I will admit that I am not as familiar with juvenile non-fiction as I am with fiction titles. I always have a few students who prefer to read biographies or history books, so I am trying to expand my non-fiction knowledge. I have put together a starter list and am hoping to build it this year. Please let me know what else I can include.
Just a reminder, non-fiction is usually more difficult for children to read than fiction. If your child is reading for pleasure, definitely choose books that are below his/her reading level to keep the comprehension (and enjoyment) high.
While the majority of the titles are intended for a “school aged” audience, there are many that adults will love. I had a father and son read Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World this past school year and both raved about the story.
Biographies: Older Readers– 4th grade through high school
Autobiographies: Older Readers– 4th grade through high school
History: Older Readers– 4th grade through high school
Series: Younger Readers– 1st grade through 6th grade (** I included titles that are familiar to me from each of the series, but there are many more from which to choose.)
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I like your list. I personally have always preferred non-fiction to fiction, even when I was very young. I think the realness of what happens, recognizing that it actually happened, made it better for me, like people really could do amazing things and some of them had.
I noticed you don't have a lot of science-y books up there, and I always loved space as a kid - actually that's not true, I still do - so I do have a couple of recommendations:
I love almost anything by Simon Singh and I think he's pretty great for teens, but Fermat's Enigma is probably the most engaging and easiest to read. Another great one is The Code Book, which is basically the coolest book ever written on cryptography.
How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had it Coming by Mike Brown, while written for adults is easily accessible to anyone over 14, maybe 12 if they're already into astronomy, but it's a great book on the outer solar system and it's very easy to get through.
The Hunt for Planet X by Govert Schilling is another fave...(teens). It's a series of short stories on different searches for "Planet X" - whatever that was at the time. It's great. And the stories are short enough and don't need to be taken together.
I guess I would recommend anything with space, dinosaurs, or sea creatures. Pretty sure most kids are agreed all of those things are cool.
Hopefully one of these is helpful. They're really more young adult/easy reads, but they're all very engaging. More appropriate for teens I'd say.
Wow! Great recommendations. Thanks so much for the suggestions. I'm going to add some of these to my "to read" list!
Two Miserable Presidents - it's about the Civil War and it's quite entertaining. It's perfect for kids. My son and I read it together and his teacher loved his reading log comments so much, she borrowed the book from us.