In what has got to be one of the funniest, and at the same time saddest memoirs ever, Esme Codell, (or“Madame Esme†as she likes to be called by her 5th graders) shares what it’s like to be a 24 year old, first-year, white teacher in an inner city, predominantly African American Chicago public school. Despite all her heroic efforts to teach kids in a fun and innovative way by hosting authors, making a fairy tale festival, and letting her worst kids learn how it feels to be her by letting them teach for a day, she is reprimanded, shunned, and generally told to fit the standard teacher mode or else! A book that will make you stand up and cheer, Educating Esme gives you a behind-the-scenes look at what a teaching life is REALLY like.
Category: Inquiring Minds Want to Know
Unusual Biographies for Teens
Restless Spirit: The Life and Work of Dorothea Lange by Elizabeth Partridge
Photographer Dorothea Lange hit the road with her camera before it was fashionable to be a working woman and gave the world incredibly moving pictures of poverty in the Oklahoma Dust Bowl, bread lines in the cities during the Great Depression, and barbed fences around the Japanese WWII internment camps. Author Elizabeth Partridge had the privilege of knowing Lange when she was a child (her father was Lange’s darkroom assistant) so she’s got some inside scoop, including a cool description of Thanksgiving dinner at Lange’s house. Definitely worth your time if you’re assigned ANOTHER biographical book report–not just because its really good, but because tons of photos keep the text to a minimum.
Martha Graham: A Dancer’s Life by Russell Freedman
In her day, Martha Graham was the DEAL. Paula Abdul and every other smooth-mover can thank Graham for paving the way for them way back in the1930’s and 40’s. She is known as the mother of modern dance, and she choreographed dances for over 70 years, right up until her death at age 96 in 1991. Not only was she a dance teacher to both Liza Minelli and Madonna,but she was also a wild woman who romanced young male dancers and broke every classical dance rule. Russell Freedman has filled this bio with stunning b&W photos that really give you a sense of how Martha Graham’s moves started a dance revolution. She was a rebel of the highest order and in the best sense of the word. You’ll want to read this one just for fun…
Red Scarf Girl: A Memior of the Cultural Revolution by Ji-Li Jiang
This is one of the best books I’ve ever come across, and I’m giving it a big pump-up here because I want it to be read. It’s hard for us living in the United States to imagine a society where too much intelligence is considered dangerous and being part of an upper-class family is a crime. But that is exactly how it was in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s in China. Ji-Li was a pre-teen when Chairman Mao came into power, and watched as the Communist Party attacked the upper class and exalted the lower class in an attempt to make everyone equal. Her life was lived in fear of the Red Guards, who searched upper class homes for signs of the “four olds”–old ideas, old customs, old culture and old habits. If they found any symbol of the four olds such as ceremonial robes or family heirlooms, it was destroyed and members of the family could be imprisoned. It was a frightening time, and even though Ji-Li tried to be a good Communist and embrace the ideals of Chairman Mao, she couldn’t forget her intelligence, her heritage, of the fact that her father was imprisoned just because his family owned land. You’ll definitely have a new appreciation for the freedom you have as an American teen of the 90’s after reading this powerful memoir.
Little X: Growing up in the Nation of Islam by Sonsyrea Tate
In the 1970’s, Sonsyrea Tate was a member of a family that belonged to the Nation of Islam. She didn’t go to public school, but instead attended a private Muslim school where her subjects included Arabic, history according to the Honorable Elijah Mohammed, the Nation’s Leader, and black pride. She liked how the Nation gave her and her family a sense of identity and worth as a people. But as she grew older, Sonsyrea grew dissatisfied with the Nation. She hated the way the women were forced to be subservient and wear restrictive clothing. She felt that her parents were hypocrites who disobeyed the Nation’s rules against drugs by smoking pot. Her eyewitness account of the corruption that went on behind the scenes of the Black Muslim movement caused her to make a permanent break with the Nation when she became a young adult. The feelings expressed in Sonsyrea’s story will probably remind you of feelings of disillusionment that you may have had about your parents or the religion you were brought up in. An absorbing first hand account of the Nation of Islam from the inside-out.
No One Here Gets Out Alive by Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman
Of course, no bio list from me, the rabid Doors fan, would be complete without the inclusion of the legend, the Lizard King, the bad boy to end all bad boys–Jim Morrison. Yes, the lead singer of the Doors had a very bad rep. as a drug-addicted alcoholic who publically exposed himself at concerts and ran around on his girlfriend. But author Danny Sugerman, who was part of the Doors entourage, also writes about the sensitive, wacky kid that Jim was. His I.Q. was off the charts and he read tons of philosophy and classical lit. in his teens that most people don’t even try to tackle until college. Sugerman also writes about the Jim Morrison who felt so distanced from his military parents that he told reporters during an interview that they were dead, even though at the time, they were very much alive. (Admit it, you’ve been tempted sometimes to do the same thing)This biography is also a good book about the 60’s and how the Doors music influenced and was influenced by the political and moral movements of that time. Now kids, I’m not endorsing Jim’s lifestyle in any way, shape or form. All I’m saying is that despite all his bad behavior, Jim Morrison was also a gifted poet and a voracious reader–one habit of his that I think would be great for you to pick up.
Behind the Mask: The Life of Queen Elizabeth I by Jane Resh Thomas
Yeah, you’ve seen her on the big screen, but the Oscar-nominated movie “Elizabeth” only told part of a much larger story (And Cate Blanchett was robbed, robbed I tell you!) For example, did you know that one of Queen Elizabeth’s favorite past-times was watching bear-baiting? Or that it was considered the highest honor to meet with the Queen in her bathroom? You’ll learn all these weird little facts and more in this comprehensive, yet not overly long biography by Thomas. Elizabeth beat every odd by ruling during a time when men believed that women’s brains were small and feeble. Her wit, charm and shrewdness helped make England into a world power. And she did it totally alone because she could never trust anyone completely. She was surrounded on all sides by hypocritical couriers, foreign spies and warring religious factions that that would have had her off her throne in a minute if they had dared to challenge her. But they didn’t. Because she was one cool chick who never lost her head, either literally (like her mother Anne Boelyn) or figuratively. Read about Elizabeth and discover the real roots behind Girl Power.
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
If you were assigned to read about Christopher Columbus, I would suggest this modern day adventuring Chris instead. Christopher McCandless was a twenty-something nature loving college graduate looking for adventure. Unfortunately, in this advanced technological age, there just wasn’t too much frontier left for him to explore. He hitched around out West for awhile with no car and very little money, just to see how far he could push himself. But he found that just moving around on the edge of civilization wasn’t extreme enough, so he decided to trek up to the last great American wilderness left–Alaska. Only a few months after he was last seen heading out into the Land of the Midnight Sun, his body was found in an abandoned school bus in the wilderness, where he had apparently starved to death. What made him do it? Was his crazy camping trip a suicide mission or just a good plan gone wrong? True adventure author Jon Krakauer has taken Chris’s life, death and thirst for the extreme and turned it into a first rate biography. You may not have the same fanatical wanderlust as Chris McCandless, (and I hope you don’t, you see what it got him)but nevertheless, this book speaks to the would-be rock-climbing, parachute-jumping runaway in all of us. And the movie, starring Emile Hirsch and directed by Sean Penn ain’t bad either.
The Air Down Here: Tales of a South Bronx Boyhood by Gil Alicea with Carmine DeSena
When Gil Alicea was 16 years old, he wrote 115 short essays about what it was like to be a Puerto Rican teen growing up in the South Bronx projects. Get Gil’s take on drugs, violence, school and gangs. See the stuff he sees everyday through the b&w photos he took of his neighborhood. Switch off the “Real World” for one night and instead take a trip to Gil’s side of the subway tracks. It may be more “reality” than you can handle.