Click on titles to see more information about the book and if it is available at your school's library.
Title | Author | Description |
---|---|---|
Angela's Ashes | McCourt, Frank | Growing up with poverty and alcoholism in Ireland and the U.S. |
Because of Romek: A Holocaust Survivor's Memoir | Faber, David | Boy survives Nazi atrocities in Poland camp during the Holocaust |
Between a Rock and a Hard Place |
Ralston, Aron | Hiker is trapped for 6 days in Utah, his arm caught between rocks |
Blind Side: Evolution of a Game | Lewis, Michael | From 16 years of poverty to being adopted and becoming a star in the NFL |
Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant | Tammet, Daniel | Life through the eyes of an autistic savant, one of 50 in the country |
Burn Journals | Runyon, Brent | 14-year old boy sets himself on fire and then must survive the results |
Burro Genius | Villasenor, Victor | Life growing up Latino and poor in an all-white school in the 1940s |
Child Called "It": One Child's Courage to Survive | Pelzer, David | Life of severe child abuse and neglect with a child's courage to survive |
Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter | Mah, Adeline | Unwanted daughter, growing up in wealthy but dysfunctional Chinese family |
Diary of a Young Girl: Anne Frank | Frank, Anne | 13-year old girl hid from Nazis with her family in Amsterdam for 25 months |
Diving Bell and the Butterfly: A Memoir of Life in Death | Bauby, Jean | After a stroke, only his left eye works to communicate but writes a book |
Enrique's Journey | Nazario, Sonia | Young boy travels from Honduras to the U.S. to find his mother |
Escape | Jessop, Carolyn | Woman, married off to a stranger, flees a religious sect with her children |
Finding Fisher | Fisher, Antwone | African-American boy in abusive foster home rises to success in the Navy |
Freedom Writer's Diary | Gruwell, Erin | Teacher and 150 unteachable students use writing to change themselves |
Ghosts of War | Smithson, Ryan | 19-year old Army engineer in Iraq - combat, fear and friendship |
Girl, Interrupted | Kaysen, Susanna | Mental illness and recovery, a teen spends 2 years in psychiatric hospital |
Glass Castle | Walls, Jeanette | Tender story of how a family's nonconformity becomes abuse and neglect |
God Grew Tired of Us | Dau, John | One of the "Lost Boys of Sudan" and African children affected by war |
Hole in My Life | Gantos, Jack | Young drug user and smuggler goes to prison and turns his life around |
Hope's Boy | Bridge, Andrew | Boy survives a mentally ill mother and bad foster care to be successful |
I am Nujood; Aged 10 and Divorced | Ali, Nujood | Child bride in Yemen rebels after being physically and emotionally abused |
Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking | Powell, Julie | Young wife strives to make every one of Julia Child's 524 recipes in 1 year |
Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier | Beah, Ishmael | Young man participates in the horrors of civil war in Sierra Leone, Africa |
Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's | Robison, John | Very smart but socially awkward, he felt different due to Asperger's |
My Forbidden Face: Growing Up Under the Taliban: A Young Woman's Story | Latifa | Life of oppression for girls in war-torn Afghanistan, told by 16-year old girl |
My Thirteenth Winter | Abeel, Samantha | Straight-A student, she is diagnosed with dyscalculia, a learning disability |
October Sky | Hickam, Homer | Poor boy in Appalachia learns science and builds rockets for outer space |
Please Stop Laughing at Me: One Woman's Inspirational Story | Blanco, Jodee | Blanco was teased, shunned, and physically assaulted by her classmates |
Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution | Jiang, Ji-li | Teen girl experiences atrocities in China during the Cultural Revolution |
Sybil | Schreiber, Flora | Victim of childhood abuse, Sybil was possessed by 16 different personalities |
They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky: The True Story of Three Lost Boys from Sudan | Deng, Benson | In Sudan, 3 boys traveled 1,000 miles - surviving hunger, illness, predators |
Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations--One School at a Time | Mortenson, Greg | American man helping Afghanistan villages build schools, against all odds |
Three Little Words | Rhodes-Courter, Ashley | Girl spent 9 years in foster care after being taken from her neglectful mother |
Touching the Void | Simpson, Joe | Miracle survival after being injured and left for dead while mountain climbing |
Upstairs Room | Reiss, Johanna | Dutch Jewish girl spends 2 years hiding in a farmhouse room during Holocaust |
Warriors Don't Cry | Beals, Melba | 1957, brave Black students who integrated Central HS in Little Rock, AK |
We Beat the Street: How a Friendship Pact Helped Us Succeed | Davis, Sampson | 3 friends promise each other to stay away from crime and become doctors |
Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Spain | Filipovic, Zlata | Zlata describes life in the Bosnian War and bombing of Sarajevo in the 1990s |
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