YALSA Award for Best YA Non Fiction
I guess I am a children’s book award junkie. I really love all shortlists for awards even more so than the actual award recipient. There is just something so exciting about a shortlist; anyone can be the winner. This genre, young adult nonfiction, is not what I am reading ahead of my eldest yet as she is just eleven, but I am excited to learn about this award and I’m pretty sure that it will fit the bill for one of my kids in the future.
I am particularly excited about the Native American book. There seem to be quite a few excellent books out lately both fiction (Joseph Bruchac’s Code Talker: A Novel about the Navajo Marines of World War Two) and nonfiction on the unsung heroes of WWII, the Choctaw Code Talkers. I sort of hope it wins but there are so many good ones to choose from! I guess that is what’s so great about a shortlist! This is a great list for middle school tween or teen boys, and girls too!
p.s. For more posts on Young Adult literature, please click here.
p.p.s. Thank you reader Youporn for this suggestion Chocktaw Code Talkers of WWII which is a website with some great information. I found two more books as well on this topic.
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The YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction honors the best nonfiction book published for young adults (ages 12-18) during a November 1 – October 31 publishing year. The award winner will be announced annually at the ALA Midwinter Meeting Youth Media Awards, with a shortlist of up to five titles named the first week of December. The award will be presented at ALA Annual Conference.
Janis Joplin: Rise Up Singing by Ann Angel
Janis Joplin, a true “fish out of water” in Port Arthur, TX, follows her own path to become an icon of American music in her short, tragic life.
They Called Themselves the KKK: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Bartoletti provides readers with an in-depth look at the formation of the KKK and its subsequent evolution into a violent organization. With primary source material, she details the horrific history of the Ku Klux Klan and the people who fell victim to its reign of terror.
Spies of Mississippi: The True Story of the Spy Network that Tried to Destroy the Civil Rights Movement by Rick Bowers
In 1958, the state of Mississippi began an undercover operation, The Sovereignty Commission, to spy on and potentially squelch the Civil Rights movement. Bowers’ expose of this unknown organization reveals the extent to which some were willing to go to see segregation remain the law of the state.
The Dark Game: True Spy Stories by Paul Janeczko
This compilation of different spies carries readers from the Revolutionary War through the infamous Cold War era. Delve into stories about the Choctaw Code Talkers of WWI, Soviet moles, Mata Hari, and more as you uncover just how they changed the course of history.
Every Bone Tells a Story: Hominin Discoveries, Deductions, and Debates by Jill Rubalcaba and Peter Robertshaw
Through fieldwork, laboratory analysis, and scientific debate, the bones of Turkana Boy, Lapede Child, Kennewick Man and Iceman are used to tell the fascinating stories of four member of the human family tree. Maps, photographs, and news headlines add to our understanding of archeology’s cutting edge science.
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Food for the Future: Sustainable Farms Around the World
- ⭐ Starred review from School Library Journal!
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- Imagination Soup’s 35 Best Nonfiction Books of 2023 for Kids
Amazon / Barefoot Books / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Amazon / Scholastic / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Delve into stories about the Choctaw Code Talkers of WWI, Soviet moles, Mata Hari and more as you uncover just how they changed the course of history.
To Youporn,
Thank you for this site on the Choctaw Code Talkers. It looks interesting and I’ll add the link to my post.