Bomb: The Race to Build – and Steal – the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon
Author: Steve Sheinkin
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Recommended Age Range: 10+
Awards: Newbery Honor Book; National Book Award Finalist; Robert F. Sibert Award; YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction; Bank Street Best Children’s Book of the Year; BCCB Recommended Title; CCBC Choice (University of Wisconsin); Washington Post Best Books of the Year; Maine Student Book Award Master List; VA Jefferson Cup Winner (Older Readers); Vermont Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award Master List
Website
Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: The Extraordinary True Story of Shackleton and the Endurance
Author: Jennifer Armstrong
Publisher: Crown Publishers (Pbk.)
Recommended Age Range: 10 to 13
Awards: Winner of the Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction; An ALA Notable Book for Children; An ALA Best Book for Young Adults; Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book; Horn Book Fanfare; Publishers Weekly Choice of the Year’s Best Books
Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich & the Siege of Leningrad
Author: M.T. Anderson
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Recommended Age Range: 14+
Awards: A 2016 YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Finalist; Longlisted, National Book Awards 2015 for Young People’s Literature
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (Young Readers Edition)
Author: William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer
Illustrator: Anna Hymas
Publisher: Dial Books (Pbk.)
Recommended Age Range: 10+
Awards: New York Public Library’s 100 Books for Reading and Sharing; Kirkus Reviews Best Children’s Books of 2015; Middle-Grade Amazon.com Best Books of the Year 2015, Nonfiction; 2016 Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People; 2016 CCBC Choices-Biography and Autobiography; ILA Teachers’ Choices, 2016 Reading List
The Boys in the Boat (Young Readers Adaptation): The True Story of an American Team’s Epic Journey to Win Gold at the 1936 Olympics
Author: Daniel James Brown
Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers
Awards: 2014 Washington State Book Award
Recommended Age Range: 10+
The Elephant Man
Author: Frederick Drimmer
Publisher: Putnam Juvenile
Recommended Age Range: 10+
The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights
Author: Steve Sheinkin
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Recommended Age Range: 10 to 14
Awards: 2014 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Excellence in Nonfiction; National Book Award Finalist; 2015 Carter G. Woodson Book Award
Website
Unbroken: An Olympian’s Journey from Airman to Castaway to Captive (The Young Adult Adaptation)
Author: Laura Hillenbrand
Publisher: Random House Children’s Books
Recommended Age Range: 12+
We Were There Too: Young People in U.S. History
Author: Philip M. Hoose
Publisher: Melanie Kroupa Books/Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Recommended Age Range: 10 to 14
Awards: National Book Award Finalist; Publishers Weekly Best Children’s Books of the Year; American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults; IRA Teachers’ Choices; Book for the Teen Age (NYPL); Parents’ Choice Award Winner; NCSS-CBC Notable Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies; Booklinks Lasting Connection; Booklist Editors’ Choice; Horn Book Magazine Fanfare List
Website
We’ve Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children’s March
Author: Cynthia Levinson
Publisher: Peachtree Publishers
Recommended Age Range: 12+
Awards: Jane Addams Book Award; IRA Young Adult Nonfiction Award; YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults (Finalist); ALA’s Notable Children’s Book; VOYA Nonfiction Honor List; Julia Ward Howe Book Award (Finalist); SCBWI Golden Kite Award for Nonfiction (Honor Book); Parents’ Choice: Gold Medal; Eureka! Gold Medal for Nonfiction (California Reading Association); NCTE Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children (Honor Book); Massachusetts Must-Read Book; IRA Notable Books for a Global Society of School Librarians International (Honor Book for Social Studies K-6; Best Book for Social Studies 7-12); Junior Library Guild Selection; Scholastic Book Club; Pennsylvania State Librarians Association Top 40 Nonfiction; Spirit of Texas Reading Program-Middle School; American Booksellers Association’s New Voices; Named One of the Best Children’s Books Published in 2012 by: Kirkus Reviews, School Library Journal, Booklist Editors’ Choice, Publishers Weekly, New York Public Library, Chicago Public Library; Bank Street College (Outstanding Merit); Children’s Book Council-Best of the Year Diversity List; Cooperative Children’s Book Center; Booklist Online-Top 10 Black History Books for Youth 2013, Capitol Choices-Noteworthy Books for Children and Teens, Planet Esme, The Nonfiction Detectives
Website
Years of Dust: The Story of the Dust Bowl
Author: Albert Marrin
Publisher: Dutton Children’s Books
Recommended Age Range: 10 to 14