Homeschool Fever

About this Genre: Biographies, Autobiographies, and Memoirs all tell the stories of all or portions of someone’s life. Biographies and Autobiographies can be non-fiction or fictionalized yet based on true events. Memoirs use portions of life events to bring out a theme or personality trait.

Importance: This genre lets children learn about the lives of significant figures who made or are making an impact on this world, gives them the courage to make an impact in their own world, and also learn that other people have the same basic needs, wants, and desires as they themselves do.

Criteria to use when evaluating books from this genre:

• The story is grounded in source material or there is enough truthful information to make
  it worth reading
• The facts and story line are integrated
• The social details are vivid, accurate, and linked to the individual’s accomplishments
• Subject’s character is well developed and multidimensional
• Author avoids stereotypes
• Writing style is comprehensible and engaging
• Complex topics are explained adequately
• There is a unifying theme
• Theme highlights the special qualities of the subject
• Illustrations help the reader visualize the time and place
• Illustrations illuminate the character of the subject

Major awards associated with this genre:
Norman A. Sugarman Biography Award

Fun Idea!
Writing Memoirs: have the children pick out an interesting older friend or family member, create questions to ask them, set up an interview, compile the interview into a written rough draft, have the person review it, arrange photographs about the stories, then present the memoirs to the class.

Why this genre is important:
This genre is important in education because it brings the child’s heroes down to a personal level and gives them a peak inside of their lives, helping to “de-god” them. It also shows that anyone, no matter what their background is, can aspire to greatness (as in Abraham Lincoln) or madness (Adolph Hitler).