Chapter Five
Informational Books
Informational books, including biographies, presented here represent a small fraction of excellent
nonfiction books published for YAs each year. Since few informational books are chosen by young
adults for the Young Adults’ Choices lists, book titles are limited to award selections and my personal
recommendations. For timely sources of recommended nonfiction (and fiction), consult H. W. Wilson
book lists online and in print for two excellent selection tools: Senior High Core Collection and Middle
and Junior High Core Collection at www.hwwilson.com.
Informational Books
Aaseng, Nathan. 1992. Navaho Code Talkers. Walker.
Aslan, Reza. 2011. No god but God: The Origins and Evolution of Islam. Delacorte.
Bang, Molly. 2000. Picture This: How Pictures Work. SeaStar.
Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. 2005. Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler’s Shadow. Scholastic.
Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. 2010. They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American
Terrorist Group. Houghton.
Bausum, Ann. 2004. With Courage and Cloth: Winning the Fight for a Woman’s Right to Vote. National
Geographic.
Bausum, Ann. 2005. Freedom Riders: John Lewis and Jim Zwerg on the Front Lines of the Civil Rights
Movement. National Geographic.
Bausum, Ann. 2011. Marching to the Mountaintop: How Poverty, Labor Fights, and Civil Rights Set the
Stage for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Final Hours. National Geographic.
Begay, Shonto. 1995. Navajo: Visions and Voices Across the Mesa. Scholastic.
Bell, Ruth. 1998. Changing Bodies, Changing Lives: A Book for Teens on Sex and Relationships. 3rd ed.
Times Books.
Blumenthal, Karen. 2011. Bootleg: Murder, Moonshine, and the Lawless Years of Prohibition. Roaring
Brook.
©2014 ABC-CLIO, LLC
Bode, Janet. 1998. The Voices of Rape: Healing the Hurt. Franklin Watts. (YAC 2000)
Bolden, Tonya. 2001. Rock of Ages: A Tribute to the Black Church. Knopf.
Bowers, Rick. 2010. Spies of Mississippi: The True Story of the Spy Network that Tried to Destroy the
Civil Rights Movement. National Geographic.
Brown, Dee. 2000. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West. Holt.
Bruchac, Joseph. 2003. Pocahontas. Silver Whistle.
Burns, Loree Griffin. 2010. The Hive Detectives: Chronicle of a Honey Bee Catastrophe. Illus. Ellen
Harasimowicz. Houghton.
Capote, Truman. 1994. In Cold Blood. Vintage.
Chryssicas, Mary Kaye. 2007. Breathe: Yoga for Teens. DK.
Deem, James M. 2005. Bodies from the Ash: Life and Death in Ancient Pompeii. Houghton Mifflin.
Deem, James M. 2012. Faces from the Past: Forgotten People of North America. Houghton Mifflin.
Duncan, Lois. 1994. Who Killed My Daughter? Dell.
Edelman, Bernard. 1991. Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam. Simon and Schuster.
Freedman, Russell. 2006. Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Holiday.
Frydenborg, Kay. 2012. Wild Horse Scientists (Scientists in the Field). Houghton Mifflin.
Goodall, Jane, 2001. The Chimpanzees I Love: Saving Their World and Ours. Scholastic.
Harris, Robie. 1994. It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex & Sexual Heath.
Candlewick.
Heos, Bridget. 2013. Stronger Than Steel: Spider Silk DNA and the Quest for Better Bulletprooof Vest,
Sutures, and Parachute Rope (Scientists in the Field). Houghton Mifflin.
Hess, Nina. 2007. A Practical Guide to Monsters. Mirrorstone.
Hoose, Phillip. 2004. The Race to Save the Lord God Bird. Farrar Straus Giroux.
Hoose, Phillip. 2012. Moonbird: A Year on the Wind with the Great Survivor B95. Farrar Straus Giroux.
Janeczko, Paul. 2010. The Dark Game: True Spy Stories. Candlewick.
Levinson, Cynthia. 2012. We’ve Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children’s March. Peachtree.
Macaulay, David. 1995. Ship. Houghton Mifflin.
McKissack, Patricia C. and Frederick L. McKissack. 2003. Days of Jubilee: The End of Slavery in the
United States. Scholastic.
©2014 ABC-CLIO, LLC
McWhorter, Diane. 2004. A Dream of Freedom: The Civil Rights Movement from 1954 to 1968.
Scholastic.
Macy, Sue. 2011. Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom (with a Few Flat Tires
along the Way). National Geographic.
Montgomery, Sy. 2006. Quest for the Tree Kangaroo: An Expedition to the Cloud Forest of New
Guinea. Illus. Nic Bishop.
Montgomery, Sy. 2010. Kakapo Rescue: Saving the World’s Strangest Parrot. Illus. Nic Bishop.
Houghton.
Murphy, Jim. 1995. The Great Fire. Scholastic.
Murphy, Jim. 2003. An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic
of 1793. Clarion.
Napoli, Donna Jo. 2011. Treasury of Greek Mythology: Classic Stories of Gods, Goddesses, Heroes, and
Monsters. National Geographic.
Newquist, HP. 2012. The Book of Blood: From Legends and Leeches to Vampires and Veins. Houghton
Mifflin.
O’Connell, Caitlin and Donna M. Jackson. 2011. The Elephant Scientist. Houghton Mifflin.
Osborne, Linda Barrett. 2011. Miles to Go for Freedom: Segregation & Civil Rights in the Jim Crow
Years. Abrams Books.
Paulsen, Gary. 1994. Father Water, Mother Woods: Essays on Fishing and Hunting in the North Woods.
Delacorte.
Rappaport, Doreen. 2012. Beyond Courage: The Untold Story of Jewish Resistance During the
Holocaust. Candlewick.
Reinagle, Damon J. 1995. Draw Medieval Fantasies: A Step by Step Guide. F&W.
Rubalcaba, Jill, and Peter Robertshaw. 2010. Every Bone Tells a Story: Hominin Discoveries,
Deductions, and Debates. Charlesbridge.
Rusch, Elizabeth. 2012. Mighty Mars Rovers: The Incredible Adventures of Opportunity and Spirit.
Houghton Mifflin.
Sandler, Martin W. 2012. The Impossible Rescue: The True Story of an Amazing Arctic Adventure.
Candlewick.
©2014 ABC-CLIO, LLC
Schlosser, Eric, and Charles Wilson. 2006. Chew on This: Everything You Don’t Want to Know about
Fast Food. Houghton Mifflin.
Scott, Elaine. 2012. Buried Alive! How 33 Miners Survived 69 Days Deep Under the Chilean Desert.
Clarion.
Sheinkin, Steve. 2012. Bomb: The Race to Build – and Steal – The World’s Most Dangerous Weapon.
Roaring Brook Press.
Stone, Tonya Lee. 2009. Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream. Candlewick.
Stone, Tonya Lee. 2010. The Good, the Bad, and the Barbie: A Doll’s History and Her Impact on Us.
Viking.
Thimmesh, Catherine. 2006. Team Moon: How 400,000 People Landed Apollo 11 on the Moon.
Houghton Mifflin.
Thompson, Ruth. 2011. Terezin: Voices from the Holocaust. Candlewick.
Todd, Mark and Esther Pearl Watson. 2006. Whatcha Mean, What’s a Zine? The Art of Making Zines
and Mini-Comics. Graphia.
VanHecke, Susan. 2011. Raggin’, Jazzin’, Rockin’: A History of American Musical Instrument Makers.
Boyds Mills.
Zimmern, Andrew. 2012. Andrew Zimmen’s Field Guide to Exceptionally Weird, Wild, & Wonderful
Foods. Feiwel and Friends.
Autobiographies, Biographies, Collected Biographies, and Memoirs
Al-Windawi, Thura. 2004. Thura’s Diary: My Life in Wartime Iraq. Viking.
Angel, Ann. 2010. Janis Joplin: Rise Up Singing. Amulet.
Aronson, Marc. 2012. Master of Deceit: J. Edgar Hoover and America in the Age of Lies. Candlewick.
Atkin, S. Beth. 2000. Voices from the Fields: Children of Migrant Farm Workers Tell Their Stories.
Little, Brown.
Blumenthal, Karen. 2012. Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different. Feiwel and Friends.
©2014 ABC-CLIO, LLC
Borden, Louise. 2012. His Name Was Raoul Wallenberg: Courage, Rescue, and Mystery During World
War II. Houghton Mifflin.
Bragg, Georgia. 2011. How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous. Walker.
Crutcher, Chris. 2004. King of the Mild Frontier: An Ill-Advised Autobiography. Greenwillow.
Davis, Andrea Pinkney. 2012. Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America. Disney Jump at
the Sun Books.
Ellis, Deborah. 2012. Kids of Kabul: Living Bravely Through a Never-Ending War. Groundwood Books.
Fleming, Candace. 2011. Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart. Schwartz and
Wade.
Fleischman, Sid. 2010. Sir Charlie: Chaplin, the Funniest Man in the World. Greenwillow.
Freedman, Russell.1993. Eleanor Roosevelt: A Life of Discovery. Clarion.
Gantos, Jack. 2004. Hole in My Life. Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
George-Warren, Holly. 2010. The Cowgirl Way: Hats Off to America’s Women of the West. Houghton
Mifflin.
Glover, Savion and Bruce Weber. 2000. Savion: My Life in Tap. Morrow.
Greenberg, Jan, and Sandra Jordan. 2003. Vincent Van Gogh: Portrait of an Artist. Yearling.
Greenberg, Jan and Sandra Jordan. 2004. Andy Warhol: Prince of Pop. Delacorte.
Heiligman, Deborah. 2009. Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith. Holt.
Hoose, Phillip. 2009. Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice. Farrar Straus Giroux.
Hopkinson, Deborah. 2012. Titanic: Voices from the Disaster. Scholastic.
Hunter-Gault, Charlayne. 2012. To the Mountaintop: My Journey through the Civil Rights Movement.
Roaring Brook Press.
Jarrow, Gail. 2012. The Amazing Harry Kellar: Great American Magician. Calkins Creek.
Jimenez, Francisco. 1997. The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child. University of New
Mexico. (Sequels)
Jimenez, Francisco. 2002. Breaking Through. Sandpiper.
Jimenez, Francisco. 2009. Reaching Out. Graphia.
Katz, Jon. 2000. Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet out of Idaho. Villard.
Krakauer, Jon. 1997. Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster. Doubleday.
©2014 ABC-CLIO, LLC
Lakin, Patricia. 2011. Steve Jobs: Thinking Differently. Aladdin.
Lobel, Anita. 1998. No Pretty Pictures. Greenwillow.
Lowry, Lois. 2000. Looking Back: A Book of Memories. Delacorte.
Mah, Adeline Yen. 1999. Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter. Random
House. (YAC 2001)
Meigs, Cornelia. 1995. Invincible Louisa: The Story of the Author of “Little Women.” Little, Brown.
Meltzer, Melvin. 1997. Langston Hughes. Millbrook.
Nelson, Kadir. 2011. Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans. Balzer and Bray.
Montgomery, Sy. 2012. Temple Grandin: How the Girl Who Loved Cows Embraced Autism and
Changed the World. Houghton Mifflin.
Murphy, Jim and Alison Blank. 2012. Invincible Microbe: Tuberculosis and the Never-Ending Search
for a Cure. Clarion.
Myers, Walter Dean. 2002. Bad Boy: A Memoir. Amistad.
Nelson, Kadir. 2009. We Are the Ship: The Story of the Negro League Baseball. Hyperion.
Nelson, Marilyn. 2009. Sweethearts of Rhythm. Illus. Jerry Pinkney. Dial.
Paulsen, Gary. 1998. My Life in Dog Years. Illus. Ruth Wright Paulsen. Delacorte.
Peck, Richard. 1991. Anonymously Yours: A Memoir by the Author of Ghosts I Have Been. Messner.
Pinkney, Davis. 2000. Let It Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters. Illus. Stephen Alcorn.
Harcourt.
Plain, Nancy. 1994. Mary Cassatt: An Artist’s Life. Dillon.
Pollard, Michael. 2001. Johann Gutenberg: Master of Modern Printing. Blackbirch.
Reef, Catherine. 2012. The Bronte Sisters: The Brief Lives of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne. Clarion.
Rodriguez, Gaby with Jenna Glatzer. 2012. The Pregnancy Project: A Memoir. Simon and Schuster.
Rubin, Susan Goldman. 2011. Music Was It: Young Leonard Bernstein. Charlesbridge.
Shields, Charles J. 2008. I Am Scout: The Biography of Harper Lee. Holt.
Silvey, Anita. 2012. The Plant Hunters: True Stories of Their Daring Adventures to the Far Corners of
the Earth. Farrar Straus Giroux.
Sleator, William. 1995. Oddballs. Puffin.
Stanley, Diane. 2002. Saladin: Noble Prince of Islam. HarperCollins.
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Stewart, Whitney. 1996. The 14th Dalai Lama: Spiritual Leader of Tibet. Lerner.
Wadsworth, Ginger. 2012. First Girl Scout: The Life of Juliette Gordon Low. Clarion.
Warren, Andrea. 2001. Surviving Hitler: A Boy in the Nazi Death Camps. HarperCollins.
Wiesel, Elie. 2006. Night. Hill & Wang.
Zindel, Paul. 2003. The Pigman and Me. Starfire.
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