History Nonfiction Reading List
Nonfiction
Akbar, Said Hyder – come back to Afghanistan
Al-Radi, Nuha – Baghdad Diaries
Allan, Ted – The Scalpel The Sword: The Story of Dr. Norman Bethune – Canadian doctor
known for his innovation and advancement of medicine, and highly recognized for his
contributions in China
Berton, Pierre – 1967 – explores Canada’s tumultuous history in the years after it’s centennial
Berton, Pierre – The Dionne Years – explores Canada in the 30’s through the story of the
extraordinary Dionne quintuplets born in Ontario
Berton, Pierre – The Last Spike – completion of the Canadian National Railroad
Berton, Pierre – The Wild Frontier – stories, some outrageous, of frontier living in Canada
Coerr, Eleanor – Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes – the story of a girl who had folded
644 cranes by the she died at the age of 12 of leukemia related to the atom bomb dropped on
Hiroshima
Croall, Jonathan – Don’t you know there’s a War on? – real life recollections of daily life
between 1939 and 1945 in Britain
Crook, Connie Brummel – Nellie L. – late 1800’s story of Nellie McClung’s childhood
Denenberg, barry – Voices from Vietnam
Dick, Tommy – getting out alive – a young man survives the Nazi occupation of Hungary thanks
to his friendships, quick wit, and the courageous acts of stranger
Drew, Benjamin – The Narratives of Fugitive Slaves
Duffy, Peter – The Bielski Brothers
Filipovic, Za – Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Sarajevo
Findley, Timothy – The Wars
Frank, Anne – The Diary of a Young Girl
Freund, John – spring’s end – the author’s faith in humanity survives as his homeland of
Czechoslovakia is invaded, and his family deported to a WWII work camp.
Granfield, Linda – I Remember Korea: Veterans Tell Their Stories of the Korean War, 195053
Greenhouse, Brereton - Billy Bishop – book challenges the authenticy of this WWII fighter pilot
and national hero, suggesting that his story-telling may be made up of lies and exaggerations.
Hamilton, Virginia – Anthony Burns: The Defeat and Triumph of a Fugitive Slave –
Hautzig, Esther – The Endless Steppe – living in exile in Siberia during WWII
Hayslip, Le Ly – When Heaven and Earth Changed Places
Hersey, John - Hiroshima
Hickam, Homer – October Sky – in 1957, the son of a miner experiments with building rockets in
the time of Sputnik and the space race
Hillen, Ernest – Small Mercies – post 1956 Japanese occupation in Dutch colonized Indonesia,
the main character moves with his family to Canada and adapts to Canadian culture in that time
period
Hillen, Ernest – Way of a Boy – a Dutch Canadian boy living through the Japanese occupation of
Indonesia during WWII
Hillman, Laura – I will plant you a lilac tree – a memoir of a Schindler’s list survivor who chose
to leave the relative safety of her boarding school and join her family.
Hodgson, Lynn-Philip – Inside-Camp X
Ilibagiza, Immaculee – Left to Tell – In 1994 in Rwanda, a girl home from college to celebrate
Easter with her devout Catholic family, finds herself in hiding in a pastor’s washroom with 90
other women, while Hutus ravaged the country
Kacer, Kathy – Hiding Edith –
Kalman, Bobbie – Refugee Child: My memories of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution
Kaplan, William – One More Border: The True Story of One Family’s Escape from War-torn
Europe
Kelley, Thomas – The Black Donnellys – Irish immigrant family who squatted lands near
London, Ontario in 1880, are the victims of mass murder
Kercheval, Jesse Lee – Space: A Memoir – life during the late 1960’s space race
Lax, Eric – the Mould in Dr. Florey’s Coat – against the backdrop of WW II three men struggled
against obstacles to isolate penicillin and develop a drug that changed the world
Leitner, Isabella – Fragments of Isabella
Lugovskaya, Nina – I Want to Live – a girl and her family are sentenced to har labour, then
exiled in Siberia during Stalin’s reign of Terror
MacDonell, George S. – One Soldier’s Story: From the Fall of Hong Kong to the Defeat of
Japan
McClafferty, Carla - Something out of Nothing – Marie Curie and Radium – the interesting life
of Polish scholar Marie Curie whose discovery of and work with radium changed health care
during WWI
McIntosh, Dave – Terror in the Starboard Seat
Merridale, Catherine – Ivan’s War – lives of soldiers in the Red Army
Nakano, Takeo Ujo – Within the Barbed Wire Fence
Olink Kelly, Clara – the Flamboya Tree –
Oufkir, Malike – La Prisonniere – an assassinated military general’s family is held in a Moroccan
gaol for 15 years before their daring escape
Pazira, Nelofer – A Bed of Red Flowers: In Search of My Afghanistan
Preston, Diana – The Boxer Rebellion – a ‘fast-paced and exciting narrative” about the Chinese
war against Westerners after the siege of Peking in 1900
Reinhartz, Henia – Bits and Pieces – a teenager lives in hiding in Lodz, Poland
Salisbury, Harrison – Tiananmen Diary: Thirteen Days in June
Schaller, Arthur – 100 Cigarettes and a Bottle of Vodka – survival and endurance of a Jewish
boy in Poland during WWII
Shitebel, Rachel – The Violin and Shtibel, Adam – A Child’s Testimony – two people, survivors
of the Nazi occupation of Poland, break their silences to share their stories
Seierstad, Asne – The Bookseller of Kabul – a look at an Afghan family, whose patriarch has
braved persecution over three decades to bring books to people
Sender, Ruth Minsky – the cage
– the experiences of 16-year-old Riva in the Lodz ghetto in Poland, then in Auschwitz
Sender, Ruth Minsky – to life – after life in Auschwitz, following liberation, 19-year-old Riva
struggles to reclaim life
Siegal, Aranka – Upon the Head of the Goat – the Hungarian occupation during WWII through
the experience of a girl and her family
Siegal, Aranka – Grace in the Wilderness – a teenage survivor of the Nazi death camps in the
early years of liberation
Spiegelman, Art – Maus – life in Hitler’s Europe told in graphic novel form by the son of a
Jewish survivor
Toll, Nelly S. – Behind the Secret Window – an 8-year-old girls hides in the bedroom of a
couple in Poland, writing in her diary and painting pictures
Weightman, Gavin – Signor Marconi’s Magic Box – at the end of the 19th century, a young man
demonstrates his wireless communication device, and all sorts of conflict occur.
Weintraub, Stanley – Silent Night – the inspiring story of the ceasefire and tentative truce that
happened between Germans and Scots on Christmas Eve in 1914
Wiesel, Elie – Night
Winchester, Simon – The Professor and the Madman – intriguing race to compile the first
complete dictionary, at the end of the 19th century
Wolfe, Tom – The Right Stuff
Zubli, Rita la Fontaine de Clercq – Disguised: A Wartime Memoir – for three years during the
Japanese occupation of Indonesia, one girl is disguised as and works for the Japanese, as a boy
Ideas for using novels:
- 15 minute DEAR (drop everything and read) on anticipated days
- group students into novel time period groups for discussion potential
- journal connections
- verify facts against another source
- locate and use primary document information to corroborate/dispute information
- complete AR tests
Novel activity
1. characters (list and briefly describe main characters)
2. setting (explain time and place)
3. context (describe events going on around the story
4. verify facts using 2 other sources
5. conflicts
6. resolution
7. your thoughts/reflections on any of the above
8. Bibliography