I was asked to create a reading list for a grade 12 class of highly appealing, short, non-fiction life stories. There are so many good ones out there! Using NoveList I was able to construct many searches, using terms like “Adult Books for Young Aduts” and “Life Stories.” I divided the list up by category to help them browse to find a good match: Outstanding Individuals from Around the World, Inspirational North American Women, Overcoming Illness, War Stories, Environmental Activism, Racial Issues, True Crime and Matters of the Law.

Outstanding Individuals From Around the World

I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai
Three cups of tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
Stones into schools: promoting peace with books, not bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Greg Mortenson
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba
Behind the beautiful forevers by Katherine Boo
The dressmaker of Khair Khana by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

Inspirational North American Women

Soul surfer: a true story of faith, family, and fighting to get back on the board by Bethany Hamilton
Three little words: a memoir by Ashley Rhodes-Courter
#Girlboss by Sophia Amoruso
The lost girls: three friends, four continents, one unconventional detour around the world by Jennifer Baggett
Wild: from lost to found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed
Breaking night: a memoir of forgiveness, survival, and my journey from homeless to Harvard by Liz Murray
Orange is the New Black: my year in a women’s prison by Piper Kerman
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

Overcoming Illness

This star won’t go out : the life and words of Esther Grace Earl by Esther Earl with Lori and Wayne Earl; introduction by John Green
Quicksand: HIV/AIDS in our lives by Anonymous
Tweak: (growing up on methamphetamines) by Nic Sheff
The burn journals by Brent Runyon
Brain on fire: my month of madness by Susannah Cahalan
We should hang out sometime: embarrassingly, a true story by Josh Sundquist
Breaking Free by Herschel Walker

War Stories

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
Escape from Camp 14: one man’s remarkable odyssey from North Korea to freedom in the West by Blaine Harden
Four perfect pebbles: a Holocaust story by Lila Perl and Marion Blumenthal Lazan
Hana’s Suitcase by Karen Levine
In my hands: memories of a Holocaust rescuer by Irene Gut Opdyke

Environmental Activism

My life with the chimpanzees by Jane Goodall
The omnivore’s dilemma: a natural history of four meals by Michael Pollan
The Devil’s Teeth by Susan Casey

Racial Issues

Between the world and me by Coates Ta-Nehisi
Life in motion: an unlikely ballerina by Misty Copeland
The short and tragic life of Robert Peace: a brilliant young man who left Newark for the Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs

True Crime and Matters of the Law

Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
Missoula: rape and the justice system in a college town by Jon Krakauer
No angel: my harrowing undercover journey to the inner circle of the Hells Angels by Jay Dobyns
Hope: a memoir of survival in Cleveland by Amanda Berry

What books would you include on a YA Life Stories Reading list? What are your favourite biographies and memoirs?