Reading List
Grades 6-8
Grades 9-10
Grades 11-12

Grit Delve Deeper Reading List Nonfiction for Younger Readers

Nonfiction for Younger Readers

Shone, Rob. Avalanches & Landslides.Rosen Central, 2007.
This book takes a thrilling look at an avalanche in Washington State that buried two trains and killed ninety-six people; a landslide in Peru that sent millions of tons of rock and ice cascading at 60 mph down a mountainside, destroying villages in its path; and a mudslide in the Philippines that destroyed a village on the island of Leyte. The combination of a graphic nonfiction format with the high-interest topic of avalanches is perfect for your reluctant readers.

Rich, Kaelyn. Girls Resist! A Guide to Activism, Leadership, and Starting a Revolution. Quirk Books, 2018.
Take on the world and make some serious change with this handbook to everything activism, social justice, and resistance. With in-depth guides to everything from picking a cause, planning a protest, and raising money to running dispute-free meetings, promoting awareness on social media, and being an effective ally, Girls Resist! will show you how to go from “mad as heck about the way the world is going” to “effective leader who gets stuff done.”

Rohmer, Harriet, and Julie McLaughlin. Heroes of the Environment: True Stories of People Who Are Helping to Protect Our Planet. Scholastic, 2009.
This inspiring book presents the true stories of 12 people from across North America who have done great things for the environment. Heroes include a teenage girl who figured out how to remove an industrial pollutant from the Ohio River, a Mexican superstar wrestler who works to protect turtles and whales, and a teenage boy from Rhode Island who helped his community and his state develop effective e-waste recycling programs. Plenty of photographs and illustrations bring each compelling story vividly to life.

Fleischman, Paul. Eyes Wide Open: Going behind the Environmental Headlines. Candlewick Press, 2014.
Paul Fleischman offers teens an environmental wake-up call and a tool kit for decoding the barrage of conflicting information confronting them. We're living in an ah-ha moment. Take 250 years of human ingenuity. Add abundant fossil fuels. The result: a population and lifestyle never before seen. The downsides weren't visible for centuries, but now they are. Suddenly everything needs rethinking - suburbs, cars, fast food, cheap prices. It's a changed world.

Bang, Molly, and Penny Chisholm. Buried Sunlight: How Fossil Fuels Have Changed the Earth. The Blue Sky Press, 2014.
What are fossil fuels, and how did they come to exist? This engaging, stunning book explains how coal, oil, and gas are really "buried sunlight," trapped beneath the surface of our planet for millions and millions of years. Now, in a very short time, we are digging them up and burning them, changing the carbon balance of our planet's air and water. What does this mean, and what should we do about it? Using simple language and breathtaking paintings, Bang and Chisholm present a clear, concise explanation of the fossil-fuel energy cycle that began with the sun and now runs most of our transportation and energy use in our world.

Sources

About the author:

Susan Conlon

Susan Conlon

Kim Dorman

Kim Dorman