In 1960, African American first grader, Ruby Bridges, helped to integrate the New Orleans public schools, passing a mob of demonstrating segregationists every day on her way to class, where she was taught by a courageous white teacher, Barbara Henry. Ruby's affecting and inspirational autobiographical account is interspersed with quotes... Read More

The very first page of this astonishing, harrowing, and heartbreaking memoir by children's book author/illustrator, Isaac Millman, will grip readers. In the middle of the large, stark white page is a 2"x3" snapshot of a little boy dressed in winter gear, standing on the pavement, with a toy car by... Read More

When reading nonfiction, it's grand to discover something new. Tell me something I don't know! Or tell me something I do know, but present it in such a way as to make it feel brand new. In 2009, we celebrated the fortieth anniversary of a most memorable summer. Here on... Read More

"Polio is a highly contagious disease. In 1949, there were 42,033 cases reported in the United States. One of those was a twelve-year-old girl in Austin, Minnesota: Peg Schulze. Me."Chapter I of children book author Peg Kehret's astute memoir is titled The Diagnosis. It started on a Friday in early... Read More

A graphic novel adaptation of the 9/11 Commission's 800-page The 9/11 Report: The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States? You saw it here first! This amazing comic book actuallybreaks down the events of and events leading up to the unforgettable attacks of September 11th in... Read More

Bartoletti won both a Newbery Honor and a Sibert Honor for her provocative, chilling exploration of the mass movement of children and teenagers who willingly or reluctantly joined Hitler Youth, the Nazi Party's organization formed in 1926. Starting with 15-year-old Herbert Norkus, whose murder by a gang of Communist youths... Read More

If you are tired of history texts describing the accomplishments and wars fought mainly by white men, Hoose's riveting look at American history through the eyes of its activist youth is a revelation. Two to eight page profiles, based on primary sources, diaries, and interviews, along with reproductions of prints,... Read More

What the author describes as a scrapbook is a handsome and mesmerizing collection of biographical and often humorous anecdotes, "bits and pieces" arranged within a broader subject, starting with "Boyhood Memories," and covering all aspects of Franklin's life and career, from scientist to statesman. Copiously illustrated with portraits, cartoons, paintings,... Read More

Peter Lawson, the paleontologist who found and dug up Sue, the biggest Tyrannosaurus rex ever, reveals his down-in-the-dirt trade secrets about finding, excavating, preparing, and studying dinosaur fossils. For dinomaniacs, this is a gorgeously laid out hands-on manual, packed with color photos of bones and kids working with them in... Read More

This innovative and enticing biography introduces 20th century painter Wayne Thiebaud, famed for painting ordinary objects like cakes, slices of pie, ice cream cones, rows of shoes, and pinball machines. Color runs riot in this compact little book that reminds you of a box of candy. Each smooth-textured page and... Read More

This handsome and weighty compendium is not the usual linear biography for children, starting with the subject’s birth and moving on inexorably through childhood, career, reasons for fame, and then death. Instead, it is a meaty medley of stories, anecdotes, photographs and black and white reproductions that digs into the... Read More

Meet arachnologist Sam Marshall as he explores the floor of the rainforest of French Guiana in South America, studying the habits and habitat of the Goliath birdeater tarantula, the world’s largest spider. Marshall was an indifferent student at Bard College until he found his passion, researching the habits and behavior... Read More

Award-winning children's book author and illustrator Peter Sís grew up in Prague, Czechoslovakia after World War II, and came to the U.S. in the 1970s. This remarkable autobiographical picture book, told in the third person, is about the making of an artist in a place where creativity was discouraged, free... Read More

We've come to expect quality nonfiction from Newbery Medal winner Russell Freedman, but he manages to exceed our expectations with his eloquent and gripping account of the brutal winter George Washington and his bedraggled army spent at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Students who claim history is dull will pay full attention... Read More

When you delve into David Macaulay’s extraordinary and encyclopedic ode to engineering, The New Way Things Work (1998), you are awed by the way he zeroes in on an object and explains, in words and pictures, how it is put together. Macaulay’s full-page pen and ink and watercolor illustrations makes... Read More

As handsome and riveting as any nonfiction book I've ever read, this imposing and stately sports book is unforgettable and spectacular. Enough adjectives for you? Until you hold it in your hands, you can't imagine the impact it will have, starting with the stoic gaze of Negro League superstar Josh... Read More