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BOOKLISTS: Memoirs, Autobiographies & True Tales of Memorable Lives

A Child Called "It": One Child's Courage to Survive by Dave Pelzer
As a child the author was brutally abused by his mother until a sharp school teacher comes to his rescue…The autobiography continues in foster homes in The Lost Boy. The third in this trilogy is A Man Named Dave: A Story of Triumph and Forgiveness.

Angela's Ashes: A Memoir by Frank McCourt
This sad but humorous story describes the early years of Frank McCourt's impoverished life--from his birth in Brooklyn, New York; through the family's move to his mother's roots in Ireland.

The Cage by Ruth Minsky Sender
A teenage girl recounts the suffering and persecution of her family under the Nazis, in a Polish ghetto, during deportation, and in a concentration camp.

Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter by Adeline Yen Mah ()
Wu Mei, the youngest of six children, suffers intense neglect from her stepmother and father. Wu Mei finds a way to escape her horrible family: a play-writing contest and an education at an English university. An autobiography of a true life Cinderella.

Girl, Interrupted by Susan Kaysen
After a 10 minute intreview with a strange psychiatrist, 18 year old Susanna was admitted to MaClean Psychiatric Hospital. Here, she was to spend the next two years of her life. These are her perceptions of insanity, interwoven with her detailed description of life on a psychiatric ward for teenage girls.

Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho by Jon Katz
See the geek truth through the adventures of two lonely technophiles from Idaho’s Mormon country as they break out of small-town ho-hums to Chicago’s big city life.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Through beautiful prose, Maya Angelou describes her in rural Alabama. She grew up in poverty, but was rich in family, friends and memories.

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
What made him do it? What made Christopher McCandless leave the material comforts of his home to explore the extreme Alaskan territory that lasted several years. His adventures and hardships will keep you reading this to the end.

Little X; Growing Up in the Nation of Islam by Sonsyrea Tate
Growing up as a member of the Nation of Islam as well as converting to orthodox Islam, journalist Tate discusses her feelings about her religion and the disillusionment of her parent’s contradictory and conflicting methods of practice. You might relate to her resentment about the practices of the faith her family believed in.

Lost in Place: Growing Up Absurd in Suburbia by Mark Salzman
Salzman's humorous memoir of his middle-class suburban childhood is a quest to discover whom he is…On the way to this discovery he tries everything from kung-fu, Chinese art and language, Zen writings, playing classical and jazz cello and Indian music.

Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black Man in America by Nathan McCall
A black Washington Post reporter who served time shows why prison has become a rite of passage for many young black men. McCall's accounts of the hidden prejudice encountered in seemingly liberal newsroom are eye-opening.

Rocket Boys: A Memoir by Homer H. Hickam, Jr.
The story of how a boy went from being a miner's son in a dying town to a NASA engineer.

Rosa Parks: My Story by Rosa Parks
She became famous when she refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus. In this autobiography, Rosa Parks talks candidly about the civil rights movement and goes beyond the incident that led to the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott.

Sleeping Arrangements by Laura Shaine Cunningham
Orphaned when she was only 8, Lily is raised by two eccentric bachelor uncles and an aging senile grandmother. Discover her strange but delightful family as they live life in the Bronx.

The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
Helen Keller was born without the ability to see or hear. This is an account of her education and her life with Anne Sullivan.

Teen Angst? Naaah...: A Quasi-Autobiography by Ned Vizzini
Covering antics and experiences from his junior high and high school years, this 19 year old author is a very likeable and funny spokesperson for teens.

Woodsong by Gary Paulsen
For a rugged outdoor man and his family, life in northern Minnesota is a wild experience involving wolves, deer, and the sled dogs. Read about the author's frozen wintery adventures as well as his first Iditarod, a dogsled race across Alaska.

Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Sarajevo by Zlata Filipovic
This modern day Anne Frank writes about life in embattled Sarajevo. Her diary starts off with entries about her very typical teen life full of parties and pop music, but quickly becomes a nightmare of bombs and guns.