Memoir Basics 1: What's in a memoir?

See you next time

That’s it for the lesson.

A home made rocket blasts off.
See ya!

Imagine you’re asked to write your memoirs—what life lessons have you learned, and what were the events where you gained that wisdom from?

Knowing the answer to those questions may come in handy, as there are other memoir lessons in this series that need your experiences (and writing skills)!

Reread the opening paragraphs of stories you like—they can be memoirs or fiction—and see how much of the overall theme/s are hinted at in just that section. Some stories really pack an enormous amount of the book’s flavour in those first sentences!

Here are the books we used in this lesson.

You can see the variety of memoir topics that are out there. Everybody has a tale to tell!

Rocket Boys, by Homer Hickman

Three years in the life of Homer ‘Sonny’ Hickam, from the moment he sees the Sputnik satellite overhead in West Virginia to his successful launch of a prizewinning rocket.

Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution, by Ji-li Jiang

Red Scarf Girl

Ji-li Jiang writes of her experiences during the Cultural Revolution of China in the 1960s, where changes in politics affect her family and education.

Teen Angst? Naaah…, by Ned Vizzini

Teen Angst? Naaah

Ned Vizzini presents the weird, funny, and sometimes mortifying moments that made up his teen years.

The Glass Castle, by Jeanette Walls

The Glass Castle

Jeanette Walls writes of her nomadic childhood, growing up with parents who were trying to escape civilization and formal education, and how she escaped it to become a journalist.

It's Trevor Noah: Born a Crime (YA edition), by Trevor Noah

It's Trevor Noah: Born a Crime

Chat show host and comedian Trevor Noah talks about his life growing up as a mixed race child in South Africa at the time when apartheid ended. 

Diary of Latoya Hunter: My First Year in Junior High, by Latoya Hunter

The Diary of Latoya Hunter

Latoya Hunter moves from her home in Jamaica to The Bronx in New York City and captures the changes to her life and how she coped in a diary.

See you next time!

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