The author of a biography usually writes about the life story of another individual in the third person. Along with autobiography, biography is one of the more literary kinds of non-fiction. At best, as Margaret Meek argues, it is ‘… an encounter with a life and ideas’ (Meek, 1996).
Children can appreciate this kind of writing from an early age and often encounter short biographical accounts in history and religious studies texts. If you want to introduce children to some short, illustrated biographies you might find useful Evans Brothers’ Tell Me About series which includes biographies of writers for children such as Enid Blyton, Roger Hargreaves, Beatrix Potter and Roald Dahl. The author of the last of these, Chris Powling, does not hide the more eccentric aspects of Dahl’s nature ‘he was an outsider – someone who never behaved as other people expected him to’. The cruel things that happened to Dahl – the illness of one of his children and his wife – are included as well as his achievements. Children above about eight years would manage most of the books in this series. Nine to eleven year olds would find much to interest them in Dear Mr Morpingo: Inside the World of Michael Morpurgo (illustrated by Michael Foreman, Wizard) by Geoff Fox. First comes a biography in which insightful links are made between some of Morpurgo’s childhood experiences and his later life as a writer. Then there are the author’s comments about his work and about the story – The Story that Wrote Itself – which he includes as an example. The strength of the later chapters, on Morpurgo’s beliefs about writing and his personal preferences, is that they indicate how children can begin to read critically. There are biographies online such as the children’s author biographies on Kids’ Review, www.kidsreview.org.uk and on children’s pages at publishers’ sites, such as www.oup.co.uk.
Biography can link history and English helping us to see the private as well as the public person (Hoodless, 1996). Some biography-type books for children introduce biographical details of famous people through story. Hodder and Stoughton’s Little Histories series is suitable for children of about seven years and older, and titles include My Uncle Was Sir Francis Drake and Remember, Remember the Fifth of November both by Rob Childs. Josephine Poole’s beautiful subtle picture book Joan of Arc, illustrated by Angela Barrett, would be enjoyed from about eight upwards (Hutchinson). Older primary children will be ready for more conventional biographies, for example Leon Ashworth’s Queen Victoria and Neill Tongue’s I Have a Dream: the Story of Martin Luther King (Franklin Watts).
History books often tell of the deeds and policies of prominent people but biography can help show how ordinary lives were lived at different times. For children over ten years, Raymond Briggs’ comic strip biography Ethel and Ernest: A True Story (Jonathan Cape) shows the ups and downs of domestic life in the period leading up to the 1930s. Briggs catches how his parents are affected by the impending war and by the changes it will bring for people like them. Children appreciate the background detail and the moving story of the main characters.
Film and televisual texts can spark an interest in the lives of both famous and ordinary people at different times. It is worth checking to see what is available.
Letters, photographs, timelines, maps, posters, and theatre programmes are all used in biographies and autobiographies to complement, illuminate and extend the written text. Children can be helped to see all of these as identifying typical features of the genre and learn to use them in their attempts at biographical writing.
Hoodless, Pat (ed.) (1996) History and English: Exploring the Links London: Routledge.
Meek, Margaret (1996) Information and Book Learning Stroud: The Thimble Press.
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