Non-fiction | Page 6 of 8

The World’s Most Mysterious Places is a kid’s look at things they want to know

The Adventurous Kid’s Guide to The World’s Most Mysterious Places is the literary equivalent to Youtube food. Those who hang around upper elementary through lower middle school students can relate to that metaphor. It’s those ages that are apt to start a sentence with “Did you know that…?” to which you’ll be regulated to something that’s questionable true, demonstrably false, fake news or a little-known fact that makes those ages stop, repeat it to their friends and then find more like that. The difference is that The Adventurous Kid’s Guide to The World’s Most Mysterious Places is 100% non-fiction. It’s an impossibly addictive, oversized illustrated book that examines 19 places that exist, or have existed and lets fourth through sixth-grade student know why they should be interested in them.

The Adventurous Kid’s Guide to The World’s Most Mysterious Places, an illustrated book that kids won’t be able to look away from, for ages eight through 12.

Non-fiction that hooks ages 7 through 12

The Brilliant Calculator, STEM illustrated magic on leveling up the power grid

The Clarke Calculator is something that I’ve never seen, touched or used, yet its application is demonstrated everywhere I go. It’s not a regular calculator. Heck, it’s not even a scientific calculator. The Brilliant Calculator: How Mathematician Edith Clarke Helped Electrify America follows Edith Clarke’s lifelong passion for numbers and her specific invention that helped electric power wires handle to juice needed for a growing America.

The Brilliant Calculator is an unlikely and empowering STEM illustrated story about Edith Clarke, a woman who invented something that few of us will use, but all of us take advantage of.

Stories like these are what make kids think outside of the box

Tales of Ancient Worlds, potato chip history for fourth grade and up

Imagine a world where Indiana Jones and the National Treasure movies never existed. Yeah, it would certainly be a world where quality cinema was lacking three or four excellent films between the two series. But, even in that situation, kids would still be fascinated by archeology and ancient worlds. That’s where Tales of Ancient Worlds: Adventures in Archeology hits home. It is a reference book, but education and the fruits that it yields are awesome. This is a book that’s tailor-made for fourth or fifth-graders on many levels.

Tales of Ancient Worlds: Adventures in Archeology is the armchair compendium that every erstwhile fourth-grade Indiana Jones needs to show them the light.

It’s fun! It’s educational It’s entertaining! It teaches!

Who Ate What?, a fun, engaging guessing game through history

I like to imagine conversations between myself and some of the elementary school aged children that I teach. Here’s one that’s running through me head right now about Who Ate What? A Historical Guessing Game for Food Lovers.

8YO kid: I don’t like to read

Me: Do you like ninjas and cave people?

Kid: Yes, highly respected elementary school teacher, I do like to look at pictures of them.

Me: You should check out Who Ate What?

Kid: That sounds like a book that would make me read something. Me no like printed paper learning.

Me: Well, it is a book, but it’s an illustrated book that looks at well known civilizations, how they lived and what they ate or drank; thus the title, Who Ate What?

Who Ate What? is a fun guessing game for elementary school audiences that makes them ask questions and think about things.

Have you ever written something that only you will probably read?

The Astronaut’s Guide to Leaving the Planet, 6th-grade go-to space project gold

Don’t tell yourself no. There are many dozens of wisdom nuggets in The Astronaut’s Guide to Leaving the Planet, but that one is a favorite of ours. Being an astronaut is a job that’s easily identifiable to an elementary-aged student. An analyst or working in public relations are amorphous jobs that are challenging to quantifiably explain what you do in a way that those age’s will understand. But an astronaut that’s a job that everyone knows, even if they don’t know how to become one. For a book centered on leaving the planet, The Astronaut’s Guide to Leaving the Planet has street-cred galore.

The Astronaut’s Guide to Leaving the Planet is an entertaining chapter book that’s custom made for 5th or 6th graders to learn about an out-of-this-world profession.

What Would the Astronaut do?

Louise Bourgeois Made Giant Spiders and Wasn’t Sorry, art for the masses

Art is weird, in the eye of the beholder, and difficult to define. Children are weird, loved by their parents more than others and sometimes exhibit behavior that’s difficult to define. Louise Bourgeois was a French-American artist who was a gifted painter but is most famous for creating large-scale sculptures. These are the big sculptures that you see around major cities that define the area and are must-see spots when you visit them. Even if you don’t know her reputation you’ll glean some idea of her work from the book’s title, Louise Bourgeois Made Giant Spiders and Wasn’t Sorry. For some readers, all you’ll need to do is mention ‘giant spiders’ and show them the artwork in the book to bait their interest hook to high.

Louise Bourgeois Made Giant Spiders and Wasn’t Sorry is an illustrated book on an artist that most don’t know and makes them care about her and her work.

Art and Children, what do they have in common?

How Poop Can Save The World, STEM-minded mental martial arts with a laugh

Most fifth and fourth-grade boys have one thing on their minds. Well, video games certainly occupy a segment of their cranial space, but there’s always one portion of grey matter that is at the ready with some bathroom humor. A fart noise, poop metaphor, bathroom memory, or something else wasteful is the currency for boys at a certain stage of their life. It’s disgusting, yes. However, Dog Man and Captain Underpants are successful at hitting those ages for a reason. They embrace that baseness and run with it. How Poop Can Save The World is a chapter book that’s geared for those ages, and slightly higher, that makes no apologies for its pictures of flying poop, stool-powered puns, or any other way to make readers smile about number two.

How Poop Can Save The World is a STEM chapter book that entertainingly hits those potty humor kids right where they need it.

I’m number one, you’re number two

I Am Coco, a graphic novel that makes the improbable, probable

Make me interested in a quasi-graphic novel about a fashion designer. I Am Coco, The Life of Coco Chanel by Isabel Pin politely, says “Hold my glass of wine.” I Am Coco is an excellent of example of how the medium of a graphic novel is able to tell a story to an otherwise unapproachable audience. It’s not that I’m a fashion snob. It’s just that the only thing I knew about Coco Chanel is that it’s a perfume presented via esoteric voiceovers and dreamy visuals where it’s always windy and people are having grand adventures in foreign vistas with exotic animals by their feet. In reality, the story of Coco Chanel is much more about an entrepreneur who was creating her own path during a time when many of the world’s greats were making their mark.

I Am Coco, The Life of Coco Chanel is a graphic novel that looks at the icon’s life in a way that makes non-fashion folks interested.

Hold my glass of wine