Middle Grade Nonfiction Narratives
Bomb: The Race to Build and Steal the World’s Most DangerousWeapon by Steve Sheinkin
In the midst of WWII, German scientists discover the
potential to unleash massive amounts of energy from a nuclear chain reaction
and the race is on to build the world’s most destructive weapon. Under the
strictest call for secrecy in a converted school in New Mexico, America’s best
physicists come together in a tireless effort to outwit the Germans and build
the first atomic bomb.
William lives in Africa where famine is common and education
is out of reach for most families. To satisfy his craving for information,
William spends his spare time reading science books at the local library. He
puts that knowledge to use and ends of building a windmill that brings
electricity to his family’s tiny thatch-roofed house and gains him
international fame.
Bethany Hamilton lives to surf. She’s one of the best young
surfers in the world when she is attacked by a shark and loses an arm. Instead
of giving up, she gets back on her board and fights her way back to the world
championships.
When the oppressive Taliban takes over Swat Valley, Pakistan
in 2009, one girl stands up for her right to an education. In retaliation, she
is shot in the head and nearly dies. She survives and her story goes global.
Inspirational story of one person taking a stand against the odds.
This is a telling of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 in
real-time, as it happens. It begins with the fire in the O’Leary barn and
describes its spread from the perspectives of witnesses who were there. The
suspense builds as the fire expands and hundreds of thousands of people are
forced to flee.
Ruby Bridges is an icon and witness to the early days of the
Civil Rights Movement. In 1960, when she is only 6 years old, she is escorted
by US marshalls into a newly desegregated elementary school. She is taunted and
subjected to humiliation as people throw eggs and rocks. Ruby Bridges herself
recounts those events from her perspective.
In 1914, Shackleton and his 27 crew members leave England on
an expedition to sail across Antarctica. Five months in, their ship becomes
locked in ice and eventually sinks. Realizing no hope for rescue, Shackleton
and 5 men set out in a life boat across 800 miles of open ocean to fetch a
rescue boat for the remaining crew.
Mark Pfetzer is 13 years old when he decides he wants to
climb Mt. Everest. It takes several years of training and practice on other
mountains before he finally attempts the tallest mountain in the world. He is
there in 1996 when the famous Everest blizzard claims the lives of eight men
and he has to turn back.
by Valerie McEnroe, The Chattering Librarian
by Valerie McEnroe, The Chattering Librarian
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