Annotated Bibliography
125 True Stories of Amazing Pets: Inspiring Tales of Animal Friendship & Four-Legged Heroes, plus Crazy Animal Antics. 2014. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society. Nonfiction animal stories.
Bauermeister, Erica. 2010. The School of Essential Ingredients. New York: Berkley Books.
(Teacher) Realistic Fiction - Profiles of people, richly detailed. Also a foodie novel. I love it for the beautiful sound of the language and the metaphors.
Bauermeister, Erica. 2013. The Lost Art of Mixing. New York: Berkley.
Realistic Fiction - Companion book to The School of Essential Ingredients. This one in particular includes use of writing notebooks and interviewing/profiling a person.
Bolick, Kate. 2016. Spinster. New York, NY Crown.
(Teacher) Memoir that braids profiles of great women writers with social commentary on female independence and personal reflection. Bonus: Dollar Store Find!
Brierley, Saroo, Larry Buttrose, and Nan McNab. 2017. Lion: a Long Way Home. NY, NY: Puffin Books.
Memoir - Young readers edition. Adoption, childhood trauma, poverty, culture. Used in classroom activities section.
Bruchac, Joseph. 2003. Our Stories Remember: American Indian History, Culture, and Values through Storytelling. Golden, Colo: Fulcrum Pub.
Historical narrative - Indigenous cultures. Be sure to check out other titles by this author.
Clark, Roy Peter. 2017. Writing Tools 55 Essential Strategies for Every Writer. Brantford, Ontario: W. Ross MacDonald School Resource Services Library.
Tips and tricks for writers. Great resource.
Corrigan, Kelly. 2015. Glitter and Glue: a Memoir. New York: Ballantine Books.
(Teacher) Memoir - Family relations, love, illness and loss, Excerpts good for mentor texts such as dialogue and profile of a person. Bonus: Dollar Store Find!
Draper, Sharon M. 2019. Blended. S.l.: Atheneum Childrens Books.
Realistic fiction - Divorce, biracial, racial profiling.
Draper, Sharon M. 2019. Out of My Mind. Halifax, Nova Scotia: Atlantic Provinces Special Education Authority, Library.
Realistic Fiction - Communication disorders, physical disabilities, power of words.
Elkins, Arlene Hess. 2018. Captured!: A True Tale of Escape, Capture, Rescue and Faith. Greenwood, IN: OMS International.
Memoir - Christian Missionary children put in internment camp in the Philippines following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Does have religious basis and references.
Goldthwaite, Melissa A., Joseph Bizup, John C. Brereton, Anne E. Fernald, and Linda H. Peterson. 2017. The Norton Reader: An Anthology of Nonfiction. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
Get Full Edition in print or online. This is an excellent compilation of mentor essays plus a solid overview of Genre. Modes, and Themes.
Gruenbaum, Michael, and Todd Hasak-Lowy. 2018. Somewhere There Is Still a Sun: a Memoir of the Holocaust. New York, NY: Scholastic Inc.
Memoir - A survivor's look back.
Guerrero, Diane, and Erica Moroz. 2019. My Family Divided: One Girls Journey of Home, Loss, and Hope. New York: Square fish, Henry Holt and Company.
(Upper Grade) Memoir - Immigration, deportation issues.
Hest, Amy. 1996. Jamaica Louise James. London: Walker.
Realistic Fiction - Great for illustrating dialogue and details but also highlights being an observer in your community.
Hest, Amy. 2010. Remembering Mrs. Rossi. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press.
(Student) Realistic fiction surrounding loss of a parent, value of writing for remembering.
Hiranandani, Veera. 2013. The Whole Story of Half a Girl. New York: Yearling.
Realistic fiction - bicultural issues, job loss, family difficulties,
Hiranandani, Veera. 2019. The Night Diary. Nw Jersey: Penguin Putnam Inc.
Realistic fiction - religious conflict and discrimination, immigration.
Hoge, Robert. 2015. Ugly: a Beaut Story about One Very Ugly Kid. Sydney, N.S.W.: Lothian Childrens Books.
Memoir - Perseverance, disabilities, bullying.,
Hunt, Lynda Mullaly. 2014. One for the Murphys. Brantford, Ont.: W. Ross MacDonald School Resource Services Library.
Realistic fiction - foster care, childhood trauma and abuse.
Hunt, Lynda Mullaly. 2015. Fish in a Tree. New York, NY: Puffin Books.
Realistic fiction - Learning differences, dyslexia giftedness, bullying, poverty., writing.
Hunt, Lynda Mullaly. 2019. Shouting at the Rain. New York: Nancy Paulsen Books.
Realistic fiction - Parental loss/abandonment, nontraditional families, friendships.
I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World: Young Readers Edition. 2016. Paw Prints.
Memoir - Perseverance, cultural identity
Johnson, Charles Richard. 2016. The Way of the Writer: Reflection on the Art and Craft of Storytelling. New York: Scribner, Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Despite a focus on writing fiction, the author is an accomplished essayist and long time professor of writing instruction with loads of guidance.
Landau, Elaine. 2008. Ellis Island. New York: Childrens Press.
Read this one in conjunction with At Ellis Island: A History in Many Voices.
Lane, Barry. 2016. After the End: Teaching and Learning Creative Revision. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Revision is writing! Excellent easy resource for classroom instruction.
Maran, Meredith. 2013. Why We Write 20 Acclaimed Authors on How and Why They Do What They Do. New York: Plume.
Getting inside writers' heads and learning their struggles and processes.
Maran, Meredith. 2016. Why We Write About Ourselves. Penguin Publishing Group.
Getting inside the head of the memoir writer. Check out the chapter on Kelly Corrigan, author of Glitter and Glue, also on this list.
Mendoza, Jean, Debbie Reese, and Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. 2019. An Indigenous Peoples History of the United States for Young People. Boston: Beacon Press.
Cultural narrative
Morgan, Alex. 2017. Breakaway: beyond the Goal. New York: Simon & Schuster BFYR.
Memoir - Motivational, sports related.
Moss, Marissa. 2006. Amelia’s Notebook. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.
Realistic fiction - Journal keeping, Whole series.
Noah, Trevor. 2019. Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood. New York: Spiegel & Grau, an imprint of Random House.
Memoir - Racism, poverty and domestic violence. Profiles people, places and cultural issues with candor and humor. Use Young Reader Edition for students.
OFarrell, Maggie. 2018. I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death: a Memoir. Toronto: Alfred A. Knopf Canada.
(Teacher) Memoir - Powerful writing around themes of near-death experiences, significant illnesses and vulnerability
Peacock, Louise, and Walter Krudop. 2007. At Ellis Island: A History in Many Voices. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers.
Historrical narrative - Multicultural, immigration.
Polacco, Patricia. 2012. Thank You, Mr. Falker. New York: Philomel Books.
Memoir - Learning differences, dyslexia, dysgraphia, bullying. Be sure to check out her other titles which are varied in content.
Ravin, Idan. 2015. The Hoops Whisperer: on the Court and inside the Heads of Basketballs Best Players. New York: Avery.
Memoir - Motivational, sports related
Rhodes, Jewell Parker. 2019. Ghost Boys. Little, Brown.
Historical fiction - tying in historical racial violence with modern day racial profiling, Black Lives Matter. (Ghosts as narrators prevents realistic fiction label)
Salie, Faith. 2017. Approval Junkie: Adventures in Caring Too Much. New York: Three Rivers Press.
(Teacher) Memoir - Humorous, self-deprecating snapshots of a comedian and journalist. Filled with literary references and social commentary. Bonus: Dollar Store Find!
Shelnutt, Eve, ed. 1991. The Confidence Woman: 26 Women Writers at Work. Atlanta, GA: Longstreet Press.
Collection of women writers reflecting on their work.
Sloan, Holly Goldberg. 2017. Counting by 7s. Brantford, Ontario: W. Ross MacDonald School Resource Services Library.
Realistic Fiction - Giftedness, adoption, death of parents, social integration issues.
Sullivan, John Jeremiah. 2011. Pulphead: Essays. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Variety of essays including profiles of people and places. Excellent for excerpts and building teacher experiences of well-crafted essays.
Wamariya, Clemantine, and Elizabeth Weil. 2018. The Girl Who Smiled Beads: a Story of War and What Comes After. New York, NY: Crown.
(Teacher/Upper Grades) Memoir - Firsthand account of survival as a child refugee and the struggle to assimilate trauma and build a new life.
Warner, John. 2018. Why They Can’t Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Rethink the emphasis on writing formats. Remember "Risk Before Rigor"
Weintraub, Robert. 2019. No Better Friend (Young Readers Edition): A Man, a Dog, and Their Incredible True Story of Friendship and Survival in World War II. New York: Little, Brown & Company.
Historical narrative
Wharton, Edith, and Laura Rattray. 2009. The Unpublished Writings of Edith Wharton. Vol. 2. 2 vols. London: Pickering & Chatto.
Example of writing revision and writer's notebook.
Woodson, Jacqueline. 2019. Brown Girl Dreaming. Vancouver, B.C.: Langara College.
Memoir - Poetic prose
Zinsser, William. 2017. On Writing Well. Harper Paperbacks.
Must have handbook for Nonfiction writing.
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