Childhood Memoir

Whether she’s taking a face plant in a second-grade war, lying her way into pet ownership, setting the fondue kit on fire or taking the Fifth after an epic food fight, Confessions of a Helmet-Free Childhood chronicles Cinnia Curran Finfer finding her way through childhood by trial and error - heavy on the error. She wasn’t trying to be funny; it just keeps turning out that way. Born the second of four girls in New York City, Cinnia’s childhood played out in five different grade schools and three different high schools in New York, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Illinois.

When Gail Gallant was five months old, she died. A year later, she was reborn. Or so her mother said. The crash occurred on a July night in 1955. The truck hit the Gallant family's car head-on; a few weeks later, newborn baby Gail died from her injuries. Mad with grief, her mother prayed feverishly for Gail's return, convinced that God would bring her child back to her. And when she gave birth within a year to a baby girl who looked identical to her lost child, she believed her prayers had been answered. She named that newborn baby Gail.

In this vivid memoir, Neidhardt explores her childhood in wider familial and social contexts. Drawing upon a trove of family letters and other archival material, she follows her parents’ journey from privilege to food stamps—from their formative youths, to their embrace of pioneer homemaking and rural poverty, to their sudden and wrenching return to conventional society—and explores the back-to-the-land movement of the 1970s as it was, and as she lived it.

For a long time, years, Jensen Anderson debated if he should write his memoir or not. This is because one of the abusers who still denies what she did to him is still alive. Now that he has decided to write his memoir, he won’t let her know about it. He will keep it from her so she doesn’t do whatever she might do to him if she was to know.

Upon returning home from golf on a rare afternoon free of responsibilities, Dr. Beverly Joyce, a busy and beloved OB-GYN, listened to a phone message that would shake her identity and send her on a life-changing journey of self-discovery. That call would instantly help free her from the hidden doubt, guilt, and shame that had plagued her throughout her life.

Everyone knows Judy Blume. Her books have garnered her fans of all ages for decades and sold tens of millions of copies. But why were people so drawn to them? And why are we still talking about them now in the 21st century? In The Genius of Judy, her remarkable story is revealed as never before, beginning with her as a mother of two searching for purpose outside of her home in 1960s suburban New Jersey.

February 2022 marked 80 years since the Fall of Singapore and Olga is now ready to tell the story of her years as a child prisoner of war. It's a story of great fear and deprivation; of a childhood utterly lost to conflict. It's also a story of class prejudice and unkindness that didn't end when Olga was freed from the camp and returned to England as a refugee.

What is it like to be a child living in a country under siege—or living in a foreign city or land far from everything you have known and loved? In this moving and unforgettable book, Ukraine’s children speak out about growing up in amid the violence, terror, and death of war. Through the Eyes of Children is a collection of children’s quotes paired with evocative color artwork. Each quote appears in Cyrillic, transliterated Ukrainian, and English, making the book a tool for both language learning and language preservation.

Do you remember Pathe News? Taking the train to the seaside? The purple stains of iodine on the knees of boys in short trousers? Knitted bathing costumes? Then the chances are you were born in or around 1950. To the young people of today, the 1950s seems like another age. But for those born around then, this era of childhood seems like yesterday. From waking up to ice on the inside of the windows, washing in a tin bath by the fire and spoonfuls of cod-liver oil, home life was very different to today.

Until he was 17, Brett Preiss lived in the dusty outback of Australia, where he was one of four siblings in a dysfunctional family. He learned how to survive under the most bizarre and extraordinary circumstances. In this book, he shares the trials and tribulations of his youth through anecdotes that will leave you in tears of joy or sorrow. Travel back to the ’60s and ’70s and watch Brett transform from a sperm to adolescence.

An old man, realizing cherished memories of the past are quickly fading, decides to run away in search of his youth. This creative memoir is about “going home again”, reliving early-life experiences, and re-establishing childhood friendships. He and old friends, the “boys in the band”, recall early tales of youth from their world during the late ’40s and early 1950s. 

Here's a woman with an eye for babies! Ann Tudor tells stories about babies and toddlers, whether grandchildren or met-by-chance little ones out in the world, along with a few memories from her own childhood. Always sensitive to the child's point of view, these stories are sometimes amusing, sometimes heartbreaking, but always intriguing.

To Fred Archer, born in the village of Ashton-under-Hill in 1915 and growing up in the 1920s, nothing seemed to change except the seasons. This was the age of paraffin lamps, earth closets, and the last train from Evesham at 7 o’clock in the evening. The village was a self-sufficient community with its own hierarchy, strong Church and Chapel, fierce politics and home-made entertainment.

Reeves gives us her authentic account of growing up around the Montana town of Jardine which, today, is a virtual ghost town. Her stories are sometimes funny, as when she tells about a runt pig miraculously waxing fat after eating the crankcase oil from of a Model T Ford. Sometimes they're shocking, like "the worst day" in her life when her brother blew off his hand hammering a dynamite cap. Another brother almost died from eating carbide powder cookies he made. This kid had an unusual childhood, growing up by a dying silver mining town bordering Yellowstone Park.

This audiobook reveals the main facts about the magical childhood and teenage years of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, the youngest son of a humble farmer, born in a remote Tibetan village, who became the political and spiritual leader of his homeland when he was only a kid. Its surprising content sheds light on the main facts and events that shaped his amazing early life, including: the Tibetan prophecy that announced his reincarnation; the magic lake that described the place where he was born; how the high lamas found him in a small farming village when he was two; and more!

My Warped Italian Catholic Childhood is a comedic throwback to the '50s era. Little Rosemarie is a misplaced ward of the times. Her attempt to adapt to the traditions of her culture, coupled with the dogma of the Catholic church, is overwhelming. Because the tale is narrated through the eyes of an innocent child; her recollections are even funnier and engaging. Little Rosemarie trudges through her daily life questioning her puzzling existence. Guilt, sin, the devil, the lack of sex education, and the unmerciful instruction of The Sisters Of Mercy befuddle the sprite. 

Babita Sharma was raised in a corner shop in Reading and over the counter watched a changing world, from the clientele to the products to the politics of the day. Along with the skills to mop a floor perfectly and stack a shelf, she gained a unique insight into a changing world - and an institution that, despite the creep of supermarkets, online shopping and delivery, has found a way to evolve and survive. The Corner Shop is the remarkable human story of these little institutions that have changed the course of our history.

Our class went to the school library for a research project. As I was looking for a book, a note that was folded up like a football flew over the top of a six-foot-high bookshelf and landed at my feet. It was a request for my friend Cindy and me to go on a double date with Randy and his best friend, Tim. The following day, a five-pound bag of sour balls mysteriously appeared in my locker, along with another note requesting a date.

I was born living the American dream. I had a mother and father who loved me. An older sister who cared for me. A beautiful house on a lake and extended family close by. But life has this way of flipping you inside out. By age two, we'd lost our home. By age six, my mother had died. For the next five years, we moved from place to place, crisscrossing the country.

The inspiring stories of six people who changed history. Contents: Edward Jenner, the man who fought the terrible disease smallpox; Florence Nightingale, the nurse known as 'the lady with the lamp'; Elizabeth Garrett, England's first female doctor; Carl Jung, the doctor who wanted to understand the human mind; Jonas Salk, who defeated the dangerous illness polio; Christiaan Barnard, the first man to replace a human heart.