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History through Nonfiction: Biography
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From: Megan Schliesman <Schliesman>
Date: Wed, 01 Nov 2000 09:09:31 -0600
A final thank you to all those who contributed to the October discussion on Alice in Wonderland.
It's time now to turn our attention to our topic for November: history through nonfiction.
In announcing this CCBC-Net topic last month, Katy Horning wrote,
"more than a decade ago, Russell Freedman set a new standard for outstanding history for young readers with his photobiographies such as "Lincoln: A Photobiography," "The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane," and "Eleanor Roosevelt: A Life of Discovery."
While our discussion this month will venture into various forms of nonfiction writing for children and young adults, why don't we begin at looking at biography and autobiography and move onto other types of nonfiction writing as the discussion dictates.
We've noted several times at the CCBC thoughout the year 2000 that it's been a great year for biographies, and we've found this continues the trend of recent years in which we've seen a rich and varied body of outstanding biographical and autobiographical writing.
I find great biograhpies to be a terrific way to not only illuminates an individual life but also the times in which that person lived. To me, a biography that doesn't provide this context of a person's life fails to convey information that is essential to the understanding of its subject. I want to come away from reading about a personwith the feeling that I understood what might have influenced her or his decisions and choices. I also like to feel that I've learned more about the history of our nation and our world by seeing how events or circumstances affected the life of an individual.
Russel Freedman is certainly one of the writers who has delivered excellence of this kind over and over, but there are other writers and other books that also offer this deft and skillful blend of biography and social history. The result, from the standpoint of looking at history through biography for children, is books that cast light on the specific times through individual experience.
There are books for older children and teenagers that build on the standard set by Freedman--thoroughly researched and well-documented, highly literary and highly visual, from Patrica and Fredrick McKissack's look at the life of Lorraine Hansberry, Young, Black and Determined, to Barbara Harrison and Daniel Terris's A Ripple of Hope: The Life of Robert F. Kennedy. There is writing--especially autobiographical writing--that provides gripping and unparalleled accounts of events in 20th century history, from the growing body of unforgettable Holocaust memoirs such as Schoschana Rabinovici's Thanks to My Mother to Ji-Li Jiang's Red Scarf Girl, her memoir of coming of age during the Cultural Revolution in China. There are picture book profiles for younger readers, some of which focus on a single important event in a notable person's life, such as Deborah Hopkinson's Maria's Comet, which imagines what it might have been like for 19th century astronomer Maria Mitchell the first time she looked through a telescope, and some that offer the scope of a person's life and accomplishments, such as Alice McGill's Molly Bannaky. While perhaps not biographies in the strictest sense of the word, these picture books are nonetheless shining examples of ways to engage young readers in the past.
Let's hear from you! What are your thoughts on biography as a means of exploring the past?
If you're a librarian, do you find yourself recommending biographies as a potential source of information for children (or teachers) on a particular time or place? Do you find yourself putting biographies into the hands of children who simply love reading about other times and places?
If you're a teacher, how are you using biographies in your classroom as you teach about, illuminate, or engage young readers in the past.
And what are some of the best biographies and autobiographies for childen and young adults that you've read and recommended or used in recent years?
Megan
Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education UW-Madison 608&2?03 schliesman at education.wisc.edu
Received on Wed 01 Nov 2000 09:09:31 AM CST
Date: Wed, 01 Nov 2000 09:09:31 -0600
A final thank you to all those who contributed to the October discussion on Alice in Wonderland.
It's time now to turn our attention to our topic for November: history through nonfiction.
In announcing this CCBC-Net topic last month, Katy Horning wrote,
"more than a decade ago, Russell Freedman set a new standard for outstanding history for young readers with his photobiographies such as "Lincoln: A Photobiography," "The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane," and "Eleanor Roosevelt: A Life of Discovery."
While our discussion this month will venture into various forms of nonfiction writing for children and young adults, why don't we begin at looking at biography and autobiography and move onto other types of nonfiction writing as the discussion dictates.
We've noted several times at the CCBC thoughout the year 2000 that it's been a great year for biographies, and we've found this continues the trend of recent years in which we've seen a rich and varied body of outstanding biographical and autobiographical writing.
I find great biograhpies to be a terrific way to not only illuminates an individual life but also the times in which that person lived. To me, a biography that doesn't provide this context of a person's life fails to convey information that is essential to the understanding of its subject. I want to come away from reading about a personwith the feeling that I understood what might have influenced her or his decisions and choices. I also like to feel that I've learned more about the history of our nation and our world by seeing how events or circumstances affected the life of an individual.
Russel Freedman is certainly one of the writers who has delivered excellence of this kind over and over, but there are other writers and other books that also offer this deft and skillful blend of biography and social history. The result, from the standpoint of looking at history through biography for children, is books that cast light on the specific times through individual experience.
There are books for older children and teenagers that build on the standard set by Freedman--thoroughly researched and well-documented, highly literary and highly visual, from Patrica and Fredrick McKissack's look at the life of Lorraine Hansberry, Young, Black and Determined, to Barbara Harrison and Daniel Terris's A Ripple of Hope: The Life of Robert F. Kennedy. There is writing--especially autobiographical writing--that provides gripping and unparalleled accounts of events in 20th century history, from the growing body of unforgettable Holocaust memoirs such as Schoschana Rabinovici's Thanks to My Mother to Ji-Li Jiang's Red Scarf Girl, her memoir of coming of age during the Cultural Revolution in China. There are picture book profiles for younger readers, some of which focus on a single important event in a notable person's life, such as Deborah Hopkinson's Maria's Comet, which imagines what it might have been like for 19th century astronomer Maria Mitchell the first time she looked through a telescope, and some that offer the scope of a person's life and accomplishments, such as Alice McGill's Molly Bannaky. While perhaps not biographies in the strictest sense of the word, these picture books are nonetheless shining examples of ways to engage young readers in the past.
Let's hear from you! What are your thoughts on biography as a means of exploring the past?
If you're a librarian, do you find yourself recommending biographies as a potential source of information for children (or teachers) on a particular time or place? Do you find yourself putting biographies into the hands of children who simply love reading about other times and places?
If you're a teacher, how are you using biographies in your classroom as you teach about, illuminate, or engage young readers in the past.
And what are some of the best biographies and autobiographies for childen and young adults that you've read and recommended or used in recent years?
Megan
Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education UW-Madison 608&2?03 schliesman at education.wisc.edu
Received on Wed 01 Nov 2000 09:09:31 AM CST
