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Remember My Story by Claire Sarnowski with Sarah Durand recounts the memories of the author who befriends Alter Wiener, a Holocaust survivor, when she is only nine years old. The main purpose of the book is to share the truth that remembering the history of atrocities like the Jewish genocide can help prevent intolerance, violence, and hate. After hearing Alter Wiener’s presentation about his surviving the concentration camps, Claire is inspired by his attitude to “become better, not bitter.” Despite their huge age gap—Alter is 87—the two become fast friends, and together they spread the message that we can’t remove pain by hiding the truthRead More →

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With This Indian Kid, Eddie Chuculate writes what he subtitles A Native American Memoir. Recounting events from his life during the years 1976-1984, Chuculate conveys how living in Oklahoma—where the races grew up together—the library was his second home. The days of his youth and adolescence were filled with playing sports, gardening, fishing, writing, and listening to music. A addict of sorts, Eddie “lived and breathed sports.” He was “an all-star in summer baseball, shot hoops in the backyard goal year-round ‘til midnight, and was a safety, running back, and kickoff returner in football” (124). His only problem at school came in basketball because CoachRead More →

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Mexican-American author Pedro Martín writes a graphic memoir with his latest creation, Mexikid. Largely, it features a 1970s setting and recounts Pedro’s memories growing up. As a Mexican his name is Pedro, but as an American, he is Peter. The dual names are all part of being a Mexikid, according to Martín whose feet are planted on American soil but whose heart belongs to both sides of the border and whose head is trying to fill in the gaps in his own heritage story. A creative, barrel-shaped boy, Pedro likes comic books and collects action figures. These characteristics often make him the target of others’Read More →

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With her recent autobiographical account in Out of Hiding: A Holocaust’s Survivor’s Journey to America, Ruth Gruener (aka Luncia Gamzer) tells her story of survival. Her memoir joins those stories told by other survivors of this unimaginable time in history. This was a time when anxiety turned to cold, raw fear as the Nazis burned synagogues and committed murder without regard for the sanctity of human life—a time when choice was taken, freedom was scarce, and normal took on an entirely different definition. Gruener tells of her feeling like a nonperson, “a body that took up space” (27). She describes hunger, loneliness, hiding, and aRead More →

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A good story takes you places. And with Taking Flight, a memoir by Michaela and Elaine DePrince, the reader journeys from war-torn Sierra Leone in West Africa to recital halls in New York City with Mabinty Bangura. With this memoir, readers learn something of West African culture. In a typical household in the Kenema District of southeastern Sierra Leone, marriages are arranged, polygamy is acceptable, domestic violence is permissible, women learn how to cook, clean, sew, and care for children, and a girl child is not a cause for celebration—especially not a girl child born with the skin condition vitiligo that causes a mottled pigmentationRead More →