Nonfiction for middle and high school readers serves an important purpose in challenging, informing, and equipping our leaders of tomorrow. Whether you’re looking to expand your YA nonfiction collection or to fill specific gaps, we’ve got superb options for you below. Read on for a star-studded list of titles from Spring 2022, followed by an exciting line-up of new releases for fall. Look for the Netgalley link below several of the Fall 2022, and request your free galley now!
Quiet Fire: Emily Dickinson’s Life and Poetry ⭐
By Carol Dommermuth-Costa and Anna Landsverk
Interest Level: Grades 6-12
Reading Level: Grade 8
When Emily Dickinson died at her home in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1886, she left a locked chest with hand-sewn notebooks and papers filled with nearly 1,800 unpublished poems. Four years later, her first collection was published and became a singular success. Today Dickinson is revered as one of America’s greatest and most original poets. Using primary source materials, including the poet’s own letters and poems, Quiet Fire presents the life and art of Emily Dickinson to a new generation.
⭐ “Dommermuth-Costa and Landsverk’s research on the nonreligious, nature-loving, and doting daughter is revelatory; their back matter is impeccable; and the fascinating portrait they paint of the often misunderstood author is mesmerizing. . . . An excellent biography for all YA collections.”
—starred, School Library Journal
Glowing Bunnies!? Why We’re Making Hybrids, Chimeras, and Clones
By Jeff Campbell
Interest Level: Grades 6-12
Reading Level: Grade 6
Modern genetic technology has the potential to remake animals in almost any way we can imagine. With reassuring, wry humor, Glowing Bunnies!? explores the possibilities, dangers, and ethical issues of bioengineering.
Where Have All the Birds Gone? Nature in Crisis ⭐
By Rebecca E. Hirsch
Interest Level: Grades 8-12
Reading Level: Grade 8
In the face of rapidly declining bird populations, read about the vast impacts birds have on ecosystems, food systems, and our mental health and what we can do to protect them.
⭐ “[E]asy to read and understand on many levels, including for those beginning to study environmental issues.”
—starred, School Library Journal
⭐ “It’s impossible to read this and not recognize the seriousness of the problem…”
—starred, Booklist
⭐ “Well-informed inspiration.”
—starred, Kirkus Reviews
Science and the Skeptic: Discerning Fact from Fiction ⭐
By Marc Zimmer
Interest Level: Grades 8-12
Reading Level: Grade 8
Fake news and pseudoscience have unprecedented reach on social media platforms. Chemistry professor Marc Zimmer explains how science is done, why some people want to trick others, and why false information is dangerous. He empowers readers to identify trustworthy sources with 25 easy-to-follow rules.
⭐ “This slim but rich book on approaching science news with healthy skepticism would be an excellent and welcome addition to junior high or high school nonfiction collections.”
—starred, School Library Journal
⭐ “[D]oes a thorough and extremely effective job of explaining the difference between scientific fact and fiction. . . . A very helpful guide for a very timely problem.”
—starred, Booklist
Attention Hijacked: Using Mindfulness to Reclaim Your Brain from Tech ⭐
By Erica B. Marcus
Interest Level: Grades 8-12
Reading Level: Grade 8
For years, scientists have warned that too much screen time negatively impacts our health. Attention Hijacked explores exactly how technology affects consumers, dispels misinformation, and helps readers make personal usage decisions. Page Plus links lead to mindfulness and meditation audio clips.
⭐ “[A] lively and deeply relevant work that is a must for school and public libraries.”
—starred, Booklist
How to Be a Difficult Bitch: Claim Your Power, Ditch the Haters, and Feel Good Doing It ⭐
By Halley Bondy, Mary C. Fernandez, Sharon Lynn Pruitt-Young, and Zara Hanawalt, illus. by T.L. Luke
Interest Level: Grades 9-12
Reading Level: Grade 9
In the past, being a “difficult bitch” was bad. Girls weren’t supposed to call people out for their BS, stand up for themselves, or do their own thing..….not anymore!
This book embraces the insult with irreverent humor, encouraging readers to be themselves no matter what, including an exploration of the ways this phrase can be interpreted differently among people of different backgrounds.
⭐ “A thoughtful, engaging, bad-ass crash course in moxie, self-confidence, and self-love.”
—starred, Kirkus Reviews
And now for the new releases coming this fall…
Teen Innovators: Nine Young People Engineering a Better World with Creative Inventions
By Fred Estes
Interest Level: Grades 5-9
Reading Level: Grade 6
Teen Innovators tells the stories of discovery and the inventions of nine young students. Science educator and professor Fred Estes explores the motivation, challenges, and lives of these teen scientists and explains the science behind each invention simply and clearly. Readers will see how the science they study today in school relates to these important discoveries.
*Available 9/6/22
Request on Netgalley!
Don’t Sit on the Baby, 2nd Edition: The Ultimate Guide to Sane, Skilled, and Safe Babysitting
By Halley Bondy
Interest Level: Grades 6-12
Reading Level: Grade 6
Babysitting is one of the most popular part-time jobs for teens, but caring for kids is no easy feat. Offering useful tips on everything from navigating naptime to negotiating pay rates, this funny, no-nonsense guide covers all the basics any babysitting hopeful needs to know and much more. This revised edition includes updated ideas for finding jobs, keeping kids—and yourself—safe, and handling behavioral challenges.
*Available 9/6/22
Request on Netgalley!
Buildings That Breath: Greening the World’s Cities
By Nancy F. Castaldo
Interest Level: Grades 8-12
Reading Level: Grade 7
Imagine looking out from your 18th floor apartment in the middle of the city and seeing trees right in front of you. In an effort to stem climate change, reduce pollution, combat heat, and protect biodiversity, architects are teaming up with botanists, urban wildlife ecologists, and other scientists to design high-rise forests, living walls, and vertical farms in some of the world’s most populated places. In Buildings That Breathe, author and environmental journalist Nancy Castaldo explores the first high-rise forest, Bosco Verticale, with its architect Stefano Boeri. Discover how green infrastructure will transform the urban landscape and how we think about our future.
*Available 11/1/22
By Robin Wall Kimmerer, adapted by Monique Gray Smith, illus. by Nicole Neidhardt
Interest Level: Grades 7-12
Reading Level: Grade 8
Drawing from her experiences as an Indigenous scientist, botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer demonstrated how all living things—from strawberries and witch hazel to water lilies and lichen—provide us with gifts and lessons every day. Adapted for young adults by Monique Gray Smith, this new edition reinforces how wider ecological understanding stems from listening to the earth’s oldest teachers: the plants around us.
*Available 11/1/22
Request on Netgalley!
Gender Inequality in Sports: From Title IX to World Titles
By Kirstin Cronn-Mills
Interest Level: Grades 8-12
Reading Level: Grade 8
The road to equality in sports has been anything but straightforward, and there is still a long way to go. Schools, universities, and professional organizations continue to struggle with addressing unequal pay, discrimination, and sexism in their sports programming. Delve into the history and impact of Title IX, learn more about the athletes at the forefront of the struggle, and explore how additional changes could lead to equality in sports.
2 Book Series
Interest Level: Grades 8-12
Reading Level: Grade 8
This series examines some of the most prevalent health concerns for teens and young adults. Medical experts provide a comprehensive and sensitive overview of topics using timely and reliable information from leading health organizations.
*Available 9/6/22
Request on Netgalley!
I Could Not Do Otherwise: The Remarkable Life of Dr. Mary Edwards Walker
By Sara Latta
Interest Level: Grades 8-12
Reading Level: Grade 8
As a teenager, Mary Edwards Walker determined she would no longer wear the confining corsets and long skirts society dictated women wear at the time and instead opted for pants with a short skirt, setting the stage for her lifelong controversial efforts to change expectations. I Could Not Do Otherwise brings to light an amazing historical figure who broke gender norms and fought for issues that are still relevant today.
*Available 10/4/22