any you will find in his fiction. A marvellous evocation of his wartime exploits, it tells of African
safaris and deadly snakes; of fighter planes and incredible air battles with the enemy during World War Two.
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J & YA-RM B Darwin
Darwin’s Leap of Faith
Heiligman, Deborah
236 p.
Charles and Emma: the
When the book opens, Charles Darwin is trying to make a decision, and he is doing so in time-honored fashion:
drawing a line down a piece of paper and putting the pros of marriage on one side and the cons on the other. As
much as Darwin is interested in wedded life, he is afraid that family life will take him away from the revolutionary
work he is doing on the evolution of species. However, the pluses triumph, and he finds the perfect mate in his
first-cousin Emma, who becomes his comforter, editor, mother of his 10 children—and sparring partner. Although
highly congenial, Charles and Emma were on opposite sides when it came to the role of God in creation.
Heiligman uses the Darwin family letters and papers to craft a full-bodied look at the personal influences that
shaped Charles’ life as he worked mightily to shape his theories. This intersection between religion and science is
where the book shines, but it is also an excellent portrait of what life was like during the Victorian era, a time when
illness and death were ever present, and, in a way, a real-time example of the survival of the fittest.
B DEC Decker, Shawn
237 p.
My Pet Virus: The True Story of a Rebel Without a Cure
Shawn Decker isn't quite the All-American boy. Sure, he gets caught shoplifting copies of Penthouse; is crazy
about prowrestling, especially "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair; and never has a problem getting dates. But he's also a
hemophiliac who discovers, at age eleven, that he has contracted HIV from tainted blood products. Instead of
becoming self-pitying and dying (as first predicted), Shawn develops a twisted sense of humor, meets Depeche
Mode through the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and writes on blogs and in Poz magazine about what it's like being
hetero and HIV-positive in rural Virginia. He also turns to gay men for advice on dating women and, almost twenty
years after getting HIV, marries Gwenn Barringer, who is HIV-negative and a former competitor for the title of
Miss Virginia. Together Shawn and Gwenn travel the country, speaking to high school and college kids about how
to live and love with HIV (and how to avoid getting it).
YA-RM B Devidayal
Devidayal, Namita
The Music Room
300 p.
When Namita is ten years old, her mother takes her to Kennedy Bridge, a seamy neighborhood in Bombay, home
to hookers and dance girls. There, in a cramped one-room apartment lives Dhondutai, the last living disciple of
two of the finest Indian classical singers of the twentieth century: the legendary Alladiya Khan and the great
songbird Kesarbai Kerkar. Namita begins to learn singing from Dhondutai, at first reluctantly and then, as the
years pass, with growing passion. Dhondutai sees in her a second Kesarbai, but does Namita have the dedication
to give herself up completely to the discipline like her teacher? Or will there always be too many late nights and
cigarettes? And where do love and marriage fit into all of this?
B Douglass
Douglass, Frederick
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
182 p.
Born a slave in 1818 on a plantation in Maryland, Douglass taught himself to read and write. In 1845, seven years
after escaping to the North, he published Narrative, the first of three autobiographies. This book calmly but
dramatically recounts the horrors and the accomplishments of his early years—the daily, casual brutality of the
white masters; his painful efforts to educate himself; his decision to find freedom or die; and his harrowing but
successful escape. An astonishing orator and a skillful writer, Douglass became a newspaper editor, a political
activist, and an eloquent spokesperson for the civil rights of African Americans. He lived through the Civil War, the
end of slavery, and the beginning of segregation. He was celebrated internationally as the leading black
intellectual of his day, and his story still resonates in ours.
YA-RM B Douglas
Douglas, Gabrielle
Grace, Gold & Glory
In the 2012 London Olympics, US gymnast Gabrielle Douglas stole hearts and flew high as the All-Around Gold
Medal winner, as well as acting as a critical member of the US gold-medal-winning women gymnastics team. In
this personal autobiography, Gabrielle tells her story of faith, perseverance, and determination, demonstrating you
can reach your dreams if you let yourself soar.
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B Dr. Dre
Ro, Renin
Dr. Dre: The Biography
274 p.
Born on February 18, 1965 to a sixteen-year-old single mom, Andre Young, AKA Dr. Dre, co-founded the
notorious rap group N.W.A. The group was one of the most successful hip-hop groups of the late 1980s and,
most importantly, started what the media quickly dubbed Gangsta Rap. His departure from N.W.A. was a story
right out of a pulp fiction novel. His new mentor, Suge Knight, allegedly used guns, baseball bats and a kidnap
threat to get Dr. Dre released from his contract. Dre and Knight went on to build Death Row Records and turned it
into a multi-billlion dollar company. Yet despite its unprecedented success with stars such as Snoop Doggy Dogg
and Tupac Shakur, the company quickly unraveled in a firestorm of rivalries, greed, violence, and scrutiny by
both the government and the media. Not one to fade into the background, Dr. Dre's next move was to start his
own record company, Aftermath Entertainment. As CEO, he discovered and created new stars like Eminem, 50
Cent, The Game, and Eve. In this essential addition to any music section, award-winning author Ronin Ro details
the rise, fall, and resurrection of one of the biggest names in rap music.
YA-RM & B Dumas
Dumas, Firoozeh
Funny in Farsi
187 p.
Funny in Farsi chronicles the American journey of Dumas’s wonderfully engaging family: her engineer father, a
sweetly quixotic dreamer who first sought riches on Bowling for Dollars and in Las Vegas, and later lost his job
during the Iranian revolution; her elegant mother, who never fully mastered English (nor cared to); her uncle, who
combated the effects of American fast food with an army of miraculous American weight-loss gadgets; and
Firoozeh herself, who as a girl changed her name to Julie, and who encountered a second wave of culture shock
when she met and married a Frenchman, becoming part of a one-couple melting pot. In a series of deftly drawn
scenes, we watch the family grapple with American English (hot dogs and hush puppies?—a complete mystery),
American traditions (Thanksgiving turkey?—an even greater mystery, since it tastes like nothing), and American
culture (Firoozeh’s parents laugh uproariously at Bob Hope on television, although they don’t get the jokes even
when she translates them into Farsi). Above all, this is an unforgettable story of identity, discovery, and the power
of family love.
YA-RM B ERL
Erlbaum, Janice
Girlbomb: A Halfway Homeless Memoir 272 p.
At fifteen, sick of her mom's spineless reactions to abusive men-and afraid of her stepfather's unpredictable
behavior-Janice Erlbaum walked out of her family's apartment and never returned. What followed that fateful
decision is the heart of this amazing, fascinating, and disturbing memoir.From her first frightening night at a
shelter, trying to sleep in a large room filled with yelling girls, Janice knew she was in over her head. She was
beaten up, shaken down, and nearly stabbed by a pregnant girl. But it was still better than living at home. Just like
that, she was halfway homeless, always one step away from being sent "upstate to Lockdown."
As Janice slipped further into street life, she nevertheless continued to attend high school, harbor crushes, even
play the lead in the spring production of Guys and Dolls. She also roamed the streets, clubs, bars, and parks of
New York City with her two best girlfriends, on the prowl for hard drugs and boys on skateboards.
YA-RM B FIF
Southside
Fifty Cent
212 p.
From Pieces to Weight: Once Upon a Time in
That's what this book is about--the good times and the bad times. I wrote this book to explain the world I come
from. To a lot of people, I may be too young to reflect on life. And they may be right. But I'd be wasting my
blessings if I didn't use the attention I'm getting to shed light on the experiences that have caused me to say the
things I say and make the kind of music I make. I want to explain my environment to those who don't come any
closer to it than the records they buy or the images they see on television. People want the truth. Even if they
can't handle it, they want it. I let you know that I survived nine bullets not to sell records, but because it's the truth.
Every time I sit down for an interview, I'm asked, "Well, 50, how did it feel to get shot nine times?" But those
stories don't hold the weight, the pain, or the hope of my experience. It just can't. This is my mindset and these
are the things that go on. This is why I say the rhymes that I say. This is what happened when I was trying to get
rich before I died in Southside Queens.
YA-RM B FLE
Fleischman, Sid
The Abracadabra Kid
198 p.
Newbery Award-winning author of The Whipping Boy and a wide shelf of other books, Sid Fleischman is surprised
that he grew up to be a writer. He decided in the fifth grade to be a magician and teaching himself sleight of hand
out of library books, he became the abracadabra kid of San Diego, his hometown. Just out of high school, he
traveled widely in vaudeville and with a midnight ghost-and-goblin show. Stories struck him as literary magic
tricks, and he sat down one day to write……and so it began.
YA-RM B FOX Fox, Paula
Borrowed Finery
The biography of well known author Paula Fox.
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224 p.
YA-RM & B FRANK
Frank, Anne
The Diary of a Young Girl
283 p.
Discovered in the attic in which she spent the last years of her life, Anne Frank’s remarkable diary has since
become a world classic—a powerful reminder of the horrors of war and an eloquent testament to the human spirit.
YA-RM B Gaga
YA-RM B GRE
Goodman, Lizzy Lady Gaga: Critical Mass Fashion 144 p.
Grealy, Lucy Autobiography of a Face
223 p.
After a childhood illness & surgery left her jaw disfigured, it took the author 20 years of living with a distorted selfimage & more than 30 reconstructive procedures before coming to terms with her appearance.
YA-RM B GRE Gregory, Julie
Sickened
244 p.
Perpetrators of MBP (usually mothers) satisfy their need for attention by faking or inducing illness in their children.
For years, Sandy Gregory (herself a victim of incest, rape, and child abuse) subjected her daughter to endless
doctor's visits, tests, and unnecessary medical procedures. Julie's astonishing ordeal begins with matchstick
"lollypop" poisonings. From there, she is routinely starved, her nose is surgically broken to correct an imaginary
deviated septum, she is denied treatment for a broken wrist, and she undergoes an excruciating heart
catheterization -- which, to Sandy's great disappointment, does not indicate the need for further surgery! Betrayed
by every adult in her life -- from her passive, complicit father to the battalion of teachers, doctors, and nurses who
blindly buy her mother's act -- Julie is, nonetheless, shackled to Sandy by a powerful bond of codependent love.
She manages to escape her crazy home, but she is an adult before she learns the truth behind her bizarre
upbringing and begins a painful journey back to physical and mental health. It is Gregory's fervent hope that her
story, harrowing as it is, will unmask this insidious disorder that robs children of their youth, their innocence, and -far too often -- their lives.
YA-RM B Hamilton
Hamilton, Bethany
Soul Surfer
210 p.
They say Bethany Hamilton has saltwater in her veins. How else could one explain the tremendous passion that
drives her to surf? How else could one explain that nothing-not even the loss of her arm in a horrific shark attackcould come between her and the waves? That Halloween morning in Kauai, Hawaii-a glorious part of the world,
where it's hard to deny the divine-Bethany responded to the shark's stealth attack with the calm of a girl with God
on her side. Pushing pain and panic aside, she immediately began to paddle with one arm, focusing on a single
thought: "Get to the beach..." Rushed to the hospital, where her father, Tom Hamilton, was about to undergo knee
surgery, Bethany found herself taking his spot in the O.R. It is a story of girl power and spiritual grit that shows
that the body is no more essential to surfing-perhaps even less so-than the soul.
YA-RM B HAW
Hawk, Tony
Hawk: Occupation: Skateboarder
289 p.
For Tony Hawk, it wasn’t enough to skate for two decades, to invent more than eighty tricks, and to win more than
twice as many professional contests, as any other skater. It wasn’t enough to knock himself unconscious more
than ten times, fracture several ribs, break his elbow, knock out his teeth twice, compress the vertebrae in his
back, pop his bursa sack, get more than fifty stitches laced into his shins, rip apart the cartilage in his knee, bruise
his tailbone, and sprain his ankles and tear his ligaments too many times to count. No. He had to land 900. And
after thirteen years of failed attempts, he nailed it. It had never been done before.
YA-RM B Henry
Henry, Nathan
Good Behavior 262 p.
Jailed at age sixteen for armed robbery, Nathan Henry was the kind of teenager most parents and teachers have
nightmares about. His crime was the culmination of a life lived on the edge: guns and drugs, sex and violence, all
set against the ordinary backdrop of a one-stop light town in rural Indiana. Nate's personal history is both
disturbing and fascinating. A rough childhood becomes an adolescence full of half-realized violent fantasies that
slowly build to the breaking point. But these scenes alternate with chapters about Nate's time in jail, where
through reading and reflection he comes to see that his life can be different from all he's known up to this point.
Nathan's story of his year in jail and the life that led him there combine to create a powerful portrait of an
American youth gone bad—and a moving story of redemption.
J & YA-RM B HIT
Giblin, James Cross
The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler
246 p.
In a straightforward and nonsensational manner, James Cross Giblin explores the forces that shaped Hitler as
well as the social conditions that furthered his rapid rise to power.
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YA-RM B HIG Higa, Tomiko The Girl With the White Flag: An Inspiring Story of Love
and Courage in War Time 127 p.
Iwo Jima, Saipan, Okinawa. The names of Pacific War battlegrounds conjure up vaguely similar memories to
Americans above a certain age. But there was a difference. On Okinawa for the first time U.S. forces encountered
a large civilian population. Estimates are that at least 75,000 Okinawan men, women, and children perished,
many of them committing suicide rather than surrender. This book tells the story of the climax of this battle from
the perspective of a seven-year-old girl, the author, who struggled against the odds to survive and to lead others
to survival.
YA-RM B Hoover Aronson, Marc
Lies
Master of Deceit: J. Edgar Hoover in the Age of
"King, there is only one thing left for you to do. You know what it is. . . . You better take it before your filthy,
abnormal, fraudulent self is bared to the nation."
Dr. Martin Luther King received this demand in an anonymous letter in 1964. He believed that the letter was
telling him to commit suicide. Who wrote this anonymous letter? The FBI. And the man behind it all was J. Edgar
Hoover, the FBI's first director. In this unsparing exploration of one of the most powerful Americans of the
twentieth century, accomplished historian Marc Aronson unmasks the man behind the Bureau- his tangled family
history and personal relationships; his own need for secrecy, deceit, and control; and the broad trends in
American society that shaped his world. Hoover may have given America the security it wanted, but the secrets
he knew gave him - and the Bureau - all the power he wanted. Using photographs, cartoons, movie posters, and
FBI transcripts, Master of Deceit gives readers the necessary evidence to make their own conclusions.
J & YA-RM B HOUDINI Fleischman, Sid
240 p.
Escape! The Story of the Great Houdini
A biography of the famous magician, Houdini.
YA-RM B Hunter-Gault Hunter-Gault, Charlayne To the Mountaintop: My Journey
Through the Civil Rights Movement
A personal history of the civil rights movement from activist and acclaimed journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault.
YA-RM B JIA Jiang, Ji-Li
285 p.
Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution
Jiang shares with us her life as a little girl growing up under Chairman Mao’s regime in China. While she
embraces the Communist Party’s philosophy and dutifully follows the rules of how she should live and behave,
the reader begins to see how Jiang begins to have her doubts, particularly when party-imposed punishments
begin to affect her family and close friends.
YA-RM & B Jobs Blumenthal, Karen Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different
YA-RM B Joplin
Angel, Ann
Janis Joplin: Rise Up Singing 118 p.
Forty years after her death, Janis Joplin remains among the most compelling and influential figures in rock-androll history. Her story—told here with depth and sensitivity by author Ann Angel—is one of a girl who struggled
against rules and limitations, yet worked diligently to improve as a singer. It’s the story of an outrageous rebel who
wanted to be loved, and of a wild woman who wrote long, loving letters to her mom. And finally, it’s the story of
one of the most iconic female musicians in American history, who died at twenty-seven.
YA-RM B Kaiulani & J B Kai Linnea, Sharon
Heart of a People
234 p.
Princess Ka’iulani: Hope of a Nation,
This biography tells the story of Hawaii’s last heir to the throne who was denied her right to rule when the
monarchy was abolished.
8
YA-RM B Kamara
Kamara, Mariatu & Susan McClelland The Bite of the Mango
As a child in a small rural village in Sierra Leone, Mariatu Kamara lived peacefully surrounded by family and
friends. Rumors of rebel attacks were no more than a distant worry. But when 12-year-old Mariatu set out for a
neighboring village, she never arrived. Heavily armed rebel soldiers, many no older than children themselves,
attacked and tortured Mariatu. During this brutal act of senseless violence they cut off both her hands. Stumbling
through the countryside, Mariatu miraculously survived. The sweet taste of a mango, her first food after the attack,
reaffirmed her desire to live, but the challenge of clutching the fruit in her bloodied arms reinforced the grim new
reality that stood before her. With no parents or living adult to support her and living in a refugee camp, she
turned to begging in the streets of Freetown. In this gripping and heartbreaking true story, Mariatu shares with
readers the details of the brutal attack, its aftermath and her eventual arrival in Toronto. There she began to pull
together the pieces of her broken life with courage, astonishing resilience and hope.
YA-RM B Keith Keith, Michael The Next Better Place 284 p.
In 1959, at the age of eleven, Michael Keith ditched his relatively stable life with his mother and sisters in Albany,
New York, and surreptitiously set off hitchhiking out West with his estranged, alcoholic dad. His memoir, told
without sentimentality in the funny, world-wise voice of the young boy he once was, describes the bizarre
characters they encounter in the rundown rooming houses and homeless missions of Pittsburgh and Ft. Worth,
where they hole up as Michael's father works odd jobs to make enough money for them to move on; in the
carnivals of the Midwest and the casinos of Las Vegas, where Michael dreams of Hollywood stardom; and in
every two-bit town along the way, where they attend AA meetings just for a cup of coffee and a decent doughnut.
YA-RM B Kramer
Kramer, Clara
Clara's War: One Girl's Story of Survival 330 p.
This heart-stopping story of a young girl hiding from the Nazis is based on Clara Kramer's diary of her years
surviving in an underground bunker with seventeen other people. Clara Kramer was a typical Polish-Jewish
teenager from a small town at the outbreak of the Second World War. When the Germans invaded, Clara's family
was taken in by the Becks, a Volksdeutsche (ethnically German) family from their town. Mrs. Beck worked as
Clara's family's housekeeper. Mr. Beck was known to be an alcoholic, a womanizer, and a vocal anti-Semite. But
on hearing that Jewish families were being led into the woods and shot, Beck sheltered the Kramers and two
other Jewish families. Eighteen people in all lived in a bunker dug out of the Becks' basement. Fifteen-year-old
Clara kept a diary during the twenty terrifying months she spent in hiding, writing down details of their
unpredictable life. Against all odds, Clara lived to tell her story, and her diary is now part of the permanent collection of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
YA-RM & B LENNON Partridge, Elizabeth John Lennon: All I Want is the Truth 206 p.
Partridge chronicles the emotional highs and paralyzing lows Lennon transformed into brilliant, evocative songs.
With striking black-andwhite photographs spanning his entire life, John Lennon: All I Want Is the Truth is the
unforgettable story of one of rock's biggest legends.
YA-RM B Li Li, Moying Snow Falling in Spring: Coming of Age in China
During the Cultural Revolution 192 p.
This inspiring memoir follows Moying Li from age twelve to twenty-two, illuminating a complex, dark time in
China's history as it tells the compelling story of one girl's difficult but determined coming-of-age during the
Cultural Revolution.
B LIN
Lindbergh, Reeve
Under a Wing: A Memoir
223 p.
The world knew Charles Lindbergh as a daring aviator, Pulitzer Prize winning author, and controversial isolationist
in World War II; his wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, was also famous, the author of the bestselling Gift from the
Sea and other books. But Reeve Lindbergh knew them as mother and father. Their celebrity status and the
tragedy of their first child shadowed the family in ways that were often mysterious to the five surviving children. In
this moving, deeply affecting memoir, the youngest of the children describes what it was like to grow up as a
Lindbergh.
B LLC
L.L. Cool J
I Make My Own Rules
214 p.
The bestselling rap artist of all time and a role model for millions of fans tells his story.
9
YA-RM B LOB
Lobel, Anita
No Pretty Pictures: A Child of War
193 p.
This highly regarded children’s book illustrator recounts her childhood experiences as a Jew living in Nazioccupied Poland, her imprisonment in a succession of concentration camps, and her life following the war as a
displaced person in Sweden.
J & YA-RM B LOW
Lowry, Lois
Looking Back
181 p.
Using family photographs and quotes from her books, the author provides glimpses into her life.
YA-RM B Lloyd
Lloyd, Rachel
Girls Like Us
During her teens, Rachel Lloyd ended up a victim of commercial sexual exploitation. With time, through incredible
resilience, and with the help of a local church community, she finally broke free of her pimp and her past and
devoted herself to helping other young girls escape "the life." In Girls Like Us, Lloyd reveals the dark world of
commercial sex trafficking in cinematic detail and tells the story of her groundbreaking nonprofit organization:
GEMS, Girls Educational and Mentoring Services. With great humanity, she shares the stories of the girls whose
lives GEMS has helped—small victories that have healed her wounds and made her whole. Revelatory, authentic,
and brave, Girls Like Us is an unforgettable memoir.
YA-RM B Ma
Ma, Yan
The Diary of Ma Yan
166 p.
In May of 2001, the diary of a fourteen-year-old Chinese girl named Ma Yan was thrust into the hands of a foreign
journalist by her desperate, illiterate mother. The family lived in a drought-stricken corner of rural China where
education is the only hope for escaping a life of crushing poverty. Ma Yan was struggling to stay in school, but her
family could not afford the fees. Published in Europe, the diary produced an outpouring of support that led to the
creation of an international fund for the education of Ma Yan and other poor children in her remote village...all due
to one young girl's honest, accessible, heart-wrenching diary.
YA-RM B Mah Mah, Adeline Yen, Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an
Unwanted Daughter
205 p.
After her mother dies giving birth to her, Adeline’s siblings, who consider her bad luck, scapegoat her, and her
wealthy father and vain stepmother deprive her of friends and send her away to school. This riveting memoir of a
turbulent childhood is enriched by Chinese-language lessons, a generous historical backdrop, and a half-dozen
family photos.
B MCB McBride, James & Ruth McBride-Jordan
Tribute to His White Mother 228 p.
The Color Of Water: A Black Man’s
McBride blends his story with that of his mother, who battled poverty and racism to raise twelve children.
YA-RM & B McCandles Krakaur, John
Into the Wild
207 p.
Christopher McCandles sets out on a road trip that soon becomes an adventure on foot. After several years on
the road, he ends up in the wilderness of Alaska, alone and ill-prepared.
YA-RM B MYE
Myers, Walter Dean
Bad Boy
214 p.
Into a memoir that is gripping, funny, heartbreaking and unforgettable, Walter Dean Myers richly weaves the
details of his Harlem childhood in the 1940s and 1950s: a loving home life with his adoptive parents, Bible school,
street games, and the vitality of his neighborhood. Although Walter spent much of his time either getting into
trouble or on the basketball court, secretly he was a voracious reader and an aspiring writer. But as his prospects
for a successful future diminished, the values he had been taught at home, in school and in his community
seemed worthless, and he turned to the streets and his books for comfort. Walter Dean Myers has won many
awards for his writings.
YA-RM B ORT
Ortiz Cofer, Judith
Puerto Rican Childhood 167 p.
Silent Dancing: A Partial Remembrance of a
A collection of writings by the poet, novelist, and essayist recalling her childhood spent shuttling between the land
of her birth and the family home in New Jersey.
J & YA-RM B PAU
Paulsen, Gary
How Angel Peterson Got His Name
Stories from Gary Paulsen’s childhood
10
111 p.
YA-RM B PAU
Paulsen, Gary
Guts
148 p.
From Hatchet and The River to Brian's Winter and Brian's Return, readers and reviewers everywhere adore Gary
Paulsen's exciting stories about brave Brian Robeson. Now, real-life adventurer Paulsen reveals the actual events
that inspired him to write these survival stories. From his first hunting trips to his memories of moose attacks, to
his near-plane crashes to his own tried-and-true tips on cooking in the wilderness, Paulsen shares the
experiences that inspired Brian's adventures in the woods just as they happened to him.
YA-RM B PAU
Paulsen, Gary
Eastern Sun, Winter Moon
244 p.
As one savage war ends, another begins, just as savage - and this time endless. Fifty years after World War II,
Gary Paulsen paints a self-portrait of a young boy drawn helplessly into the vortex of that war. His testimony to its
horrors, to an early and traumatic exposure to sex, and to the wreckage of his family life spares neither himself
nor his audience. Told with the startling frankness and candor of a young boy, Eastern Sun, Winter Moon will
shock, outrage, and, ultimately, give readers a larger understanding of war, family, and desire.
YA-RM & B PEL Pelzer, Dave The Privilege of Youth: A Teenager’s Story of Longing
for Acceptance and Friendship 209 p.
More than six million readers can attest to the heartbreak and courage of Dave Pelzer’s story of growing up in an
abusive home. His inspirational books have helped countless others triumph over hardship and misfortune.
Now this former lost boy who defeated insurmountable odds to emerge whole and happy at last takes us on his
incredible odyssey toward healing and forgiveness. In The Privilege of Youth, Pelzer supplies the missing chapter
of his life: as a boy on the threshold of adulthood. With his usual sensitivity and insight, he recounts the relentless
taunting he endured from bullies; but he also describes the joys of learning and the thrill of making his first real
friends - some of whom he still shares close relationships with today. He writes about the simple pleasures of
exploring a neighborhood he was just beginning to get to know while trying to forget the hell he had endured as a
child. From high school to a world beyond the four walls that were his prison for so many years, The Privilege of
Youth charts this crucial turning point in Dave Pelzer’s life. This brave and compassionate memoir from the man
who has journeyed far will inspire a whole new generation of readers.
YA-RM B PEL Pelzer, Dave A Man Named Dave: A Story of Triumph and Forgiveness
290 p.
"All those years you tried your best to break me, and I'm still here. One day you'll see, I'm going to make
something of myself." These words were Dave Pelzer's declaration of independence to his mother, and they
represented the ultimate act of self-reliance. Dave's father never intervened as his mother abused him with
shocking brutality. But even after he was rescued, his life remained haunted by memories of his years as the
bruised, cowering "It" locked in his mother's basement. Desperately trying to make something of his life, Dave
was determined to weather every setback and gain strength from adversity. With stunning generosity of spirit,
Dave Pelzer invites readers on his journey to discover how a lost, nameless boy finally found himself in the heart
and soul of a man who is free at last.
YA-RM B PFE
Pfetzer, Mark & Jack Galvin
Within Reach: My Everest Story
222 p.
The author describes how he spent his teenage years climbing mountains in the United States, South America,
Africa, and Asia, with an emphasis on his two expeditions up Mount Everest.
YA-RM B Rodriguez
Fall of a Latin Queen
Rodriguez, Sonia & Reymundo Sanchez Lady Q: The Rise and
269 p.
This is a raw and powerful memoir not only of one woman’s struggle to survive the streets but also of her ascent
to the top ranks of the new mafia, where the only people more dangerous than rival gangs were members of her
own. At age five Sonia Rodriguez’s stepfather began to abuse her; at 10 she was molested by her uncle and
beaten by her mother when she told on him; and by 13 her home had become a hangout for the Latin Kings and
Queens who were friends with her older sister. Threatened by rival gang members at school, Sonia turned away
from her education and extracurricular activities in favor of a world of drugs and violence. The Latin Kings, one of
the largest and most notorious street gangs in America, became her refuge, but its violence cost her friends,
freedom, self-respect, and nearly her life. As a Latin Queen, she experienced the exhilarating highs and
unbelievable lows of gang life. From being shot at by her own gang and kicked out at age 18 with an infant
daughter to rejoining the gang and distinguishing herself as a leader, her legacy as Lady Q was cemented both
for her willingness to commit violence and for her role as a drug mule. For the first time, a woman’s perspective
on gang life is presented.
11
YA-RM B ROW
107 p.
Shapiro, Marc
J.K. Rowling: The Wizard Behind Harry Potter
A biography of J.K. Rowling.
YA-RM B SAL
273 p.
Salzman, Mark
Lost in Place: Growing Up Absurd in Suburbia
The oldest child in a middle-class household in Ridgefield, Connecticut, the son of a piano teacher and a social
worker, the author was, from the age of six, an eccentric with enormous aspirations - none of them ever fulfilled,
of course - who stood out not only from his more conventional parents and brother and sister but from everyone
else in the neighborhood. In the tradition of Russell Baker's Growing Up and Spalding Gray's Sex and Death to
the Age 14, Mark Salzman recalls his tortured years so fondly, so self-deprecatingly and so humorously that
readers will devour this delightful look backward with smiles on their faces.
COMICS B Satrapi
Satrapi, Marjane
Persepolis
153 p.
Persepolis paints an unforgettable portrait of daily life in Iran: of the bewildering contradictions between home life
and public life and of the enormous toll repressive regimes exact on the individual spirit. Marjane's child's-eyeview of dethroned emperors, state-sanctioned whippings, and heroes of the revolution allows us to learn as she
does the history of this fascinating country and of her own extraordinary family. Intensely personal, profoundly
political, and wholly original, Persepolis is at once a story of growing up and a stunning reminder of the human
cost of war and political repression.
COMICS B Satrapi Satrapi, Marjane Persepolis II
187 p.
Finding that she misses her home more than she can stand, Marjane returns to Iran after graduation. Her difficult
homecoming forces her to confront the changes both she and her country have undergone in her absence and
her shame at what she perceives as her failure in Austria. Marjane allows her past to weigh heavily on her until
she finds some like-minded friends, falls in love, and begins studying art at a university. However, the repression
and state-sanctioned chauvinism eventually lead her to question whether she can have a future in Iran.
YA-RM B SCH
Scholinsky, Daphne
The Last Time I Wore A Dress
211 p.
In 1981, at the age of 15, Daphne Scholinsky was put in a mental hospital for what her psychiatrist called “failure
to identify as a sexual female.” Though the facts are truly frightening, The Last Time I Wore a Dress is an expose
of a shameful medical sham that destroyed countless childhoods.
YA-RM B Sheff
Sheff, Nic
We All Fall Down: Living With Addiction
In his bestselling memoir Tweak, Nic Sheff took readers on an emotionally gripping roller-coaster ride through his
days as a crystal meth and heroin addict. Now in this powerful follow-up about his continued efforts to stay clean,
Nic writes candidly about eye-opening stays at rehab centers, devastating relapses, and hard-won realizations
about what it means to be a young person living with addiction.
COMICS B Small
Small, David
Stitches: A Memoir
324 p.
Finalist for the 2009 National Book Award (young adult category): the prize-winning children's author depicts a
childhood from hell in this searing yet redemptive graphic memoir.
YA-RM B Smithson Smithson, Ryan
19-year-old GI
310 p.
Ghosts of War: The True Story of a
Ryan Smithson joined the Army Reserve when he was seventeen. Two years later, he was deployed to Iraq as an
Army engineer. In this extraordinary and harrowing memoir, readers march along one GI's tour of duty. It will
change the way you feel about what it means to be an American.
YA-RM B SPI
Spinelli, Jerry
Knots in My Yo-Yo String
148 p.
This Italian-American Newbery Medalist presents a humorous account of his childhood and youth in Norristown,
Pennsylvania.
12
YA-RM B STA
Standing Bear, Luther My Indian Boyhood
189 p.
Although the traditional Sioux nation was in its last days when Luther Standing Bear was born in the 1860s, he
was raised in the ancestral manner to be a successful hunter and warrior and a respectful and productive member
of Sioux society. Known as Plenty Kill, young Standing Bear belonged to the Western Sioux tribe that inhabited
present-day North and South Dakota. In My Indian Boyhood he describes, with clarity and feeling lent by
experience, the home life and education of Indian children. Like other boys, he played with toy bows and arrows
in the tipi before learning to make and use them and became schooled in the ways of animals and in the
properties of plants and herbs. His life would be very different from that of his ancestors, but he was not denied
the excitement of killing his first buffalo before leaving to attend the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania.
YA-RM B STO
Scott, John Anthony
Harriet Beecher Stowe
168 p.
Woman Against Slavery: The Story of
When Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published in 1852, it was as if a torch had been put to a smoldering national
issue—for the first time, millions of Americans were made conscious of the human anguish of slavery. This is her
story and how she came to be the author of one of the most impactful works of fiction in American history.
YA-RM B Taylor Taylor, Blake
the Dinner Table 176 p.
ADHD & Me: What I Learned From Lighting Fires at
Blake Taylor's memoir, written when he was 17, offers, for the first time, a young person's account of what it's like
to live and grow up with this common condition. Join Blake as he foils bullies, confronts unfair teachers, struggles
with distraction and disorganization on exams, and goes sailing out-of-bounds and ends up with a boatload of
spiders. It will be an inspiration and companion to the millions of others like him who must find a way to thrive with
a different perspective than many of us.
YA-RM & B THO
Bruchac, Joseph
Jim Thorpe: Original All-American
275 p.
Jim Thorpe was one of the greatest athletes who ever lived. He played professional football, Major League
Baseball, and won Olympic gold medals in track & field. But his life wasn’t an easy one. Born on the Sac and Fox
Reservation in 1887, he encountered much family tragedy, and was sent as a young boy to various Indian
boarding schools—strict, cold institutions that didn’t allow their students to hold on to their Native American
languages and traditions. Jim ran away from school many times, until he found his calling at Pennsylvania’s
Carlisle Indian School. There, the now-legendary coach Pop Warner recognized Jim’s athletic excellence and
welcomed him onto the football and track teams. Focusing on Jim Thorpe’s years at Carlisle, this book brings his
early athletic career—and especially his college football days—to life, while also dispelling some myths about him
and movingly depicting the Native American experience at the turn of the twentieth century. This is a book for
history buffs as well as sports fans—an illuminating and lively read about a truly great American.
B TUB
Clinton, Catherine
Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom 272 p.
Illiterate but deeply religious, Harriet Tubman was raised on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in the 1820s, not far
from where Frederick Douglass was born. As an adolescent, she incurred a severe head injury when she stepped
between a lead weight thrown by an irate master and the slave it was meant for. She recovered but suffered from
visions and debilitating episodes for the rest of her life. While still in her early twenties she left her family and her
husband, a free black, to make the journey north alone. Yet within a year of her arrival in Philadelphia, she found
herself drawn back south, first to save family members slated for the auction block, then others. Soon she
became one of the most infamous enemies of slaveholders. She established herself as the first and only woman,
the only black, and one of the few fugitive slaves to work as a conductor on the Underground Railroad. In the
decade leading up to the Civil War, Tubman made over a dozen trips south in raids that were so brazen and so
successful that a steep price was offered as a bounty on her head. When the Civil War broke out, she became the
only woman to officially lead men into battle, acting as a scout and a spy while serving with the Union Army in
South Carolina.
YA-RM B UCH
Uchida, Yoshiko
The Invisible Thread
136 p.
Children's author, Yoshiko Uchida, describes growing up in Berkeley, California, as a Nisei, second generation
Japanese American, and her family's internment in a Nevada concentration camp during World War II.
13
B UMRIGAR Umrigar, Thrity
Indian Childhood
294 p.
First Darling of the Morning: Selected Memories of an
First Darling of the Morning is the powerful and poignant memoir of bestselling author Thrity Umrigar, tracing the
arc of her Bombay childhood and adolescence from her earliest memories to her eventual departure for the
United States at age twenty-one. It is an evocative, emotionally charged story of a young life steeped in paradox;
of a middle-class Parsi girl attending Catholic school in a predominantly Hindu city; of a guilt-ridden stranger in
her own land, an affluent child in a country mired in abysmal poverty. She reveals intimate secrets and offers an
unflinching look at family issues once considered unspeakable as she interweaves two fascinating coming-of-age
stories—one of a small child, and one of a nation.
B WAL
Walls, Jeannette
The Glass Castle: A Memoir
288 p.
Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their
salvation. Rex and Rose Mary Walls had four children. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving among
Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic, brilliant man who, when sober,
captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and above all, how to embrace life fearlessly.
Rose Mary, who painted and wrote and couldn't stand the responsibility of providing for her family, called herself
an "excitement addict." Cooking a meal that would be consumed in fifteen minutes had no appeal when she could
make a painting that might last forever. Later, when the money ran out, or the romance of the wandering life
faded, the Walls retreated to the dismal West Virginia mining town -- and the family -- Rex Walls had done
everything he could to escape. He drank. He stole the grocery money and disappeared for days. As the
dysfunction of the family escalated, Jeannette and her brother and sisters had to fend for themselves, supporting
one another as they weathered their parents' betrayals and, finally, found the resources and will to leave home.
YA-RM B Wasdin Wasdin, Howard & Stephen Templin I Am a SEAL Team Six Warrior:
Memoirs of an American Soldier
When the Navy sends their elite, they send the SEALs. When the SEALs send their elite, they send SEAL Team
Six—a secret unit made up of the finest soldiers in the country, if not the world. I Am a SEAL Team Six Warrior is
the dramatic tale of how Howard Wasdin overcame a tough childhood to live his dream and enter the exciting and
dangerous world of U.S. Navy SEALS and Special Forces snipers. His training began with his selection for Basic
Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S)—the toughest and longest military training in the world. After graduating,
Wasdin saw combat in Operation Desert Storm as a member of SEAL Team Two. But he was driven to be the
best of the best—he wanted to join the legendary SEAL Team Six, and at long last he reached his goal and
became one of the best snipers on the planet. Soon he was fighting for his life in The Battle of Mogadishu. This is
Howard Wasdin's story of overcoming abuse and beating the odds to become an elite American warrior.
YA-RM B WHI
White, Ryan
Ryan White: My Own Story
296 p.
Ryan White describes how he got AIDS, engaged in a legal battle to return to school, and became a celebrity and
spokesman for issues concerning the deadly disease.
YA-RM B Zaharias
of a Champion
Freedman, Russell
192 p.
Babe Didrikson Zaharias: The Making
A biography of Babe Didrikson, who broke records in golf, track and field, and other sports, at a time when there
were few opportunities for female athletes, and an enormous amount of pressure on the few that made it.
YA-RM B Zenatti
Zenatti, Valerie
When I Was a Soldier 235 p.
What is it like to be a young woman in a war?
At a time when Israel is in the news every day and politics in the Middle East are as complex as ever before, this
story of one girl's experience in the Israeli national army is both topical and fascinating. Valerie begins her story
as she finishes her exams, breaks up with her boyfriend, and leaves for service with the Israeli army. Nothing has
prepared her for the strict routines, grueling marches, poor food, lack of sleep and privacy, or crushing of initiative
that she now faces. But this harsh life has excitement, too, such as working in a spy center near Jerusalem and
listening in on Jordanian pilots. Offering a glimpse into the life of a typical Israeli teen, even as it lays bare the
relentless nature of war, Valerie's story is one young readers will have a hard time forgetting.
14
YA-RM B ZOY
Zoya
Zoya’s Story
239 p.
Zoya is a 23-year-old Afghan woman who has already seen enough misery and heartbreak to last a lifetime. She
grew up with war as a constant companion, her mother and father killed by Muslim fundamentalists. Fleeing Kabul
with her grandmother, she wound up in Pakistan, where she joined an organization devoted to ending the
Taliban's rule. Her crusade for freedom has led her back to Afghanistan many times, in an effort to help other
women imprisoned within their oppressive burqas. Zoya's experiences and thirst for change will enlighten and
inspire.
YA-RM 305.235 BLA
Blanco, Jodee
Please Stop Laughing at Me 273 p.
While other kids were daydreaming about dances, first kisses, and college, Jodee Blanco was just trying to figure
out how to get from homeroom to study hall without being taunted or spit upon as she walked through the halls.
This powerful, unforgettable memoir chronicles how one child was shunned-and sometimes physically-abused by
her classmates from elementary school through high school. It is an unflinching look at what it means to be the
outcast, how even the most loving parents can get it all wrong, why schools are often unable to prevent disaster,
and how bullying has been misunderstood and mishandled by the mental health community.
YA-RM 305.235 F Feig, Paul
Kick Me: Adventures in Adolescence
288 p.
Written in side-splitting and often cringe-inducing detail, Paul Feig takes you in a time machine to a world of
bombardment by dodge balls, ill-fated prom dates, hellish school bus rides, and other aspects of public school life
that will keep you laughing in recognition and occasionally sighing in relief that you aren't him. Kick Me is a
nostalgic trip for the inner geek in all of us.
YA-RM 362.198 H
Hayden, Torey
Ghost Girl
320 p.
Jadie never spoke. She never laughed, or cried, or uttered any sound. Despite efforts to reach her, Jadie
remained locked in her own troubled world—until one remarkable teacher persuaded her to break her selfimposed silence. Nothing in all of Torey Hayden's experience could have prepared her for the shock of what Jadie
told her—a story too horrendous for Torey's professional colleagues to acknowledge. Yet a little girl was living in a
nightmare, and Torey Hayden responded in the only way she knew how—with courage, compassion, and
dedication—demonstrating once again the tremendous power of love and the resilience of the human spirit.
YA-RM 362.28 R
Runyon, Brent
Burn Journals
336 p
BRENT RUNYON WAS 14 years old when he set himself on fire.
This is a true story.
In The Burn Journals, Runyon describes that devastating suicide attempt and his recovery over the following year.
He takes us into the Burn Unit in a children’s hospital and through painful burn care and skin-grafting procedures.
Then to a rehabilitation hospital, for intensive physical, occupational, and psychological therapy. And then finally
back home, to the frightening prospect of entering high school. But more importantly, Runyon takes us into his
own mind. He shares his thoughts and hopes and fears with such unflinching honesty that we understand—with a
terrible clarity—what it means to want to kill yourself and how it feels to struggle back toward normality.
YA-RM 362.76 P Pelzer, David J. A Child Called “It”: An Abused Child’s Journey
from Victim to Victor
184 p.
This book is a brief horrifying account of the bizarre tortures David’s mother inflicted on him. It is told from the
point of view of the author as a young boy being starved, stabbed, smashed face-first into mirrors, forced to eat
the contents of his siblings diapers and a spoonful of ammonia, and burned over a gas stove by a maniacal,
alcoholic mom. It also gives an account of his removal from this terrible environment and the beginning of a better
life.
YA-RM 364.36 V
261 p.
Vona, Abigail
Bad Girl: Confessions of a Teenage Delinquent
Three years ago, fifteen year old Abigail Vona lived a life so far out of control (booze, boys, drugs, stealing, and
runaway charges) that her father committed her to Peninsula Village, a controversial treatment facility for
"behavior modification" in Louisville, Tennessee. She was kept inside this "level-three lockdown" and "wilderness
boot camp" for nearly a year. And though it all started out as a nightmare, it eventually became her salvation.
YA-RM 370.92 J
Jurmain, Suzanne Forbidden Schoolhouse: The True and Dramatic
Story of Prudence Crandall and her Students 150 p.
They threw rocks and rotten eggs at the school windows. Villagers refused to sell Miss Crandall groceries or let
her students attend the town church. Mysteriously, her schoolhouse was set on fire- by whom and how remains a
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mystery. The town authorities dragged her to jail and put her on trial for breaking the law. Her crime? Trying to
teach African American girls geography, history, reading, philosophy, and chemistry. Trying to open and maintain
one of the first African American schools in America.
YA-RM 610.922 D
Davis, Sampon We Beat the Street
208 p.
Sampson, George, and Rameck could easily have followed their childhood friends into drugdealing, gangs, and
prison. Like their peers, they came from poor, single-parent homes in urban neighborhoods where survival, not
scholastic success, was the priority. When the three boys met in a magnet high school in Newark, they
recognized each other as kindred spirits who wanted to overcome the incredible odds against them and reach for
opportunity. They made a friendship pact, deciding together to take on the biggest challenge of their lives:
attending college and then medical school. Along the way they made mistakes and faced disappointments, but by
working hard, finding the right mentors, separating themselves from negative influences, and supporting each
other, they achieved their goals—and more.
YA-RM 616.83 PAT Patterson, James & Hal Friedman
Drag-out, Drugged-up Battle with My Brain
Med-Head: My Knock-down,
How it FEELS to have a body that won't stop moving, to be really different from everyone else, to be made fun of
every day, to be totally reckless, to never relax, to be shut out of everything, to break FREE and TAKE
CONTROL. James Patterson's Against Medical Advice riveted adults with the page-turning drama of one
teenager's courage, sacrifice, and triumph in confronting an agonizing medical condition. Now this deeply
personal account of Cory Friedman's intense struggles with Tourette's Syndrome and Obsessive Compulsive
Disorder—as well as depression, anxiety, and alcohol addiction—is available for teen readers.
YA-RM 616.861 Z
Zailckas, Koren
Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood
342 p.
Perhaps the most cautionary aspect of Zailckas' eye-opening account of girlhood alcohol abuse is the fact that her
story is surprisingly common. Like many girls, she took her first tentative sips at the age of 14. Two years later,
she would remember few details of the night she landed -- bruised, filthy, and completely spent -- in the local
emergency room, a couple of drinks away from death by alcohol poisoning.
YA-RM 616.89 K
Kaysen, Susanna
Girl, Interrupted 168 p.
In the late 1960s, the author spent nearly two years on the ward for teenage girls at McLean Hospital, a renowned
psychiatric facility. Her memoir encompasses horror and razor-edged perceptions, while providing vivid portraits
of her fellow patients and their keepers.
YA-RM 621.483 SIL
Silverstein, Ken
Radioactive Boyscout 240 p.
Growing up in suburban Detroit, David Hahn was fascinated by science. While he was working on his Atomic
Energy badge for the Boy Scouts, David’s obsessive attention turned to nuclear energy. Throwing caution to the
wind, he plunged into a new project: building a model nuclear reactor in his backyard garden shed. Posing as a
physics professor, David solicited information on reactor design from the U.S. government and from industry
experts. Following blueprints he found in an outdated physics textbook, David cobbled together a crude device
that threw off toxic levels of radiation. His wholly unsupervised project finally sparked an environmental
emergency that put his town’s forty thousand suburbanites at risk. The EPA ended up burying his lab at a
radioactive dumpsite in Utah. This offbeat account of ambition and, ultimately, hubris has the narrative energy of a
first-rate thriller.
YA-RM 759.13 RUB
Georgia O’Keefe
Rubin, Susan Goldman
Wideness & Wonder: The Life & Art of
Wideness and Wonder is the fascinating story of the mysterious and beloved artist Georgia O'Keeffe.
YA-RM 796.8155 POL
Polly, Matthew American Shaolin
350 p.
The raucously funny story of one young American's quest to become the baddest dude on the planet (and
possibly find inner peace along the way) Growing up a ninety-eight-pound weakling tormented by bullies in the
schoolyards of Kansas, Matthew Polly dreamed of one day journeying to the Shaolin Temple in China to become
the toughest fighter in the world, like Caine in his favorite 1970s TV series Kung Fu.
American Shaolin is the story of the two years Matthew spent in China living, studying, and performing with the
Shaolin monks. The Chinese term for tough training is chi ku (“eating bitter”), and Matthew quickly learned to
appreciate the phrase. This is both the gripping story of Matthew's journey and an intimate portrait of the real
lives of the Shaolin monks, who struggle to overcome rampant corruption and the restrictions of an authoritarian
government. Laced with humor and illuminated by cultural insight, American Shaolin is an unforgettable coming-
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of- age story of one man's journey into the ancient art of kungfu—and a poignant portrait of a rapidly changing
China.
YA-RM 811.6 S
Schutz, Samantha
I Don't Want to be Crazy
280 p.
This is a true story of growing up, breaking down, and coming to grips with a psychological disorder. When
Samantha Schutz first left home for college, she was excited by the possibilities -- freedom from parents, freedom
from a boyfriend who was reckless with her affections, freedom from the person she was supposed to be. At first,
she revelled in the independence ... but as pressures increased , she began to suffer anxiety attacks that would
leave her mentally shaken and physically incapacitated. Thus began a hard road of discovery and coping,
powerfully rendered in this poetry memoir.
YA-RM 920 F Fradin, Judith Bloom
5,000 Miles to Freedom 100 p.
In 1848, with slavery at its height in Georgia, slaves William and Ellen Craft made plans to flee north. Ellen, who
could pass for white, cut her hair and donned the clothing of a young gentleman. William posed as her personal
slave. Their dangerous journey took them first to Philadelphia, then to Boston, and ultimately to England. With the
aid of a network of abolitionists and free blacks, they learned to read and write, lectured about their flight, and
worked hard to support themselves. After the Civil War, they returned to Georgia to establish a school for former
slaves.
YA-RM 940.53 J Jackson, Livia Bitton
I Have Lived a Thousand Years: Growing Up in
the Holocaust
224 p.
Thirteen when she and her family were send to Auschwitz, Bitton-Jackson vividly describes the horrors they
faced.
YA-RM 940.5318 OPD Opdyke, Irene Gut
Survivor
276 p.
In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust
Recounts the experiences of the author who, as a young Polish girl, hid and saved Jews during the Holocaust.
YA-RM 940.548 W
Wiesel, Elie
Night
109 p.
An autobiographical narrative in which the author describes his experiences in Nazi concentration camps,
watching family and friends die, and how they led him to believe that God is dead.
YA-RM 949.702 F Filipovic, Zlata
Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Sarajevo
197 p.
Eleven year-old Zlata began keeping her diary before the shelling began in Sarajevo that changed her life.
YA-RM 956.944 BAR
Barakat, Ibtisam
Tasting the Sky
192 p.
In this groundbreaking memoir set in Ramallah during the aftermath of the 1967 Six-Day War, Ibtisam Barakat
captures what it is like to be a child whose world is shattered by war. With candor and courage, she stitches
together memories of her childhood: fear and confusion as bombs explode near her home and she is separated
from her family; the harshness of life as a Palestinian refugee; her unexpected joy when she discovers Alef, the
first letter of the Arabic alphabet. This is the beginning of her passionate connection to words, and as language
becomes her refuge, allowing her to piece together the fragments of her world, it becomes her true home.
974.7 S
Santiago, Esmeralda
When I Was Puerto Rican
274 p.
Magic, high comedy, and intense drama move through an enchanted yet harsh autobiography, in the story of a
young girl who leaves rural Puerto Rico for New York’s tenements and a chance for success.
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