A GIRL FROM YAMHILL: A MEMOIR
by Beverly Cleary
Beloved children’s author describes growing up near Portland, OR and gives readers insights about the origins of her characters, especially “Ramona the Pest.”

AN AMERICAN CHILDHOOD
by Annie Dillard
In the 1950’s, a girl in Pittsburgh blossoms into an irrepressibly creative young woman.

ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL
by James Herriot
An English veterinarian warmly recounts his sometimes hilarious experiences with both animals and people.

ZLATA’S DIARY
by Zlata Filipovic
From the age of 11 to thirteen, a girl documents how her family survived the bombing of Sarajevo in the 1990’s.

RED SCARF GIRL
by Ji Li Jiang
An intelligent young girl and her wealthy family suffer many losses during the Cultural Revolution in 1966.

ANGELA’S ASHES
by Frank McCourt
The gut-wrenching account of suffering through a poor, Irish childhood in the 1930’s and 40’s.

BAD BOY
by Walter Dean Myers
Popular young adult novelist Walter Dean Myers: From bad boy to role model, Myers recalls growing up in Harlem in the 1940s and 1950s.

MAUS 1: A SURVIVOR’S TALE: MY FATHER BLEEDS HISTORY
by Art Spiegelman
Chilling story of the Jewish Holocaust, written in comic-book format.

THIS BOY’S LIFE: A MEMOIR
by Tobias Wolff
Chronicle of growing up in the 1950’s in rural Washington State with a divorced mother and eventually a difficult stepfather.