Happy Feast Week! Today’s featured nonfiction nominees were chosen with family dinner conversation in mind. Fun, interesting tidbits humorously told. These books have lots of factoids that you can drop onto the table when those inevitable long, silent pauses kick in. Oh! And we brought desert: after dinner, you can enjoy some poetry.
Summaries via Goodreads. Click the cover to go directly to the book.
ELEMENTARY NONFICTION
If you love glitter, this book is for you. If you hate glitter, this book is also for you. With style and humor, Chris Barton and Chaaya Prabhat explore the good, the bad, the tiny, and the shiny of all things glitter.
Cindy on behalf of Kiss the Book, review by Lisa Librarian – Full of informative text, this non-fiction dive into the world of glitter is better recommended for upper elementary. I loved the illustrations – I sort of expected the book to be very glittery, and it wasn’t, and that was totally ok. I’ll enjoy recommending this to my middle school readers as well as the upper elementary crowd. Everyone loves glitter! Right?
Tiffany @ Goodreads – This book taught me way more than I ever knew about glitter and its origin. I also enjoyed learning about natural, safer alternatives to plastic glitter. Even though this book is informative, the author brings in a humorous tone that I appreciated.
MIDDLE-GRADE NONFICTION
Candy's made it. She's finally the human body! This intrepid sweet treat meets each of the human body's organs as she approaches her "big break": being successfully digested! Here is the scientific process of digestion as you've never seen it before—told through a musical, with Candy in the role of the small-town kid who wants to make it big, the baby carrots as the Greek chorus narrating all the action, and cameos from every body part that plays an important role in transforming food from ingredients to nutrition.
Genevieve @ Twitter – I can see why my rural library would have purchased a book called Digestion!
Rosemary @ Mom Read It – Publisher Chronicle Books calls it “The Magic School Bus: Inside the Human Body meets Hamilton”, and how can you top that description? Digital illustrations are vibrant, colorful, and cartoony and will win readers over.
HIGH SCHOOL NONFICTION
Using this narrative as a primary source text, authors Monica Edinger and Lesley Younge share Equiano's life story in "found verse," supplemented with annotations to give readers historical context. This poetic approach provides interesting analysis and synthesis, helping readers to better understand the original text. Follow Equiano from his life in Africa as a child to his enslavement at a young age, his travels across the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea, his liberation, and his life as a free man.
Karen @ Goodreads – I was delighted to read this book adapted from the autobiography that Olaudah Equiano wrote and happy to see that Monica Edinger and Lesley Young have made this historical document more accessible to young readers (and adults).
Tiffany @ Goodreads – I do not normally gravitate towards non-fiction, but this story is a retelling of the life of writer and abolitionist, Olaudah Equiano. The fact that it was written in verse made it less intimidating to read. I wish this would have been part of my readings when I was in school. I felt like I was reading entries straight from Olaudah’s personal journal.