What's New at NHS Library: Memoir

Rex [Ogle] captures and celebrates the powerful presence [of] a woman he could always count on--to give him warm hugs and ear kisses, to teach him precious words in Spanish, to bring him to the library where he could take out as many books as he wanted, and to offer safety when darkness closed in. Throughout a coming of age marked by violence and dysfunction, Abuela's red-brick house in Abilene, Texas, offered Rex the possibility of home, and Abuela herself the possibility for a better life.

Moving abruptly from Seoul to Alabama, a Korean teen struggles in a hostile blended home and a new school where she does not speak English before forging unexpected connections in a local comic drawing class.

Portrays the breakdown of a society from a child's point of view, deep inside a land where millions of law-abiding citizens were targeted as threats, and then removed for extermination. This is the story of a brave girl who, despite not being Jewish, was perceived to be one of those threats and was compelled to keep her American identity secret for fear of her family's arrest, concentration camp placement, or worse. Fighting to see through a relentless barrage of Nazi lies and propaganda . . . 'American Shoes' illuminates one family's struggle to survive against impossible odds as a cataclysmic world war marched closer and closer until it was upon them.

Eric Gansworth tells the story of his life and family through poems about their Onondaga heritage, from the horrible legacy of government boarding schools, to watching his siblings leave and return and leave again, to his fight to be an artist who balances multiple worlds.

[Inspired by two real-life trips, in this memoir] sixteen-year-old Christine takes their first solo trip to Mexico to spend a few weeks with their grandparents and tía. At first, Christine struggles to connect with their family they don't yet share a language with. Seeing the places their mom grew up--the school she went to, the cafe where she had her first date with their father--Christine becomes more and more aware of the generational differences in their family.

World-renowned concert pianist Mona Golabek shares her mother's journey through World War II and of the extraordinary gift that became her enduring legacy to her daughter, the gift of music.

The author tells the story of her painful childhood in China where she lived until the age of fourteen with her father, stepmother, and siblings, all of whom considered her bad luck because her mother died shortly after giving birth to her.

Michelle Zauner . . . tells of growing up the only Asian-American kid at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her mother's particular, high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence of treasured months spent in her grandmother's tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food. As she grew up, moving to the East Coast for college, finding work in the restaurant industry, performing gigs with her fledgling band--and meeting the man who would become her husband--her Koreanness began to feel ever more distant, even as she found the life she wanted to live. It was her mother's diagnosis of terminal pancreatic cancer, when Michelle was twenty-five, that forced a reckoning with her identity and brought her to reclaim the gifts of taste, language, and history her mother had given her.

In this young readers' adaptation of his adult memoir Dear America, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and undocumented immigrant Jose Antonio Vargas tells his story, in light of the . . . undocumented immigrants . . . in the United States.

At the age of 8, Reyna Grande made the dangerous and illegal trek across the border from Mexico to the United States, and discovered that the American Dream is much more complicated that it seemed.

For ten years, Achut Deng surrived at Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya after her family was ripped apart by the Second Sudanese Civil War. But Achut wanted to do more than merely survive. She wanted to live. The twenty-two-year civil war essentially orphaned over 20,000 children and drove them from their villages in southern Sudan. Some of these children walked over a thousand miles, through dangerous war zones and across unforgiving deserts. They are often referred to as The Lost Boys. But there were girls, too. Achut Deng was one of them. This is her story. It's a story of unimaginable hardship and selfless bravery, of tormenting physical pain and amazing emotional resilience, of unbreakable bonds of friendship and family.

In this poetic memoir, Margarita Engle, the first Latina woman to receive a Newbery Honor, tells of growing up as a child of two cultures during the Cold War.

At only eight months old, identical twin sisters Ariel and Zan were diagnosed with Crouzon syndrome--a rare condition where the bones in the head fuse prematurely. They were the first twins known to survive it. Growing up, Ariel and her sister endured numerous appearance-altering procedures. Surgeons would break the bones in their heads and faces to make room for their growing organs. While the physical aspect of their condition was painful, it was nothing compared to the emotional toll of navigating life with a facial disfigurement. Ariel explores beauty and identity in her young-adult memoir about resilience, sisterhood, and the strength it takes to put your life, and yourself, back together time and time again.

Told through the lens of meaningful food and meals, this graphic memoir chronicles the author's [life], beginning with his childhood immigration to America, where food takes on new meaning as he and his family search for belonging, for happiness and for the American dream.

Relates the personal experiences of Loung Ung, one of seven children of a high-ranking government official in Phnom Penh, after her family was forced to flee from Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge army, and describes her training as a child soldier in a work camp for orphans and how her surviving siblings were eventually reunited.

Refugee advocate Luma Mufleh writes of her tumultuous journey to reconcile her identity as a gay Muslim woman and a proud Arab-turned-American refugee.

Chronicling the life of award-winning young adult novelist, and Eisner-nominated comics scribe Cecil Castellucci . . follows a passionate aspiring artist from the youngest age through adulthood to deeply examine the ardous pursuit of filmmaking, while exploring the act of memory and how it recalls and reshapes what we think we truly know about ourselves.

The authors share their experience exploring drugs, alcohol, love, music, and friendship growing up. Explores their lives as twins living right down the hall from each other.

A memoir of Ingrid Ricks' teenage years when she escaped her home with her mother and abusive step-father to travel with her father.

A naturalist and adventurer discusses the personalities and quirks of thirteen animals who have profoundly affected her, exploring themes of learning to become empathetic, creating families, coping with loss, and the otherness and sameness of people and animals.

Collects memoirs from hundreds of teenagers composed of six words, ranging from the humorous to inspiring and dramatic, and includes six-word autobiographies from popular teenage celebrities.

Tells the story of a woman's search for the truth about her mysterious father, so she can heal her own life.

Fifteen-year-old Hadiya reflects on family, friendship, and community while she blogs from her home in the city of Mosul, Iraq; and details it is like to live in a military occupied country between 2004 and 2009.

In this mixed-media collection of short stories, personal essays, poetry, and comics, this celebrated group of authors share the borders they have crossed, the struggles they have pushed through, and the two cultures they continue to navigate as Mexican Americans. Living Beyond Borders is at once an eye-opening, heart-wrenching, and hopeful love letter from the Mexican American community to today's young readers. A powerful exploration of what it means to be Mexican American.

[Cappucci is] a meteorologist for The Washington Post, and you might think of him as Doogie Howser meets Bill Paxton from Twister, with a dash of Leonardo DiCaprio from Catch Me If You Can. Combining reportage and accessible science with personal storytelling and infectious enthusiasm, Looking Up is a riveting ride through the state of our weather and a touching story about parents and mentors helping a budding scientist achieve his improbable dreams. Throughout, readers get a tutorial on the basics of weather science and the impact of the climate.

A . . . graphic novel memoir by one of the first Black female cartoonists to be published in the New Yorker, at the age of 22. This is her story from the age 5 through 22, how she navigated life in her predominantly white New Jersey town, overcame severe dyslexia through art, excelled as a track star and found her calling in life.

Seamlessly toggling between past and present, this funny graphic memoir follows a queer Chinese American's immigration to Texas where she just wants to make the basketball team, escape Chinese school, and figure out why she is attracted to girls.

The wrenching, and inspiring, story of a fourteen-year-old sentenced to life in prison, of the extraordinary relationship that developed between him and the woman he shot, and of his release after twenty-six years of imprisonment through the efforts of America's greatest contemporary legal activist, Bryan Stevenson. Here is the story of a poor black kid from the toughest neighborhood of Tampa, Florida, who at age eleven began "jacking" (stealing) cars with his friends. At age thirteen he shot a white woman in the jaw during a botched mugging.

In 2009, Tessa Brunton experienced the first symptoms of myalgic encephalomyelitis. [This book] recalls the next eight years of her life--largely housebound--with honesty, a pointed wit, and a lively visual imagination.

Food phenom Kwame Onwuachi tells the incredible story of how ingenuity in the face of adversity enables a boy born on Long Island and raised in New York City, Nigeria, and Louisiana to become a Top Chef star and the James Beard Award-winning executive chef of Kith/Kin in Washington D.C.

An account of Paul Zindel's teenage years on Staten Island, when his life was enriched by finding his own personal pigman, or mentor.

Gaby Rodriguez, whose mother and older sister both became pregnant as teenagers, explains what she learned from faking a pregnancy as a high school senior in order to find out how people would treat her.

The true story of a high school career defined by poverty and punctuated by outbreaks of domestic abuse. Rex Ogle, who . . . mapped his experience of hunger in 'Free Lunch,' here describes his struggle to survive; reflects on his complex, often paradoxical relationship with his passionate, fierce mother; and charts the trajectory of his stepdad's anger. Hovering over Rex's story is the talismanic presence of his unborn baby sister. Through it all, Rex threads moments of grace and humor.

The continuation of the life story of John Lewis and the struggles seen across the United States after the Civil Rights Movement. . . Ousted from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee due to internal disorder, Lewis went on to work on Robert F. Kennedy's campaign, to be shocked by the events of 1968. Struggling with the larger question of how to rebuild the movement, Lewis had an idea: someone should run for the 5th Congressional district seat in Georgia. Starting with the tragic death of Martin Luther King Jr., "Run" tells the story of how John Lewis entered politics, working within the community, and organizing a campaign that has taken him to one of the most important seats in Congress.

Recounts the author's experiences as a Jew in Nazi occupied Europe, her survival in a concentration camp, and post-war life in America speaking out as a Holocaust survivor.

The author reveals the events of her life from age twelve to adulthood when the cultural revolution of Mao Zedong destroyed family customs and life as they knew it.

A young poet tells the unforgettable story of his harrowing migration from El Salvador to the United States at the age of nine.

When Jarrett J. Krosoczka was in high school, he was part of a program that sent students to be counselors at a camp for seriously ill kids and their families. Going into it, Jarrett was worried: Wouldn't it be depressing, to be around kids facing such a serious struggle? Wouldn't it be grim? But instead of the shadow of death, Jarrett found something else at Camp Sunshine: the hope and determination that gets people through the most troubled of times. Not only was he subject to some of the usual rituals that come with being a camp counselor (wilderness challenges, spooky campfire stories, an extremely stinky mascot costume), but he also got a chance to meet some extraordinary kids facing extraordinary circumstances. He learned about the captivity of illness, for sure but he also learned about the freedom a safe space can bring.

A University of Arizona student and political intern credited with saving the life of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords during the Tucson shooting in January 2011 shares the story of his young life while exploring the character qualities that have helped him rise above adversity and pursue remarkable goals.

Lynda Blackmon Lowery recounts her experiences as the youngest marcher on the 1965 voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

A groundbreaking and timely graphic memoir from one of the most iconic figures in American sports--and a tribute to his fight for civil rights. On October 16, 1968, during the medal ceremony at the Mexico City Olympics, Tommie Smith, the gold medal winner in the 200-meter sprint, and John Carlos, the bronze medal winner, stood on the podium in black socks and raised their black-gloved fists to protest racial injustice inflicted upon African Americans. Both men were forced to leave the Olympics, received death threats, and faced ostracism and continuing economic hardships. In his first-ever memoir for young readers, Tommie Smith looks back on his childhood growing up in rural Texas through to his stellar athletic career, culminating in his historic victory and Olympic podium protest.

Meet nine courageous young adults who have lived in the United States with a secret for much of their lives: they are not U.S. citizens. They came from Colombia, Mexico, Ghana, Independent Samoa, and Korea. They came seeking education, fleeing violence, and escaping poverty. All have heartbreaking and hopeful stories about leaving their homelands and starting a new life in America. And all are weary of living in the shadows.

The star of Marvel's first Asian superhero film, in this . . . memoir, tells his own origin story and how he embarked on a journey that took him far outside of his comfort zone into the world of show business.

In this inspirational story of courage, determination, strength, and self-invention, an elite wheelchair racer and wrestler recounts a childhood of abuse and neglect until he meets two saviors--a wrestling coach who sensed his "warrior spirit" and his adoptive mother who set him up for success.