Biographies for Teens
African-Americans
Warriors Don't Cry: A
Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High
By Melba Beals (312 pgs.) ANF
370.19 BEA
Beals,
one of the nine black students who integrated
She Got Game: My
Personal Odyssey
By Cynthia Cooper (229 pgs.) Adult
Biography COOPER
Cooper's
odyssey took her from
By Matt Christopher (110 pgs.) Youth
Biography HILL
A biography of the son of former Dallas Cowboys halfback Calvin Hill
who grew up to become a star basketball player with the Detroit Pistons.
By Leon Tillage (107 pgs.) Youth
Biography TILLAGE
One man's story shared by thousands of African Americans before,
during, and after the Civil Rights Movement.
Up from Slavery: An
Autobiography
By Booker T. Washington (243 pgs.) Adult
Biography
One of the greatest American autobiographies ever written.
Malcolm X: By Any
Means Necessary
By Walter Dean Myers (210 pgs.) Youth
Biography X, MALCOLM
Myers
strikes a good balance between his subject's personal life and broader social
issues. He does not judge whether or not Malcolm X's views were better than those
of King, but rather shows how both appealed to specific audiences and
contributed to the struggles of the 1960s.
Maritcha:
A Nineteenth Century American Girl
By Tonya
Bolden (47 pgs.) Youth
Biography
Bolden
introduces Maritcha Reymond
Lyon, born in the mid-1800s into a family of free blacks in
Astronauts & Pilots
I Touch the Future:
The Story of Christa McAuliffe
By Robert T. Hohler (262 pgs.) ANF
629.45 HOH
The
explosion of the space shuttle Challenger on
Sally Ride: First
American Woman in Space
By Carole Ann Kamp (104 pgs.) Youth
Biography RIDE
Sally Ride
was the first American woman in space. This is her story.
Authors
By
If you
liked Ramona Quimby, Henry Huggins or Runaway Ralph,
you will enjoy this memoir of their creator. Beverly Cleary tells us of her
childhood and her memories of growing up in
Stephen King: King of
Thrillers and Horrors
By Suzan Wilson (128 pgs.) Youth
Biography KING
The Man Who Created Narnia: The Story of C.S. Lewis
By Michael Coren (140 pgs.) Youth
Biography LEWIS
A thoughtful and thorough picture of the man as well as the era in
which he lived.
Looking Back: A Book
of Memories
By Lois Lowry (181 pgs.) Adult
Biography LOWRY
Imagine
sitting with a friend and listening while she tells you about the pictures in
her photo album. That is the feeling one has when browsing this book of Lowry's
family snapshots and reading her commentary on them.
King of the Mild
Frontier: An Ill-Advised Autobiography
By Chris Crutcher (260 pgs.) Youth
Biography CRUTCHER
Like his
novels, Crutcher's autobiography is full of
heartbreak, poignancy, and hilarity. He discusses his occasionally rocky
relationships with his parents and siblings, and how he found his own place in
the world.
By Gary Paulsen (137 pgs.) Youth
Biography PAULSEN
Paulsen
reveals bits and pieces of his own life story through his experiences with
eight of his dogs.
J.K. Rowling: The
Wizard Behind the Harry Potter Series
By Marc Shapiro (107 pgs.) Youth
Biography ROWLING
The first biography about the popular author.
Knots in My Yo-Yo
String: The Autobiography of a Kid
By Jerry Spinelli (148 pgs.) Youth
Biography SPINELLI
Spinelli
takes small snippets of the 10 years he lived on
It Came from Ohio: My
Life as a Writer
By R.L. Stine (140 pgs.) Youth
Biography STINE
In this
entertaining autobiography, the prolific author of horror books talks about his
childhood, his dreams of becoming a writer, and his success with the "
By Bee Lavender (160 pgs.) Adult
Biography LAVENDER
Lavender,
writer and online publisher, recounts her life spent in and out of hospitals
and her subsequent dissociation from her own body and emotions. She struggles
with health problems from birth, compounded by her surroundings, including
frequent encounters with street fights, domestic violence and poverty. It's
hard not to be in awe of what one fragile human being can withstand in the
course of such a short lifetime, she’s only 35.
By Walter Dean Myers (214 pgs.) Youth
Biography MYERS
Myers
tells of his childhood growing up in
World Citizens
The Rice Room:
Growing Up Chinese American, from Number Two Son to Rock 'n Roll
By Ben Fong-Torres (260 pgs.) Adult
Biography FONG-TORRES
Fong-Torres
describes the frustrations of growing up with a double identity--Chinese and
American. The urge to assimilate into the American mainstream
struggles with a sense of obligation to parents and Chinese tradition.
Chinese Cinderella:
The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter
By Adeline Yen Mah (205 pgs.) Youth
Biography MAH
Blamed for
the loss of her mother, who died shortly after giving birth to her, Mah is an outcast in her own family. That Mah eventually soars above her circumstances is proof of
her strength.
Explorers, Adventurists, & Heroes
Sir Walter Ralegh and the Quest for El Dorado
By Jon Krakauer (207 pgs.) Youth
Biography RALEGH
Aronson
examines the life of this complex Elizabethan figure, both poet and soldier.
The author expands his narrative beyond the details of a single life to draw a
portrait of the times in which Ralegh lived.
Within Reach: My
Everest Story
By Mark Pfetzer (224 pgs.) Youth
Biography PFETZER
Mark Pfetzer at age 16 was the youngest climber on
Fighting Fire: A
Personal Story
By Caroline Paul (272 pgs.) Adult
Biography PAUL
A member
of the department for nine years, the 34-year-old Paul chronicles her
incendiary battles in and out of the field as one of
The Forbidden
Schoolhouse: The True and Dramatic Story of Prudence Crandall and Her Students
By Suzanne Jurmain (150 pgs.) YNF
370.92 JUR
In the
1830s, Crandall broke ground when she admitted girls of color into her
By Edward Conlon (562 pgs.) Adult
Biography CONLON
Conlon
depicts his life on the force – from his first days walking the
Historical Figures
By Larry McMurtry (148 pgs.) Adult
Biography CRAZY HORSE
As whites
sought to remove the Plains Indians with increasing brutality, Crazy Horse led
his people in a sporadic and ultimately doomed resistance, which peaked at the
Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876.
Sacagawea: Westward
with Lewis and Clark
By Alana White (128 pgs.) Youth
Biography SACAGAWEA
Biography of the young Shoshone woman who accompanied Lewis and Clark
on their exploration of the West.
By Albert Marrin (246 pgs.) Youth
Biography SITTING BULL
Marrin
skillfully describes the customs, morals and spiritual beliefs that shaped
Sitting Bull into a wise man with strong "medicine" and a courageous
fighter for what he believed in.
Good Brother, Bad
Brother: The Story of Edwin Booth and John Wilkes Booth
By James Cross Giblin (244 pgs.) Youth
Biography BOOTH
Actors
Edwin and John Wilkes Booth each had a compelling stage presence and a fondness
for alcohol. Edwin spent his life building a reputation as the finest actor of
his time. John was impulsive, popular with the ladies, and best known today as
the man who assassinated Abraham Lincoln.
Our Eleanor: A
Scrapbook Look at Eleanor Roosevelt’s Remarkable Life
By Candace Fleming (176 pgs.) Youth
Biography
Fleming
invites readers into a camaraderie with the timid, neglected little girl who
grew up to become the First Lady of the United States that many nicknamed
"copresident," and whose flouting of
accepted gender roles earned her admiration and ridicule in equal measure.
By Kathleen Krull (126 pgs.) Youth
Biography
Profiles
Sir Isaac Newton, the secretive, obsessive, and brilliant English scientist who
invented calculus, built the first reflecting telescope, developed modern
scientific method, and discerned many laws of physics and optics.
Royalty
At Her Majesty's
Request: An African Princess in Victorian England
By Walter Dean Myers (146 pgs.) Youth
Biography BONETTA
A little girl, an orphaned African princess, who narrowly escaped
death in a West African village in 1850. Was saved by a British sea
captain by talking the king into giving the girl to Queen
Cleopatra: Goddess of
Egypt, Enemy of Rome
By Polly Schoyer Brooks (151 pgs.) Youth
Biography CLEOPATRA
An action-filled portrait of the last Ptolomeic
ruler of
Behind the Mask: The
Life of Queen Elizabeth I
By Jane Resh Thomas (196 pgs.) Adult
Biography
An examination of the second daughter of Henry VIII. Before inheriting the crown,
Scientists & Inventors
By Homer Hickam (368 pgs.) Adult
Biography HICKAM
14-year-old
Homer Hickam decided in 1957 to build his own rockets.
They were his ticket out of a mining town that was dying and with the help of
his mother and a science teacher, he grew up to be a
NASA engineer.
Jonas Salk:
Discoverer of the Polio Vaccine
By Carmen Bredeson (112 pgs.) Youth
Biography SALK
The author
emphasizes Salk’s discovery of the polio vaccine, but also writes of his
research since the 1950s, and his part in the search for an AIDS vaccine.
With a Little Luck:
Surprising Stories of Amazing Discovery
By Dennis Brindell Fradin (183 pgs.) YNF 509 FRA
A collective biography celebrating scientists, explorers and other
pioneers.
Lightning Man: The
Accursed Life Of Samuel F.B. Morse
By Kenneth Silverman (503 pgs.) Adult
Biography MORSE
This
biography is the very American tale of a quiet man, raised by religious
zealots, who became a gifted and prolific painter (more than three hundred
portraits and historical canvases), became the first Professor of Fine Arts at
an American college, and founded the National Academy of Design. A classic
overachiever, this was simply not enough for Samuel F. B. Morse; he
subsequently ran for Congress and mayor of
Singers and Dancers
John Lennon: All I Want is the Truth
By Elizabeth Partridge (232 pgs.) Youth
Biography LENNON
An
unflinchingly honest portrait of a troubled, angry, and highly creative
individual who was captivated by
rock
'n' roll and often used it as a means of expressing his unhappiness and
confusion.
By Savion Glover and Bruce Weber (79 pgs.) Youth
Biography GLOVER
An account of the career of the young dancer/choreographer whose
incorporation of rap and hip-hop into a declining American art form renewed the
popularity of tap dancing.
The Dancer Who Flew:
A Memoir of Rudolf Nureyev
By Linda Maybarduk (180 pgs.) Youth
Biography NUREYEV
The story
begins with his harsh childhood in rural
Sports
She Got Game: My
Personal Odyssey
By Cynthia Cooper (229 pgs.) Adult
Biography COOPER
Cooper's
odyssey took her from
By Matt Christopher (110 pgs.) Youth
Biography HILL
A biography of the son of former Dallas Cowboys halfback Calvin Hill who
grew up to become a star basketball player with the Detroit Pistons.
By Walter Dean Myers (172 pgs.) Youth
Biography ALI
Myers
interweaves fight sequences with the boxer's life story and the political
events and issues of the day. He doesn't shy away from reporting on the
brutality of the sport and documents the toll it has taken on its stars.
Hawk: Occupation:
Skateboarder
By Tony Hawk (289 pgs.) Adult
Biography HAWK
Skateboard
legend Tony Hawk tells of his journey from childhood as a taunted school boy to
manhood as a celebrated champion.
The Rock Says: The
Most Electrifying Man in Sports
By The Rock (292 pgs.) Adult
Biography ROCK
The Rock
is a third-generation pro wrestler, and his book amounts to a history of the
sport. The Rock is candid about the battles his family faced outside the ring:
the marriage-testing road lifestyle, his dad's most important win (over the
bottle), and the author's own dangerous temper.
By Keith Greenberg (112 pgs.) Youth
Biography
This book
takes readers through
By Matt Christopher (109 pgs.) Youth
Biography ELWAY
Begins
with Elways birth in 1960 and ends with the 1998
season when the he won his first Super Bowl.
Never Die Easy: The
Autobiography of Walter Payton
By Walter Payton (268 pgs.) Adult
Biography PAYTON
It's a
testament to Payton's greatness as a man that nearly half his autobiography can
be devoted to what he achieved after his football career. "Sweetness"
may have been one of the toughest players but he was also devoted to keeping
spirits high around him, even when facing the end of his own life.
In the Huddle with
Steve Young
By Matt Christopher (131 pgs.) Youth
Biography YOUNG
Biography of the scrambling quarterback of the
By Mike Leonetti (167 pgs.) ANF
796.962 LEO
Leonetti
chronicles the professional careers of 70 current players.
Hockey's Greatest
Stars: Legends and Young Lions
By Chris McDonell (190 pgs.) ANF
796.96209 MCD
This book
is divided into well-organized sections describing the great players at each of
the game's positions and a postscript with five young players who could join
the greats.
Boitano's
Edge: Inside the Real World of Figure Skating
By Brian Boitano with Suzanne Harper (144
pgs.) YNF 796.912 BOI
Boitano's
Edge is an insider's look at competitive figure skating. Filled
with photographs and reminiscences spanning the gold-medalist's career.
Michelle Kwan, Heart
of a Champion: An Autobiography
By Michelle Kwan (151 pgs.) Youth
Biography KWAN
The
17-year-old figure skater talks candidly about her life as a competitor; as a
champion; and as a daughter, a sister, and a teenager. She describes the
sacrifices that she and her family had to make early in her career and shares
her sense of determination and love of competition.
Tara Lipinski:
Triumph on Ice: An Autobiography
By Tara Lipinski and Emily Costello (116 pgs.) Youth
Biography LIPINSKI
Fifteen-year-old
ice skater Tara Lipinski recounts her life story from her early years when she
began roller-skating at the age of three, through her 1997 triumphs as
Go for the Goal: A
Champion's Guide to Winning in Soccer and Life
By Mia Hamm and Aaron Heifetz (222 pgs.) ANF
796.334 HAM
She tells
the story of the Army brat who rose to international stardom, but her book is
really a pep talk and soccer instructional aimed at the hearts of the countless
young women hoping to fill her enormous cleats.
Dropping in with Andy
Mac: The Life of a Pro Skateboarder
By Andy MacDonald (158 pgs.) Youth
Biography MACDONALD
Macdonald
takes readers on his journey from his youth in
Babe Didrikson Zaharias: The Making of
a Champion
By Russell Freedman (192 pgs.) Youth
Biography ZAHARIAS
Profile of one of this century's most remarkable athletes and
larger-than-life personalities. The Michael Jordan of her day, Didrikson
not only excelled at every sport she tried, but she also became a darling of
the media.
Survivors
By Mirjam Pressler
(176 pgs.) Youth
Biography FRANK
Mirjam
Pressler explains the three versions of the Anne
Frank diaries, discusses newly revealed material, and speculates on Anne's
spiritual and sexual development during her three-year confinement in the
secret annex.
I Have Lived a
Thousand Years: Growing Up in the Holocaust
By Livia Bitton-Jackson
(224 pgs.) YNF
940.5318 JAC
This
Holocaust memoir describes what happens to a Jewish girl who is 13 when the
Nazis invade
No Pretty Pictures: A
Child of War
By Anita Lobel (193 pgs.) YNF
940.53 LOB
A winning illustrator
of such delightful picture books, it is difficult to believe Lobel endured a horrific childhood. She spent the years
from age 5 to 10 hiding from the Nazis, protecting her younger brother, being
captured and marched from camp to camp, and surviving completely dehumanizing
conditions.
In My Hands: Memories
of a Holocaust Rescuer
By Irene Gut Opdyke (276 pgs.) YNF
940.5318 OPD
Like so
many Poles, Opdyke was made to serve in the German
army. Risking her life, she helped Jews by passing along vital information, smuggling in food and helping them escape. When
she became the housekeeper of a German major, she used his villa to hide 12
Jews and kept them safe throughout the war.
By Aranka Siegal
(215 pgs.) Youth
Biography SIEGAL
These
memoirs of a Hungarian girl liberated from
By Corrie Ten Boom (241 pgs.) Adult
Biography TEN BOOM
Corrie
ten Boom was a leader in the Dutch Underground during WWII. With the aid of her
family, she hid scores of Jews from the Nazi invaders, eventually she was
arrested along with every member of her family.
The Invisible Thread:
An Autobiography
By Yoshiko Uchida (136 pgs.) Youth
Biography UCHIDA
A firsthand account of life in a
Japanese American internment camp during WWII.
Zlata's
Diary: A Child's Life in Sarajevo
By Zlata Filipovic
(200 pgs.) Adult
Biography FILIPOVIC
A graphic
firsthand look at the war in
By Lucy Grealy (223 pgs.) Adult
Biography GREALY
At age 9,
Lucy was diagnosed with terminal cancer. When she returned to school with a
third of her jaw removed, she faced the cruel taunts of classmates. Here she
tells her story of suffering and strength.
Wasted: A Memoir of
Anorexia and Bulimia
By Marya Hornbacher
(298 pgs.) Adult
Biography HORNBACHER
The author
was bulimic as a fourth grader and anorexic at age 15. By 1993 she was
attending college and working as a journalist. Her weight had dropped to 52
pounds and doctors gave her only a week to live.
Red Scarf Girl: A
Memoir of the Cultural Revolution
By Ji-Li Jiang
(285 pgs.) YNF
951.056 JIA
The story of the author's experiences as a teenager during
By Susanna Kaysen (168 pgs.) Adult
Biography KAYSEN
Kaysen's startling account of her two-year
stay at a
By Helen Keller (343 pgs.) Youth
Biography KELLER
In her
lovingly crafted and deeply perceptive autobiography, Keller's joyous spirit is
most vividly expressed in her connection to nature: “Indeed, everything that could hum, or buzz,
or sing, or bloom, had a part in my education.... Few know what joy it is to
feel the roses pressing softly into the hand…”
It’s Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life
By Lance Armstrong (275 pgs.) Adult
Biography ARMSTRONG
Covers his early life, his rise through the endurance sport world and
his struggle with cancer.
By Drew Barrymore (260 pgs.) Adult
Biography BARRYMORE
This book chronicles
actress Drew Barrymore’s life from birth to her drug and alcohol addiction at
age fourteen. She doesn't conceal the
truth about her personality, difficult relationship with her mother, adventures
resulting from her behavior, and days in the hospital. Many teenagers will
relate to her troubles in their own lives.
Stick Figure: A Diary
of My Former Self
By Lori Gottlieb (222 pgs.) Adult
Biography GOTTLIEB
From
Gottlieb's pre-teen diaries, Stick Figure
is a wry and engaging observation of an eating disorder and the society that
contributed to it.
Always
Running: A Memoir of La Vida Loca Gang Days in L.A.
By Luis J. Rodriguez (260 pgs.) ANF
364.1066 ROD
Rodriguez
documents his youth as an
By Brent Runyon (374 pgs.) High
School Reading RUNYON
Eighth-grader
Brent Runyon drenches his bathrobe with gasoline and sets himself on fire. From
the beginning, readers are immersed in the mind of 14-year-old Brent as he
struggles to heal body and mind.
By Alice Sebold (254 pgs.) ANF
362.88 SEB
When Sebold was a college freshman, she was attacked and raped.
In a poor attempt to mollify her, a policeman later told her that a woman had
been murdered in the same place and, by comparison, Sebold
should consider herself lucky. That "luck"
is the focus of this memoir about how an incident of such profound violence can
change the course of one's life.
By Katherine Tarbox (196 pgs.) Adult
Biography TARBOX
Fourteen-year-old
Katherine Tarbox shares her experiences so that other
teens might avoid a similar situation.
She had
planned to meet 27-year-old Mark, whom she had corresponded with on the
Internet. Instead, she discovered that "Mark" was actually a man in
his forties with a history of pedophilia. This is Tarbox's
true story of how this man used the Internet to manipulate and molest her, and
how she fought back by prosecuting him.
Don't Let's Go to the
Dogs Tonight : An African Childhood
By Alexandra Fuller (301 pgs.) Adult
Biography FULLER
Fuller’s
memoir of a childhood dominated by the Rhodesian civil war of 1971 – 1979
captures the life of a white family living in one of the most remote regions of
Journey from the Land
of No: A Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary Iran
BY Roya Hakakian (245 pgs.) Adult Biography HAKAKIAN
This
coming of age story creates a portrait of Hakakian’s
life in
By Brad Land (210 pgs.)
Chronicles a young man’s painful recovery from a terrifying assault
that leads him, ironically, to undergo the brutalizing initiation rites of a
southern university fraternity.
January 2007
Annotations from – Booklist,
Publisher’s Weekly, Kirkus, and Amazon.com
700 N. NORTH COURT