Pedro Martín’s exuberant graphic memoir about growing up the seventh of nine kids in a Mexican American family in the 1970s is full of teasing and love, poignancy and laugh-out-loud humor.
Biography/Autobiography/Memoir
The In-Between
In this memoir in verse, the author recalls the period in her childhood when she, her two younger siblings, and their mother were evicted from their apartment.
Rock, Rosetta, Rock! Roll, Rosetta, Roll! Presenting Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the Godmother of Rock & Roll
“Bold, audacious, in a word, bodacious … ” A joyful picture book biography introduces Sister Rosetta Tharpe and celebrates her singular musical talent, which was apparent from the time she was a child.
The Girl I Am, Was, and Never Will Be: A Speculative Memoir of Transracial Adoption
An experimental work blending science fiction and memoir recalls actual experiences as a transracial adoptee from Shannon Gibney’s childhood, adolescence, and adulthood as well as imagining what her life might have been like had she not been placed for adoption as an infant.
A First Time for Everything
After several painful experiences with middle school bullies, all Dan wants is to fly under the radar, to be quiet and unnoticed by his peers.
Star Child: A Biographical Constellation of Octavia Estelle Butler
An inspired biography uses poems and prose to explore the life of groundbreaking African American speculative and science fiction writer Octavia Butler.
The Genius Under the Table: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain
Eugene Yelchin’s funny, tender memoir recounts aspects of his childhood and young adulthood in Leningrad during the Cold War.
Everything Sad Is Untrue
Nayeri’s poignant, engaging memoir begins with a vivid childhood memory of a visit to his grandparents when he was still a little boy known as Khorsou living in Iran.
When Stars Are Scattered
Separated from their mother when soldiers attacked their Somalian village, Omar and his brother, Hassan, live in a sprawling refugee camp in Kenya, watched over by loving foster mother Fatuma.
Brown Girl Dreaming
“And somehow, one day, it’s just there / speckled black-and white, the paper / inside smelling like something I could fall right into, / live there — inside those clean white pages.” Jacqueline Woodson’s childhood unfolds in poems that beautifully reveal details of her early life and her slow but gradually certain understanding that words and stories and writing were essential to her. Her older sister was shining smart. One of her brothers could sing wonderfully. She would come to realize words were her smart, her singing, her special thing.