non-fiction book list

Picture:

• Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World’s Most Famous Bear by Lindsay Mattick

• Hands Around the Library: Protecting Egypt’s Treasured Books by Susan L. Roth and Karen Leggett Abouraya

• Lost City: The Discovery of Machu Picchu by Ted Lewin

 
 

Primary:

• Connecting the Coasts: The Race to Build the Transcontinental Railroad by Norma Lewis

• David Macaulay’s books (I just couldn’t choose a favorite. All of Macaulay’s books are amazingly detailed and fascinating for kids—and their parents too!)

• You Wouldn’t Want to…series by various authors.
  (This series of books is published by Franklin Watts—a division of Scholastic. These are technically picture books but are targeted at an older audience. The books cover many historical events and professions, all focused on educating about their topic while highlighting the dangerous and gross. They are fascinating reading for anyone, but boys especially love them!)

Middle Grade:

• Angels of Mercy: The Army Nurses of World War II by Betsy Kuhn

• Blizzard by Jim Murphy

• Secrets, Lies, Gizmos, and Spies: A History of Spies and Espionage by Janet Wyman Coleman
  (Contains one potentially disturbing photograph of a dead body.)

 

Young Adult:

• Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin

• Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Russell Freedman

• Tommy: The Gun That Changed America by Karen Blumenthal
  (This book has stories of violence; it is, after all, about the infamous Tommy Gun used so widely for decades by the Mafia. That being said, it is fascinating reading, and provides, in my opinion, an excellent launching point for discussing contemporary gun violence and gun rights with your teens.)

• Uprooted: The Japanese American Experience During World War II by Albert Marrin