Good Nonfiction Books For Teens

Prepared by Keith Barlog, August 2010

Adventure and Travel

551.553 LEV
F5: Devastation, Survival and the Most Violent Tornado Outbreak of the 20th Century by Mark Levine - 2007, 307 p.
Deadly storms of unprecedented ferocity wreak devastation and an emotional toll on a small Alabama community. Levine zeroes in on the rural hamlets hit by at least 148 tornadoes over 16 states in April, 1974, six of which attained the rare “F5” category.

597.9 JAM
Snake Charmer: A Life and Death in Pursuit of Knowledge by Jamie James - 2008, 260 p.
An absorbing account of the life and career of a celebrated young herpetologist whose reckless fascination with venomous snakes ended with his slow death.

599.789 CRO
The Lady and the Panda: The True Adventures of the First American Explorer to Bring Back China's Most Exotic Animal by Vicki Constantine Croke - 2005, 372p.
One woman's adventurous trek through Tibet to capture a panda—alive.

796.522 RAL
Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston - 2004, 354p.
Ralston recounts the harrowing story of his near death and self-amputation alone on a canyon wall in Utah.

797.122 HEL
Hell or High Water: Surviving Tibet's Tsangpo River by Peter Heller - 2004, 278p.
There are dangers both on and off the water for a kayaking expedition to one of the world's most remote whitewater rivers.

916.6 BEN
Men of Salt: Crossing the Sahara on the Caravan of White Gold by Michael Benanav - 2006, 220p.
A perilous journey across the desert leads to a glimpse at a vanishing way of life in the ancient salt trade.

919.8 MOO
Frost on My Moustache: The Arctic Exploits of a Lord and a Loafer by Tim Moore - 2000, 280p.
Travels across Iceland by boat and mountain bike retrace the steps of a once famous explorer in this darkly humorous travelogue.

Animals

363.289 ALB
The Lost Pet Chronicles: Adventures of a K–9 Cop Turned Pet Detective by Kat Albrecht - 2004, 243p.
A fascinating peek into the life of a cop turned pet detective and the lives she helped save.

590.73 ANT
Babylon’s Ark: The Incredible Wartime Rescue of the Baghdad Zoo by Lawrence Anthony - 2007, 248 p.
Terrific tale about how Iraqis, a South African conservationist and American soldiers saved the animals of the Baghdad Zoo in April 2003 after the Baghdad Zoo was bombed during the opening days of the Iraq war.

599.757 HEL
Zamba by Ralph Helfer - 2005, 258p.
The inventor of "affection training" for Hollywood's screen animals tells of his relationship with a lion cub.

599.885 HES
Nim Chimpksy: The Chimp Who Would Be Human by Elizabeth Hess - 2008, 369 p.
Hess tells the story of Nim Chimpsky, who in the 1970s was the subject of an experiment to find out whether a chimp could learn American Sign Language – and thus refute Noam Chomsky’s influential thesis that language is inherent only in humans.

636.4 MON
Good Good Pig: The Extraordinary Life of Christopher Hogwood by Sy Montgomery - 2006, 228p.
A 750-pound friend can make the whole neighborhood feel good.

636.7 YOF
What the Dog Did: Tales from a Formerly Reluctant Dog Owner by Emily Yoffe - 2005, 258 p.
Yielding to pressure from her husband and young daughter, Yoffe finds herself the main caretaker of a high-maintenance, rescued beagle, Sasha.

Crime

364.1092 VOG
Flim-Flam Man: A True Family History by Jennifer Vogel - 2004, 213 p.
An absorbing memoir of the author’s beloved father who also happened to be a liar and criminal.

364.162 DOL
The Rescue Artist: A True Story of Art, Thieves, and the Hunt for a Missing Masterpiece by Edward Dolnick - 2005, 270 p.
When Edvard Munch’s painting The Scream was stolen in 1994, it took the ingenuity of one man to retrieve it.

364.36 SAL Also in Bridge PB YA Fiction SAL
True Notebooks: A Writer’s Year at Juvenile Hall by Mark Salzman - 2003, 330 p.
These thoughts of teens behind bars are full of insight and emotion.

364.66 JUN
Bloodsworth: The True Story of the First Death Row Inmate Exonerated by DNA by Tim Junkin - 2004, 294 p.
Kirk Bloodsworth was wrongly convicted of murder and spent 9 years battling death row until advances in DNA testing set him free.

YA 364.1523 CRO Also in J 364.1523 CRO
Getting Away with Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case by Chris Crowe - 2003, 128 p.
A bold and honest look at how young Emmett Till’s murder ignited the spark of America’s civil rights movement.

YA 364.66 KUK
No Choirboy: Murder, Violence, and Teenagers on Death Row by Susan Kuklin - 2008, 212 p.
Inmates sentenced to death as teenagers give firsthand accounts of life on Death Row and relatives of both victims and prisoners share their experiences in this collection of interviews.

History

031.02 SIL
Einstein's Refrigerator: And Other Stories from the Flip Side of History by Steve Silverman - 2001, 183p.
Off-beat stories from the annals of science history. See more at his website, uselessinformation.org.

621.972 RYB
One Good Turn: A Natural History of the Screwdriver and the Screw by Witold Rybczynski - 2000, 173p.
The most useful tool of the last thousand years gets its turn in this enlightening history.

910.452 CLI
The Lost Fleet: The Discovery of a Sunken Armada from the Golden Age of Piracy by Barry Clifford - 2002, 287p.
Diver Clifford explores a naval catastrophe in 1678 and the wild, seafaring world of pirates.

910.916523 CLI
Return to Treasure Island and the Search for Captain Kidd by Barry Clifford - 2003, 278p.
Find out how a respected Englishman came to be wanted as a murderous pirate.

940.5421 ABD
Brothers in Arms: The Epic Story of the 761st Tank Battalion, WWII's Forgotten Heroes by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar - 2004, 302p.
Abdul-Jabbar chronicles the bravery of Patton's all-black tank battalion and its 183 days on the front lines at the Battle of the Bulge.

940.5451 KUR - Also in PB NF KUR and Bridge YA 940.5451 KUR
Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II by Robert Kurson - 2004, 397p.
Two deep-sea divers risk their lives to discover the identity of a sunken German submarine.

958.1047 JUN
War by Sebastian Junger - 2010, 287p.
In this riveting combat narrative Junger spends 14 months in 2007–2008 intermittently embedded with a platoon of the 173rd Airborne brigade in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley, one of the bloodiest corners of the conflict.

959.3 KRA
Wave of Destruction: The Stories of Four Families and History's Deadliest Tsunami by Erich Krauss - 2006, 244p.
Families from a Thai village devastated by the tsunami of December 26, 2004 tell their compelling stories.

967.571 GOU
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda by Phillip Gourevitch - 1999, 355p.
In Rwanda, after 800,000 ethnic Hutus are murdered in 100 days the survivors try to rebuild their lives while awaiting the slow-moving justice system.

Biography MATHABANE, M. - Also in YA Biography MATHABANE, M.
Kaffir Boy: The True Story of a Black Youth's Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa by Mark Mathabane - 1986, 354p.
Mathabane's hopeless life in Johannesburg is full of violence and poverty, but he is determined to get out.

Biography UNG, C.
Lucky Child: A Daughter of Cambodia Reunites with the Sister She Left Behind by Loung Ung - 2005, 268p.
Alternating chapters tell the stories of two sisters, one a refugee in America, the other left in war-torn Cambodia. The sequel to First They Killed My Father.

YA Biography LOBEL, A.
No Pretty Pictures: A Child of War by Anita Lobel - 2000, 193p.
A piercing account of surviving the Holocaust by a famous children's author and illustrator.

Illustrated Novels

IN NF KUBERT
Fax from Sarajevo: A Story of Survival by Joe Kubert - 1996, 207 p.
This dramatic account tells how the Rustemagic family survives the deadly siege of their homeland.

IN NF SACCO
Safe Area Gorazde by Joe Sacco - 2000, 227 p.
About war in the former Yugoslavia, immersing you in the human side of life during wartime.

IN NF SATRAPI
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi - 2003, 153 p.
Satrapi’s autobiography is a timely and timeless story of a young girl’s life under the Islamic Revolution.

IN NF SMALL
Stiches by David Small - 2009, 329 p.
With excruciating and exhilarating precision, small uses spare words and haunting imagery to tell the story of his troubled upbringing in this artistically cathartic memoir.

IN NF ZINN
A People’s History of American Empire by Howard Zinn, Mike Konopacki, and Paul Buhle - 2008, 273 p.
A study of empire-building by established politicians and big businesses from the 1890 Massacre at Wounded Knee through the current Iraq war.

IN Biography BECHDEL, A.
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel - 2006, 232 p.
This autobiography by the author of the long-running strip deals with her childhood with a closeted gay father.

IN Biography RIEL, L.
Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography by Chester Brown - 2003, 272 p.
Exploration of the life of a 19th-century Canadian revolutionary.

Music

780.285 KOT
Ripped: How the Wired Generation Revolutionized Music by Greg Kot - 2009, 262 p.
Chicago critic Kot reports on the changes within the music industry over the last 30 years with the decline of big record labels and MTV’s influence, to the birth of digital music and bands reaching fans through the web.

781. 66 EKE
Swedish Death Metal by Daniel Ekeroth - 2008, 447 p.
Death Metal musician Ekeroth provides an oral history/band index, chock-full of photographs and comic illustrations, detailing the roaring music scene that emerged from Sweden in the ‘80s and early ‘90s.

781.66 HEY
From the Velvets to the Voidoids: the Birth of American Punk Rock by Clinton Heylin - 2005, 354 p.
A journey from the punk scene’s roots in the mid-1960s to the arrival of “new wave” in the early 1980s, covering such bands and artists as Patti Smith, Pere Ubu, Television, Blondie, the Ramones, the MC5, the Stooges, Talking Heads, and the Dead Boys.

781.66092 COL
Coldplay: Look at the Stars by Gary Spivack - 2004, 133 p.
Written by an insider who has toured extensively with the band this book covers the rise of Coldplay into rock superstars.

781.66092 FLA
Staring at Sound: The True Story of Oklahoma’s Fabulous Flaming Lips by Jim DeRogatis - 2006, 251 p.
Chicago music critic DeRogatis chronicles the Flaming Lips’ 23-year trip from local oddball musicians to nationally famous stars.

781.66092 GRE
Nobody Likes You: Inside the Turbulent Life, Times, and Music of Green Day by Marc Spitz - 2006, 224 p.
A chronicle of the band after their initial success with the “Dookie” album, then the critical disdain that branded them with the label of “punk poseurs,” until their return to superstardom with the massive hit album “American Idiot.”

781.66092 KOT - Also in YA 781.66 KOT
Wilco: Learning How to Die by Greg Kot - 2004, 247p.
The story of Jeff Tweedy and the backstage life of the Wilco band.

YA 781.66 KIL
Kill Your Idols: A New Generation of Rock Writers Reconsiders the Classics - 2004, 304p.
"Classic" rock albums are analyzed by a new generation of music critics.

Real Life Stories

362.196 TAM
Born on a Blue Day: A Memoir: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant by Daniel Tammet - 2007, 226 p.
Recounting his long struggle to emotionally connect with others, Tammet vividly describes his childhood and adolescence as an autistic savant.

362.19685 TRA
Devil in the Details: Scenes from an Obsessive Girlhood by Jennifer Traig - 2004, 246p.
In this humorous memoir, the author recalls her experiences as a child with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

363.37 UNG
Working Fire: The Making of an Accidental Fireman by Zac Unger - 2004, 262p.
This action-packed story of life as a firefighter tells it from the inside.

364.106 THO
Hell’s Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga by Hunter S. Thompson - 1999, 265 p.
A detailed description of one’s affiliation with the motorcycle outlaws, the Hell’s Angels.

599.784 JAN
Grizzly Maze: Timothy Treadwell's Fatal Obsession with Alaskan Bears by Nick Jans - 2005, 274p.
A fascinating glimpse into the life of a man who chose to live in the middle of grizzly territory, and then paid the price.

610.92 DAV
The Pact: Three Young Men Make a Promise and Fulfill a Dream by Sampson Davis - 2002, 248p.
Three black high school students who vow to finish college together must rely on each other to keep from returning to the streets.

623.4424b KEL
Mr. Gatling’s Terrible Marvel: The Gun That Changed Everything and the Misunderstood Genius Who Invented It by Julia Keller - 2008, 294 p.
Both a biography of Richard J. Gatling and an analysis of how his invention permanently changed warfare. It created a blueprint for future rapid-fire weapons and contributed to American military success, yet it also produced unprecedented carnage that forever changed the way people looked at war.

791.43 CON
The Full Burn: On the Set, at the Bar, Behind the Wheel, and Over the Edge with Hollywood Stuntmen by Kevin Conley - 2008, 218 p.
Conley visited the sets of action films to talk with Hollywood stuntmen and women.

810.803581 ARO
War Is… Soldiers, Survivors, and Storytellers Talk about War by Marc Aronson - 2008, 200 p.
A balanced collection of contemporary and historical writings including interviews, stories, memoirs, and a miliblog addresses the experience of enlisting, serving, and surviving war from a variety of perspectives.

940.5318 KRA
Clara’s War: One Girl’s Story of Survival by Clara Kramer - 2009, 339 p.
Chronicling the 18 months she spent as a teen hiding with other polish Jews under Nazi occupation.

955.053 HAK
Journey from the Land of No: A Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary Iran by Ruya Hakakian - 2004, 245 p.
A haunting story of being a Jewish teenager in Tehran as civil rights are stripped away.

956.70443 BUC
Shane Comes Home by Rinker Buck - 2005, 272p.
The moving story of the first American killed in the Iraq War.

966.4 BEA
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah - 2007, 229 p.
A former child soldier in Sierra Leone recalls the heart-wrenching experiences that transformed him from an innocent 12-year-old into a cold-blooded killer.

Biography GILMAN, S.J.
Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress: Tales of Growing Up Groovy and Clueless by Susan Jane Gilman - 2005, 352p.
Growing up in the '70s had its ups and downs as retold in this comic memoir.

Biography HAMILTON, B. - Also in YA 797.32 HAM
Soul Surfer: A True Story of Faith, Family, and Fighting to Get Back on the Board by Bethany Hamilton - 2004, 213p.
Could you return to the water after losing an arm in a shark attack? Hamilton did.

Biography McLAIN, P.
Like Family: Growing Up in Other People's Houses: A Memoir by Paula McLain - 2003, 260p.
Growing up shuffled between foster homes, the author records the wretched conditions she and her sisters endured.

Biography WALLS, J.
The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls - 2005, 288p.
This unusual memoir of making it on your own while living with your parents is full of the "adventures" of being homeless.

YA 616.8582 GRE
Sickened: The Memoir of a Munchausen by Proxy Childhood by Julie Gregory - 2003, 244p.
This astounding story describes a life crippled by an insidious form of child abuse, and the struggle to move beyond it.

YA 616.8526 HOR
Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia by Marya Hornbacher - 1999, 298p.
A graphic look at how believing in the "ideal female body" almost cost Hornbacher her life.

YA Biography GANTOS, J.
Hole in My Life by Jack Gantos - 2002, 199p.
Gantos tells a true and gripping tale about his teenage years in jail for trafficking drugs.

YA Biography CRUTCHER, C.
King of the Mild Frontier: An Ill-Advised Autobiography by Chris Crutcher - 2003, 260p.
With his signature combination of hilarity and thoughtfulness, author Crutcher recounts his younger years.

Science

363.25 OWE
Hidden Evidence: 40 True Crimes and How Forensic Science Helped Solve Them by David Owen - 2000, 240p.
The world of forensic crime fights for justice with the invisible.

363.7384 CON
Silent Snow: The Slow Poisoning of the Arctic by Marla Cone - 2005, 246p.
A wake up call to change our thinking and behavior to salvage our Arctic environment.

510.79 OLS
Count Down: Six Kids Vie for Glory at the World's Toughest Math Competition by Steve Olson - 2004, 244p.
This story of the 2001 Math Olympiad and its U.S. team shows that math is not just for nerds.

546 GRA
The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe by Theodore Gray - 2009, 240 p.
The 118 elements of the periodic table are photographed and described with humor, style and authority.

511.211 KAP
The Nothing That Is: A Natural History of Zero by Robert Kaplan - 2000, 225p.
It's amazing how interesting a book about nothing can be.

598.71 JUN
Spix’s Macaw: The Race to Save the World's Rarest Bird by Tony Juniper - 2003, 287p.
Rare parrots sold on the black market can go for $40,000. There is only one Spix's macaw left in the wild—can it survive?

598.72 HOO Also in J 598.7 HOO
The Race to Save the Lord God Bird by Phillip Hoose - 2004, 196p.
This is the suspenseful story of America's first endangered species, the Ivory-billed woodpecker, and of the world's awakening to our power to destroy life.

599.352 SUL
Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants by Robert Sullivan - 2003, 242p.
From the disgusting morsels rats love best to the way they altered the politics of New York, enticing ratty details fill this intriguing history.

611 ROA
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach - 2003, 303p.
For anyone interested in what happens when you donate your body to science, this humorously macabre work shines some light on the bizarre details of your entrails.

621.483 SIL
The Radioactive Boy Scout: The True Story of a Boy and His Backyard Nuclear Reactor by Ken Silverstein - 2004, 209p.
Quiet David Hahn sidesteps his dysfunctional family to create a dangerously effective reactor in the middle of his suburban neighborhood.

629.2293 KET
Electric Dreams: One Unlikely Team of Kids and the Race to Build the Car of the Future by Caroline Kettlewell - 2004, 290p.
This true tale of a high school competition to convert an automobile into an electric vehicle is full of characters and will leave you "shocked."

Sports

796.323 HAS
Glory Road: My Story of the 1966 NCAA Basketball Championship and How One Team Triumphed Against the Odds and Changed America Forever by Don Haskins - 2006, 254p.
Haskins changed the face of college basketball by introducing great players who were black.

796.323 FRE
Last Shot: City Streets, Basketball Dreams by Darcy Frey - 1996, 230p.
Frey followed four star players, including Stephon Marbury, from Lincoln High’s basketball team in New York. When you’re a talented basketball player from the projects, there are a million things that can go wrong, and only one thing that can go right.

796.323 OCO
The Jump: Sebastian Telfair and the High Stakes Business of High School Ball by Ian O'Connor - 2005, 307p.
If you were a high school basketball player in a gang-ridden neighborhood and the NBA wanted you in the draft, would you make the jump?

796.332 SAI
Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer: A Journey into the Heart of Fan Mania by Warren St. John - 2004, 275p.
Following the Crimson Tide reveals the crazy world of fans whose lives revolve around football.

796.42 BAS
The Perfect Mile: Three Athletes, One Goal, and Less Than Four Minutes to Achieve It by Neal Bascomb - 2004,322p.
Breaking the four-minute mile had never been done, but in 1954 three men were determined to be the first to do it.

796.522 EVE
Everest: Summit of Achievement - 2003, 252p.
Photos and words come together to describe the allure of climbing the world's highest mountain.

796.815 WER
Blood in the Cage: Pat Miletich and the Furious Rise of the UFC by Jon L. Wertheim - 2009, 251 p.
A look into the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and its rival organizations and its rise into the mainstream. Focuses on Pat Miletich, who runs the most famous MMA training school in the world.

796.962 COF
The Boys of Winter: The Untold Story of a Coach, a Dream, and the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team by Wayne Coffey - 2005, 272p.
This unbelievable Cinderella story about a great coach and a great team is retold with excitement and heart.

YA 796.815 POL
American Shaolin: Flying Kicks, Buddhist Monks, and the Legend of Iron Crotch: An Odyssey in the New China by Matthew Polly - 2007, 366 p.
On a quest to transform himself from a scrawny weakling into a kung-fu master, Polly drops out of Princeton and journeys to the legendary Shaolin Temple.

YA Biography HAWK, T.
Between Boardslides and Burnout: My Notes from the Road by Tony Hawk - 2002, 169p.
The skateboarding superstar's competitive travels and adventures in words and pictures.