Sharing the Story: Memorable Memoirs

This winter, Lafayette School is taking a snow-covered stroll down memoir lane.  A memoir—from the French word meaning memory—is a collection of life stories written in first person voice. The memoirs are piled high on LMC shelves, so let’s grab our Reading Road Trip shovels and dig into the genre!

Our Top Story:  Where did the author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, and other Lafayette favorites find creative inspiration?  In Boy: Tales of Childhood, Roald Dahl shares childhood memories, including tales of summer vacations in Norway and anecdotes about life at English boarding school.

A Multi-Story House: In 26 Fairmount Avenue, a favorite author-illustrator shares heart-warming stories and humorous adventures from a childhood year in Connecticut.  The illustrated Newbery Honor-winning memoir covers a lot of ground: hurricanes and home life, Snow White and school life... and memorable moments with Nana Upstairs.

26 Fairmount Avenue Illustration by Natalie B.

That’s Our Newbery Medal-Winning Story, and We’re Sticking to It: In Dead End in Norvelt, Jack Gantos remembers the summer of 1962—when he was twelve years old, grounded, and assigned to help an elderly neighbor with a strange task. The autobiographical novel is packed with plot twists, history lessons, and Girl Scout cookies!

A Moving Story:  In Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio, Lafayette favorite author Peg Kehret describes her childhood bout with polio and her courageous efforts to overcome the ongoing effects of the disease.  Take a look at a RRT author interview, produced by Shannon and Georgia:

Lafayette's Mrs. Ferrone feels a personal connection to Small Steps: her aunt had polio.  The BSI coordinator and Reading Specialist shares, "We watched Aunt Gerry bravely deal with this disease... Her disability never dimmed her spirit, just as Peg Kehret bravely faced life and met polio head on."

Randi, Summer, Molly, Annie, and Amy 

produced another Small Steps author interview: 

Small Steps Sketch-a-Scene by Jane B.

Small Steps Plot Project by Kaitlyn F. and Molly R.

Small Steps Project by Sara R.

A Likely Story:  In Knucklehead: Tall Tales and Mostly True Stories about Growing Up Scieszka, Jon Scieszka describes what it was like growing up in a house with six brothers during the 1950s. From comic books to Catholic school, from summers at the lake to babysitting on the homefront, Knucklehead is full of Scieszka chuckles!

We’re gazing out the big LMC window, and it looks like it might snow... again!  If there is wintry weather tomorrow, we’re going to make cocoa, grab notebooks and sharpened pencils, find comfortable chairs, and begin to write our memoirs.  But that’s another story!