Indian autobiography books for 4th

When students are looking for a new book to read, I go to the shelves and hand pick a stack of books for them to peruse.  I’ll start the process by asking them what they’ve read lately and what they liked about those books.  This strategy works because it is built on choice and trust.  I’m enthusiastic about books and I never force a book on a kid.  They get to choose what to read.

It’s also a solid strategy because it gets my students reading the “right” book faster.  Full disclosure, I first learned it from the The Book Whisperer and then made it my own with some tweaking.  Donalyn Miller has some great strategies to get kids reading.  You can check her out here.Having explained that part of my strategy, you’ll understand how easy it is to slip a really great biography, autobiography or memoir into that stack of books.  It is exciting to me when I see a kid venture out of their “preferred” genre and introduce them to the often mind blowing experience of reading the true stories of some pretty amazing people.

And when that happens, the conversation I have with one of my lovies goes something like this: “Mrs. K.  This really happened?  This story is like, for real?” 

Me, “Yup.”   

This is the truth:  no matter who we are or how old we are, we are always looking for someone to light the way forward on this dark road called life.  

Even the most jaded of students have the propensity to be inspired by the stories of people who have survived and thrived.  

And that’s why it is so critical to give our students the gift of great nonfiction and allow them a glimpse into other people’s worlds.  When we see how other people navigate the not insubstantial bumps in their personal roads it gives us hope.  

So here you will find a nicely balanced list of great nonfiction books that are tried and true winners for upper elementary students.  There is great variety in this role call.  I’ve included books written about or by creatives, trailblazers, and a few so-called

If you enjoy non-fiction and are looking for books that are based on real-life events and stories, then autobiography books are perfect for you. These books detail the events of a person's life. This non-fiction literature provides an unbiased description of a person's life and takes the reader on a journey through the former person's life. You can learn a great deal about his/her life's events, struggles, achievements, and other occurrences. The terms biography, autobiography, and memoir cannot be interchangeably used as they have different meanings. A biography is a narrative account of the events and circumstances of an individual's life written by another person. An autobiography is when a person recounts his or her own life in the first person. The protagonist and the author are the same individuals in this case. On the other hand, a memoir is a collection of recollections associated with specific moments and experiences in a person's life that were penned down by the same individual. You can log on to the e-commerce gateway, and check out autobiography books, and purchase them. You can buy autobiography books in India from a host of well-known publishers. Some of the autobiographies are Unfinished, Wings of Fire, The Bandit Queen of India, My Experiment with Truth, and Long Walk to Freedom. For more, browse online.

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In his biography, ‘India’s Missile Man’ Dr APJ Abdul Kalam recalls that when he worked as a newspaper boy as a child, he would fold the paper in the shape of a rocket before throwing it towards a house, so it would land straight in the home’s compound. 

Often, big dreams of making discoveries, setting records, and spawning revolutions start from such seemingly silly stories. The biographies of India’s great personalities are an accumulation of many such tales, which tell of their hardwork and perseverance, and what it took to leave a mark on India’s history. 

Here are our recommendations of must-read biographies that will leave you inspired:

1. Dilip Kumar: The Definitive Biography by Bunny Reuban

“This is the story of Dilip Kumar, an introverted and inhibited youth who metamorphosed into a thespian par excellence by the sheer dint of his determination, perseverance and capability.” 

Dilip became the face of Indian cinema and produced several notable films. The book deals with his personal life and his relationship with the film fraternity.  

The author is an Indian film historian, journalist and publicist. 

Buy the book here.

2. Satyajit Ray: The Inner Eye by Andrew Robinson

One of the greatest filmmakers the country has ever seen, Satyajit Ray was an exceptionally versatile artist. He won every major prize in cinema for his films including Apu Trilogy, The Music Room, Charulata, Days and Nights in the Forest, The Chess Players and The Stranger. The book is written by interviewing the legend himself, his friends, well-wishers, actors, and family. 

The author is a British writer and former newspaper editor.

Buy the book here.

3. The Man Who Knew Infinity (Srinivasa Ramanujan) by Robert Kanigel

This book deta