Here are the top 30 biographies books for teen & young adults. Please click Read Review to read book reviews on Amazon. You can also click Find in Library to check book availability at your local library. If the default library is not correct, please follow Change Library to reset it.
1. The Hiding Place (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition)
by: Corrie Ten Boom Release date: Oct 01, 1996 Number of Pages: 241 Find in Library Read Review |
2. The Sun Still Shines: How a Brain Tumor Helped Me See the Light
by: Jodi Orgill Brown Release date: Nov 15, 2015 Number of Pages: 256 Find in Library Read Review |
3. My Rad Career
by: Bill Allen Release date: Jul 09, 2014 Number of Pages: 160 Find in Library Read Review |
By Bill Allen
If you were a teenager in the 1980s, odds are you ended up in an emergency room somewhere, with a broken arm or collar bone, trying to reenact the bike stunts performed in a little sleeper movie that became a home rental sensation, called RAD.
This wholesome, sweet story about a “local boy who makes good” set a generation of kids on fire for BMX… but, amazingly, its star had never owned a bicycle.
Bill Allen shares what it was like to play Cru Jones alongside Lori Loughlin, Olympic Gold Medalist Bart Conner, and Talia Shire, as well as the thrill of witnessing the inventors and first stars of BMX, and the history-making filming techniques of director and Oscar-Winner, Hal Needham.
Discover what it was like to be “an up and comer” in the ’80s alongside his close friends, among them George Clooney and Brad Pitt, as well as his best friend, Brandon Lee (son of Bruce Lee), and his firsthand view of the dark side of movie making through his near-death beside Tom Cruise while in Marine jungle training for Born and the Fourth of July, and Brandon’s tragic death on the film, The Crow.
Covering Bill’s work in film and television as well as his decade as a musician with a rhythm and blues band, The Pipefitters with Lou Diamond Phillips, touring stadiums with Billy Ray Cyrus, and playing in front of 100,000 people at Farm Aid.
The story travels from his childhood in Richardson, Texas, through the heady years in Hollywood, to his escape after Brandon’s death to a spiritual community in New Mexico. Over time the amazing impact of RAD and the many athletes, bike companies, and grown men who credit the film for their careers or happiest childhood memories, becomes more and more clear to him.
Leading Bill to where he is today: back in the ‘burbs of Los Angeles, a grateful accidental icon from the birth of BMX.
Told with humor and honesty, this insider’s view of the making of RAD to life as a working actor and musician will take the reader on a wild, exciting ride – one they might just want to wear a helmet for.
4. Bald, Fat & Crazy: How I Beat Cancer While Pregnant with One Daughter and Adopting Another
by: Stephanie Hosford Release date: Jun 16, 2015 Number of Pages: 228 Find in Library Read Review |
After receiving a cancer diagnosis and a positive pregnancy test within days of each other, Stephanie, a happily married mother of one and in the midst of an international adoption, is suddenly fighting for her life, her children – and her sanity.
Get ready to laugh, cry, gasp, and cheer on the ultimate 9-month roller coaster that takes us everywhere from the treadmill, to infusion rooms, and even across oceans. You will not forget this wild, true and ultimately satisfying story of love, motherhood and finding the inner strength we all hope is there when we need it.
5. The Pink Marine: One Boy’s Boot Camp Journey to Manhood
by: Greg Cope White Release date: Jan 29, 2016 Number of Pages: 266 Find in Library Read Review |
6. The Scent of Jasmine Cools the Rage
by: Garvar Brummett Release date: Jul 04, 2015 Number of Pages: 136 Find in Library Read Review |
7. Desperate for a Fix: If You Only Knew How One Good Decision Could Change Your Life
by: Dana Brown Release date: Jul 28, 2016 Number of Pages: 196 Find in Library Read Review |
Eventually the truth rang out, but not before 9 years were spent homeless, addicted to heroin, prostituting herself, and many other harrowing circumstances.
With the help of her family, two New York City Policemen, and the many prayers from home, she was able to find a real God, in a way she never dreamed was possible.
8. Live It: Riding the Highs and Lows of a Cross Country Dream
by: Kirk Douponce, Julie Fletcher Release date: Oct 22, 2015 Number of Pages: 198 Find in Library Read Review |
For the next few years she trained, raced and became part of the universal group known as the “cycling community.” For most of that time, she also quietly harbored a dream to ride her bike more than 3,000 miles across the country.
Every year, hundreds of cyclists register with private touring groups to travel by bike from coast to coast. But instead of taking one of these credit-card tours, this longtime supporter of a myriad of causes recruited and organized her own team of cyclists to tackle the continental challenge in support of America’s wounded veterans.
Her story perches readers on the front lines of a monumental undertaking that tested everything from the rubber on desert-scorched tires to the group dynamics of herding sometimes-exhausted cyclists across a continent. In a voice both humbling and inspiring, she tells a story of hardships and life-defining moments. Her trek takes readers across the country and introduces them to a cast that includes selfless Navajo Indians, unsung heroes of military sacrifice, and middle-class Americans who opened their homes and checkbooks to a band of strangers.
It is also a story that takes us from a comfortable spot on the couch to place where we can envision what is possible when you have a bike and a dream.
9. When the Grass Was Blue: Growing up in the South
by: Phillip Shabazz Release date: Jun 26, 2007 Number of Pages: 234 Find in Library Read Review |
10. Dan and Phil Go Outside
by: Dan Howell, Phil Lester Release date: Nov 03, 2016 Number of Pages: 224 Find in Library Read Review |
Dan Howell and Phil Lester, avoiders of human contact and direct sunlight, actually went outside. Traveling around the world on tour, they have collected hundreds of exclusive, intimate, and funny photos, as well as revealing and candid side notes, to show the behind-the-scenes story of their adventure.
Fans of Dan and Phil’s #1 New York Times bestseller, The Amazing Book Is Not on Fire, and their more than 10 million YouTube subscribers will love this full-color book featuring never-before-seen photos and stories from Dan and Phil.
11. My Wish the Story of a Man Who Brought Happiness to America: the life story of Bhante Sujatha
by: Mary Gustafson, Ryan Thompson, Kristin Costello, Tiffany Coulter, Doctor John Bardi, Bikkhuini Vimala, David Schmidt, Bhante Muditha Release date: May 31, 2014 Number of Pages: 361 Find in Library Read Review |
12. Stepping Into the River: An American Psychologist in Mother India
by: Marc Nemiroff Release date: Aug 13, 2015 Number of Pages: 388 Find in Library Read Review |
Nemiroff and his Indian colleague, Asha Dutia, spent one month each winter for 9 years working with the disenfranchised of India: abandoned elderly blind, children and their families in the Mumbai slums, street children, young adults kidnapped as children for the sex trade, parents of deepest poverty living in hospital with their very young children receiving cancer treatment, students and teachers in Bombay’s slum schools, the inhabitants of a remote tribal village, etc.
Nemiroff intersperses the biography of his relationship with his deeply abusive mother, as it relates to his Indian story.
This book is also the story of the development of a deep cross-cultural relationship between an Indian and an American, with ever-increasing trust, warmth, and humor.
Using an engagingly objective-yet-poignant, sometimes impressionistic style, Nemiroff passionately uncovers the spirit of India and its greatest strength: the women and men of poverty, poor mothers caring for their children under impossible circumstances. India’s soul ultimately brings inspiring personal healing to the author in a concluding dream sequence.
13. Please Validate My Existence: Essays & Stories From a Twentysomething Pseudo-Intellectual
by: Jessica Manuszak Release date: May 10, 2015 Number of Pages: 196 Find in Library Read Review |
*Besides a night in bed with a young Tom Selleck lookalike. Let’s be honest.
Think of it as having a life coach in your corner (and on your coffee table), assuming you like your life coaches like you like your pirates: soaked in liquor and perpetually spewing profanities. Peg legs, sadly, are not included.
Part essays, part stories & all soul, Please Validate My Existence is one twenty-something’s take on what it means to approach life much in the same way you approach a game of Monopoly: with alarming amounts of determination and a thick wad of fake paper money stuffed down the front of your pants.
Jessica Manuszak is the shouty mastermind behind the no-holds-barred Brazen Bible blog, a bustling hub on the internet for the dreamers. The doers. The occasional day-drinkers. And anyone who wants MORE out of life.
Because in case you haven’t heard?
You only get one.
14. The Life of Blessed Margaret of Castello, 1287-1320
by: Father William Bonniwell., Patrick Marrin Release date: Sep 01, 1993 Number of Pages: 128 Find in Library Read Review |
15. In the American West: 20th Anniversary Edition
by: Richard Avedon Release date: Oct 01, 2005 Number of Pages: 184 Find in Library Read Review |
Avedon, who died in 2004, was the greatest American photographer of his generation. For In the American West, he traveled throughout five years, meeting and photographing the plain people of the West: ranch workers, roustabouts, bar girls, drifters, and gamblers. The resulting book includes 120 exquisitely printed black-and-white photographs, an essay by Avedon on his working methods and portrait philosophy, a journal of the project by Laura Wilson, and a new foreword by John Rohrbach. The reissuing of this legendary book, out of print for more than a decade, is a major event in the photography world.
16. Sir Bentley and Holbrook Court (The Knights of Arrethtrae)
by: Chuck Black Release date: Apr 21, 2009 Number of Pages: 210 Find in Library Read Review |
Bentley soon befriends Eirwyn, a mysterious but compassionate young woman who often distributes food among the poor. When Eirwyn is kidnapped by a ruthless tribe to serve as a sacrifice, Bentley battles a vicious mountain creature to save her life. But when he discovers who is really behind Holbrook’s downfall, he’s faced with an even bigger challenge–battling the Dark Knight’s most evil commander and his Shadow Warriors as they attack the castle.
Will greed destroy the kingdom the way it destroyed Lord Kingsley? Or can Sir Bentley and Eirwyn work together to restore order and prosperity to the kingdom through the compassion and grace of the Prince?
Journey to Arrethtrae, where these knights of noble heart live and die in loyal service to the King and the Prince. These knights are mighty, for they serve a mighty King. They are…the Knights of Arrethtrae!
From the Trade Paperback edition.
17. Almost a Statistic: The Remarkable Story of Drs. Vickie and Maurice McBride
by: Jessica Wallace McBride, Maurice McBride, Vickie McBride Release date: Jan 16, 2015 Number of Pages: 164 Find in Library Read Review |
Born to an imprisoned teenager, Vickie lived a good life with her adoptive mother who loved her unconditionally, but whose staunch traditional beliefs about not talking to children about certain realities of life left Vickie vulnerable to boys who knew what to do with a child in a woman’s body. Years before she could drive, drink, or vote, Vickie was raising a son and trying to figure out how to break the curse of incarceration and secure a future for her family. Instead of limiting herself to low expectations and becoming a statistic, she became Dr. Vickie McBride.
As a small child, Maurice knew that Vickie was his mother, technically. Grandma was really mama, and Vickie was his best friend. Some of his fondest memories are of his childhood before Vickie left home, but some of his worst are of his life with Vickie, miles away from his mama. In Vickie’s home, punishment for infractions, both real and imagined, was swift. Eventually, Maurice dropped out of high school, spent time in jail, and had a successful music career. However, the need for a good education grew as his career as a rapper faded. Despite the negative labels, he fought against his past mistakes and became more than anyone had imagined. He became Dr. Maurice McBride.
Drs. Vickie and Maurice McBride came from “nowhere” and are “now here,” sharing their story of an unbreakable bond and incredible forgiveness that will motivate and inspire people of all ages for years to come.
18. American Hearts
by: Matt Johnson Release date: Sep 29, 2015 Number of Pages: 58 Find in Library Read Review |
This book is about America. Not the government, policy, or politics, but the people. People like Margaret Utinsky who rose from a wheat farm in St. Louis to become a secret agent during World War II. People like Chuck Taylor who leveraged a bad basketball career to make a bad basketball shoe the most famous in the world. And people like Glen Sherley who went from the confines of Folsom Prison to a record deal and tour with Johnny Cash. It’s about the people that made this country the most creative, tragic, and inspiring in history. These are their stories. These are American hearts.
19. Growing Up Superheroes: The Extraordinary Adventures of Deihlia Nye
by: Diane Fraser Release date: Oct 24, 2015 Number of Pages: 317 Find in Library Read Review |
20. The Liberty Club
by: Marianne Aleck Release date: Dec 14, 2015 Number of Pages: 530 Find in Library Read Review |
The two bloodlines come together during the war, with a torrid romance between the Greek-American born soldier and his French beauty, complicated by Hitlers Panzers. Vividly portrayed accounts of famous battles from a soldiers perspective, and life endured under German occupation are palpable through first hand accounts. All that, and you’re only halfway through this riveting tale. With close to two hundred pictures and images filling the pages from beginning to end, the characters, places, and events are brought to life.
The Liberty Club is a state of mind, an inner drive, and a place in time. Within each player a story is born, sacrifices are made, love is found, and love is lost. What compels the true life characters throughout these pages? What drives them to their choices, and ultimate consequences? And what inspired the narrator to research and write for almost four years uncovering every scrap, every morsel about the lives of her ancestors? The answer to the latter; an undying curiosity, deep familial love, and nostalgia for a by-gone era of those who lived before us. Those, who lived to become known as The Greatest Generation. The Liberty Club is this authors tribute to a generation who unwittingly set a high bar for the rest of us to strive for, while holding her families amazing journeys, gently between pages.
21. Through My Eyes: a story of Hope
by: Bob G. Whitworth Release date: Feb 27, 2015 Number of Pages: 241 Find in Library Read Review |
Find hope, as they did, amidst their struggle to survive in the war torn jungles and rice paddies.
Suitable for Young Adults
22. Breaking Out Of Beerport
by: Al Scheid Release date: Nov 11, 2014 Number of Pages: 766 Find in Library Read Review |
The story begins in the early 1930s in a place called Bridgeport—a dirt-poor coal mining, steel mill town that more than earned its nickname Beerport. Little more than a smudge on the map of Ohio, this was a place that one could be happy to say they were from, only because they no longer lived there. Yet, almost mysteriously, very few people ever left. It was like a Bermuda Triangle on the Ohio/West Virginia border, except it was your future that disappeared.
How does a sickly boy born into this time and place—in the midst of the Great Depression – even get the idea, let alone the courage to escape Beerport? What stirs the soul to venture beyond the familiar? From whence stems the fortitude to peek over the fence and dream of a life that no one you know can confirm even exists? It can happen and Breaking Out of Beerport provides pages of testimony. It is the early life, the memoir, the adventures, of the author, Al Scheid.
Al describes growing up in a culture that scorned education, as sons followed fathers into dead-end laboring jobs. He developed attitude problems in high school and was a poor student, nearly flunking out. He might have been named “most unlikely to succeed,” except that most of his fellow students deserved the same title. On top of all that, he was also a loner, prone to fits of anger often leading to fights. A rocky family life contributed to his personal problems.
He had one saving grace. He developed an unusual habit that was not appreciated in his environs. He loved to read; a local newspaper at first, and then books. He devoured books of all kinds, but especially classic adventure novels. This reading took him into the world of men with the courage to face life and win—men very different than those surrounding him. A wise teacher encouraged and guided his reading, which reinforced his urge to escape the life he saw around him.
But he still lived in Beerport after all, and there were things there you couldn’t learn by reading books. This was no place for a bookworm. Lucky for him, there were convenient places for real-life education in his town. Al learned to hustle pool for money; he phoned betting numbers and ran errands for local racketeers. Making a few dollars any way he could manage dominated his life. A relentless and deep first-love romance kept him whirling in this maelstrom. Through all of this, he learned to read people; size them up; win them over, and how to close the deal. There was little chance he would achieve higher education, but he graduated summa cum laude from the College of Street Smarts.
A sudden, major setback caused him to rethink his future and hitchhike out of town. The love of his life remained loyal but didn’t follow him. His is the story of an intriguing journey that will take you from this town, through the military, all the way to the gold coast of California and beyond. There are stops along the way that defy connect-the-dots logic and the love affair that wouldn’t die. The rest of the book is about the unexpected events that led to a master’s degree from Harvard University. The saga will keep your interest late into the night.
More than a memoir, Breaking Out of Beerport reads like a novel. It is a lesson in history, a primer in psychology, and a study of culture as it explores self-realization in a time before this new-age term became fashionable.
The story is not just about another poor boy that overcame adversity and achieves success – it is much more. There are frequent twists and turns, as unexpected events shape a young man’s twenty-seven year journey to a goal. At the end the reader is left hoping for a sequel.
23. Confessions of a Teenage Gamer
by: Nicolas Cole Release date: Sep 29, 2016 Number of Pages: 228 Find in Library Read Review |
24. Escape to Cabo
by: S.A. LaPoint Release date: Oct 14, 2014 Number of Pages: 221 Find in Library Read Review |
Once deciding that it’s now or never to fulfill a childhood fantasy… his self proclaimed destiny, Scott Andrew Frieze finds himself on the Legal Systems “Devils Doorstep”
This based on a true story emotion grabber will have you tagging along as Scotty’s life unravels and does a complete one eighty. Experience his “Destiny”, his journey through the court system and join him behind the walls in a Maximum Security Prison, where the young thugs rule.
Upon release, believing the tab has been paid in full, he is rudely awakened to the fact that his true sentence has only just begun, someone has slated vengeance and Scotty must continue to pay.
Flight to regain a foothold in Life is his only option.
An intriguing rollercoaster of a ride with superbly conceled inuendos, double intendres and dry ass humor, culminating with an incessant feel good finale.
Don’t be surprised should you have a strong desire to flip back to page one… Enjoy
SLP
25. Ryan Adams & the Cardinals: A View of Other Windows
by: Neal Casal, Ryan Adams, Phil Lesh Release date: Mar 01, 2010 Number of Pages: 160 Find in Library Read Review |
26. Hurrell’s Hollywood Portraits: The Chapman Collection
by: Mark A. Vieira Release date: Feb 01, 1997 Number of Pages: 223 Find in Library Read Review |
27. Little Miss: a father, his daughter & rocket science
by: Nathan Meikle, Dane Godwin, Stephen M.R. Covey, Liz Wiseman Release date: Sep 23, 2014 Number of Pages: 171 Find in Library Read Review |
But Little Miss is also a story within a story. In the process of teaching Kyla to read, Nathan discovered research on the benefits of reading to children. He had always known that reading to Kyla was important, but had never known exactly why. The research inspired him to find all of the best children’s books–thousands in the next year–and read to Kyla daily. The more good books he found, the more they read, and the more they read, the more good books they found.
In the first year of their experiment, they went from reading 300 books per year to 3,000. Little Miss: a father, his daughter, and rocket science, is the story of how and why Nathan made such a reading jump. In addition to sharing hundreds of Nathan’s and Kyla’s favorite books, Little Miss shares the research that inspired him. Reading to children is the number one, most important thing parents can do to help their children become readers. And children who read the most, read the best, and stay in school the longest.
One of the greatest gifts a parent can give a child is a love of learning. In the words of Louisa Moats, “Teaching reading is rocket science.”
28. Bring Him to Me: The Frank Majewski Story
by: Sally Ann Zito, Donna Huisjen, Dick Bieber Release date: Jun 07, 2016 Number of Pages: 331 Find in Library Read Review |
Then, in 1969, eighteen-year-old Frank is introduced to Jesus Christ and begins a new life. He shares his faith with everyone he meets: drug addicts, bikers, hippies. Soon Frank is preaching to crowds of young people and becomes one of Detroit’s most powerful evangelists.
Books written on revivals often give the 1970s Jesus Movement a historical “nod.” Bring Him to Me goes a step further by transporting readers back in time through a fast-paced, true story of redemption. Following Frank on his journey to renewal, readers will:
– Witness the gospel’s ability to reach across age, gender, and cultural barriers
– Experience renewed hope in the power of the Holy Spirit to change lives
– Recognize that in God’s eyes there’s no such thing as a “lost cause”
29. The J Wilkinson Story: Thirteen Going On Thirty Five
by: Author God-Son Release date: Nov 01, 2015 Number of Pages: 160 Find in Library Read Review |
30. Wanderlusting
by: Gary McWilliams Release date: Jun 29, 2015 Number of Pages: 436 Find in Library Read Review |
Best Selling Books for teen & young adults:
- Action & Adventure
- Activities, Crafts & Games
- Animals
- Biographies
- Classics
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Technology
- Early Learning
- Education & Reference
- Fairy Tales, Folk Tales & Myths
- History
- Holidays & Celebrations
- Humor
- Literature & Fiction
- Mysteries & Detectives
- Religions
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports & Outdoors
Recommended Books for teen & young adults:
- Action & Adventure
- Activities, Crafts & Games
- Animals
- Biographies
- Classics
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Technology
- Early Learning
- Education & Reference
- Fairy Tales, Folk Tales & Myths
- History
- Holidays & Celebrations
- Humor
- Literature & Fiction
- Mysteries & Detectives
- Religions
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports & Outdoors
Best Selling Biographies Books for:
- 1 Year Olds
- 3 Year Olds
- 4 Year Olds
- 5 Year Olds
- 6 Year Olds
- 7 Year Olds
- 8 Year Olds
- 9 Year Olds
- 10 Year Olds
- 11 Year Olds
- 12 Year Olds
- Teen & Young Adults
- 2 Year Olds
Recommended Biographies Books for:
- 1 Year Olds
- 3 Year Olds
- 4 Year Olds
- 5 Year Olds
- 6 Year Olds
- 7 Year Olds
- 8 Year Olds
- 9 Year Olds
- 10 Year Olds
- 11 Year Olds
- 12 Year Olds
- Teen & Young Adults
- 2 Year Olds
Last updated: Monday, December 5, 2016 9:49 AM