SJPL Picks: YA Historical NonfictionLike this list

34 items

• The Fight of Our Lives: AIDS in America

  Levithan, David

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  The AIDS crisis in America is complex and composed of countless individual stories of grief, love, and advocacy. Its history shows the power of youth activism, how creativity and community can be vehicles for social change, and how bigotry and…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Death in the Jungle

  Murder, Betrayal, and the Lost Dream of Jonestown

  Fleming, Candace,

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  Using riveting first-person accounts, award-winning author Candace Fleming reveals the makings of a monster: from Jones’s humble origins as a child of the Depression… to his founding of a group whose idealistic promises of equality and justice…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Swans of Harlem

  Five Black Ballerinas, a Legacy of Sisterhood, and Their Reclamation of a Groundbreaking History

  Valby, Karen,

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  At the peak of the civil rights movement, Lydia Abarca was the first ballerina in a Black ballet company to grace the cover of Dance magazine. Alongside founding members Shelia Rohan and Gayle McKinney-Griffith and first-generation dancers Karlya…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• White Lies

  How the South Lost the Civil War, Then Rewrote the History

  Bausum, Ann,

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  Warning: This is not your average U.S. history book. After the Civil War, the Confederates may have laid down their arms, but they were far from accepting defeat. By warping the narrative around what really happened during and after the Civil War,…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• A Most Perilous World

  the True Story of the Young Abolitionists and Their Crusade Against Slavery

  Gaddy, Kristina R.,

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  Flowers in the Gutter author Kristina R. Gaddy tells the story of America’s tumultuous years leading up to the Civil War and of the war itself from the viewpoints of four children of famous abolitionists, including those of Frederick Douglass and…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Lies My Teacher Told Me

  a Graphic Adaptation

  Loewen, James W.,

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  Graphic novel. Since its first publication in the 1990s, Lies My Teacher Told Me has become one of the most important and successful—and beloved—history books of our time. As the late Howard Zinn said, “Every teacher, every student of history, every…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Shift Happens

  the History of Labor in the United States

  Mann, J. Albert,

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  This eye-opening and engaging history of the worker actions that brought us weekends, pay equality, desegregation, an end to child labor and more documents how the labor movement has shaped America and how it intersects with many of the major issues…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Rising From the Ashes

  Los Angeles, 1992 : Edward Jae Song Lee, Latasha Harlins, Rodney King, and a City on Fire

  Yoo, Paula,

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  In the spring of 1992, after a jury returned not guilty verdicts in the trial of four police officers charged in the brutal beating of a Black man, Rodney King, Los Angeles was torn apart. Thousands of fires were set, causing more than a billion…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• An Outbreak of Witchcraft

  a Graphic Novel of the Salem Witch Trials

  Noyes, Deborah,

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  Graphic Novel. A gripping tale of paranoia at its worst, this bewitching narrative nonfiction graphic novel visually imagines the haunting details behind the Salem witch trials. From 1692 to 1693, fear reigned in the small village of Salem,…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• American Wings

  Chicago's Pioneering Black Aviators and the Race for Equality in the Sky

  Smith, Sherri L.,

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  A nonfiction account of a group of determined Black Americans who created a flying club and built their own airfield on Chicago's South Side in the period between World Wars I and II.

• Whose Right Is It?

  the Fourteenth Amendment and the Fight for Equality

  Bajramovic, Hana,

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  This important and timely investigation of the Fourteenth Amendment, born in the years after the Civil War, and the impact it's had — and continues to have — on our rights as citizens looks at three famous cases, separated by decades, that were…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Boy From Clearwater

  You, Peiyun, 1967-

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  Graphic Novel. Book 1 of 2. Part One: Taiwan, 1930s. Tsai Kun-lin, an ordinary boy born in Chingshui, recounts a carefree childhood despite the Japanese occupation: growing up happily with the company of nursery rhymes and picture books on Chingshui…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• America Redux

  Visual Stories From Our Dynamic History

  Aberg-Riger, Ariel,

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  America Redux explores the themes that create our shared sense of American identity and interrogates the myths we've been telling ourselves for centuries. With iconic American catchphrases as chapter titles, these twenty-one visual stories…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• 83 Days in Mariupol

  a War Diary

  Brown, Don, 1949-

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  Graphic Novel. Focusing on the siege of Mariupol (Feb '22 - May '22) and the brave people who stayed to defend their city against Russian forces as well as the resulting effects on global politics.

• Terrible Typhoid Mary

  a True Story of the Deadliest Cook in America

  Bartoletti, Susan Campbell,

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  With archival photographs and text, among other primary sources, this riveting biography looks beyond the tabloid scandal of Mary's controversial life. How she was treated by medical and legal officials reveals a lesser-known story of human and…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Brontës of Haworth Moor

  How the Three Daughters of a Country Parson Became the Most Revolutionary Novelists of Their Time

  Browning, Diane,

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  This fascinating work shares the intimate details of the Brontë sisters' lives and reveals how their imagination, creativity, and passion helped them achieve their childhood dreams of being published authors.

• Men of the 65th

  the Borinqueneers of the Korean War

  Aikens-Nunez, Talia,

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  Learn about Puerto Rico's 65th Regiment, one of the US Army's most decorated regiments. Author Talia Aikens-Nunez shares the history of these soldiers and the discrimination they faced as they served their country during the largest court martial of…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Women Who Built Hollywood

  12 Trailblazers in Front of and Behind the Camera

  Rubin, Susan Goldman,

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  In the early twentieth century, women from all walks of life fought against sexism and racism to succeed in Hollywood as actors, directors, costume designers, editors, and stunt women. From well-known, glamorous starlets like Mary Pickford and…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• American Murderer

  the Parasite That Haunted the South

  Jarrow, Gail,

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  Imagine microscopic worms living in the soil. They enter your body through your bare feet, travel to your intestines, and stay there for years sucking your blood like vampires. You feel exhausted. You get sick easily. It sounds like a nightmare, but…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Heroines, Rescuers, Rabbis, Spies

  Unsung Women of the Holocaust

  Swartz, Sarah Silberstein, 1947-

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  Discover nine ordinary women who took extraordinary measures to save lives during the Holocaust, resisting terror and torture while undercover or in hiding, in concentration camps, in forests, and in exile.