14 Memoir

You don’t have to go that far outside yourself for the beginning of a story you want to tell. -Hope Anita Smith

When I was a brand-new librarian at the Brooklyn Public Library Central Children’s room, Saturdays were extraordinarily busy. The back-to-back reference desks faced lines of people more than 50 feet long, and we helped them, with no breaks, from 10 to 5. What I recall most was one particular kind of request: a child around six or seven years old would ask for an autobiography for a homework assignment. You mean a biography, I would authoritatively correct. No, they would say, an autobiography. A book about a real person written by the person it is about.

Twenty-five years ago that request was a real stumper. Most autobiographies are not written at a first- and second-grade reading level.

It wasn’t until I was hired as the children’s librarian at the Bank Street College of Education that I understood what was going on.

Children were encouraged to write as they were learning to read. One of the prompts for the writing practice was finishing sentences like:

• When I was little I liked…
• When I was little I hated…
• When I was little, the best thing that happened was…

Teachers were assigning mentor texts to be read aloud at home or to bring to school.

Fortunately, there are now more and more picture books that fit that request. They are memoir. A slice of a person’s life. A memory.

A memoir is made up of memories.

Brainstorming: The activity of brainstorming is to make a list of words and phrases that describe memories. Let go of judgement. Let go of opinions. Write the first words that come to mind when completing the following prompt:

• I will always remember:
• I will always remember:
• I will always remember:
• I will always remember:
• I will always remember:

• I will always remember: how scared I was of sounds in the hallway
• I will always remember: there was nowhere safe
• I will always remember: saying I will never forget
• I will always remember: laying my head on my best friend’s dog’s chestand breathing
• I will always remember: Looking for Matlack’s grave.

Mentor texts

Andrews, Troy, and Bryan Collier. 2015. Trombone Shorty. New York: Abrams Books for Young Readers.

Appelt, Kathi, and Arthur Howard. 2002. Bubba and Beau, Best Friends. San Diego: Harcourt.

Bell, Cece, and David Lasky. 2014. El Deafo. New York, NY: Amulet Books.

Bottner, Barbara, and Michael Emberley. 2010. Miss Brooks Loves Books (and I Don’t). New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Bridges, Ruby. 1999. Through My Eyes. New York: Scholastic Press.

Bruchac, Joseph. 1997. Bowman’s Store: A Journey to Myself. New York: Dial Books.

Byars, Betsy Cromer. 1991. The Moon and I, In My Own Words. New York: J. Messner.

Chen, Jiang Hong, and Claudia Zoe Bedrick. 2008. Mao and Me: The Little Red Guard. New York: Enchanted Lion Books.

DePaola, Tomie. 1999. 26 Fairmount Avenue. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons.

Grimes, Nikki. 2019. Ordinary Hazards: A Memoir. Honesdale, PA: WordSong.

Henkes, Kevin. 2010. My Garden. New York, NY: Greenwillow Books.

Herthel, Jessica, Jazz Jennings, and Shelagh McNicholas. 2014. I Am Jazz! New York, New York: Dial Books for Young Readers.

Howard, Lee, Jon Scieszka, David Gordon, Loren Long, and David Shannon. 2008. What a Wreck! New York: Little Simon.

Kelley Hall, Megan, and Carrie Jones. 2011. Dear Bully: 70 Authors Tell Their Stories. New York, NY: HarperTeen.

Kuklin, Susan. 2006. Families. New York: Hyperion Books for Children.

Kuklin, Susan. 2014. Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press.

Mason, Tom, Jon Scieszka, Dan Danko, David Gordon, Loren Long, and David Shannon. 2008. Ride Along with Dump Truck Dan! New York, NY: Little Simon.

McMullan, James. 2014. Leaving China: An Artist Paints His World War II Childhood. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Young Readers.

Montgomery, Sy, and Rebecca Green. 2018. How to Be a Good Creature: A Memoir in Thirteen Animals. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Noah, Trevor. 2019. It’s Trevor Noah: Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood; Adapted for Young Readers. New York: Delacorte Press,.

Paulsen, Gary. 1996. Puppies, Dogs, and Blue Northers: Reflections on Being Raised by a Pack of Sled Dogs. San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace & Co.

Rabinowitz, Alan, and Catia Chien. 2014. A Boy and a Jaguar. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Rivera Marín, Guadalupe, and Diego Rivera. 2009. My Papá Diego and Me: Memories of My Father and His Art. San Francisco, CA: Childrens Book Press.

Robinson, Fiona. 2011. What Animals Really Like: A New Song Composed & Conducted by Mr. Herbert Timberteeth. New York: Abrams Books for Young Readers.

Scieszka, Jon. 2008. Only Viking Presents Knucklehead: Tall Tales & Mostly True Stories About Growing up Scieszka. New York: Viking.

Scieszka, Jon. 2009. Knucklehead Tall Tales and Mostly True Stories About Growing up Scieszka. Grand Haven, MI: Brilliance Audio.

Scieszka, Jon, David Gordon, Loren Long, David Shannon, and Design Garage. 2008. Zoom! Boom! Bully. New York: Aladdin.

Scieszka, Jon, David Gordon, Loren Long, David Shannon, and Design Garage. 2008. Snow Trucking! York: Aladdin Paperbacks.

Siegel, Siena Cherson, and Mark Siegel. 2006. To Dance: A Memoir. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

Skrypuch, Marsha Forchuk, and Brian Deines. 2016. Adrift at Sea: A Vietnamese Boy’s Story of Survival: Pajama Press.

Williams, Vera B. 2001. Amber Was Brave, Essie Was Smart: The Story of Amber and Essie Told Here in Poems and Pictures. New York: Greenwillow Books.

Woodson, Jacqueline. 2014. Brown Girl Dreaming. New York: Nancy Paulsen Books).

Resources

Gantos, Jack. 2017. Writing Radar: Using Your Journal to Snoop out and Craft Great Stories. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux.

Kephart, Beth. 2013. Handling the Truth: On the Writing of Memoir. New York: Gotham Books.