Non-fiction Novels- Adventure stories and biographies.
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Something Out of Nothing: Marie Curie and RadiumCarla Killough McClafferty, 2006
Marie Curie, who came from a poor Polish family, worked hard to afford studying in Paris.
Our Eleanor: A Scrapbook Look at Eleanor Roosevelt’s Remarkable LifeCandace Fleming, 2005
In the style of a scrapbook or family photo album, Fleming presents the riveting life of Eleanor Roosevelt.
Maritcha: A Nineteenth Century American GirlTonya Bolden, 2005
This captivating story covers the childhood and teen years of Maritcha Remond Lyons, born to a free black family in Manhattan in the mid-1800s.
Escape!: The Story of the Great HoudiniSid Fleischman, 2006
Fleischman constructs an entertaining biography that examines the life and career of Harry Houdini—as a performer, illusionist, early pioneer in aviation and cinema—all without giving away his secrets.
Understanding the Holy Land: Answering Questions About the Israeli-Palestinian ConflictMitch Frank, 2005
Frank’s even-handed account uses a question-answer format to explain the reasons for the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians.
Bodies from the Ash: Life and Death in Ancient PompeiiJames M. Deem, 2005
Using stunning and detailed photographs, Deem tells the dramatic story of the 79 CE eruption of Mount Vesuvius and the annihilation of the city of Pompeii.
Fortune’s Bones: The Manumission RequiemMarilyn Nelson, 2004
Combining history and poetry, Nelson pays tribute to the life of Fortune, the slave of a Connecticut doctor, whose owner preserved his bones to teach anatomy after he died in 1798.
Let Me Play: The Story of Title IX: The Law that Changed the Future of Girls in AmericaKaren Blumenthal, 2005
In 1972, legislation known as Title IX gave girls and women equal access to all areas of education—including sports, universities, and graduate schools.
Good Brother, Bad Brother: The Story of Edwin Booth and John Wilkes BoothJames Cross Giblin, 2005
In this fascinating narrative account, Giblin shows how the lives of the two Booth brothers—Edwin and John Wilkes—intertwined, with family, friends, acting, and opposing views on the Civil War.
Invisible Allies: Microbes That Shape Our LivesJeanette Farrell, 2005
Farrell shows the important and interesting role many microbes play in the lives of humans.
The Forbidden Schoolhouse: The True and Dramatic Story of Prudence Crandall and Her StudentsSuzanne Jurmain, 2006
In 1830s Connecticut, Prudence Crandall attempted to educate African-American girls, an act violently-resisted by others.
Up Before Daybreak: Cotton and People in AmericaDeborah Hopkinson, 2006
Cotton has been an integral part of U.S. economy from its settlement and has helped shape its culture, from slavery to factories.
Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus BoycottRussell Freedman, 2006
The events surrounding and including the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which lead to the end of segregation on buses, is covered, as are key people in the movement.
Freedom Riders: John Lewis and Jim Zwerg on the Front Lines of the Civil Rights MovementAnn Bausum, 2006
By exploring the lives of a black man and a white man who meet as Freedom Riders on a bus journey south, readers come to understand the segregated experience of the United States’ past.
Growing Up in Slavery: Stories of Young Slaves as Told By ThemselvesYuval Taylor, 2005
Based on slave narratives published between 1745 and 1869, these ten accounts reveal what life was like as child slaves.
5,000 Miles to Freedom: Ellen and William Craft’s Flight From SlaveryJudith Bloom Fradin and Dennis Brindell Fradin, 2006
Ellen and William Craft were two of the few slaves to escape from the Deep South.
John Lennon: All I Want is the TruthElizabeth Partridge, 2005
Full of great photographs and interesting anecdotes, this nonjudgmental biography chronicles the life of rock-legend Lennon, from his Liverpool beginnings, his rocketing to fame with the Beatles and resulting highs and lows, through his life post-Beatles up to his murder and its impact on the world.
When I Was a Soldier: A MemoirValérie Zenatti, 2005
Eighteen-year-old Valérie Zenatti was excited to begin her required two-year military service in the Israeli Army, even though she would miss her friends and was dealing with being dumped by her boyfriend.
Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler’s ShadowSusan Campbell Bartoletti, 2005
Using interviews, letters, diaries, oral histories, and photography, Bartoletti explores Hilter’s attempt to guarantee future Nazi control of Germany by involving Germany’s young people in the movement.
A Wreath for Emmett TillMarilyn Nelson, 2005
In 1955 Mississippi, fourteen-year-old Emmett Louis Till was lynched. His murderers, who said he had whistled at a white woman, we set free.
Guinea Pig Scientists: Bold Self-Experimenters in Science and MedicineLeslie Dendy and Mel Boring, 2005
Ten fascinating—and sometimes gruesome—stories of scientists who advanced their fields by experimenting on themselves.
Pyongyang: A Journey in North KoreaGuy Delisle, 2005
Cartoonist Delisle became one of few Westerners allowed into North Korea.
Come Back to Afghanistan: A California Teenager’s StorySaid Hyder Akbar and Susan Burton, 2005
Seventeen-year-old Said Hyder Akbar was an ordinary California teenager until the fall of the Taliban.
Men of Salt: Crossing the Sahara on the Caravan of White GoldMichael Benanav, 2006
For over 1000 years, a caravan of men and camels have journeyed from the city of Timbuktu to a far-away salt mine and back, living under very primitive conditions.
The Blind Side: Evolution of a GameMichael Lewis, 2006
A chronicle of modern football, The Blind Side shows how changes in play strategies can dramatically change the game and its players.
Eagle Blue: A Team, a Tribe, and a High School Basketball Season in Arctic AlaskaMichael D’Orso, 2006
D’Orso follows a six-time championship-winning high school basketball team through a season.
Jesus Land: A MemoirJulia Scheeres, 2005
Julia Scheeres and her brother, who was adopted, grew up in a Christian fundamentalist home in the Midwest, in an area rife with racism—and one of them is white and the other black.
Glass Castle: A MemoirJeannette Walls, 2005
Jeannette Wells spent her early life as a nomad around the desert Southwest with her creative, intelligent, loving, and wholly dysfunctional parents.
Letters to a Young Brother: MANifest Your DestinyHarper Hill, 2006
The authoritative public speaker and star of "CSI: NY” provides straight talk and inspiring advice for America's youth.
Into Thin Air- An Account of the Tragedy on Everest Jon Krakauer, 1998
This story tells the true tale of the most tragic year in the history of climbing Mount Everest, the 1996 May 12 storm, from the perspective of a journalist who was there to witness it.
Adrift: Seventy-Six Days Lost at Sea Steven Callahan
A riveting firsthand account by the only man known to have survived more than a month alone at sea, fighting for his life in an inflatable raft after his small sloop capsized only six days out.
Alive! The Story of the Andes Survivors Piers Paul Reid
In 1973, sixteen Uruguayan boys, most of them teenagers, were rescued after surviving for ten weeks in the snowy wastes of the high Andes after their plane crashed.
War and the Rumor of War
Out of War: True Stories From the Front Lines. Sara Cameron, Scholastic Press, 2001
Flags of Our Fathers. James Bradley with Ron Powers. Delacorte Press, 2001
Carried to the Wall: American Memory and the Vietnam VeteransMemorial.Kristin Ann Hass. University of California Press, 1998
First They Killed My Father: a Daughter of Cambodia Remembers.Loung Ung. HarperCollins, 2000
Pink and Say. Patricia Polacco. Philomel Books, 1994
Baseball Saved Us. Ken Mochizuki. Lee & Low Books, 1995
Faithful Elephants. Yukio Tsuchiya. Houghton Mifflin, 1988
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, Ishmael Beah, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007
African American History – a Story
Slave Narratives The Journey to Freedom. Elaine Landau. FranklinWatts, 2001
Lest We Forget. Velma Maia Thomas. Crown Publishers, 1997
Jefferson’s Children: The Story of One American Family. ShannonLanierAnd Jane Feldman. Random House, 2000
Black Pioneers, an Untold Story. William Loren Katz. AtheneumBooks, 1999
Warriors Don’t Cry. Melba Pattillo Beals. Pocket Books, 1995
Disaster, Adventure & Survival
Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World. Jennifer Armstrong. CrownPublishers, 1998
Left for Dead: a Young Man’s Search for Justice for the USS IndianapolisPeter Nelson. Bantam Doubleday Dell, 2002
The Perfect Storm. Sebastian Junger. Norton, 1997
The Great Fire. Jim Murphy. Scholastic Inc, 1995
Exploration and Discovery
Marco Polo: to China and Back. Steven Otfinoski. Benchmark Books, 2003
Sir Walter Raleigh and the Quest for El Dorado. Marc Aronson.Clarion Books, 2000
Terror of the Spanish Main. Albert Marrin. Dutton, 1999
Jacques Cousteau and the Undersea World. Roger King. ChelseaHouse, 2001
Robert Ballard: Oceanographer Who Discovered the Titanic.Christine Hill.Enslow Publishers, 1999
The Saga of Lewis & Clark. Thomas and Jeremy Schmidt. DK, 1999.
Technology & Invention
Bleeps and Blips to Rocket Ships: Great Inventions in Communications.Alannah Hegedus. Tundra Books, 2001
Girls Think of Everything: Stories of Ingenious Inventions byWomen.Catherine Thimmesh. Houghton Mifflin, 2000
Internet Pioneers: the CyberElite. Laura French. Enslow, 2001
The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane. RussellFreedman.Holiday House, 1991
Special Effects: in Film and Television. Jake Hamilton, DK, 1998
Construction: Building the Impossible. Nathan Aaseng. OliverPress, 2000
Holocaust
In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer. Irene Gut Opdyke. Random House, 2001
Auschwitz: the Story of a Nazi Death Camp. Clive A. Lawton.Candlewick Press, 2002
We Are Witnesses: Five Diaries of Teenagers Who Died in the Holocaust.Jacob Boas, ed. Henry Holt, 1995
Tell Them We Remember: The Story of the Holocaust. Susan D.Bachrach.Little Brown, 1994
Liberation: Teens in the Concentration Camps and the Teen SoldiersWhoLiberated Them. Tina E. Tito. Rosen Publishers, 1999
My Brother’s Keeper: the Holocaust Through the Eyes of an Artist.Israel Bernbaum. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1985
The Hidden Children of the Holocaust. Esther Kustanowitz.Rosen Publishing, 1999.
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