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Interesting nonfiction book recommendations


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I'm looking for recommendations for can't-put-it-down interesting nonfiction. DD currently loves the Horrible Histories series, Murderous Maths series, and Scientists in the Field series, for examples. She's read everything I've found from Mike Venezia and Brian P. Cleary. She's interested in darn near everything, so a variety of topics would be great.

 

DD is 7yo, with a high school reading level. She's intimidated (read: won't pick up) thick books with small print, but the range can go from picture books to a couple hundred pages for a fun read.

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My kids loved to look at the children's biography section in our library.  It was probably 4th grade - high school combined, at least in our library.  

 

I wish I could remember some of their favorites!  There were so many.  I know one of my dd's particularly enjoyed A Girl and Five Brave Horses by Senora Carver.  There were also many WWII books in that section that they found super interesting, many written by women who as girls had lived through the Holocaust.  Some of them might be a little tough to read though, but the ones aimed toward children rather than teens are not graphic.  

 

There were many biographies on scientists and explorers that were fun reads, and again geared toward children so not too difficult concept-wise.

 

I'll keep thinking and see if titles come to me!

Edited by J-rap
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Horrible Science, Horrible Geography to add to your list. My kiddos love them.

Then they like biography books, books about entrepreneurship - Warren Buffet's Millionaire club is the most favourite. My ds7 reads books with eco-school's curriculum, engineering, etc. Eldest loves everything, especially about politics, history, science, sports: Olympics, science of sport and even about mathematics in sport :) And of course how to become super hero, the most strongest, the winner, etc. Everything whatever they find about these topics they borrow from our local library, the rest whatever else interesting exists I buy on amazon on a monthly basis, just search for the best reviews.

Edited by rushhush08
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We just checked out an enormous book on space called astronomia. Lots of pictures interspersed with very informative text.

 

Eta I doubt she'd be intimidated by this book. It's so colorful and photo heavy.

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited by fairfarmhand
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1. Worst of Friends: Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and the True Story of an American Feud by Suzanne Tripp Jurmain, illustrated by Larry Day

2. Weird but True! series by National Geographic Kids

3. Ken Jennings’ Junior Genius Guides by Ken Jennings, illustrated by Mike Lowery

4. Pop! The Invention of Bubble Gum by Meghan McCarthy

 

Edited by alpat
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I really love the One Small Square habitat books by Donald Silver...beautiful illustrations and writing.  And I just learned he also does books on anatomy and such.  

 

Usborn has a series of books...Architect Academy, Vet Academy, Engineer Academy, Astronaut Academy, etc. that are fun, interesting reads.

 

 

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Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales is one that my nonfiction reader really likes.

 

He's also very motivated to read magazines. We like the Cricket family of magazines: Muse, Cobblestone, Dig...one other that escapes me.

 

At that age I adored reading the Childhood of Famous Americans series. One benefit is that there are so many :) 

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A Street Through Time and A City Through Time are two my 7 year old never tires of reading. She also likes Jean Fritz's history books.

 

She loves the Usborne What's ____ All About? science series, particularly the book about physics. (In fact, if you happen to start looking on the Usborne site for nonfiction that will appeal to a 7 year old advanced reader, you may have a hard time stopping. I do, at least.)

 

Biomimicry by Dora Lee and The Plant Hunters by Anita Silvey are two other fascinating and pretty science books that we found using the NSTA Recommends site.

 

My kids really like the Mike Venezia books and I used those as a jumping-off point to run searches for the individuals they wanted to learn more about...there are many appealing picture books out there about individual artists and composers.

 

(By the way, I have just placed a bunch of books on hold thanks to this thread!)

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Yes! I actually opened this to recommend Poop Happened! Fascinating history you don't normally hear or think about. 

 

You should try Bugged. It's by the same people :)

My girls laughed and went "ew" through the entire book. And non-fiction is not their genre of choice, but they couldn't put it down.

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