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Biographies

Middle School

Fleischman, John. Phineas Gage: A Gruesome But True Story about Brain Science. jBIOG Gage, P.
The day a premature explosion drove a tamping iron through Phineas Gage's brain, both his personality and life changed.
Fleischman, Sid. The Abracadabra Kid: A Writer's Life. jBIOG Fleischman, S., CASS (BK.) jBIOG Fleischman, S.
Magician, World War II sailor, screenwriter, and children's book author Sid Fleischman tells his life story.
Freedman, Russell. Eleanor Roosevelt: A Life of Discovery. jBIOG Roosevelt, E., CASS (BK.) jBIOG Roosevelt, E.
From her hard childhood to her life after FDR's death, Freedman covers the history of a very influential First Lady.
Freedman, Russell. The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane. jBIOG Wright
Illustrated by contemporary photographs, Freedman's book tells not only how the Wright brothers invented but also how they developed and refined the airplane.
Jiang, Ji-li. Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution. ya 951.05 Jia
Only twelve when her life was turned upside down by Mao's Cultural Revolution, Ji-li remained loyal to her family, endangering her future in China.
Kehret, Peg. Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio. jBIOG Kehret, P.
Her supportive and loving family sustained twelve-year-old Peg while she fought to stay out of an iron lung, recover, and walk again.
Lobel, Anita. No Pretty Pictures: A Child of War. jBIOG Lobel, A.
Lobel, now a famous illustrator of children's books, tells how she and her family survived the Shoah, or Holocaust, how she and her brother recovered in Sweden, and how the family was reunited.
Lowry, Lois. Looking Back: A Book of Memories. jBIOG Lowry, L.
In this collection, Lowry begins each memory by quoting from one of her books. She then recounts a bit of her life, usually illustrated by a photograph, that went into the creation of the character, event, or setting in the quotation.
Paulsen, Gary. My Life in Dog Years. jBIOG Paulsen, G.
Paulsen gives glimpses of his life over the years by telling of the wonderful dogs that were his companions during different phases of life.
Peet, Bill. Bill Peet: An Autobiography. jBIOG Peet, B.
Peet tells and shows, in entertaining cartoons, how he became a cartoonist, worked for Disney, and began illustrating children's books.
Parks, Rosa. Rosa Parks: My Story. jBIOG Parks, R.
The woman who started the Montgomery bus boycott by refusing to give up her seat tells her story.
Partridge, Elizabeth. Restless Spirit: The Life and Work of Dorothea Lange. jBIOG Lange, D.
This biography of the woman that photographed people of the Depression and interned Japanese Americans makes clear the cost of her art, both to herself and to her children.
Thomas, Jane Resh. Behind the Mask: The Life of Queen Elizabeth I. jBIOG Elizabeth I
From her birth in 1533 to her death almost 70 years later, Queen Elizabeth was beset by enemies, yet this complex woman, as Thomas describes her, became one of England's most influential rulers and gave her name to her time, the Elizabethan age.

High School

Al-Windawi, Thura. Thura's Diary: My Life in War-Time Iraq. ya 956.70443 Alw
When American soldiers invaded Iraq in the spring of 2003, Thura and her family didn't know if they would live or die, but only that their lives were turned upside down.
Armstrong, Lance. It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life. ya 796.62092 Arm, 796.62092 Arm
Lance Armstrong not only overcomes cancer that has spread to his brain but comes back to win the Tour De France.
Beals, Melba Patillo. Warriors Don't Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High. 370.19 Bea
Melba Beals, one of the nine teenagers who first integrated a segregated southern high school, tells how she met her goal to finish the year alive.
Bragg, Rick. All Over But the Shoutin'. BIOG Bragg, R., ya BIOG Bragg, R., CASS (BK.) BIOG Bragg, R.
Abused and abandoned by his alcoholic father and raised in a backwater of Alabama, Rick Bragg credits his mother's sacrifices for his eventual success as a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist.
Codell, Esme. Educating Esme: Diary of a Teacher's First Year. 372.11 Cod
As a first-year teacher in inner city Chicago, Esme helps her students learn despite crime, poverty, parental neglect and abuse, and administrative ignorance.
Crutcher, Chris. King of the Mild Frontier: An Ill-Advised Autobiography. ya BIOG Crutcher, C.
Crutcher's real-life adventures growing up are at least as interesting as, and much funnier than, those of his fictional characters.
Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. BIOG Douglass, F.
Escaped slave Douglass gives a clear and horrifying picture of what slavery was like.
Feynman, Richard. "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character. 530.0924 Fey, CASS (BK.) 530.0924 Fey
This autobiography seems much too funny to be about a Nobel prize-winning physicist, but he wasn't joking.
Filipovic, Zlata. Zlata's Diary. BIOG Filipovic, Z., ya BIOG Filipovic, Z., CASS (BK.) BIOG Filipovic, Z.
A young teen's diary describes the realities of the war in Sarajevo.
Frank, Anne. Anne Frank: the Diary of a Young Girl. BIOG Frank, A., CASS (BK.) BIOG Frank, A., ya BIOG Frank, A., J BIOG, Frank, A., CASS (BK.) jBIOG Frank, A., CD (BK.) jBIOG Frank, A.
While hiding from the Nazis with her family and other Jews in an attic in the Netherlands, Anne kept this diary.
Hart, Elva Trevino. Barefoot Heart: Stories of a Migrant Child. ya 973.046872 Har
As a child working the fields in Wisconsin, Elva slept with her family in a building that had housed pigs, but she became a successful businesswoman who eventually made peace with her past.
Hickham, Homer. Rocket Boys: A Memoir. BIOG Hickham, H., BIOG Hickham, H. LARGE PRINT
Though his father wanted Homer to be an engineer for the West Virginia coal mines in which his family had worked for generations, Homer's dream was to launch rockets like Wernher Von Braun at NASA.
Houston, Jeanne Wakatsuki. Farewell to Manzanar: A True Story of Japanese Experience During and After the World War II Internment. ya 940.5474 Hou, 940.5474 Hou
Jeanne tells of the internment and disintegration of her family during World War II, as well as discrimination following the war.
Krakauer, Jon. Into the Wild. BIOG McCandless C., ya BIOG McCandless, C., BIOG McCandless, C. LARGE PRINT
Krakauer tries to solve the mystery of the death in Alaska of an intelligent young man well-versed in survival.
Macdonald, Andy. Dropping in With Andy Mac: The Life of a Pro Skateboarder. ya 796.22 Mac
Andy tells how he succeeded in making a living at the skateboarding he loves, despite the dire predictions of family and friends.
McCourt, Frank. Angela's Ashes. BIOG McCourt, F., BIOG McCourt, F. LARGE PRINT, CASS (BK.) BIOG McCourt, F.
Despite a childhood of poverty that killed two siblings, McCourt survived with his sense of humor intact.
Runyon, Brent. The Burn Journals. ya 362.28 Run
Fourteen-year-old Brent tried to escape the trouble he was in by soaking his bathrobe in gasoline, putting it over his head, and setting a match to it, but he learned he had jumped out of the frying pan into the fire much too literally.
S, Tina with Jamie Pastor Bolnick. Living at the Edge of the World: How I Survived the Tunnels of Grand Central Station. ya 362.74 S
After Tina escaped her tumultuous family by running away, she had to escape her new life sleeping under Grand Central Station, using drugs, begging, stealing, and surviving violence.
Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis. ya BIOG Satrapi, M., BIOG Satrapi, M.
Both cartoons and text convey the frightening changes for Marjane's secular family as the Shah is deposed and extremist Muslims take control of the government of Iran.
X, Malcolm. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. BIOG X, Malcolm
Malcolm X tells his story, from disadvanged child to criminal to inmate to Black Muslim to leader of the Nation of Islam to true Muslim.
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