Autobiographies+and+Memoirs

Autobiographies and Memoirs
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Added by Tessa Grassetti Both autobiographies and memoirs are told in the first person and both are true accounts about the author's life. They each contain personal information and are meant to allow the reader insight into the author's mind. You will find in-depth analyses in both autobiographies and memoirs, though memoirs are often considered the more personal of the two. An autobiography is a sketch of the author's entire life, often from birth up until the time of the writing. When you write an autobiography, you start with your earliest memories and no one incident or time of life takes precedence over another. A memoir, on the other hand, is an autobiographical writing that focuses on one aspect of the author's life. Many people write memoirs to talk about their experiences in a war or their careers or their family life. Memoirs usually cover a relatively brief span of time, and their main purpose is to draw the reader’s attention to a specific theme of circumstance. One great example of a memoir is “Rocks in his Head,” by Carol Otis Hurst. This memoir provides a little history about the Depression, a little information about collecting, and the story of a man, who has no college education, turns his passion into a living as a museum curator. //"Some people collect stamps. Some people collect coins or dolls or bottle caps. When he was a boy, my father collected rocks. When he wasn't doing chores at home or learning at school, he'd walk along stonewalls and around old quarries, looking for rocks. People said he had rocks in his pockets and rocks in his head. He didn't mind. It was usually true."// // An example of an autobiography is “Moon and I,” an autobiography about Betsy Byars. // Throughout the account, she tells of her relationship with a snake, Moon, which she found near her cabin. While describing her numerous adventures with a blacksnake, the author tells childhood anecdotes and explains how she writes books. Byars, Betsy. **// Moon and I. //** New Jersey: Messner, 1992. Print. Hurst, Carol Otis. **// Rocks in His Head //**. Greenwillow, 2001. Print. Morgan, Mia. “Biography and Historical Fiction.” PowerPoint presentation for LBS 803. Fall 2009. Ronderman, Margaret, Bill Glaister, and Barbara Huston. "Our Favorite Children's and Young Adult Authors." //Children's and Young Adult Literature//. Sep 2009. University of Lethbridge, Web. 27 Sep 2009. [].

Added by Marcia Bernard For children, reading biographies offers a chance to be inspired, surprised and moved. “Many children who read well-written biographies feel as if the biographical subjects become personal friends” (Norton, 670). Biographies provide a connection for children to the past, through an intimate look into a person’s life. Autobiographies and memoirs present special challenges for both the author and the reader however; the need for accuracy is complicated by both the benefit of personal details that make the story so engaging and readable and the inherent subjectivity and bias the author brings. Charlotte Huck contends “most people who write about their own lives for children do so in memoirs told in story form, with re-created conversation” (567).

An example of this type of memoir is Tomie DePaola’s //26 Fairmont Avenue// Series. In this six book series, DePaola shares memories from his earliest years. Filled with humor and a love of his family, we are able to understand young Tomie through his remembrances and re-created (possibly fictional) conversations.

Gary Paulsen’s books show a harsh reality and survival motif that spring from his own life experiences. In his autobiographical book //Guts,// he shares with the reader his own stories that helped him create //Hatchet’// s Brian Robeson. To read these adventures, one must surely keep a critical eye for subjectivity. Paulsen knows how to tell a big story, and this is not lost in his writing on his own life.

Autobiographies and memoirs offer children a rare first hand look into the lives of very interesting people. With a dash of skeptical objectivity, children can understand that while a memoir is intrinsically biased, it is this personal viewpoint that makes it worthwhile.

Sources DePaola, Tomie. 26 Fairmont Avenue. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1999. Huck, Charlotte//. Children’s Literature in the Elementary School//. 4th edition. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc, 1987. Morgan, Mia. “Historical Fiction and Biography” LBS 803, Fall 2009. Norton, Donna E. //Through the Eyes of a Child.// 5th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 1995. Paulsen, Gary. //Guts//. New York: Delacorte Press, 2001.