Rounding up the best nonfiction for children and teens
Doggy Defenders: Willow the Therapy Dog
by Lisa M. Gerry (Author) and Lori Epstein (Photographer)
Booktalk: Meet helping hound Willow, and follow her as she spends an exciting day at work. Willow visits patients at a hospital, helps children read at a library pajama party, and brings smiles to people who need them.
Snippet:
It’s Nonfiction Monday!
Copyright © 2019 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Skulls!
by Blair Thornburgh (Author) and Scott Campbell (Illustrator)
Booktalk: Celebrate one of the most important bones in your body: the skull!
Snippet:
It’s Nonfiction Monday!
Copyright © 2019 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Eerie Parks and Playgrounds
by Joyce Markovics (Author)
Booktalk: In the 11 creepy places in this book, readers will explore a park that’s overrun with ghosts, a playground that was built on a graveyard, a spooky shifting staircase, and more.
Snippet:
It’s Nonfiction Monday!
Copyright © 2019 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Voices: The Final Hours of Joan of Arc
by David Elliott (Author)
Booktalk: Before Joan of Arc became a saint, she was a girl inspired. This biography told through medieval poetic forms and in the voices of the people and objects in Joan of Arc’s life, (including her family and even the trees, clothes, cows, and candles of her childhood) explores timely issues such as gender, misogyny, and the peril of speaking truth to power. Excerpts from the trials are also included. Some poems, like the one below, are displayed as concrete poems in the shape of the object that is speaking.
Snippet:
It’s Nonfiction Monday!
Copyright © 2019 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
SHOUT
by Laurie Halse Anderson (Author)
Booktalk: When she was thirteen years old, Laurie Halse Anderson was a shy, bookish girl who was raped by a boy she trusted. In this free verse memoir (and call to action), she tells the story she’s never shared publicly before — her life from then to now.
Snippet:
But that boy who raped me
on the rocks by the creek
got drunk and lay down
on a dark night to play
chicken with the devil
and he lost.
I begged my father
to take me to the funeral. I lied
and said that boy was my friend.
He looked at me sharply,
my ice-eyed father
my gentle-hearted father, he heard
something in my voice
but after one searing glance, he shut
down the inquiry
wrote the note
got me out
of school and walked with me
to the graveside on
a gray September day cut by winter’s
promise in the wind.
My father kept his arm
around my shoulders, while I cried
so hard I turned myself inside
out, so grateful IT was gone
and it was over.
I did not know
that the haunting
had just begun.
It’s Nonfiction Monday!
Copyright © 2019 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Animal Tricksters
by Joanne Mattern (Author)
Booktalk: You may know that some animals play like they’re dead to avoid predators. Did you know that one animal mimics the sound of the baby of its prey? Some animals are really tricky!
Snippet:
It’s Nonfiction Monday!
Copyright © 2019 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Space Adventurer: Bonnie Dunbar, Astronaut
by Andi Diehn (Author) and Katie Mazeika (Illustrator)
Booktalk: When Bonnie Dunbar spotted Sputnik traveling across the sky from where she stood on her family’s farm, she knew that’s what she wanted to do when she got older, but it wasn’t easy. From planting crops and driving the tractor on her family’s homestead to devouring all the books she possibly could to applying to NASA three times, Bonnie refused to give up! All her hard work and passion for science led her to a job that launched her into the stars as an astronaut.
Snippet:
It’s Nonfiction Monday!
Copyright © 2019 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Carving a Jack-o’-Lantern (Sequencing Stories)
by Meg Gaertner (Author)
Booktalk: Carmen wants to make a jack-o’-lantern with her family for Halloween. First her father cuts the top off the pumpkin. Then Carmen pulls out the pulp. What comes next? A sequencing story
Snippet: Carmen and her family went to a pumpkin patch yesterday. They picked out a big, round pumpkin.
It’s Nonfiction Monday!
Copyright © 2019 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Exploring Checks and Balances
by Barbara Krasner (Author)
Booktalk: This timely introduction to checks and balances explores how the three branches of government work together. Historical context and examples illustrate the vision of our founding fathers for a responsible government.
Snippet:
It’s Nonfiction Monday!
Copyright © 2019 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
A Bee’s Difficult Search for Food
by Mary Ellen Klukow (Author) and Albert Pinilla (Illustrator)
Booktalk: In this new Animal Habitats at Risk book, a scout bee is searching for food for the hive, but finds building development where flowers used to be. She must avoid pesticides and swatting humans. Will she find any nectar for the hive?
Snippet:
It’s Nonfiction Monday!
Copyright © 2019 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.