Biographies

• Biography:

o What is a biography? A biography is a summary of someone’s life written by someone else. An autobiography is written by the person the biography is about.

o What is the value of a biography? Biographies serve to recount the events that occurred in someone’s life. Because they are written by someone else, they might serve to tell a different perspective of those events. Additionally, they are factual and focus on depicting what occurred during that person’s life.

o When did biographies become more appealing to young people? I believe that biographies become more interesting to young people when those readers are more interested in understanding the events of someone’s life. This typically occurs in the later school age years of children’s lives.

o In what ways were biographies made to be more acceptable to young people? In many ways, authors can make biographies more interesting to young people. They can be written on a younger level or in the form of a picture book. Additionally, biographies can feature colorful pictures or depictions of the people they are written about.

Categories of Biography Characteristics of category Example of category

Partial biographies • Depicts only a segment of a person’s life

• Explores that portion in depth “Why Don’t You Get a Horse, Sam Adams?”

Complete biographies • The author recounts a person’s life from birth to the present or to the person’s death if he or she is no longer alive “Our Eleanor: A Scrapbook Look at Eleanor Roosevelt’s Remarkable Life”

Collective biographies • A book describing the lives of several people who have something in common Uncommon Champions: Fifteen Athletes Who Battled Back

Autobiographies and Memoirs • In an autobiography, a person writes about his or her own life.

• A memoir differs from an autobiography in that it shares events from the author’s life based on his or her recollection.

• A memoir often focuses on one particular event or time in the person’s life and reflects on the meaning of that event for the author. “Drawing from Memory”

“To Dance: A Ballerina’s Graphic Novel”

• Criteria for evaluating biography:

o Is the person someone whose life will be of interest to young readers?

o Has the author presented the person in such a way that readers can identify with him or her as an authentic, believable human being?

o Is the information about the person accurate and authentic?

o Has the author written in an engaging style that maintains the readers’ attention?