Introduction
Juvenile non-fiction books have evolved over the decades and now incorporate colorful pictures, engaging text, and informative graphs and diagrams. Whether you want to learn more about turtles or the history of rock music, there are some fantastic books in juvenile non-fiction to check out!
New and Notable Non-Fiction Books
All Rise: the Story of Ketanji Brown Jackson
Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court, is an inspiration and role model to children of all ages. Award-winning author Carole Boston Weatherford tells her story of perseverance, dignity, and honor in this uplifting picture book biography.
Concrete: from the Ground Up
A stylish, eye-opening, utterly engaging, and often wry look at one of the marvels of the material world, from the ground up. From a lowly mixture of stone, sand, water, and cement have sprung sidewalks, streets, and skyscrapers, sturdy lighthouses and magnificent palaces, long bridges and massive dams.
Strong
Rob dreams of becoming a champion strongman. He wants to flip huge tires, lug boulders, and haul trucks -- and someday be the strongest man in the world! But he feels like he can't fit in with his bright leggings, unicorn T-shirts, and rainbow-dyed hair. Will Rob find a way to step into his true self and be a champion?
The Universe in You
Jason Chin, winner of the Caldecott Medal for Watercress, dives into the microscopic building blocks of life in this companion to the award-winning Your Place in the Universe.
Award Winning Non-Fiction Children's Books
The Mona Lisa Vanishes: 2024 Sibert Winner
On a hot August day in Paris, just over a century ago, a desperate guard burst into the office of the director of the Louvre and shouted "The Mona Lisa, she's gone!" No one knew who was behind the heist. Travel back to an extraordinary period of revolutionary change: turn-of-the-century Paris. Discover the secret at the heart of the Mona Lisa--the most famous painting in the world should never have existed at all.
Seen and Unseen: 2023 Sibert Winner
This important work of nonfiction features powerful images of the Japanese American incarceration captured by three photographers--Dorothea Lange, Toyo Miyatake, and Ansel Adams--along with firsthand accounts of this grave moment in history.
The People's Painter: 2022 Sibert Medal Winner
"The first thing I can remember," Ben said, "I drew." As an observant child growing up in Lithuania, Ben Shahn yearns to draw everything he sees--and, after seeing his father banished by the Czar for demanding workers' rights, he develops a keen sense of justice, too. In this moving and timely portrait, author Cynthia Levinson and illustrator Evan Turk honor an artist, immigrant, and activist whose work still resonates today: a true painter for the people.
Honeybee: the busy life of Apis mellifera: 2021 Sibert Winner
Take to the sky with Apis, one honeybee, as she embarks on her journey through life! Starting as a tiny honeybee emergeing through the wax cap of her cell and finally taking to the air to fly, this book showcases the life of a honeybee with beauty and wonder.
Non-Fiction Book Awards
The Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal: awarded annually to the author(s) and illustrator(s) of the most distinguished informational book published in the United States in English during the preceding year.