Middle Grade Nonfiction

Our Middle Grade Nonfiction Collection features Study Guides on popular nonfiction titles tailored to adolescent readers. Featuring titles that range from historical accounts to autobiographies and memoirs, this diverse Collection showcases authors with the unique ability to relate real-world events to Middle Grade readers.

Publication year 2014Genre Novel/Book in Verse, NonfictionThemes Identity: Race, Values/Ideas: Justice & InjusticeTags Race / Racism, Narrative / Epic Poem, Auto/Biographical Fiction, Children's Literature

Brown Girl Dreaming (2014) is a memoir in verse by Jacqueline Woodson, a children’s and young adult fiction writer. Published by Nancy Paulsen Books, a division of the Penguin Group, the memoir won the National Book Award, the Newberry Honor Book Award, and the Coretta Scott King Award.Plot SummaryBrown Girl Dreaming covers Woodson’s childhood, detailing her family history and her beginnings as a writer. Woodson was born in Columbus, Ohio, on February 12, 1963, the... Read Brown Girl Dreaming Summary


Publication year 1980Genre Book, NonfictionThemes Natural World: Space & The Universe, Natural World: Environment, Natural World: Place, Emotions/Behavior: Determination / Perseverance, Emotions/Behavior: Hope, Values/Ideas: Science & Technology, Values/Ideas: Truth & Lies, Society: Education, Society: Globalization, Society: WarTags Science / Nature, History: World, Philosophy

Publication year 2010Genre Autobiography / Memoir, NonfictionThemes Society: Education, Emotions/Behavior: Shame & PrideTags Education, Children's Literature

Fatty Legs: A True Story is the 2010 autobiographical account of author Margaret-Olemaun Pokiak-Fenton’s childhood experience in one of Canada’s residential schools for Indigenous children in the 19th and 20th centuries. This study guide is based on the 10th anniversary edition, in which several supplemental chapters written by Pokiak-Fenton’s daughter-in-law explain the larger context of colonialism that created the residential school system. These residential schools represented an attempt to strip Indigenous students of their cultural... Read Fatty Legs Summary


Publication year 2018Genre Autobiography / Memoir, NonfictionThemes Relationships: FamilyTags Trauma / Abuse / Violence, Addiction / Substance Abuse

Hey, Kiddo: How I Lost My Mother, Found My Father, and Dealt with Family Addiction is a 2018 graphic memoir by Jarrett J. Krosoczka. A finalist for the National Book Award, it earned praise for its compassionate and honest portrayal of a child growing up in a family marked by addiction and abuse. This guide refers to the 2018 Graphix edition.Plot SummaryThe story traces Jarrett J. Krosoczka’s childhood and his family. Beginning and ending with... Read Hey, Kiddo Summary


Publication year 2005Genre Book, NonfictionThemes Relationships: FamilyTags Children's Literature, History: European

Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project is a work of creative nonfiction written by Jack Mayer and originally published in 2010. The book tells two overlapping stories. One is about Irena Sendler, a Polish social worker who helped save 2,500 Jewish children in Warsaw from the Nazis during World War II. The other is about three high school girls—Liz Cambers, Megan Stewart, and Sabrina Coons. In 1999, the girls, with the help of... Read Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Summary


Publication year 2016Genre Book, NonfictionTags Children's Literature, History: World

Written by Tod Olson and published in 2016, Lost in the Pacific, 1942 is a fictionalized account of the true story of soldiers lost at sea during World War II. The text begins with a Prologue describing a plane crash that strands the soldiers in the Pacific Ocean. The B-17 transport plane’s pilot, Captain Bill Cherry, plans to land at Canton Island to refuel. However, due to a faulty navigational antenna and a problem with... Read Lost in the Pacific 1942 Summary


Publication year 1998Genre Biography, NonfictionThemes Values/Ideas: Safety & Danger, Natural World: Place, Relationships: TeamsTags Action / Adventure, Inspirational, History: World

Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: The Extraordinary True Story of Shackleton and the Endurance by American author Jennifer Armstrong is a work of narrative non-fiction that tells the story of the survival of explorer Ernest Henry Shackleton and the crew of the ship Endurance after they were shipwrecked in the Antarctic Circle. Published in 1998, the book was the winner of the Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction and was also named an... Read Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World Summary


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Raina Telgemeier
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Publication year 2010Genre Graphic Novel/Book, FictionThemes Emotions/Behavior: Shame & Pride, Life/Time: Childhood & Youth

Smile by Raina Telgemeier is an autobiographical graphic novel and the winner of the 2011 Eisner Award for Best Publication for Teens. It originated as a weekly webcomic in 2004 before Telgemeier expanded it into a book in 2010. Telgemeier is the writer and illustrator, while Stephanie Yue is the colorist. Smile is a coming-of-age tale, set in a San Francisco suburb from 1989 to 1992, in which Telgemeier struggles with preteen life after losing... Read Smile Summary


Publication year 2020Genre Book, NonfictionThemes Identity: Race, Values/Ideas: Justice & InjusticeTags Black Lives Matter, Civil Rights / Jim Crow, Race / Racism

Jason Reynolds’s Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You (2020) is a nonfiction book by the American authors Jason Reynolds and Dr. Ibram X. Kendi. It is a self-described “remix” of Kendi’s 2016 National Book Award winner Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America. An award-winning writer of young adult fiction and poetry, Reynolds frames America’s history of racist ideas for an audience of middle school and high school readers. Reynolds’s remix... Read Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You Summary


Publication year 2008Genre Autobiography / Memoir, NonfictionThemes Life/Time: Childhood & YouthTags Military / War, Children's Literature

Eleven-year-old Mariatu lives in a small village in Sierra Leone. There are growing reports of rebels attacking villagers nearby but, for over a year, the villagers avoid attack by hiding in the bush.One night, Mariatu dreams of palm oil—a sign that blood will be spilled the next day. Sure enough, the following day, Mariatu is captured by rebel soldiers. She prays for death but instead has her hands cut from her body by child soldiers... Read The Bite of the Mango Summary


Publication year 2013Genre Autobiography / Memoir, NonfictionThemes Values/Ideas: Loyalty & BetrayalTags Children's Literature, History: European

Leon Leyson’s The Boy on the Wooden Box (2013) is a memoir for young readers about the author’s experiences as a survivor of the Holocaust. Leyson was one of the youngest persons on the famous list of Jews that businessman Oskar Schindler employed in his ammunition factory in Poland, thus saving them from execution. The book’s title comes from the fact that Leon, being small of stature, must stand on a wooden box to operate... Read The Boy On The Wooden Box Summary


Publication year 1986Genre Autobiography / Memoir, NonfictionThemes Emotions/Behavior: Memory, Relationships: MothersTags Children's Literature, History: World

The Cage is the 1986 memoir of Ruth Minsky Sender, nee Riva Minska, detailing her family’s struggle to survive the Holocaust. Born in Lodz, Poland, Riva inhabits a close-knit community that integrates both Jews and non-Jews through shared traditions and intergenerational spaces. When Hitler’s Nazis invade Poland, thirteen-year-old Riva watches this peace crumble, as non-Jewish friends accept her family’s persecution and as Jews themselves adopt positions of power that hurt others in the community.After Riva’s... Read The Cage Summary


Publication year 1996Genre Book, NonfictionThemes Values/Ideas: Truth & Lies, Values/Ideas: Trust & Doubt, Values/Ideas: Science & Technology, Values/Ideas: Religion & Spirituality, Society: Education, Society: Nation, Natural World: Space & The Universe, Natural World: Appearance & RealityTags Science / Nature, Education, Religion / Spirituality

Publication year 2014Genre Book, NonfictionTags History: European

First published in 2014, Candance Fleming’s The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion and the Fall of Imperial Russia is a young-adult nonfiction book detailing the last generation of Romanovs to rule Russia from 1894 to 1917, and the fall of Russia’s autocracy through the Russian Revolution. The Family Romanov won both the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Young Adult Literature and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for nonfiction. In The Family Romanov, Fleming combines her nonfiction... Read The Family Romanov Summary


Publication year 1985Genre Short Story Collection, FictionThemes Values/Ideas: Equality, Emotions/Behavior: Conflict, Emotions/Behavior: courage, Emotions/Behavior: Fear, Emotions/Behavior: Determination / Perseverance, Emotions/Behavior: Grief, Emotions/Behavior: Hate & Anger, Emotions/Behavior: Hope, Emotions/Behavior: Joy, Emotions/Behavior: Guilt, Emotions/Behavior: Revenge, Emotions/Behavior: Memory, Life/Time: Mortality & Death, Natural World: Animals, Natural World: Environment, Natural World: Appearance & Reality, Natural World: Food, Values/Ideas: Good & Evil, Values/Ideas: Justice & Injustice, Values/Ideas: Loyalty & Betrayal, Values/Ideas: Order & Chaos, Values/Ideas: Power & Greed, Values/Ideas: Religion & Spirituality, Values/Ideas: Safety & Danger, Values/Ideas: Truth & Lies, Values/Ideas: Trust & Doubt, Values/Ideas: Fate, Identity: Race, Identity: Language, Emotions/Behavior: Regret, Emotions/Behavior: Shame & Pride, Relationships: Daughters & Sons, Relationships: Mothers, Relationships: TeamsTags Fairy Tale / Folklore, Allegory / Fable / Parable, History: U.S., African American Literature, Race / Racism

Publication year 1999Genre Biography, NonfictionThemes Emotions/Behavior: Fear, Emotions/Behavior: Hate & Anger, Values/Ideas: Equality, Values/Ideas: Justice & Injustice, Values/Ideas: Safety & Danger, Values/Ideas: Truth & LiesTags Civil Rights / Jim Crow, History: U.S., Trauma / Abuse / Violence, Race / Racism, Bullying, Black Lives Matter, Education

Through My Eyes is the autobiography of Ruby Bridges. In 1960, Bridges became the first African American child to integrate an elementary school in New Orleans, Louisiana following a court mandate for the state to desegregate its public school system. Louisiana trailed segregation effort in neighboring states, such as the nine Black high school students known as the “Little Rock Nine” who integrated a high school in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957.Bridges’s autobiography, published in... Read Through My Eyes Summary


Publication year 2018Genre Autobiography / Memoir, NonfictionThemes Society: Immigration, Society: War, Society: Community, Values/Ideas: Safety & Danger, Identity: Femininity, Society: Politics & Government, Relationships: Family, Society: Education, Identity: Gender, Emotions/Behavior: Fear, Emotions/Behavior: Grief, Emotions/Behavior: Memory, Emotions/Behavior: Determination / Perseverance, Emotions/Behavior: ConflictTags Politics / Government, Social Justice, History: World, Immigration / Refugee, Gender / Feminism, Education