Non fiction Youth Grades 7 and up

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Most of these titles are here because they make enjoyable reading, rather than being merely sources of factual information. Note that many titles on the grades 4-6 non-fiction list would also be suitable for junior high students, since they are designed for strong readers.


Dr. Art’s Guide to Planet Earth: For Earthlings Ages 12 to 120 by Art Sussman

  • Provides an interesting framework for thinking about the earth’s systems. (12/05)


The Forbidden Schoolhouse: The True and Dramatic Story of Prudence Crandall and her Students by Suzanne Jurmain.

  • The gripping true story of a quiet hero – Prudence Crandall – who in the 1830s opened a school for black girls in a small Connecticut town, against strong community resistance that including a jail term for her. Junior high and up.(11/06)


Guinea Pig Scientists: Bold Self-experimenters in Science and Medicine by Leslie Dendy

  • Stories of ten men and women, from the 1770s to the present, who devoted their lives, and sometimes risked them, to answer some of the big questions in science and medicine.(03/07)


Left for Dead by Peter Nelson

  • Inspired by a passing reference in the movie 'Jaws', 11-year-old Hunter Scott was inspire to do research that uncovered the truth behind a historic WWII naval disaster aboard the USS Indianapolis and led to the reversal of the wrongful court martial of the ship's captain. (12/06)


Maus by Art Spiegelman

  • Spiegelman tells the story of his father's surviving the holocaust and the effects on the lives of the following generation with chilling realism, and in an unusual comic-book format in which the Nazis are portrayed as cats hunting the Jewish mice. In his more recent book In the Shadow of No Towers Spiegelman who lives in Lower Manhatten, relives the day of the attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.(10/07)


Outbreak: Plagues that Changed History by Bryn Barnard

  • Well-written and well-illustrated, this is a fascinating look at the six different plagues, from the Black Death to influenza, whose affects arguably changed the course of history, with a final chapter about how the modern world struggles against disease. Enjoyable for everyone from junior high students to adults. (03/07)


Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

  • A funny, and heartbreaking memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah's regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq.(10/07)


Picture This: Perception and Composition by Molly Bang

  • Bang helps young adults (and adults) understand how pictures 'work' though the deceptively simple use of geometric shapes and a few colours and by examining the feelings and associations they elicit in us. Concludes with exercises that would be useful as teaching tools. (12/05)


The sacred balance : rediscovering our place in nature, updated and expanded by David Suzuki (Not in Doucette, link to MacKimmie)

  • Updated 10 years after the original was published, this is a reexamination of our place in the world, given the environmental and cataclysmic events of the past decade. There are incredible pictures - a good link to illustrate the art of telling a story through words.

Non-fiction Grades K-3 Fiction K-3 (Picture Books)
Non-fiction Grades 4-6 plus Fiction K-3 (Chapter Books)
Youth Non-fiction Grades 7 and up Fiction Grades 4-6
Poetry/Novels in Poetry Youth Fiction Grades 7 and up
Suitable for All Grades Young Adult Grades 10 - 12
Books suitable for French Immersion Students
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