Rounding up the best nonfiction for children and teens
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Classified: The Secret Career of Mary Golda Ross, Cherokee Aerospace Engineer
by Traci Sorell (Author) and Natasha Donovan (Illustrator)
Booktalk: Mary Golda Ross designed classified airplanes and spacecraft as Lockheed Aircraft Corporation’s first female engineer. Find out how her passion for math and the Cherokee values she was raised with shaped her life and work.
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It’s Nonfiction Monday!
Copyright © 2021 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
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Jump at the Sun: The True Life Tale of Unstoppable Storycatcher Zora Neale Hurston
by Alicia D. Williams (Author) and Jacqueline Alcántara (Illustrator)
Booktalk: Zora was a girl who hankered for tales like bees for honey. Now, her mama always told her that if she wanted something, “to jump at de sun”, because even though you might not land quite that high, at least you’d get off the ground. So Zora jumped from place to place, from the porch of the general store where she listened to folktales, to Howard University, to Harlem. And everywhere she jumped, she shined sunlight on the tales most people hadn’t been bothered to listen to until Zora. The tales no one had written down until Zora. Tales on a whole culture of literature overlooked . . . until Zora. Until Zora jumped.
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It’s Nonfiction Monday!
Copyright © 2021 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
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Stompin’ at the Savoy: How Chick Webb Became the King of Drums
by Moira Rose Donohue (Author) and Laura Freeman (Illustrator)
Booktalk: Though a disability stunted his growth and left him with a hunched back, William Henry “Chick” Webb did not let that get in the way of his musical pursuits. Even as a young child, Chick saw the world as one big drum, pounding out rhythms on everything from stair railings to pots and pans. His love of percussion brought him to the big time as an influential big band leader.
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It’s Nonfiction Monday!
Copyright © 2021 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
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Dwight D. Eisenhower: Our 34th President
by Sarah Hansen (Author)
Booktalk: An illustrated biography discussing the childhood, career, family, and term of Dwight D. Eisenhower, thirty-fourth president of the United States.
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It’s Nonfiction Monday!
Copyright © 2021 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
The Extraordinary Life of Serena Williams
by Shelina Janmahomed (Author) and Ashley Evans (Illustrator)
Booktalk: From sports to fashion to activism to motherhood, game-changing tennis champion Serena has become an inspiration to every young person who has dared to dream big.
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It’s Nonfiction Monday!
Copyright © 2021 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
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Black Heroes of the Wild West: Featuring Stagecoach Mary, Bass Reeves, and Bob Lemmons
by James Otis Smith (Author / Illustrator)
Booktalk: This graphic novel celebrates the extraordinary true tales of three black heroes who took control of their destinies and stood up for their communities in the Old West. Born into slavery in Tennessee, Mary Fields became famous as “Stagecoach Mary,” a cigar-chomping, card playing coach driver who never missed a delivery. Bass Reeves, the first black Deputy US Marshal west of the Mississippi, was one of the wiliest lawmen in the territories, bringing thousands of outlaws to justice with his smarts. Bob Lemmons lived to be 99 years old and was so good with horses that the wild mustangs on the plains of Texas took him for one of their own.
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It’s Nonfiction Monday!
Copyright © 2021 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
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Joseph Biden: Our 46th President
by Ann Gaines Rodriguez (Author)
Booktalk: An illustrated biography discussing the childhood, career, family, and election of Joseph Biden, forty-sixth president of the United States. Includes a table of contents, time line, phonetic glossary, sources for further research, an index, and detailed captions and sidebars to aid in comprehension.
Snippet: At the very end of their term, Obama surprised Joe Biden by awarding him the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction–the highest civilian honor there is.
It’s Nonfiction Monday!
Copyright © 2021 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
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Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre
by Carole Boston Weatherford (Author) and Floyd Cooper (Illustrator)
Booktalk: The Tulsa Race Massacre a hundred years ago was one of the worst incidents of racial violence in our nation’s history. This picture book for grades 3-6 traces the history of African Americans in Tulsa’s Greenwood district and chronicles the devastation that occurred in 1921 when a white mob attacked the Black community.
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It’s Nonfiction Monday!
Copyright © 2021 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
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Let’s Explore Chocolate! (Food Field Trips)
by Jill Colella (Author)
Booktalk: Chocolate is a delicious food that people around the world enjoy. Have you ever seen where chocolate comes from? Visit a cacao farm, look inside a cacao pod, and learn how to make hot chocolate and chocolate-covered pretzels.
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It’s Nonfiction Monday!
Copyright © 2021 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
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How I Survived: Four Nights on the Ice
by Serapio Ittusardjuat (Author) and Matthew K. Hoddy (Illustrator)
Booktalk: After his snowmobile breaks down halfway across the sea ice on a trip back from a fishing camp, Serapio Ittusardjuat recounts the traditional skills and knowledge he leaned on to stay alive. This harrowing first-person account of four nights spent on the open sea ice–with few supplies and no water–shows young readers the determination and strength necessary to survive in the harsh Arctic climate, even when the worst occurs.
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It’s Nonfiction Monday!
Copyright © 2021 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.