The amount of nonfiction read by students is one major way to increase achievement. Teacher librarians who promote a balance between fiction and nonfiction are more likely to boost literacy than emphasizing narrative only. Thus, it is a welcome sight to find a book that promotes biographies.  Activities have been created for books about Benjamin Franklin, Frederick Douglas, Emily Dickinson, Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison, Melvil Dewey, Helen Keller, Harry S. Truman, Norman Rockwell, and Ann Frank. The activities are appropriate for upper elementary or middle school. They could also be used with some modification in high school. There are reading activities plus suggestions for pursuing the study of the vocation or special trait of the person. For example, studying Braille is the extended activity for Helen Keller.  While not recommended by the authors, we suggest that such studies done about famous people be integrated into larger concept studies that combine what individuals or groups of students learn about one figure to combine their specific knowledge into more and larger patterns such as characteristics across people or studies of time periods an how these people made unique contributions. So often, reports about a single individual ends up in a cut and clip job. Our recommendation is to use suggestions such as those recommended by the author, but then carry them further in a big picture or so what activitiy. Recommended if the people presented fit your curriculum.