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DianaC
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I'd like to have more non-fiction books on hand for independent reading.
Currently, my dd is reading some of these DK Biographies and she has enjoyed them.
I would like to find recommendations in a variety of subjects. Any ideas?
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guitarnan
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We loved Mike Venezia's artist biographies. They focus not only on the artists' lives but also on their specific talents and styles. He's written a series of composer biographies, too.
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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JennGM
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guitarnan wrote:
| We loved Mike Venezia's artist biographies. They focus not only on the artists' lives but also on their specific talents and styles. He's written a series of composer biographies, too. |
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And the videos are priceless!
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Jennifer G. Miller
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Lara Sauer
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Almost any books from the "Landmark" history series would be worthwhile, however, they are out of print, so you usually have to hunt them down at old book sales.
My husband credits his love of history to many of these great books.
Also, any lives of the saints would be well worth the effort. I used to love reading them when I was a child. I think they helped to inspire me to an authentic love of the faith.
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You can take the girl out of Wisconsin, but you can't take the Wisconsin out of the girl!
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DianaC
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| Posted: June 04 2010 at 9:40am | IP Logged
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Thanks for these ideas - I'll be looking for some of these at the library this week.
I wanted to mention that my children have really enjoyed and learned so much from the Magic School Bus books also, but my daughter has outgrown these now.
It seems to me that there is an overabundance of non-fiction reading resources for the elementary readers, but then the the amount available dwindles in the middle school years. Is this the case, or I am not looking in the right places?
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ALmom
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Diana:
I generally need help with literature, since my children do almost all non-fiction reading. I have lots of suggestions - is there a particular area or subject you want to pursue?
My daughter (18) really likes reading WWII memoirs. The Burgett series including The Road to Arnheim is one. Her favorite in terms of language/appropriateness is
She also likes books by Stephen Ambrose who wrote D-Day
Other possibilities - The Flying Tigers by Daniel Ford
Inside the KGB by Aleksei Myagkov
Biographies of Sahkhorov and other dissidents or some of their non-fiction work
ie Alarm and Hope by Andrei D Sakharov
Alexander Solzhenitsyn by Steven Allaback
First hand acounts ofsubmariners and pilots of WWII - like
U-Boat Commander by Peter Cremer (German)
Silent Victory by Clay Blair Jr (US).
The US Marine Corps Story
Haven by Ruth Gruber (Jewish refuges leaving Nazi Germany)
A Girl in Exhile The Endless Steppe by Esther Hautzig (Eastern European who is exhiled to Siberia during Soviet invasion WWII)
Brave Men by Ernie Pyle (may be oop but it is the best WWII non fiction)
The possibilities are endless. A lot depends on the particular interest. If there is a particular historical time period, I most likely have a few books to suggest. I have hundreds of non-fictin history titles on my shelves - some you would want to preview a bit depending on the age. Everything from history of a particular battle, event, president, general (be careful with bios of generals and be sure to preview), strategy, development of modern warfare, pictorial histories, social histories, biographies, speeches, war crime trials, personal memories of individuals (young folks recalling exhile, victims of the Hiroshima blast, a discussion of the influence of Pope JPII, Reagan and PM Thatcher in the fall of communism. Writings by Soviet dissidents and defectors (even high ranking army and KGB folks), discussion of walls, weapons, technology, art, uniforms, toys, music in history. Specific history volumes like Warren Carrol's series. Ignatius Press has a whole bunch of new ones I got for my birthday but haven't finished yet - Catholic perspective like The Battle Ground by Hilaire Belloc. Oh they also have biographies of Belloc, Chesterton, ... Church and State in Early Christianity by Hugo Rahner and Light and Shadows Church History amid Faith, Fact and Legend byt Walter Brandmuller.
Calvary in China by Greene published by Maryknoll
If history isn't your cup of tea - then there's science, art, music, geography -
Biographies of scientists, naturalists and inventors.
There used to be a great biography of Louis Braille in our library - Something in the title about Light but unfortunately they sold it and I wasn't the one who bought it  .
I have bios on Edison, Madame Cure', Pasteur, Audobon, Byrd, Dr. George Carver, Alexander Graham Bell
Will and Charlie Mayo Doctor's Boys by Marie Hammontree,
Great Men of Science Carl Linnaeus The Man Who Put the World of Life in Order by Alvin and Virginia Silverstein, George W. Goethals Panama Canal Engineer (a Discovery Book)
Man Against the Elements (bio of Adolphos Greely)
Edmond Halley the Man and His Comet by Barbara Hooper Heckart
Pioneer Surgeon Dr. Ephraim McDowell by Josephine Rich
First Scientist of Alaska William Healey Dall by Edward Herron
The Discoverer of Insulin Dr. Frederick G Banting by I.E. Levine
There are tons more.
There are the titles that will provide information in any area of science you want to pursue. My 13 year old has been reading
Square Foot Gardening
Astronomy for all Ages
Fabre books
Botany In A Day
The Practical Entomologist (an intro guide to observing
and understanding the world of insects) It includes
instructions/tips on insect photography.
He also reads How to Books, science journals and magazines, series like Growing Up With Science and any number of references when he is pursuing something. Oh, How Things Work is another favorite.
One of the ways we have found good non-fiction has been to go to the Biography section in the library (our Jr section had some good ones at one time) and just puruse. We could find great biographies in a large number of areas.
Our best historical non-fiction, mostly came from yard sales and friend of the library sales. I have a lot of Landmark, American Background Books and some Catholic Treasury Books - some are historical ficition, most are non-fiction.
Another source of non-fiction is Ignatius Press -
There are lots of biographies, etc. here. Some will need previewing and consideration of the age of the child.
He Leadeth Me
With God in Russia
These are both by Rev. Walter Czik, SJ. Do preview these as the topic is intense and there are some mention of things, though nothing graphic. He was a Roman Catholic specifically trained by the Vatican in the Eastern Rites to slip into the USSR and offer Mass to Eastern Rite Catholics. (Not many made it, most were captured and martyred almost immediately). Fr. Czik was in Poland planning how to get in to the USSR when WWII took care of it. He went with the Polish exhiles and was arrested and spent over 20 years in the gulag - many of it in a famous prison (one of the few who emerged from this prison both alive and sane). After his release, he continued to work and minister secretly (while being a mechanic)to the people where he lived. He was in the USSR until the 1960s when his family's persistence resulted in some sort of prisoner exchange and he was re-united with his natural and Jesuit family.
Oh we also have biographies of some artists - and non fiction works describing schools of art like Midwestern Painters.
Other books will sometimes cross lines and serve as a means of enticement - so American Science and Invention a Pictorial History or The Historians Toybox
There are some really good short biographies on St. Anselm, St. Athanaseaus as well as more adult ones. We have found that we really enjoy the longer, adult Biographies of some saints once the children are past a certain age and can handle the vocabulary.
The Cure' of Ars by Abbe' Francis Trochu is very thick but very good
One of the best ways to start an inspiration for non-fiction is to peruse that section of the library - or a good Catholic catelogue. The shelves in the library are arranged in non-fiction by topic - science, history, biography, art, religion, and we often just hang out there seeing what they have and flipping through things. We have found that the older books are really often very, very good. The newer books are often heavily politically correct but we sometimes find real treasures.
Hope this helps some.
Oh church encylcicals, speeches,also are non-fiction as well as How to Books, meditation like Trustful Surrender to Divine Providene and Imitation of Christ.
My rooms are lined in abundance with non-fiction - everything from An Aspiring Firefighter's Two Year Plan, Strike Aces, Fabres Book of Insects, Anatomy of A Rose, How to books, experiment books, biographies, speeches, histories (written by historians who tell a story - not textbooks), memoirs, art, art history, music history or description of instruments and orchestra, devotional reading,
I'd better stop while you might still have time to read this. If you want something more specific, I'm happy to give more titles and such - I have a huge collection of books and probably 90% of it is non-fiction.
Janet
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MaryM
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Like Janet, I think OOP titles are a good options. Much of the newer stuff for that age does have a bit (or a lot!) of political correctness and different worldview than you might be looking for. But there still is good new stuff - just need to be more discerning imo.
There is a lot out there and it does help to narrow down particular interests and search. I think there are fewer "series" type books at the middle school age but still lots of individual books so have to seek them out more.
Speaking of newer books - we recently came across these that we liked - don't recall anything I had a problem with and they are very interesting.
George Washington, Spymaster: How the Americans Outspied the British and Won the Revolutionary War
Mr. Lincoln's High Tech War
His Harriet Tubman book was one I meant to check out but haven't yet - there are other titles by this author that seem like topics I would be more cautious about.
The Man Who Went to the Far Side of the Moon: The Story of Apollo 11 Astronaut Michael Collins was a good one mentioned in last year's Apollo 11 anniversary thread. There as some other good non-fiction suggested there as well.
Jeanne Bendick books are good for science topics - several reprinted by Bethlehem Books. And speaking of science non-fiction, Kris and I had a discussion last fall on out of print science authors to look for.
OOP Science books - recommended authors?
I was also thinking of Fabre who Janet also recommended.
I'll keep trying to think of specific titles to add.
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DianaC
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Thank you so much for these recommendations!
Janet, your daughter's reading interests are very similar to my son's (who is 19), but my daughter (just turned 10) has very different interests at this point.
I'm going to peruse some of the biographies that you've all recommended - I think these will be a great addition to our reading baskets.
Also, I've found a few of the Fabre books available at Yesterday's Classics and I'm ordering those. Thanks for these recommendations!
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guitarnan
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Diana, you are so right about the current trend in nonfiction publishing. We have had a hard time finding books at the right reading level in several subject areas, including animals, life science, and sports topics. It is very frustrating.
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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ALmom
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Diana:
Oh the age does make a difference. I also have a 10 year old and that is my hardest age to find books and the one I'm still working on in terms of enticing to read anything - fiction or non-fiction.
Landmark and republished classics sound like a good starting point. I'll probably be following you over there when I have a little better idea over the summer of interests, and also our focus for next year.
Another good source is Landmark, American Background Books, Catholic Treasury Books, etc. Those are very appropriate for the 10 age range. Thrift stores, library book sales, etc. are where I find most of my treasures for the younger ages. (The libraries seem to be dumping the really good stuff as outdated - even the Catholic schools have dumped some real treasures that we managed to pick up at the library sales. I don't see these as much on the shelves, but sometimes more country libraries still have the good books).
What are some of your daughter's interests?
Janet
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Non-fiction titles, lists
