Recommend pls a non-fiction book for 12yo boy to pick for school. He’s not a very advanced reader
My 12 year old son needs to pick a non-fiction book for school and we’re having a lot of trouble finding one that interests him. He’s not a very advanced reader needless to say and his teacher is no help. It needs to be at least 100 pages long. Any suggestions? Thank you all so much!
What are his interests?
He loves history and archeology. But everything I come up with is just too advanced for him.
Maybe check out Steve Sheinkin.
“Bomb” was popular in my middle school library and he has another one about the attempt to steal Lincoln’s body.
And the teacher wants non fiction specifically.
Those are both non fiction
Oh, I’m sure, I was just wondering if there was some historical fiction that might count.
@Emily no. It has to be nonfiction.
Bomb is fabulous, but a challenging read. Phineas Gage might be good.
My son really enjoyed this one. Lots of drawings and historical information. City by David Macaulay.
He did one Castle that is also amazing
Following. I have a 10 year old boy… I can never pick out a book for him. If it isn’t a graphic novel, he’s not that interested.
Try nonfiction. That’s what a librarian told me a few years ago and my son definitely enjoyed that more than fiction.
@Dotia that’s what her post says.
@Peg, she was replying specifically to me & my son’s love of graphic novels.
@Jen Have you tried Nick and Tesla or the Frank Einstein series. They are novels but habe lots of pictures so they may not be as intimidating as a “novel” to him.
Also, the series Who was . . . What was. . . Is great. Biographies and nonfiction historical events. The Gold Rush, World War II, Abe Lincoln, Sally Ride, lots more I can’t remember.
how about biographies about kids his age. Example, a kid who climbed a cliff free hand
Chew on This was interesting, not sure if it’s a high enough reading level
I hope this will help. http://www.readbrightly.com/nonfiction-books-kids-recommend/
Who was series
My 7th graders like Chasing Lincoln’s Killer.
This is right up his alley but someone chose it already and he just told me you can’t have same book as someone else. ?
My son bought this when he was 8, we were in Washington DC at the Lincoln Memorial (got it in the gift shop) and read before we got home. He loved it and spent days telling us Lincoln trivia.
The President’s Been Shot is popular too.
Or how about Lincoln’s Grave Robbers? I’ve read all of these and liked them a lot.
How about “ killing the rising son” Bill O’Reilly, a little political but shock full of info.???
Jean Fritz has a great biography of Alexander Hamilton for that age.
Where the Red Fern Grows
That’s not nonfiction
Way awesome book though! ?
@Ann Oops, I didn’t look closely.
Gary Paulsen, My Life in Dog Years or How Angel Peterson Got His Name
That’s one of my favorite books…so good!
Night by Eli Weisel. It’s non fiction, a survivor from the Holocaust but it’s a boy rather than a girls point of view which I find is more common.
Mystery of the Egyptian Scroll by Scott Peters
Many of the Mary Pope Osborne nonfiction titles that support her Magic Treehouse series are just over 100 pages and they are high interest. You can find a list here and then search for them at your local library or bookstore: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Tree_House#Non-fiction_books
Also, Lost in the Pacific, 1942 by Tod Olson is quite good and straight forward reading. We are enjoying it at home (with my 9 y.o. son)
My son (6th grader) enjoyed Sid Fleischman’s Escape!: The Story of The Great Houdini.
American Heroes by Edmund S. Morgan
War dog by Damien Lewis
The Family Romanov by Candace Fleming
The Nazi Hunters by Neal Bascomb
Samurai Rising
Witness to the Past
Valley of the Kings
Stonehenge by Caroline Malone
Historical Atlas of the World or something else because many historical atlas might also be interesting. For kids and also for adults. For examples I’m history geek and love those books and encyclopedias because there is many good things to learn about history. World History Atlas or
The Sea Wolves by Lars Brownworth
I read Profiles in Courage at about that age.
I think it wonderful that you are exploring reading as opposed to video games. You seem to be a wonderful mother???
(I hate that 100-page requirement – as *many* books for that age have precisely 96 pages.)
I do as well. I also hate the fact that the teacher was not helpful. Did he try the librarian?
I’m going to post my review to give you more information, not to promote my website – I hope that’s okay. But Go: A Kidd’s Guide to Graphic Design by Chip Kidd would be a great choice. http://www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Nonfiction/go.html
A new nonfiction book that’s being discussed as a possible award winner – has 108 pages. (This is almost cheating – there aren’t very many words on a page. But it’s really good.) Her Right Foot, by Dave Eggers. http://www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Nonfiction/her_right_foot.html
Would the teacher have trouble with graphic memoirs? (Memoir in comic format) Because the whole March series by John Lewis and co-authors is awesome. http://www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Nonfiction/march_book_3.html
This is a somewhat different suggestion. How about Kid Pickers: How to Turn Junk into Treasure by Mike Wolfe? I gave this book to my 9 year old grandson after he and his dad had cleaned out my garage and “picked” their way through it. He was thrilled.
Omg I LOVE Mike and the Pickers!!!! I want to read this now
We’ve Got a Job, by Cynthia Levinson, or Watch Out for Flying Kids! by Cynthia Levinson are both really good.
My Dog Skip
Pick a Mark Twain travel book — he wrote several — then make it better by doing a family read aloud of some chapters. The travel books are fun, but also show life as it was then. Reading aloud as a family can turn the “chore” of reading into a fun thing for him. It will keep reading from being an isolating task and help make the book easier to understand, especially if he is a slow reader.
Love all of this
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (Young Readers Edition)
by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer, illustrated by Anna Hymas
This is the exciting story of William Kamkwamba, a young boy from Malawi, and how he used scrap metal to invent a windmill and bring electricity to his tiny village. His journey is inspiring and gives kids a broader, more global perspective. Recommended for 5th grade and up.
Biography or autobiography of an athlete he admires. Homer Price and the Doughnut Machine (though it may be less than 100 pages.) Mr. Popper’s Penguins.
Homer Price and Mr. Popper’s Penguins are fiction.
if he is interested in animals i just started a book called – How the Zebra got its Stripes by Leo Grasset. It is a series of short chapters each of which explains why animals have particular characteristics. chapters include why giraffes have long necks, how dung beetles navigate, and the air conditioning inside termite mounds.
very readable, really interesting and a total of 141 smallish easy to read pages
He would love the true high-seas survival adventure “Kon Tiki” by Thor Heydrahl (sp).
James Patterson has a series of books for teens. Grandson loved them.
Nonfiction?
Number the Stars, out of the Dust, Night. I don’t know if it would scare him or not but Allen Zullo has a bunch of true haunted places stories and they don’t talk about the haunting too much but where the places are located and it’s history
A biography of someone in a field of interest for him?
The Minecraft: Essential Handbook Book by Stephanie Milton might be a good choice for him
There are a series of books called “horrible histories”, that I loved when I was younger. Maybe one from his favourite time period would interest him.
These are amazing. I’m 41 and still read them ?
Maybe something like “Into Thin Air”?
The radioactive Boy Scout. True story
What are your son’s interests? I’d say go with that, and then look for a non-fiction book at his level with that in mind; i.e., sports, etc.
There are loads of ideas on here. I used to work in a bookstore and saw dozens of parents agonizing over this, due to the child’s lack of interest. It’s his assignment, not yours. You can show him all these ideas and let him look them up to see a summary of books that catch his eye. You could take him to a bookstore or library with the names of some of these books and ask him to make a choice. You can’t do this for him.
I’m not choosing for him. I was just at a lost and thought of this wonderful group. I was right in this thinking as the ideas are wonderful. It will ultimately be his chose but I don’t see any harm in asking for ideas to start from.
Paulson has a short memoir (title escapes me), maybe something about what he’s interested in, sports, camping, music, etc.
If you haven’t found one yet, consider a QI:the book of general ignorance. It’s factual and hilariously written
Try the Capital Mystery series by Ron Roy; or Alvin Ho by Lenore Look—very funny and easy to read. Very confident it is over 100 pages.
Horrible science or horrible histories? X
He might like one of The I survived books
Told by a young boy they tell the story of a historical event
http://www.laurentarshis.com/i-survived
Horrible Histories is a great series and they are great for reluctant readers. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29421424-horrible-histories
Longitude by Dava Sobel. Really really interesting story of the search for a way to know where you were longitudinally. It took centuries. One idea involved “magic” powders and stabbing a dog on land and then the dog on the ship would bark/whine. It was finally solved by a man who made perfectly precise clocks. There is even an illustrated version of the book. I HIGHLY recommend it.
The young readers version of “Boys in the Boat” may be a good pick. I loved the original version.
Kingdom by the sea by Robert westall. My son loves it
Hunter s Thompson. He got me into reading as a teenager. Parental guidance advised.
Chasing Lincoln’s Killer is a high interest young adult nonfiction book. The author also has one about the assassination of JFK. Both are good!
Would a non-fiction graphic novel work? What about something like the Guinness Book of World Records or a Who was book? Go to your library with your son and let the librarian take you around and suggest some things
Rick geary
What about the “Who Was/What Was/Where is”series? They are nonfiction chapter books. The ones I have purchased for my classroom are written at about a 3rd or 4th grade level, but my Middle School students find them interesting.
http://www.whowasbookseries.com/who-was/
The Horrible Histories series by Terry Deary are very popular. They cover a wide range of historical periods so there are plenty to choose from.
http://www.readbrightly.com/nonfiction-books-kids-recommend/
Tomie De Paola is a children’s author and he has some autobiographies that are excellent and not too difficult.
“Relish: My Life In the Kitchen”, by Lucy Knisley. A coming-of-age memoir by a comic artist who grew up the daughter of a chef and a foodie.
Her books are great
Non fiction books for 7th grade:
<< https://imaginationsoup.net/nonfiction-books-for-12-year-olds/ >>