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There are many characteristics that define memoir, but in simplest terms, memoir aims to tell the story of one event or period in a person’s life. Told in the first person, memoir recounts significant moments deemed to be pivotal in the author’s life. Like any unit of study, memoir should begin by immersing young writers in the genre so that they have many models of what this type of writing looks and feels like when it is read. The following is a list of great examples of memoir or memoir-like books that can be used to support this unit of study in writing workshop.FREE DOWNLOAD: Annotated Bibliography of Books to Support Memoir
CHECK OUT: Workshop Essentials: Teaching Memoir E-Pack
Brinckloe, Julie. Fireflies! New York: Macmillan, 1985. Print.It’s summer. Dinner is almost over, fireflies are coming out, and a little boy goes outside to play with his friends in the twilight. Together, they capture fireflies which the little boy brings into his room at bedtime. He sadly watches as their light begins to dim in the captivity of the jar and realizes that he needs to set the fireflies free. Teaching Focus/Reading Like a Writer:
Mini Lesson Suggestion: Using strong verbs to create vivid mental images | |
Crews, Donald. Bigmama's. New York: Trumpet Club, 1992. Print. | |
Crews, Donald. Shortcut. New York: Greenwillow Books, 1992. Print.One day over the summer, it is getting late so Donald and his brothers and sisters decide to take the train tracks home. Knowing that a freight train could come at any time, they proceed playfully along the tracks until they hear the whistle of a train announcing that it is coming. They quickly jump to the side, unconcerned about briers and snakes, feeling that it was a near miss. Guilty about their decision to take the shortcut, they decide not to talk about the incident for a really long time. Teaching Focus/Reading Like a Writer:
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Dahl, Roald. Boy: Tales of Childhood. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1984. Print.This treasure trove of stories from Roald Dahl’s boyhood begins when he enters kindergarten in 1922 and ends when school ends for him in 1936. Dahl writes about the remarkable experiences of his childhood in the funny and compelling voice that color all of his stories. As readers meander their way through these stories, it becomes remarkably clear where much of the inspiration for his fiction stories originated. Teaching Focus/Reading Like a Writer:
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DePaola, Tomie. 26 Fairmount Avenue. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1999. Print.26 Fairmount Avenue recaptures charming accounts from Tomie dePaola’s childhood in the time surrounding the building of his family’s new home in Meriden, Connecticut. From witnessing a hurricane to the first day of kindergarten to family holidays, dePaola shares memorable moments from his early years. Teaching Focus/Reading Like a Writer:
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Fletcher, Ralph J. Marshfield Dreams: When I Was a Kid. New York: Henry Holt &, 2005. Print.Growing up the oldest of nine children, Ralph Fletcher tells the stories that colored his life as part of a large family. Recalling boyhood friendships, sibling attachments, and classic times with the family, Fletcher reminisces what it was like to grow up in the coastal town of Marshfield, Massachusetts. Teaching Focus/Reading Like a Writer:
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Fox, Mem. Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge. La Jolla, CA: Kane/Miller Book Publishers, 1989. Print.Wilfrid Gordon lives next door to an old people’s home and has a special interest in Miss Nancy Alison Delacourt Cooper because like him, she had four names. Miss Nancy has lost her memory and Wilfrid wants to help her get it back. By collecting an array of objects, Wilfrid helps Miss Nancy recall some of her warmest and fondest memories of the past. Teaching Focus/Reading Like a Writer:
Mini Lesson Suggestion: Avoiding abrupt endings | |
Frazee, Marla. Roller Coaster. San Diego, Harcourt, 2003. Print.A young girl shares her angst about riding a roller coaster as she waits in line for the amusement park ride. Teaching Focus/Reading Like a Writer:
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Grandits, John. The Travel Game. New York: Clarion Books, 2009. Print.Young Tad works with his family in their tailor shop. This tale of a boy who wants to work and a family committed to making sure he has a childhood is a charming memoir of a boy growing up in Buffalo, New York with a Polish immigrant family. Teaching Focus/Reading Like a Writer
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Graves, Donald H. Baseball, Snakes, and Summer Squash: Poems about Growing up. Honesdale, PA: Wordsong/Boyds Mills, 1996. Print.A collection of poems written in free verse, this book reminisces about Donald Graves’ boyhood adventures including fishing with Dad, baking pies with Grandpa, encounters with bullies, and more.Teaching Focus/Reading Like a Writer:
Mini Lesson Suggestion: Memoirists write about important experiences from their lives | |
Gray, Libba Moore., and Raúl Colón. My Mama Had a Dancing Heart. New York: Orchard, 1995. Print. Inspired by her relationship with her own daughter, Libba Moore Gray writes a story of the bond between mother and daughter. Told through the lens of dance, this whimsical picture book high-steps and leap-flies through the “seasons” of a special relationship.Teaching Focus/Reading Like a Writer:
Mini Lesson Suggestion: Writers share stories that are important to them | |
Greenfield, Eloise, Lessie Jones. Little, and Pattie Ridley. Jones. Childtimes: a Three-generation Memoir. New York, NY: HarperTrophy, 1993. Print. Spanning three-genrations, Childtimes integrates the voices of three black women remembering their childhoods. Told in lyrical prose, this memoir is sometimes happy, sometimes sad, but always poignantly vivid. Teaching Focus/Reading Like a Writer:
Mini Lesson Suggestion: Memoirists write about important experiences from their lives | |
Juster, Norton. The Hello, Goodbye Window. New York: Michael De Capua/Hyperion for Children, 2005. Print.The perfect book for exploring what is meant by “lens” in memoir. | |
Lowry, Lois. Looking Back: A Book of Memories. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1998. Print.Lois Lowry journeys back to her childhood through a series of black and white photographs. Intended to help readers understand where Lowry’s ideas for writing originate, this heart-warming collection also pays tribute to those defining experiences that characterize growing up. Teaching Focus/Reading Like a Writer:
Mini Lesson Suggestion: Using snippets of conversation to add voice to writing | |
McLerran, Alice, and Barbara Cooney. Roxaboxen. New York, N.Y., U.S.A.: Puffin, 1992. Print.On a hill on the southeast corner of Second Avenue and Eighth Street in Yuma, Arizona, you will find streets outlined in white rocks and entryways to make-believe houses bejeweled with colored desert glass. Roxaboxen recreates the world of imaginative play inhabited by Alice McLerran’s mother, her mother’s siblings, and the neighbors that shared in these adventures. Teaching Focus/Reading Like a Writer:
Mini Lesson Suggestion: Writers use precise nouns | |
Nye, Naomi Shihab. Sitti’s Secrets. Turtleback (Demco Media), 1997. Print.In lyrical prose that rolls off your tongue to create a beautiful story about a young girl and her grandmother, Sitti’s Secrets recounts a girls’ experience of simply being near one who is dear and loved. Separated by half a world and a language barrier, Naomi Shihab Nye tells the story of how this young girl and her grandma learn secrets about each other in spite of the “distance” that separates them. Teaching Focus/Reading Like a Writer:
Mini Lesson Suggestion: Capturing voice through description | |
Polacco, Patricia. My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1998. Print.Frustrated by the incessant taunting and endless competition with her brother, Patricia Polacco tells the story of always trying to “one-up” her brother. Intent on riding the merry-go-round longer and better than her brother, she stays on so long that when she got off, she was so dizzy that she fell and passed out. Her concerned brother carried her home, changing their relationship from that point on. Teaching Focus/Reading Like a Writer:
Mini Lesson Suggestion: What’s the point? Finding focus in your writing | |
Polacco, Patricia. Thunder Cake. New York: Putnam & Grosset, 1997. Print. Paralyzed by the sound of thunder, Patricia Polacco recounts how her beloved grandmother tricked her into being brave by baking a cake during a storm. Teaching Focus/Reading Like a Writer:
Mini Lesson Suggestion: What’s the point? Finding focus in your writing | |
Pomerantz, Charlotte, and Frané Lessac. The Chalk Doll. New York: HarperTrophy, 1993. Print.Rose is sick in bed with a cold and as her mother cares for her, she tells her stories of growing up in Jamaica. This story, rich with dialogue and details, helps readers journey to a different place and time when Mother longed for chalk dolls in store windows and wished only to drink thick, sweet milk from a can. Teaching Focus/Reading Like a Writer:
Mini Lesson Suggestion: Writers use precise nouns | |
Ringgold, Faith. Tar Beach. New York: Crown, 1996. Print.Tar Beach recounts the story of a girl growing up in the city, imagining her life and world from the roof at the top of her apartment building. Described as a combination of “autobiography and fictional narrative,” Tar Beach tells a heartwarming tale of imagination and childhood. Teaching Focus/Reading Like a Writer:
Mini Lesson Suggestion: Writers use precise nouns | |
Rylant, Cynthia, and Diane Goode. When I Was Young in the Mountains. New York: Dutton, 1985. Print.Written in lyrical prose, Cynthia Rylant recounts her experiences and memories of growing up in West Virginia with her grandparentsMini Lesson Suggestion: Using repetition to move from one idea to another | |
.jpg) | Rylant, Cynthia, and Stephen Gammell. The Relatives Came. New York: Aladdin, 1993. Print.Teaching Focus/Reading Like a Writer:
Mini Lesson Suggestion: Is it a run-on? |
Spinelli, Jerry. Knots on My Yo-Yo String The Autobiography of a Kid. New York: Scholastic, 1998. Print.Knots on My Yo-Yo String is filled with story after story from the annals of Jerry Spinelli’s childhood. This collection of memoir tells about Spinelli’s first punch, his first kiss, leech attacks, baseball, and the many events that colored his youth. Teaching Focus/Reading Like a Writer:
Mini Lesson Suggestion: Using senses in our beginnings to hook readers | |
Williams, Vera. A Chair for My Mother. New York: Scholastic, 1982. Print.In a time, not so long ago, a fire burnt up all of a little girl’s family’s furniture. Now her mother works very hard as a waitress earning tips to add to a jar which will buy the family a new chair when it is full. Vera Williams tells the story of moving and saving for that very special new chair just for her mama with tired feet. Teaching Focus/Reading Like a Writer:
Mini Lesson Suggestion: Avoiding abrupt endings | |
Yolen, Jane, and Barbara Cooney. Letting Swift River Go. Boston: Little, Brown, 1992. Print.Laced with the pain of that sometimes come with change and saying good-bye, Letting Swift River Go tells the story of a young girl who lived in Swift River Valley at the time when a decision was made to bulldoze and flood her town so that Boston could have an ample supply of fresh drinking water. Teaching Focus/Reading Like a Writer:
Mini Lesson Suggestion: Using Colons to Provide Dramatic Effect | |
Yolen, Jane, and John Schoenherr. Owl Moon. New York: Philomel, 2007. Print.A girl and her father go owling on a dark night in the winter. Connecting through space and time but not words, this beautiful book looks at the special relationship of a parent and child and human beings with nature. Teaching Focus/Reading Like a Writer:
Mini Lesson Suggestion: Carefully Placing Descriptive Language | |
