From: Megan Schliesman <Schliesman>
Date: Wed, 29 May 1996 10:03:00 -600

Ruth Heesepelink mentioned using Shonto Begay's "Navajo: Visions and Voices Across the Mesa," and Ginny Kruse brought up James Stevenson's books of childhood reflections. These are examples that challenge and encourage us to think of biography and autobiography in a variety of ways and appreciate the varied forms they can take.

Related to this, earlier this month Denise Zielinski brought up biographical fiction and fictionalized biography and asked "Where do they belong in our libraries?" and Nina Lindsay mentioned examples of autobiographical fiction that she especially appreciates, such as Yoshiko Uchida's "Invisible Thread," William Sleator's "Oddballs" and Kyoko Mori's "Shizuko's Daughter." Added to that, I think of Yoko Kawashima Watkins' "My Brother, My Sister and I" and "So Far from the Bamboo Grove" and countless other "novels" that are exceptional narratives which provide insight and illumination into individual writers' lives as well as experiences that transcend the individuals' lives to touch us all because they describe experiences that are part of our collective human history. Many novels describing experiences of the Holocaust are examples of this as well.

It just amazes me how rich and diverse a form biography and autobiography is. Of course this is taking quite an expansive view of the definition of biography and autiobiography, embracing these fictionalized and poetic forms as well as strict research?sed presentations, and the distinctions among them can be important. But the larger point I see in all of this is how much there is to draw upon to offer young people insight and points of connection and inspiration that begins with a single life.

Megan Schliesman Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education UW-Madison 608&2?03 schlies at macc.wisc.edu
Received on Wed 29 May 1996 11:03:00 AM CDT