What's New at NHS Library: Memoir

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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 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.

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.