Nonfiction

Five favorite nonfiction books

~ Janet Dawson ~ 3 Comments

The Soldier’s Friend: Walt Whitman’s Extraordinary Service in the American Civil War by Gary Golio, illustrated by E. B. Lewis. I surprised myself by choosing this book as one of my favorites for the year, but as I looked over the nonfiction books I read in 2024, I realized the story of Walt Whitman’s services during the dark years of the Civil War had really stuck with me. His simple acts of kindness to all, never taking sides even when the nation was deeply divided, is an inspiration.

Evidence! How Dr. John Snow Solved the Mystery of Cholera by Deborah Hopkinson, illustrated by Nik Henderson. This exciting medical mystery expertly incorporates details about cholera and nineteenth-century London as it relates, step by step, the story of Dr. John Snow’s careful research and perseverance that put a stop to a cholera outbreak in 1854. I’m hoping this will be considered for a Sibert award.

Shift Happens: The History of Labor in the United States by J. Albert Mann. I learned so much from reading this book about labor struggles from the earliest days of American history. It’s easy to get discouraged by the patterns of wealthy corporations oppressing poor working people that have occurred over and over to the present day, but there are plenty of inspiring stories as well, and it’s all told with an irreverent humor that teen readers will appreciate.

This Book Will Make You an Artist by Ruth Millington, illustrated by Ellen Surrey. As a kid, I would have loved to have taken a class based on this book (actually, I still would enjoy such a class) which combines profiles of 25 different artists with step-by-step instructions to create projects based on their art.

Kindred Spirits: Shilombish Ittibachvffa by Leslie Stall Widener, illustrated by Johnson Yazzie. The story of the connection between the Choctaw and Irish people, forged during the potato famine in the 1800’s and strengthened during the Covid pandemic, is very moving and was the perfect coda to my exploration of indigenous communities in New England this summer.

Nonfiction that will make you question humanity

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Glenn Burke, Game Changer: The Man Who Invented the High Five by Phil Bildner, illustrated by Daniel J. O’Brien (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 32 pages, grades 2-5). As a kid, Glenn Burke was a five-tool talent: fast runner, powerful and accurate hitter, good catcher, and strong pitcher. So it was no surprise that he got called up to play for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He made a name for himself there, and was an enthusiastic teammate, greeting runners at home plate by putting up his right hand, which the player would then smack. The high-fiving team made it to the World Series in 1977, but the next year Glenn was traded to the Oakland Athletics, a team at the bottom of the baseball standing. Why? Glenn Burke was gay, and homophobic manager Tommy Lasorda didn’t want him on the team. The trade led Glenn to quit baseball altogether. He enjoyed success playing in the San Francisco Gay Softball League and winning gold in the Gay Olympics, but struggled with drug use and unemployment, shattering his leg in a car accident and dying of AIDS at the age of 42. He lived long enough to see his high five become a universal greeting, but not to see the open acceptance of gay players in the MLB. Includes an author’s note, bibliography, and timeline.

Phil Bildner writes in the author’s note how he originally envisioned Glenn Burke’s story as a picture book, but his editor wanted a middle grade novel, which became A High Five for Glenn Burke, published in 2020. While the origin story of the high five may seem like a perfect choice for younger readers, the MLB’s homophobia and Burke’s death from AIDS may make this a better choice for older kids. It’s a moving and well-told story, ending on a note that is both sad and hopeful.

It Happened in Salem by Jonah Winter, illustrated by Brad Holland (Creative Editions, 32 pages, grades 6 and up). “You know what I’m talking about. You start whispering things about a person–hurtful things you know will get that person in trouble, untrue things you may have convinced yourself are actually true.” This second-person introduction to the Salem Witch Trials situates readers right in the middle of the action. The text is spare, relating the basic events and facts, and illustrated with haunting paintings of people in stocks and hanging from nooses. An author’s note gives more information, including the fact that it took 325 years–until 2017–for Salem to put up a plaque commemorating the individuals who were executed.

I found this book disturbing from the cover to the author’s note, which seems appropriate for the subject. You can generally count on Jonah Winter to put a unique and relevant spin on history that will have readers thinking about their own lives. I saw recommendations for this book starting in fourth grade, but I personally would not get this for an elementary library. It would be an excellent supplement for middle school or high school students learning about this period of American history, no doubt initiating some interesting conversations on gossip and bullying. I wish there had been some additional resources given at the end.

Creature features

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Narwhal: Unicorn of the Arctic by Candace Fleming, illustrated by Deena So’Oteh (Anne Schwartz Books, 48 pages, grades 1-5). Narrated in second person (“Scientists call you unicorn of the Arctic”), the text tells the story of a narwhal, starting in the Arctic, where he and another male joust with their tusks before slipping under the ice into the sea. When the weather turns warm, the narwhal pod migrates to summer grounds; by September, it’s time to return to the Arctic. Dangers lurk, with orcas and polar bears hunting the narwhals and a sudden blizzard blocking the air hole in the ice. If the narwhal survives, he will make the journey back and forth for fifty years. Includes two pages of additional information and a bibliography.

As she did in Giant Squid, Honeybee, and Polar Bear, Candace Fleming has crafted an exciting nonfiction narrative that teaches kids a lot about a fascinating animal, while keeping the pages turning with plenty of adventure. I was disappointed at first that Eric Rohmann didn’t do the illustrations, but debut illustrator Deena So’Oteh did a magnificent job that deserves both Caldecott and Sibert consideration.

Beware the Dragon and the Nozzlewock: A Graphic Novel Poetry Collection Full of Suprising Characters! by Vikram Madan (Wordsong, 128 pages, grades 2-5). This madcap collection of poems features a wild and crazy cast of characters, such as ghost guppies, squishosaurs, and the salesmoose. Making multiple appearances throughout the book is the fearsome Nozzlewock, about whom a group of children is repeatedly warned, and from whom they have to ultimately save their teacher. There’s a bunch of crazy science going on, too, from laboratory shenanigans to wormholes, which in the end helps the kids rescue the teacher. Many of the characters reappear from time to time, adding to the fun and continuity of this poetry collection.

This would be a great introduction to poetry for those who may not consider themselves fans of the genre. The poems are hilarious, and the graphic novel format will appeal to all kinds of readers.

That holiday glow

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Winter Solstice Wish by Kate Allen Fox, illustrated by Elisa Paganelli (Beaming Books, 32 pages, ages 4-8).  On the shortest day of the year, a group gathers on a beach to watch the sunset and build a bonfire.  In the darkness, people long for light and the connection to each other.  “Around the globe, other hands reach out, holding hope, holding space, holding one another” is accompanied by people in three different countries reaching out to pass a light from one place to the next.  At the same time as the shortest day, in other places on Earth it is the longest day.  And on the winter solstice, we know that soon the days will start getting longer and daylight will return.  Includes information about both the winter and summer solstices and the winter solstice celebrations that are pictured in the book.

Both the poetic text and the illustrations provide a luminous introduction to the winter solstice, with a nod to the summer one and what causes both solstices.  There are lots of celebrations pictured, and readers may want to think about how they want to observe the shortest day and wishes that they may want to make.  This would be a nice December book to pair with Hanukkah Upside Down, which shows kids celebrating Hanukkah in both the northern and southern hemispheres.

Let It Glow by Marissa Meyer and Joanne Levy (Feiwel and Friends, 304 pages, grades 4-7).  Aviva and Holly take turns narrating the story of how an unexpected meeting at a holiday pageant audition leads to the discovery that they are identical twins separated at birth.  While Aviva is getting ready for Hanukkah with her parents, brothers, and bubbe, Holly and her single mom and grandfather are preparing for Christmas.  When they decide to do a Parent Trap-style switch, each learns about the other one’s family, personality, and holiday.  They’re able to hold off on a grand reveal to their families until they bring down the house with an original song and the pageant.  Although they don’t get all the answers about their birth and separation, it’s clear that the two families will be connected going forward, especially since there seems to be a budding romance between the grandparents.

This feel-good book has some serious Hallmark vibes and is sure to be a best-seller that will undoubtedly be unwrapped by many tweens by the light of the Christmas tree or Hanukkah menorah.  While a little suspension of disbelief may be needed (the girls figure out they’re twins that were separated at birth in about five minutes–and are immediately fine with it), there are enough hilarious hijinks, cozy winter scenes, and touching family interactions to satisfy readers.

Works of art

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Time to Make Art by Jeff Mack (Henry Holt and Co., 48 pages, grades K-5). A girl poses a variety of questions about art to artist. “Does it have to be perfect?” she asks Michelangelo, as he puts the finishing touches on the Sistine Chapel. “You can make your art any way you want,” he replies. “What if I can only draw stick figures?” she wants to know, to which a Paleolithic cave artist answers, “Then draw stick figures!” Colors, feelings, art materials, and subjects are all covered in a way that opens up art to everyone, with reinforcement from famous artists. Those artists all get thumbnail descriptions in the back, listed in the order they appear in the book.

This is both an excellent introduction to art history and an inspiring invitation to create art. The illustrations are cute, and it’s fun to try to identify the artists and their works. A few more resources for further exploration would have made a nice addition.

The Sunflowers: Vincent van Gogh’s Search for Beauty by Zahra Marwan (Feiwel and Friends, 40 pages, grades K-4). Vincent van Gogh’s favorite things to paint are sunflowers, which seem like happy spots of color in the gray city of Paris, even if they’re considered an inelegant subject for art. When he meets fellow artist Paul Gauguin, the two bond over the vibrant colors of each other’s paintings. Vincent moves from the city to a little yellow house in Arles, France, where he finds happiness that’s reflected in brighter, more colorful art. Some of his art finds its way onto the walls of his house, as he prepares for a joyful reunion with his friend Paul. When Paul arrives, he feels welcomed by the powerful paintings of sunflowers, and “He could feel the way it is to have a real friend.” Includes an author’s note with some additional information about Vincent and some thoughts about how art can be a powerful bond in creating friendships. This is a lovely celebration of art, friendship, and following your own heart, illuminated with van Gogh-inspired illustrations. It’s definitely not a biography, and I was sorry there wasn’t more biographical information in the back matter.

I heard about this book at the same time I learned of another biography about Vincent van Gogh, The Vincent van Gogh Atlas by Nienke Denekamp and René van Blerk, illustrated by Geert Gratama, Thames and Hudson, 160 pages, grades 5-8). I don’t know if it’s because this book was originally published in Europe, but I have struggled (unsuccessfully so far) to get it through interlibrary loan. From what I’ve read about it, it sounds like a real work of art filled with maps, letters, and reproductions of van Gogh paintings. I hope you will have greater success obtaining it than I have!

Persistence, resistance, and a fight for existence

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Ernö Rubik and His Magic Cube by Kerry Aradhya, illustrated by Kara Kramer (Peachtree, 32 pages, grades K-4). Ernö Rubik was a solitary kid who enjoyed reading and solving puzzles in his Budapest home. He grew up to be a teacher who would build models to teach his students about three-dimensional objects. His curiosity about cubes led him to try making a big cube out of small ones that could move around but stay connected. His first attempts failed, but he finally found the secret: 26 cubes in three rows, with a round mechanical core. And the rest is history as Ernö’s invention, the Rubik’s Cube, went on to become one of the most popular puzzles of all time. Includes additional information about Rubik and his cube, an author’s note, and a list of three books about the cube.

Although there are some details about Ernö Rubik’s life, the focus is on the Rubik’s cube and the perseverance needed to solve a difficult problem. If kids haven’t tried the cube, they will definitely get their hands on one and start searching YouTube for various solutions.

They Call Me Teach: Lessons in Freedom by Lesa Cline-Ransome, illustrated by James E. Ransome (Candlewick, 40 pages, grades 1-5). A young enslaved man is known as Teach, due to his abilities to read and write that he learned growing up with the master’s son. By day he works as a clerk in the master’s store, but at night he teaches other enslaved people to read. He secretly helps people by reading their letters and, in one case, writing a receipt to help a woman escape. Just looking at a newspaper in public results in punishment, leaving readers to infer that there could be much more serious consequences for teaching literacy to other Black people. An author’s note gives more information about Black people’s quest for education throughout history. Includes a list entitled “More Books on Resistance.”

This husband and wife team has created a fascinating story that focuses on the large majority of enslaved people for whom escape was impossible and who tried to resist and improve themselves in the ways that were available to them, despite the risk of cruel punishments. Sure to be a Coretta Scott King award contender.

Wild Places: The Life of Naturalist David Attenborough by Hayley Rocco, illustrated by John Rocco (G. P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers, 48 pages, grades K-3). The story of David Attenborough’s life is told by another husband and wife team. Young David loved exploring the natural world around his English home, and he continued those studies as a university student. When he graduated, television was just becoming popular, and he got a job introducing viewers to the world of nature. Before long, he was traveling all over the world to show people plants and animals of different ecosystems. His travels made him more aware of the ways that wild places were shrinking and living creatures were losing their habitats. David shifted his focus to helping people understand what was happening and giving them information to help them make better choices for the planet, work that he continues today in at the age of 98. Includes an author’s note with additional information about David Attenborough and rewilding, a couple of photos, and a bibliography.

Like the Ernö Rubik biography, this is an engaging read that’s a little light on biographical information. Most pages only contain a sentence or two of text, along with award-winning illustrator’s John Rocco’s beautiful depictions of the natural world. Quotes from David Attenborough are scattered throughout the book, and the end matter fleshes out his life a bit more.

National treasures

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Golden Gate: Building the Mighty Bridge by Elizabeth Partridge, illustrated by Ellen Heck (Chronicle Books, 60 pages, grades 2-5). The two children of a lighthouse keeper observe the creation of the Golden Gate Bridge from their house. Told in second person narration (“You leap out of bed–how did you forget? Today’s the day work begins on the Golden Gate Bridge”), the text includes plenty of construction details and emphasizes the seemingly impossible nature of the project. As the kids grow older, the foreman gets to know them and sometimes includes them in some aspects of construction, like the day they get to ride the elevator to a height of 700 feet above the water. Finally, on May 27, 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge is open to the public, and crowds of people, including the two children, walk across the bridge, where “the word impossible seems like nothing at all.” Includes an afterword with additional information.

Great Lakes: Our Freshwater Treasure by Barb Rosenstock, illustrated by Jamey Christoph (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 40 pages, grades 2-5). Beginning with the history of the five Great Lakes, formed by the melting of a huge glacier that covered more than half of North America, the narrative shifts to the present importance of the lakes. Not only are they home to many species of plants and animals, but they contain almost all of the surface freshwater in North America. Although they are essential in supporting humans, we’ve done our best to poison and pollute them. In recent years, work has been done to protect them, and readers are invited to investigate how they can help preserve these national treasures. Includes messages from the author and Kathleen Smith, an indigenous woman from the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission, information about the Center for Great Lakes Literacy, and a list of sources.

Both of these books are chock full of fascinating information, well supplemented by beautiful, detailed illustrations, that will help readers better understand two famous American landmarks. Although they are both picture books, each one contains quite a bit of text and somewhat technical information, making them better choices for older elementary and middle school readers.

Master storytellers

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As Edward Imagined: A Story of Edward Gorey in Three Acts by Matthew Burgess, illustrated by Marc Majewski (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 48 pages, grades 2-5). In Act 1, we meet a young Edward Gorey, who learned to read when he was 3 and devoured books, including Dracula at the age of six. This led him to create his own spooky stories, something that he continued to do when he moved to New York City as an adult (Act 2). Not only did he write his own stories, but he illustrated other writers’ books and gained his greatest fame designing the sets for the Broadway adaptation of Dracula and creating introductions to PBS’s Mystery! series. With money earned from those projects, Gorey headed to Act 3, purchasing a house on Cape Cod where he continued to write, draw, and work with local theaters. Edward always led life on his own terms, whether that was wearing green toenail polish as a child, attending nearly every performance of the NYC Ballet for twenty years, or keeping six cats at Elephant House on the Cape. Includes an author’s note, additional resources, and chronology.

Kids may need to be introduced to Edward Gorey’s work, but they will undoubtedly embrace his spooky illustrations and books, and perhaps be inspired to live life to the beat of their own drummer, as Edward Gorey most definitely did. I first learned of Gorey through John Bellairs’ books, which were only briefly mentioned both in this book and when I visited the Edward Gorey Museum on the Cape; this seems like an unfortunate oversight.

The Mythmakers: The Remarkable Fellowship of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien by John Hendrix (Harry N. Abrams, 224 pages, grades 7-12). C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien both suffered early childhood losses but also had mystical experiences of joy as children, often associated with reading myths and fairy tales. After horrific experiences fighting in the trenches of World War I, they both became Oxford dons, where they developed a delightful friendship based on their mutual love of myths and interest in religion. A lifelong Catholic, Tolkien encouraged the agnostic Lewis to follow his spiritual longings, eventually leading Lewis to a dramatic conversion to Christianity. Each supported the other in his writing, and it’s pretty clear that neither the Chronicles of Narnia and especially The Lord of the Rings would have existed without the influence of their friendship and the literary group The Inklings which grew out of that relationship. The main chapters are interspersed with comics featuring a lion and a wizard traveling through the landscapes of Tolkien’s and Lewis’s life, and a poignant final chapter imagines the two men, who sadly had a falling out in the last decades of their lives, reuniting for one last conversation before moving into the great beyond. Includes extensive additional information about mythology, as well as an author’s note about his research, notes, a bibliography, and an index.

As someone who is both a John Hendrix fan and was an obsessive enough fan of C.S. Lewis to actually write a biography of him, I was excited to see this new book. Although it bills itself as a graphic novel, the amount of information far exceeds most of that genre. The lion and wizard segments are in comic format, while the rest of the book is more like an illustrated text. The emphasis is on the friendship between the two men and how their common love of mythology influenced their literary masterpieces. I was a bit disappointed that Lewis’s relationship with Janie Moore, which lasted for decades and had a huge impact on his life, was pretty much left out of the story. Additionally, some of the information about mythology got a bit too dense for me, and I imagine many young adults will have the same experience. Nevertheless, this is a rich story of an extraordinary friendship between two men who changed the landscape of fantasy literature and left behind books that are still beloved today.

A final pair of books about voting before the big day

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Show Up and Vote by Ani DiFranco, illustrated by Rachelle Baker (Rise x Penguin Workshop, 48 pages, ages 4-8). A young girl looks back at the end of Election Day, recalling how she was reluctant to go out on a rainy November morning, but her mother told her that they were on a mission. At the polling station, the girl recognizes friends and neighbors, realizing that voting is a community event. In the voting booth, she watches her mom make her selections, and as they finish, the two of them imagine people across the country doing the same thing. Proudly wearing their “I voted” stickers, they walk home, and the girl sees her neighborhood with new eyes, as a place where people work together to create a community, and “showing up to vote is how it all starts.”

Singer and songwriter Ani DiFranco has created an accessible introduction to voting and Election Day with rhyming text (and no capital letters) that reads kind of like a folk song and colorful illustrations that resemble retro posters. Readers will learn a bit about voting and be empowered to get involved in their communities.

Represent: The Unfinished Fight for the Vote by Michael Eric Dyson and Marc Favreau (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 256 pages, ages 12 and up). Dyson and Favreau continue their exploration of American history that they began in Unequal with this story of voting rights from the founding of the United States to the present. There are inspiring narratives about Black, female, Latinx, and Native activists who worked to get the vote for their communities, alongside less inspiring ones such as how white women largely refused to help Black and Native women once they had secured their own right to vote. And there are downright depressing ones that continue to this day like the Citizens United Supreme Court decision that has encouraged huge amounts of spending across the political spectrum and the gerrymandering of districts for political gain. The list of “People-Power Ideas” at the end (get rid of the electoral college, expand the House of Representatives, introduce ranked-choice voting, among others) seem commonsensical yet depressingly unlikely to happen. There are also ideas for student activism, a voting rights timeline, additional resources, and an index.

I found this book both extremely depressing and surprisingly hopeful, seeing that our current threats to democracy are actually part of a centuries-long plot to keep voting and power concentrated in the hands of a few. The struggles that have ensued to give more people the right to vote have resulted in torture, imprisonment, and murder, yet ordinary people have persevered and often ultimately met with success. Seeing ourselves as part of this long history rather than poised at some do-or-die moment gives me a glimmer of hope to continue the struggle.

Reminder: I have an Election Day and Voting Rights book list if you’re looking for more. I haven’t had a chance to add these two books yet!

Space travel

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Almost Underwear: How a Piece of Cloth Traveled from Kitty Hawk to the Moon and Mars by Jonathan Roth (Christy Ottaviano Books, 40 pages, grades 1-5). Back in 1903, unbleached muslin was most commonly used to make ladies’ underwear. But one bolt of fabric was purchased by Wilbur and Orville Wright and used for a completely different purpose: to help make the wings of their new flying machine. Although they succeeded, and the muslin went airborne, the machine ultimately was wrecked and went into storage for many years. Shortly before his death, Orville donated swatches of fabric to the new Carillon Historical Park museum in Dayton, Ohio, where it stayed until 1969, when Neil Armstrong carried a piece of it into space. The cloth made it all the way to the Moon, where Armstrong carried it on his moonwalk. The cloth’s final adventures took place in 2020, when it traveled all the way to Mars on board the rover Perseverance. Not only that, but the cloth was attached to Ingenuity, a four-pound helicopter that became the first machine to fly on a different planet. Not bad…for something that could have been some underwear. Includes an author’s note, a glossary of the Perseverance instruments, and a bibliography.

The title reveals the clever hook used to look at three different milestones in air and space travel history, illustrated with combinations of historical photographs and cartoons, including a fun cartoon rendering of the happy piece of cloth. The author does a great job of making STEM history accessible to elementary readers. Pro tip: be very specific when doing a Google images search for Almost Underwear.

Mae Jemison: A Graphic Novel (It’s Her Story) by Lesley Williams, illustrated by Brooke O’Neill (Sunbird Books, 48 pages, grades 2-5). This short graphic biography tells the amazing life of Mae Jemison, who graduated from high school at age 16, attended Stanford, became an M.D., then transitioned to a career as an astronaut, becoming the first Black woman to go into space. She also loved music and was an accomplished dancer, as well as working for civil rights as a college student and advocating for STEM education as an adult. The last page invites readers to share their dreams, remembering that Mae’s hard work and persistence made hers come true.

This is the first volume of this series I’ve seen, but it looks like there are several others about famous women. The short page count and graphic format will make it appealing to many different types of readers, and it brings Mae Jemison to life in a way that kids will relate to, showing her as a child who had many interests in addition to science. Some additional resources at the end would have been a nice addition.