ELL

BIOGRAPHY

Reading levels are indicated: “beginning” is for readers who are starting to learn English, while “intermediate” and “advanced” are for readers with some experience in the language.
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Black Elk’s Vision: A Lakota Story 
by  S.D. Nelson
The story of the Lakota medicine man who fought at Little Bighorn and Wounded Knee. Includes many original photos. (nonfiction) (intermediate-advanced)
Call Him Jack: The Story of Jackie Robinson, Black Freedom Fighter 
​by Yohuru Williams
​There are things you may not know about this amazing baseball player. He always preferred to be called Jack, not Jackie. Martin Luther King, Jr., called him “a sit-inner before the sit-ins, a freedom rider before the Freedom Rides.” Find out about the deep rich life he lived in this biography illustrated with archival photographs and documents. (nonfiction) (advanced)
El Deafo 
​by Cece Bel
In this graphic novel, Cece Bel retells her story of growing up with hearing loss, trying to make friends, and deciding that her awkward giant hearing aid gave her super powers. (graphic novel) (beginning-intermediate)
Lost on a Mountain in Maine 
​by Donn Fendler and Joseph B. Egan
​This memoir begins as Donn grows tired of waiting in the cold fog at the top of Maine’s Mt. Katahdin and decides to hike back alone. A few missteps later and he is thoroughly lost in a dangerous wilderness with few supplies. (nonfiction) (intermediate)
March (books 1-3)
​by John Lewis
A first-hand account of the author's lifelong struggle for civil and human rights spans his youth in rural Alabama, his life-changing meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr., and the birth of the Nashville Student Movement. (graphic novel) (nonfiction) (intermediate)  ​
Notable Native People: 50 Indigenous Leaders, Dreamers, and Changemakers from the Past and Present 
​by Adrienne Keene
Celebrate the lives, stories, and contributions of 50 Indigenous artists, activists, scientists, athletes, and other changemakers. Includes nineteenth-century sculptor Edmonia Lewis—the first Black and Native American female artist to achieve international fame; linguist jessie little doe baird, who revived the Wampanoag language; NBA star Kyrie Irving of the Standing Rock Lakota; and Wilma Mankiller, the first female principal chief of the Cherokee Nation. (nonfiction) (Intermediate)
The Red Bandanna (Young Reader’s Adaptation)
​by Tom Rinaldi
Welles Crowther didn’t see himself as a hero.  But on September 11, 2001 when his ordinary work day at the World Trade Center in New York turned lethal, he showed those around him how a true hero acts. (nonfiction) (intermediate)
Stolen Into Slavery: The True Story of Solomon Northup 
​by Judy & Dennis Fradin
A free black man, Northup was kidnapped and forced into slavery for 12 years in Louisiana until his friends rescued him. (nonfiction) (advanced)
​X: A Biography of Malcolm X 
​by Jessica Gunderson
​This graphic novel tells the story of Malcolm X’s journey from his role as spokesperson for the Nation of Islam to his role as crusader for human rights. (graphic novel) (nonfiction) (beginning-intermediate)
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