In Relation to Time
The greatest change in the attitudes toward the biographical content of children's books occurred in the
1970's
A well-known author of historical biographies for young children is
Jean Fritz
If children are reading biographies such as Russell Freedman's Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt: A Life of Discovery and making time lines of the characters, to understand the sequence of events in a person's life, they are developing
Comprehension
What is a criteria for evaluating and selecting biographies?
The writing style is not important; a listing of events is fine.
Which of the following is the most important question an author should ask before deciding to write about a particular person?
Has the person made a significant impact on the world for good or ill that children should be aware of?
In the late 1800s the goal for children's biographies changed from
A religious to a political one.
Biographies, such as Jane Yolen's The Perfect Wizard: Hans Christian Andersen can motivate students to
Want to read and discuss the books written by the biographical subjects.
Books such as Wangari's Trees of Peace, Planting the Trees of Kenya, What to do About Alice are examples of
Hero worship in biographies
According to Joanna Rudge Long, how should illustrated biographies be evaluated?
The style and visual references should be appropriate for the intended audience.
The pictorial motifs should suit the text.
The author and illustrator should provide sources.
Of the following subjects for biography, which has traditionally been the most common in children's biography?
Political leaders and social activists
Biographies written for children in the 17th and 18th centuries usually emphasized which of the following?
Religious values.
The subject of Russell Freedman's biography about a religious leader who lived more than 2,500 years ago and whose teachings have influenced millions of followers featured
Confucius
Reading biographies to prepare for debate develops students'
Cognitive skills and oral language abilities
What is the main value of biographies about civil rights leaders?
They encourage readers to examine historical, political, and social perspectives of the movement.
What has been the major influence on the authors of biographies for children over the years?
Social attitudes toward children.
What is the main reason that few biographies of the early 1900s dealt with women, African Americans, Native Americans or members of other ethnic and racial minorities?
The contributions of women and non-whites were not highly regarded.
Traditional social patterns kept women and non-whites out of positions of power.
Americans did not consider women and non-whites to be appropriate subjects for
biographies.
Who is the subject of a biography featuring a controversial painter and sculptor who broke down barriers in the male-dominated art world including how she ran away from a past controlled by her father?
Louise Bourgeois
A reader response activity that works well with biographies is to
Have students develop hypothetical questions and answer interviews
What is the most likely reason that biographers writing for young readers have often focused on the boyhood years of their characters?
They wanted to increase the ability of the children to empathize with political heroes
Which is probably the most appropriate and practical way that authors of biographies for children begin their research on their subjects?
They study original materials such as autobiographies, diaries, journals, and letters
Persevering may require the survival of body and soul is a theme in
Holocaust biographies
Of the many biographies written about Abraham Lincoln, which author wrote the text that is likely the best known?
Carl Sandburg
What is the most serious result of glorifying biographical subjects, avoiding any of their
weaknesses, mistakes, and flaws?
It gives children a distorted, rather than a realistic model of the contributions people have made and can make.
What is the most important literary element in biography?
Characterization.
Children interact with a character on a human level when they
Read in order to role-play a character's actions.
Read in order to express a character's feelings.
State dialogue that a character might express.