• Fit into the scope and sequence of the curriculum
• Represent a range of readability levels
• Establish a connection with students by beginning with childhood
• Provide multiple voices, experiences, contributions, perspectives
• Have illustrations that are relevant to the text, representative of the time period, provide geographic information, photo or illustration of the person
• Contain primary sources (quotes, images, etc)
• Clean, easy to read lay out
• Provides students with a clear picture of evidence based history and the role of historians in telling the story of history.
• References cited include multiple sources of primary and secondary information
• Includes vivid details and anecdotes about the person's life
• Have imaginative, thought provoking writing
• There is evidence of the author's research process (through end notes, author's note, language in the text)

Have multiple features

• Font size
• Make connections to other events in history
• Side bars amplify text
• Timelines that tell the story of the person and relevant events in history

References

• Freedman, Russell. "Bring 'Em Back Alive." in Michael Tunnell & Richard Ammon (Eds.) The Story of Ourselves: Teaching History Through Children's Literature. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
• Zarnowski, Myra. (2003). History Makers: A Questioning Approach to Reading and Writing Biographies. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.