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SJPL Picks: Biographies, Autobiographies and Memoirs for Teens

Everyone in our community has a story- their own. These authors put pen to paper to tell their own truth, or delved deep into history to breath life back into lives lived long ago. A mix of traditional print and graphic novels, the titles on this list all chronicle real people and their stories. Biographies, autobiographies, memoirs, and life stories for teens, curated by SJPL librarians.

San José Public Library

44 items

  • The Salt Thief

    Gandhi's Heroic March to Freedom

    Bascomb, Neal,
    In 1930, the Indian people, long ruled by their British occupiers, were at a breaking point. No more could many stand the terrible demands of colonial rule. At this pivotal moment, Mohandas Gandhi, who had suffered firsthand for decades the cruelty…
    Book, 2024New York : Scholastic Focus, 2024. — YA 954.035 GANDHI Bascomb
  • A Quantum Life

    My Unlikely Journey From the Street to the Stars

    Oluseyi, Hakeem M. (Hakeem Muata),
    A NASA astrophysicist narrates his improbable journey from an impoverished childhood and an adolescence mired in drugs and crime to the nation's top physics PhD program at Stanford in this inspiring coming-of-age memoir.
    Book, 2024New York : Ember, 2024. — YA 523.0109 OLUSEYI Oluseyi
  • Lady Sunflower

    Stories, Songs, and Poems From the Desk of Kill.gertrude

    Shuck-Sparer, Sierra, 2003-2024,
    Lady Sunflower is an achingly poignant collection written by Sierra Shuck-Sparer when she found herself grappling with the unimaginable: high-risk medulloblastoma. At the age of fifteen, Sierra was thrust into her harrowing battle against Gertrude…
    Book, 2024Oakville, ON, Canada : Flowerpot Press, a division of Flowerpot Children's Press, Inc., 2024. — YA 810.8006 SHUCK-SP Shuck-Sp
  • Stephen King

    His Life, Work, and Influences

    Vincent, Bev,
    For many young readers, when the last page of Goosebumps is turned, the first chapter of Pet Sematary begins, and a world of terror crafted by Stephen King is revealed. His novels are as fascinating as his life, and in this ultimate illustrated…
    Book, 2024New York : becker&mayer!kids, 2024. — YA 813.54 KING Vincent
  • Ruth Asawa

    An Artist Takes Shape

    Nakahira, Sam, 1997-
    Renowned for her innovative wire sculptures, Japanese American artist Ruth Asawa (1926–2013) was a teenager in Southern California when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and the United States entered World War II. Japanese Americans on the West Coast were…
    Book, 2024Los Angeles, California : Getty Publications, [2024] — YA 730.92 ASAWA Nakahira
  • Laurie Boyle Crompton’s coming of age in rural Pennsylvania and the New York City area in the 1970s and 1980s was anything but idyllic. In moving verse accompanied by diary-esque sketches, Crompton takes you along as she navigates relationships,…
    Book, 2023Minneapolis : Zest Books , 2023. — YA 811.6 Crompton
  • Spinoza

    the Outcast Thinker

    Lehmann, Devra,
    A brilliant schoolboy in 17th-century Amsterdam, Bento Spinoza -- formally Baruch and later Benedict de Spinoza -- quickly learns to keep his ideas to himself. When he is 23, those ideas prove so scandalous to his own Jewish community that he is…
    Book, 2023New York, NY : Seven Stories Press, [2023] — YA 199.492 SPINOZA Lehmann
  • Impossible Escape

    a True Story of Survival and Heroism in Nazi Europe

    Sheinkin, Steve,
    Told in tandem, these gripping true stories follow Rudolph, who escaped Auschwitz, becoming the first survivors to expose Nazi concentration camps to the world, and Gerta, his high school friend who began to cave under pressure from German Nazis in…
    Book, 2023New York, NY : Roaring Brook Press, [2023] — YA 940.5318 Sheinkin
  • Family Style

    Memories of An American From Vietnam

    Pham, Thien,
    Told through the lens of meaningful food and meals, this graphic novel chronicles the author's childhood immigration to America where food takes on new meaning as he and his family search for belonging, for happiness and for the American dream.
    Book, 2023New York, NY : First Second, 2023. — YA 305.8959 Pham
  • Monstrous

    a Transracial Adoption Story

    Myer, Sarah,
    Sarah has always struggled to fit in. Born in South Korea and adopted at birth by a white couple, she grows up in a rural community with few Asian neighbors. People whisper in the supermarket. Classmates bully her. She has trouble containing her…
    Book, 2023New York, NY : First Second, 2023. — YA 362.734 Myer
  • A powerful, honest account of an activist’s experiences of being gay in a culture she loves but in which it’s hard to see a place for herself. Growing up privileged in Amman, Jordan, Mufleh realized as a preteen that she was attracted to other…
    Book, 2023New York : Nancy Paulsen Books, [2023] — YA 305.9069 MUFLEH Mufleh
  • Nearer My Freedom

    the Interesting Life of Olaudah Equiano by Himself

    Edinger, Monica, 1952-
    Olaudah Equiano, born in West Africa in 1745, was captured and enslaved as a preteen and forced to work at sea. He was afforded unique opportunities while enslaved, taught to read, and able to earn wages. At 21, Equiano bought his freedom. After…
    Book, 2023Minneapolis : Zest Books, [2023] — YA 306.362 EQUIANO Edinger
  • Dissenter on the Bench

    Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Life and Work

    Ortiz, Victoria
    The life and career of the fiercely principled Supreme Court Justice, now a popular icon, with dramatic accounts of her landmark cases that moved the needle on legal protection of human rights, illustrated with b/w archival photographs"-- Also…
    Book, 2022New York : Clarion Books, 2022. — YA 347.7326 GINSBURG Ortiz
  • Messy Roots

    a Graphic Memoir of a Wuhanese American

    Gao, Laura,
    After spending her early years in Wuhan, China, riding water buffalos and devouring stinky tofu, Laura immigrates to Texas, where her hometown is as foreign as Mars—at least until 2020, when COVID-19 makes Wuhan a household name. In Messy Roots,…
    Book, 2022New York, NY : Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, Harper Alley, [2022] — YA FICTION Messy roots
  • Victory. Stand!

    Raising My Fist for Justice

    Smith, Tommie, 1944-
    On October 16, 1968, during the medal ceremony at the Mexico City Olympics, Tommie Smith, the gold medal winner in the 200-meter sprint, and John Carlos, the bronze medal winner, stood on the podium in black socks and raised their black-gloved fists…
    Book, 2022New York, NY : Norton Young Readers, an imprint of W.W. Norton & Company, [2022] — YA 796.4209 Smith
  • Welcome to St. Hell

    My Trans Teen Misadventure

    Hancox, Lewis, 1989-
    Lewis has a few things to say to his younger teen self. He knows she hates her body. He knows she's confused about who to snog. He knows she's really a he and will ultimately realize this... but she's going to go through a whole lot of mess (some of…
    Book, 2022New York, NY : Graphix, an imprint of Scholastic, 2022. — YA 741.5941 Welcome
  • This inspiring memoir chronicles Top Chef star and Forbes and Zagat 30 Under 30 phenom Kwame Onwuachi's incredible and odds-defying fame in the food world after a tough childhood in the Bronx and Nigeria. Food was Kwame Onwuachi's first great love.…
    Book, 2021New York : Delacorte Press, [2021] — YA 641.5929 ONWUACHI Onwuachi
  • A Face for Picasso

    Coming of Age With Crouzon Syndrome

    Henley, Ariel, 1991-
    I am ugly. There's a mathematical equation to prove it. -- At only eight months old, identical twin sisters Ariel and Zan were diagnosed with Crouzon syndrome -- a rare condition where the bones in the head fuse prematurely. They were the first…
    Book, 2021New York : Farrar Straus Giroux, 2021. — YA 617.52 HENLEY Henley
  • The Woman All Spies Fear

    Code Breaker Elizebeth Smith Friedman and Her Hidden Life

    Greenfield, Amy Butler, 1968-
    An inspiring true story, perfect for fans of Hidden Figures, about an American woman who pioneered codebreaking in WWI and WWII but was only recently recognized for her extraordinary contributions. Elizebeth Smith Friedman had a rare talent for…
    Book, 2021New York : Random House Studio, [2021] — YA 940.5486 FRIEDMAN Greenfie
  • They Better Call Me Sugar

    My Journey From the Hood to the Hardwood

    Rodgers, Sugar, 1989-
    In unflinchingly honest prose, Sugar Rodgers shares her inspiring story of overcoming tremendous odds to become an all-star in the WNBA. Growing up in dire poverty in Suffolk, Virginia, Sugar (born Ta'Shauna) Rodgers never imagined that she would…
    Book, 2021Brooklyn, New York : Black Sheep, [2021] — YA 796.323 RODGERS Rodgers