Non-fiction – Mom Read It

Middle Grade, Non-fiction, Tween Reads, Uncategorized

More books for your Earth Day displays!

Posted on April 22, 2025April 22, 2025 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Earth Day is coming to a close, but we can celebrate our Pale Blue Dot all year ’round. Let Earth Day be the kickoff to a Spring full of environmental awareness for your libraries and communities!

The Secret Life of a Sea Turtle, by Maddalena Bearzi/Illustrated by Alex Boersma, (May 2025, Roaring Brook Press), $19.99, ISBN: 9781250901675

Ages 6-10

There’s bits and pieces of knowledge most of us have about sea turtles: they lay eggs on the beach, the hatchlings hatch, and there’s the “race for life” to get to the ocean before the predators get the hatchlings. What happens after a turtle hatchling makes it to the water? Bearzi, a marine biologist and conservationist, details the life of a sea turtle for readers. Beginning with the hatching, Bearzi continues the story to show readers that making it to water isn’t the end of a sea turtle’s struggle; there are predators in the water and there are humans, whose fishing nets don’t always allow for a turtle to escape. Bearzi also discusses migration patterns and brings the turtle’s life full circle by having the main sea turtle return to the same beach where she hatched, this time to lay her own eggs. Boersma’s realistic illustrations are breathtaking, evoking emotion and awe with each spread. Back matter includes a section on spotting the different types of sea turtles, ways to protect sea turtles, information about sea turtle researchers, and a bibliography. A must-buy for your nonfiction collections. The Secret Life of a Sea Turtle has a starred review from Kirkus.

Together, a Forest: Drawing Connections Between Nature’s Diversity and Our Own, by Roz MacLean, (March 2025, Henry Holt & Co), $18.99 ISBN: 9781250864512

Ages 4-8

A class trip to a forest is a study in interconnectivity. Each of the class interacts with their environment in their own ways, illustrating how we each relate to our surroundings. Sasha, a student with a white cane who codes as being blind, listens to the differences in bird sounds as they change position; the surrounding trees and plants creating “sound shadows”. Angel, a student who gets “caught up in the moment” and “often misplaces things”, is much like a squirrel, who buries more seeds than he will need to get through winter, just in case he forgets where he saved everything. Student Joy appears to suffer from anxiety, is worried about her class assignment, but the soothing network of her classmates – her ecosystem – sustains her just as the orchid sustains its environs. A moving meditation on how we all come together to create a diverse and vibrant world and how we are connected to our planet. A good addition to picture book collections. Mixed media illustration includes a diverse and inclusive group. Use this book to encourage discussion. Together, a Forest has a starred review from Kirkus. Download a free activity kit from MacKids School and Library.

How to Explain Climate Science to a Grown-Up, by Ruth Spiro/Illustrated by Teresa Martínez, (March 2025, Charlesbridge), $17.99, ISBN: 9781623546205

Ages 4-8

You know, sometimes it’s just up to kids to get things done, especially when grown-ups don’t want to listen. That’s where this “How to Explain” series comes in handy, and climate change is a particularly important one for kids to be aware of AND about how to talk to grown-ups. Written with the assumption that kids are in charge, Spiro – whose Baby Loves Science series we love! – offers comic book panels, simple and factual explanation (so grownups can understand!) and Pro Tips to fall back on when stubborn adults insist that climate change isn’t a real thing. Martínez’s illustration offers helpful diagrams for visual explanation and comic book dialogue to keep everyone engaged. It’s a tough job, being a kid, especially when you have to explain everything to those spacey grownups: stock your collection with this series to help a kid out. Download an educator kit, a Kid Expert certificate, and badge from Charlesbridge’s website.

History Smashers: Earth Day and the Environment, by Kate Messner/Illustrated by Justin Greenwood, (March 2025, Random House Books for Young Readers), $9.99, ISBN: 9780593705308

Ages 8-12

This series does gangbusters in my library, which is no big surprise, because it’s penned by Kate Messner. Here, Messner gets to the truth behind the Earth Day history and myths. Messner gets into the first Earth Day in April 1970, but gets to the roots of the holiday with discussions on Indigenous populations who developed sustainable farming practices, environmental activists going back to the 18th and 19th centuries, and the science behind global warming. Messner’s straightforward discourse has the ability to empower a new generation to take up the cause: plant a tree, throw out some trash, recycle the bottles! Greenwood’s black and white illustrations go from the realistic-factual to comic book panels depending on the ideas he communicates. A home run for graphic novel fans and more visual readers that will find a great home in nonfiction collections.

Fiction, Fiction, Graphic Novels, Intermediate, Middle Grade, Non-fiction, Non-Fiction

Jackson’s Wilder Adventures 2: Dentistry and Dreams

Posted on April 11, 2025April 10, 2025 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Jackson’s Wilder Adventures Vol. 2: Dentistry and Dreams, by Sarah Davidson, (June 2025, Papercutz), $9.99, ISBN: 9781545818350

Ages 6-10

Jackson and his dad have moved from their house into a smaller apartment and are enjoying a quick lunch after unpacking when Jackson realizes he’s got a loose tooth! As he starts stressing about losing a tooth, his imaginary thylacine friend Irwin takes him on a journey to meet animals who loose dozens of teeth, from Nile crocodiles to bull sharks; he even gets to see the capybara, an animal who has to file its teeth down because they never stop growing. When Jackson’s tooth finally falls out, he asks Irwin to show him animals who sleep to help him fall asleep as he waits for the Tooth Fairy; Irwin takes Jackson to visit Yakushima Island in Japan, where they encounter the Ussuri Tube-Nosed Bat, who sleeps through the winter in a deep sleep called torpor; the Kenai Fjords in Alaska, where they see a Wood Frog, who can can create a protective film that keeps their internal organs safe as they freeze into a layer of ice for the winter, and Joshua Tree National Park, where they discover the Little Pocket Mouse, who also enters torpor to sleep. It’s a fun and educational look at animals and habitats, with activities like mazes and rebuses throughout.

Jackson’s Wilder Adventures is a fun graphic novel series that combines fiction and nonfiction with great success. Jackson and Irwin are illustrated as cartoon characters, but the animals and habitats are drawn more realistically, making this a good graphic novel series to keep in your collections.

Non-fiction, picture books

Next Year in the White House: a story about the first Presidential Seder

Posted on March 31, 2025March 28, 2025 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Next Year in the White House: Barack Obama’s First Presidential Seder, by Richard Michelson/Illustrated by E.B. Lewis, (March 2025, Crown Books for Young Readers), $18.99, ISBN: 9780593711583

Age 5-9

The White House has celebrated Easter with an “Egg Roll” since the 1870s, but a Seder celebrating Passover? Barack Obama was the first U.S. President to introduce a Presidential Seder, and it all started in 2008, when three members of Obama’s staff gathered in the basement of a hotel while on the road, working to get him elected President. Just as homesick and tired as his staff, Obama was invited to join the group. As the men read from the Haggadah – the guidebook to the Passover meal – Obama reflected on how the Exodus story inspired his heroes of the civil rights movement. At the conclusion of the meal, the group promises to celebrate the next year’s Seder at the White House. The White House Seder frames the story of this first Seder, with appearances by Sasha and Malia and even Bo Obama. Building a bridge between, as Michelle Obama reflects, “two enslaved peoples… now free to share a meal together in the White House”, the story is at once warm and powerful, as is the message delivered by the original three staff members – Herbie Ziskend, Eric Lesser, and Arun Chaudhary – that Passover is “about the family you have and the family you make”. Back matter includes the Haggadah booklet from the White House Seder annotated by Eric Lesser, notes on Passover, Black History, and a recipe for Flourless Golden Apricot Cake from Arun Chaudhary. Lewis’ warm watercolor illustrations bring the reader into the story through perspective. An important book.

Next Year in the White House has starred reviews from Booklist and Kirkus.

“Essential reading for all children—and adults—who hope for freedom for all.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred)

Richard Michelson is a poet, children’s book author, and art dealer whose children’s books have been listed among the 10 Best Books of the Year by The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and The New Yorker; and among the 12 Best Books of the Decade by Amazon.com. He has been a finalist for the Massachusetts Book Award, the Harlem Book Fest Wheatley Award, and the National Jewish Book Award, as well as receiving two Skipping Stones Multicultural Book Awards, a National Parenting Publication Gold Medal and an International Reading Association Teacher’s Choice Award. In 2009 Michelson received both a Sydney Taylor Gold and Silver Medal from the Association of Jewish Librarians, the only author so honored in AJL’s 50 year history. Michelson received his 2nd Silver Medal in 2017 and his 2nd Gold Medal in 2018. Additionally, Michelson won the 2017 National Jewish Book Award. Michelson is the owner of R. Michelson Galleries, the host of Northampton Poetry Radio, and the current Poet Laureate of Northampton Massachusetts. Visit his website: richardmichelson.com

E. B. Lewis has illustrated over seventy books for children, including the Caldecott Honor–winning Coming on Home Soon by Jacqueline Woodson. Lewis also illustrated Jabari Asim’s Peaching to the Chickens, which was named a New York Times Best Illustrated Book and a Kirkus Reviews Best Illustrated Book, and he’s a five-time Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award winner. Lewis teaches at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He is also a member of the Society of Illustrators in New York City, and an artist member of Salamagundi Club of New York. To learn more: eblewis.com

Middle Grade, Non-fiction

Is it Real? Loch Ness Monster – Candace Fleming explores cryptids

Posted on January 13, 2025December 12, 2024 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Is it Real? Loch Ness Monster, by Candace Fleming, (March 2025, Scholastic Focus), $8.99, ISBN: 9781339037936

Ages 8-12

I loved books like these when I was a kid. Candace Fleming, award-winning kidlit author, has a new book coming out in March. The first in a new series, Is it Real? Loch Ness Monster is perfect for paranormal and science fiction fans. Fleming combines storytelling with nonfiction and puts the reader behind the investigator’s desk, inviting them sharpen research skills. Using case studies, photos, and analysis and research, Fleming leads readers through the process of evaluation and critical thinking to decide for themselves whether or not the Loch Ness Monster could be considered fact, fiction, or maybe something in between. Using a fictitious database in the story as an example, Fleming instructs readers on how to use search terms to retrieve best results, and shows readers how photos can be emphasized to tell a different story. Back matter includes additional resources. Is it Real? makes research and deduction fun and should make a good purchase for collections where creature books do well.

Visit Candace Fleming’s author website for free activities and teaching guides.

Candace Fleming is the versatile and acclaimed author of more than twenty books for children and young adults, including Crash from Outer Space: Unraveling the Mystery of Flying Saucers, Alien Beings, and Roswell; The Curse of the Mummy: Uncovering Tutankhamun’s Tomb; The Enigma Girls: How Ten Teenagers Broke Ciphers, Kept Secrets, and Helped Win World War II; The Rise and Fall of Charles Lindbergh, winner of the YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award; the Sibert Award winner Honeybee: The Busy Life of Apis Mellifera; the Los Angeles Times Book Prize winner and Sibert Honor Book The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of the Russian Empire; and the critically acclaimed Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart. Visit Candace Fleming online at candacefleming.com.

Middle Grade, Middle School, Non-Fiction, Non-fiction, Teen, Tween Reads

Native American Heritage Month Books Worth Reading: Stealing Little Moon

Posted on November 23, 2024November 22, 2024 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Stealing Little Moon: The Legacy of The American Indian Boarding Schools, by Dan Sasuweh Jones, (Sept. 2024, Scholastic Focus), $19.99, ISBN: 9781338889475

Ages 9-12

As we move into Thanksgiving week, I find myself thinking of Native American Heritage Month and what that means. Yes, it’s a celebration of Native American culture, contributions (like keeping colonists alive), language, and traditions. It’s also a time to reflect on what the First Nations’ generosity cost them. Stealing Little Moon is my foray into learning more about the American Indian boarding schools. Four generations of Jones’s family attended one of these schools: Chilocco Indian Agricultural School in Oklahoma. Created in the 1880s as a way to indoctrinate Native children into white society, the schools were initially populated through force, as armed agents and soldiers would show up without warning to Native homes, grab the children – sometimes, handcuffing or hog-tying them – and load them onto wagons. Sometimes, the children never returned home. Jones’s great-grandmother, Little Moon There Are No Stars Tonight, was four years old when she was torn away from her family and sent to Chilocco, where she and the other students were removed from their culture and forbidden to speak their language; their names were changed, their punishments were brutal, and the conditions were inhumane. The goal of the schools were to “Kill the Indian in him, and save the man”; those in power seemed to relish their duties too much, as stories from survivors relate physical, emotional, and sexual abuse.

Jones writes with a passion and sadness that communicates the horror of the schools, noting the schools’ responsibility for generational trauma, as some students went on to abuse their own families as they were abused. He also discusses key figures in the American Indian fight for reparations, including Clyde Warrior, Russell Means, and Dennis Banks. Jones goes further into Chilocco’s evolution into a school for American Indians, run by American Indians, with his own family working there until the Bureau of Indian Affairs determined in 1980 that running the school was too expensive for so few students. As superintendent C.C. Tillman wrote in the school’s last yearbook that “Chilocco is another in a long list of broken promises”. Extensively researched and containing interviews and photos, Jones creates a testament that all students should read and discuss. Back matter contains a comprehensive bibliography.

Stealing Little Moon: The Legacy of The American Indian Boarding Schools has starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and is designated a Book of Special Distinction by the The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books.

Middle Grade, Non-fiction

Explore America’s Wildlife with Bailey and Jazynka

Posted on September 17, 2024September 17, 2024 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Explore! America’s Wildlife, by Kitson Jazynka/Illustrated by Hannah Bailey, (May 2023, Kane Miller), $18.99, ISBN: 9781684644711

Ages 7-11

Armchair travel was never so much fun. Travel all over the States and discover the diversity of American wildlife, from Arctic wolves and snowshoe hares of the Alaskan Peninsula’s Katmai National Park to the bald eagles and great blue herons of the Western Maine mountains. Full-color illustrations and photos pair with informative text and fun facts; labeled drawings help readers identify flora and fauna in each region, and close-up areas of the U.S. map help place readers geographic areas of the U.S. Travelers and nature lovers will love the facts boxes that tell them what to find, hear, discover, and spot. Organized into five areas – The West and Alaska; The South; Midwest; Northeast, and Wild Animals in Your Backyard – Explore! provides an overview of the area and and illustrations on the region of the U.S. map. Fully indexed, this is an excellent companion to Explore! America’s National Parks (2011) and will be a welcome addition to natural resource collections.

Explore! America’s Wildlife has a starred review from School Library Journal.

Middle Grade, Middle School, Non-Fiction, Non-fiction, Tween Reads

Borderlands and the Mexican American Story: The new Race to the Truth book

Posted on September 13, 2024September 11, 2024 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Borderlands and the Mexican American Story (Race to the Truth), by David Dorado Como, (Aug. 2024, Crown Books for Young Readers), $8.99, ISBN: 9780593567753

Ages 10-14

The newest book in the nonfiction Race to the Truth series couldn’t have been released at a more necessary time. The middle grade/middle school series takes an unvarnished look at marginalized communities in American history; Borderlands and the Mexican American Story examines the history of relations between Mexico and America. As with Exclusion and the Chinese American Story, the reality is different from what many readers may know to be true. Borderlands examines how Mexican culture has enriched and shaped American culture; how white colonizers sought to suppress Mexican settlers, and how systemic racism still plays a part in how Mexican immigrants and Mexican-American people are seen today. Como provides an intelligent overview of Mexican history and uses primary source information to interest readers. The Race to the Truth series has been a vital addition to nonfiction shelves and is an essential purchase for middle grade and middle school nonfiction collections.

Borderlands and the Mexican American Story has a starred review from Kirkus.

Middle Grade, Non-Fiction, Non-fiction, Tween Reads

AANHPI Month Reads: Exclusion and the Chinese American Story

Posted on May 16, 2024May 16, 2024 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Exclusion and the Chinese American Story (Race to the Truth), by Sarah-SoonLing Blackburn, (March 2024, Crown Books for Young Readers), $8.99, ISBN: 9780593567630

Ages 10-14

The Race to the Truth series is a middle grade/middle school series that takes an unvarnished look at marginalized communities in American history. Exclusion and the Chinese American Story traces the history of Chinese people in America. Tied closely to the history of African Americans in America, Blackburn begins with the Chinese arrival on U.S. shores during the Gold Rush, hoping to pursue their part of the American Dream. They quickly found themselves “othered” by the white men that legislated their very existence while paying them poverty wages to do the work that white men could no longer force Black Americans to do. Blackburn discusses racial hierarchies and how the Chinese moved along that hierarchy as American politicians needed them; Angel Island, where immigrants on the West Coast languished while waiting to be admitted to America; the practice of “paper sons and daughters” in attempts to circumvent racial legislation; and where we stand today in terms of racial diversity. She includes photos of primary sources and spotlights individuals like Ho Ah Kow, a laborer who successfully sued a San Francisco sheriff over racially motivated local ordinances, and Anna May Wong, the first Chinese film star in Hollywood. Easily readable, each chapter offers thought- and discussion-provoking questions to consider. Back matter includes resources and an extensive bibliography. Informative, well-written, and a frank look at how far we still have to go in terms of racial equity.

Intermediate, Middle Grade, Non-fiction, Non-Fiction, picture books

Continental Drifter seeks belonging

Posted on March 19, 2024March 18, 2024 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Continental Drifter, by Kathy MacLeod, (Apr. 2024, First Second), $14.99, ISBN: 9781250813749

Ages 8-12

Eleven-year-old Kathy lives in Bangkok with her Thai mother, American father, and her sister. The family doesn’t seem to interact much, so Kathy’s looking forward to the family trip to her father’s family in Maine: – with a summer camp trip-within-a-trip included! Feeling like she doesn’t quite fit in with her family and friends in Thailand, she has high hopes for America, but discovers that she doesn’t quite fit in with the blonde-haired, blue-eyed girls who can’t figure out where Thailand is – maybe she’s saying Taiwan wrong? Kathy loves Maine. She loves her extended family; she loves food she can’t get in Thailand, like blueberry pie and clam chowder. She LOVES shopping the the mall. But she feels out of touch within her own family unit, and it doesn’t help how she feels in the world at large. Continental Drifter is MacLeod’s graphic memoir about a child of two cultures searching for belonging, but it’s more than cultural: this family doesn’t interact. Her retired father prefers his alone time, and her high-powered mother runs a business, comes home, and wants her own time. Her older sister is going through adolescence, leaving Kathy to feel unmoored at home; with her friends in Thailand, there are questions about her American half, and when she visits her American family, there are questions about being… not American. MacLeod tells her story without melodrama; we see the lonely girl at the heart of the story, and we see how others in her family have their own loneliness. It’s a moving story that will resonate with readers from immigrant families and readers who may simply feel out of place. Back matter includes an author’s note and photos. Readers who love Remy Lai’s storytelling will Continental Drifter.

Continental Drifter has a starred review from Kirkus. Follow Kathy MacLeod on Instagram for more comics. MacLeod also has archived comics on BK Magazine, which have a slice of life in Bangkok flavor.