by Deanna Schiffman, Jen Gage, and Andrea Willard
One subsection of YA nonfiction that is popular among teens is memoirs. A memoir, which is different from an autobiography, covers a specific period of time or experience within a person’s life, as told by the person themselves (Jensen, 2015).
Burcaw, S. (2014). Laughing at my nightmare. New York, NY: Roaring Brook Press.
Burcaw writes candidly and with great humor about living with spinal muscular atrophy and his desperate wish to be seen as normal in his memoir. While touching on everyday issues that are relatable to teens, the real strength of this is the eye-opening perspective on what it is like to have and live with a life-threatening disease (Jensen, K. 2015). Witty, intelligent, and never saccharine, Burcaw’s positive attitude is inspiring without being cliché. 2015 Finalist for the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction.
Engle, M. (2016). Enchanted air two cultures, two wings: A memoir. New York, NY: Atheneum Books for Young Readers.
Margarita Engle travels between two worlds and two cultures. Growing up in Los Angeles, CA in the school year and Cuba in the summer during the 1950s and 1960s, she witnesses the changing relationship between the United States and her beloved Cuba during the Cuban revolution. Written in verse, this memoir explores the confusion of war and longing for Cuba as she is unable to return and visit the home she loves. Awarded the Pura Belpre Award.
StoryCorps. (n.d.). StoryCorps. Retrieved from https://storycorps.org/
StoryCorps is a project that collects interviews of “regular” people across the United States (StoryCorps, n.d.). Resulting interviews, which are posted online, do not fit neatly into any one category. Rather, they are memoirs because participants tell “a story from a life,” providing glimpses into an array of key or transformative experiences (Moon, 2013). Audio recordings are brief but insightful, and may be paired with traditional print resources (Moon, 2013).
Krosoczka, J. J. (2018). Hey, kiddo. New York, NY: Graphix.
Krosoczka reflects upon his early life with his grandparents and learning about his mother’s heroin addiction in this graphic memoir. Family relationships are central, placing it in O’Connor’s (2011) category of “Life with Others”. However, art also plays an important role in Krosoczka’s story. Thus, illustrations, which utilize tone and integrate saved drawings and letters, add power that might not exist in another format (Dar, 2018).
McCourt, F. (1996). Angela’s Ashes: A memoir. New York, NY: Scribner.
The result of an unplanned pregnancy, Frank McCourt was the firstborn of an alcoholic father and a depressed mother. He and his siblings were frequently neglected, sick, and without food. Offering a glimpse into the life of a dysfunctional Irish-Catholic family in pre-World War II New York and Limerick, Ireland, McCourt’s recounting of survival and growing up in poverty is bleak, but never depressing. It is lyrical, filled with dry, Irish wit and finding the humor in his circumstances.
Resources Used
Cart, M. (2013). Cart’s top 200 adult books for young adults: Two decades in review. Chicago: ALA editions.
Dar, M. (2018, October 9). Drawn from life: Graphic memoirs for teens. School Library Journal. Retrieved from https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=drawn-from-life-graphic-memoirs-for-teens
Jensen, K. (2015, January 8). Get genrefied: YA memoirs. Stacked. Retrieved from http://stackedbooks.org/2015/01/get-genrefied-ya-memoirs.html
Moon, B. M. (2013, October). Memory lane. School Library Journal, 59(10), p. 38
O’Connor, M. (2011). Life stories: A guide to reading interests in memoirs, autobiographies, and diaries. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, LLC.
Thang, P. (2018, February 16). What is a memoir? Book Riot. Retrieved from https://bookriot.com/2018/02/16/what-is-a-memoir/
Deanna Schiffman 