best nonfiction essays for high school students

12 Nonfiction Literature Must Reads in the High School English Classroom

Jun 20, 2023

English teachers love a good work of fiction; we find many ways to include such works in our classrooms. Where we might need a bit more guidance or support is with the inclusion of more nonfiction literature in our lessons.

With nonfiction, students can use many of the same skills they do with fiction, but nonfiction lit offers some additional options and benefits. 

Through its focus on historical or current events, nonfiction literature provides background knowledge that will be useful as students continue in school and beyond. It also provides opportunities for critical thinking and connection-making between texts.

Finally, nonfiction literature teaches students about the ‘real world’ that can widen their understanding and point of view! 

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Table of Contents

Nonfiction Literature Definition

Nonfiction includes any text based on facts and real events about real people while fiction tells made-up stories even though it might adapt or adopt elements from real life. 

Types of nonfiction text stretch far and wide! From biographies, memoirs, or personal essays to textbooks for science, history, and geography, to any true account of current or historical events in newspapers or diaries, through to letters, reviews, and advertisements. 

Want help with teaching poetry in April?  Check out “Making the most of National Poetry Month!”

12 Nonfiction Literature Examples 

1. speeches  .

Focusing on the spoken word and referencing written forms, speeches fit into the realm of nonfiction literature. A good speech shares a person’s point; a great speech does that but with flair using rhetorical devices and figurative language to engage the audience! Teaching different speeches is important because speeches teach a lesson in getting an audience to care about a subject. Speeches additionally provide a closer look at rhetorical and figurative language in action.

• Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t a Woman” – Delivered in 1851 at the Women’s Rights Convention in Ohio, this speech focused on equality for race and gender. As an abolitionist and women’s rights activist, Truth’s speech is a must-read with your students! Begin your study of the speech with this series of quiz questions focused on comprehension using Common Core standards-aligned questions .
• “Declaration of Sentiments”- This 1848 speech from the first women’s rights convention is so named for its similarities to the US Declaration of Independence. This speech is a great one because it focuses on examining the author’s purpose of rhetorical devices like repetition, imagery, parallelism, historical allusion, and religious allusion. Grab this ready-made resource to examine all of these aspects!

2. TED Talks ™

Extend from historic speeches to more current incarnations with TED Talks™. They offer dynamic and diverse topics and speakers. At Ted.com you can search based on topic, duration, and popularity or check out what is trending based on months of significance or current events. What an easy way to include more Nonfiction Literature!

3. Essays/Research Papers

Secondary sources such as essays and research papers take a deeper dive into a subject and usually do so with a more narrowed focus. One option is to search Google Scholar for scholarly publications relevant to a topic you’re studying in class. Google Scholar includes a wide variety of disciplines and you can usually find a PDF version of the source ready to download.

4. Narratives  

Nonfiction literature narratives include memoirs, personal essays, and literary journalism. The stories told remain grounded in facts but include more literary elements to tell a gripping story. 

Here are some nonfiction literature narrative ideas with contemporary and/or historical elements: 

• “Hardware” by Kristin Menke – This personal essay is about a father who owned a hardware store and some of the people and situations he encountered; it is told from the perspective of the subject’s daughter. This original nonfiction narrative is an ideal jumping-off point for examining content and style. Check out this digital and printable resource with a detailed lesson plan, a variety of reading activities, and a full answer key .  
• Other narratives like Mark Twain’s semi-autobiographical travel narrative “Roughing It” work as a way to examine different genres. Such narratives are also good for lessons focused on skill development such as inference skills, summarizing, or citing evidence like in this no-prep lesson . 
• Jack London’s “The Road” is an autobiographical narrative about the author’s experiences as a wanderer at the end of the 19th century. Like Twain’s text, this one also works for a skill development lesson, this time with a focus on the author’s purpose using an excerpt from this narrative . 

5. Autobiographies and Biographies  

Accounts of others’ lives written by a third party in the case of biographies or by the subject (him/herself) in the case of autobiographies offer unparalleled insight into notable topics and time periods. Peeking into others people’s lives is not only exciting but highly informative since these texts offer a closer look into a person or moment.

If you want to integrate some science and history in your ELA class, consider an excerpt about Isaac Newton. Gaining insight into the mathematician and physicist renowned for discovering gravity is sure to pique students’ curiosity and provides a cross-curricular connection, too. Use this lesson with a biographical feature of Newton that digs deeper into the structure of such texts .  

6. Satire as Nonfiction Literature

The ultimate goal of satire is commentary that is either light-hearted or scathing in order to evoke a change of some sort. Exploring the rhetorical language used in such texts gives students a chance to see how authors play with language to great effect.

Here are 2 prime examples of similar satire: 

• A Modest Proposal is Jonathan Swift’s (in)famous satirical political pamphlet with a far-fetched solution to famine that is always a hit with students. Check out this rhetorical analysis and reading activities bundle that teachers say is comprehensive and easy to use ! 
• “Sending Grandma to the Ovens” by Colin Cohen is similar in structure, purpose, and topic to Swift’s piece but just as easily stands on its own. This lesson pack includes standards-based activities, graphic orga nizers, essay prompts, and everything else you need to teach rhetorical analysis, so your students can write with confidence!  

7. Paired Passages  

There is an art to using paired passages because you don’t want anything too obvious or too obscure. The goal is to have students ruminate on shared ideas so you want to ensure students can make those connections. Grouping like-texts together is vital because it provides a richer and more engaging learning experience!

For example, the following texts share a theme of fighting to defend the country but are dissimilar in time periods:

• FDR’s “Day of Infamy” speech delivered the day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 is a major speech in the history of our country as part of the declaration of WWII. Get students to read and analyze the speech with this FREE lesson . 
• Then pair FDR’s speech with Patrick Henry’s “Give Me Liberty” speech from a decidedly different time but with a similar message. Compare the use of rhetorical appeals to the audience in each speech. Prep students for this analysis with a series of activities focused on Henry’s speech in this lesson pack . 

8. Historical Passages  

First-person accounts of historical events provide a window into the past. Unlike biographies or autobiographies, historical passages are often less edited and therefore can provide a better sense of the time. For example, this lesson pack focuses on citing evidence from a passage about the Oregon Trail from Ezra Meeker’s accounts of his travels from Iowa to the Pacific Coast. 

9. Important Documents  

As the name implies, these nonfiction literature documents are important to the establishment of government, political thinking, and more that reverberate through history up to our current day. 

In the United States of America, teaching “The Declaration of Independence” is obviously vital. Students have likely encountered it in other courses so use this familiarity to dig deeper into rhetorical analysis. And make your life easier with this lesson pack that includes everything to teach step-by-step from the reading of the text all the way to the final essay .

10.  Sermons/Religious Texts  

These types of nonfiction literature texts, like so many of those listed, provide insight into another facet of history. Consider sermons as another genre through which you can analyze rhetoric, structure, and connections to the overarching topic of religion.   

One foundational American Literature text is this classic religious text. “Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards is an early American sermon awash in rhetoric. Make teaching this nonfiction text stress free with this series of lessons all about Edwards’ historic sermon . 

11. News Articles  

With a wide variety of digital publications from around the world, news articles are another must-read for high school English. It’s important to know about our world through past and current events because they inform so much of our day-to-day lives. Therefore, make sure to include local, national, and international news sources. News articles are another chance to teach about the realities of different forms of media, a perfect addition to a nonfiction literature unit. 

12. Podcasts   a Different Type of Nonfiction Literature

Harkening back to the long-gone days of radio, podcasts have made a big comeback in the last decade. And the best part of this comeback is the variety that is available to use in high school English. Whether your students are into science, crime, love stories, current events, politics, or music, you name it and there’s a podcast to fit their interests. With a focus on oral communication, nonfiction literature podcasts provide a different form through which students can complete analysis activities and hone their skills for summary, author’s purpose, and just about everything else! 

Need help with teaching poetry?  Check out “7 Must Teach Middle School Poetry Activities!”

Why Teach Nonfiction Literature?

Two favorite podcasts include This is Love and Criminal by the same creative team and they are perfect for including more nonfiction literature in your classroom. Episodes in each series are a little off-beat from their key focus on love and crimes. For example, Episode 20 from This is Love tells the story of a man and his guide dog on 9/11. For Criminal , there are stories about witness protection, someone who habitually steals a community statue, police dogs and horses, and more. They are intriguing, relatively short (usually 30 minutes and often less), and just quirky enough to hook students!

Including nonfiction literature in any number of forms is important for student growth. And reading and analyzing different types of nonfiction at all levels of high school creates a framework for growth in background knowledge, comprehension, and skill development. 

But incorporating nonfiction texts into high school English classes can seem daunting. Just look at the list of options in this post! However, look at what you currently have as part of your lesson plans and consider where you could add a complementary nonfiction text. If you’re teaching a classic novel, incorporate an excerpt from an author’s biography or think about the big ideas of the novel and find some news articles, a Ted talk, or a speech (historical or contemporary) that can work. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel or suddenly create a whole new unit. Instead, focus on small steps to get more nonfiction literature into your students’ hands.

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Engaging Nonfiction for High School Readers

Let’s face it….

Let’s face it: Nonfiction isn’t most readers’ favorite genre. Heck, I’ll admit it! I appreciate nonfiction as much as the next ELA teacher, but when it’s time to pick my next book to devour while I sip hot cocoa in a cozy blanket, I’m probably reaching for fiction. It’s not that I don’t like nonfiction; it’s just that fiction feels easier. Easier to find, easier to read, and easier to love. Sure, there are some incredible nonfiction texts out there, but there’s nothing like plunging head-first into a dystopian world and escaping reality. So it should come as no surprise that our high school students are hesistant to approach the nonfiction section of our classroom libraries.

These shelves don’t get nearly enough love because our students are even more intimidated by nonfiction. While that’s perfectly normal, it just means that we have a little bit of extra work to do to reel our high school readers in when it comes to nonfiction.

Just like I have to work a little harder to keep a healthy dose of nonfiction in my personal reading diet, I, too, have learned that I have to work a little harder to get my students hooked on nonfiction. It’s more work, but it’s worth it! Whether it’s through Book Trailer Tuesday , First Chapter Friday , our “Bookflix” display, my book recommendation brochures , or the titles I line up on my whiteboard, I’m always “advertising” nonfiction. If students aren’t going to approach the nonfiction shelves themselves, then I’m going to bring the shelves to them.

THE GOOD NEWS…

The good news is that there are plenty of incredible nonfiction texts to recommend to your students! And with the right high-interest texts and enough “advertising,” it’s easy to trick even the most reluctant of readers into finding a nonfiction book they love. To get you started, here are 10 of my favorite high school nonfiction books to recommend to your students (Pssst…if you’re looking for middle school recs, you can find them HERE .)

The Borden Murders by Sarah Miller

If you have true crime fans in your classroom, this book is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser. The Borden Murders is the fascinating story of one of the most infamous murders in all of American history. Well-researched with lots of primary sources, it’s the book equivalent to a maddening unsolved mystery show/podcast that leaves you wondering “whodunnit.” This is another example of “clean” YA that can work for middle school, too. (Well, as clean as murder in cold blood can get, but still).

The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater

This masterfully written book explores one fateful bus ride that changed the lives of two teens forever. Through alternating perspectives, texts, letters, and other media, Slater tells the story of how 17-year-old Sasha’s skirt was set on fire as a reckless “prank”-turned hate crime in Oakland, CA in 2013. The book explores gender, poverty, racism, and more, making it a great text for powerful discussions in the classroom.

Call Me American (YA Adaptation) by Abdi Nor Iftin

This young adult adaptation of a story you may have first heard on This American Life , Call Me American is a moving memoir of a young Somalian refugee who grew up dreaming of America while war threatened his everyday survival. Fast-paced and accessible, Abdi Nor Iftin’s memoir is inspiring and informative for teen readers (even mature middle schoolers).

They Called Us Enemy by George Takei

This recommendation goes out to all of the graphic novel fans sitting in your classroom! This powerful graphic memoir gives readers a glimpse into Star Trek actor George Takei’s life growing up in WWII internment camps. They Called Us Enemy is incredibly eye-opening because it gives readers the chance to witness injustice from the eyes of a child. This is nonfiction your high school readers won’t forget!

The Far Away Brothers (YA Adaptation) by Lauren Markham

Similar to Enrique’s Journey (another fabulous nonfiction read), this is the incredible true story of two identical twins who fled for the US when their home of El Salvador became too dangerous for them to stay. The Flores twins’ story sheds new light on the reality of immigration and puts two human faces to the policies, stories, and debates your teen readers have likely seen in the news. This is one of those empathy-building books you need in your classroom library!

Every Falling Star by Sungju Lee & Susan Elizabeth McClelland

If you want to recommend nonfiction that feels like fiction straight from a dystopia, then this is your book. Every Falling Star is the unbelievable account of Sungju Lee’s life as a “street boy” in North Korea and his eventual escape from the country. Your high school readers will not be able to put this one down!

March series by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, & Nate Powell

March is another great option for graphic novel fans, reluctant readers, or anyone looking to learn more about Senator Lewis and the Civil Rights movement. Told in black and white illustrations across three books, this story brings history alive for readers in a powerful way! These graphic memoirs are a must-have for any classroom library, whether it’s middle or high school!

It’s Trevor Noah: Born A Crime (YA Adaptation) by Trevor Noah

For nonfiction with a healthy side of humor, I highly recommend Trevor Noah’s entertaining, informative, and powerful memoir of growing up during Apartheid in South Africa. The child of a black mother and a white father, he’s quite literally “born a crime.” Still, he manages to tell his story with a satisfying, sincere mix of painful scenes, hilarious moments, and earnest reflection. This book appeals to a wide range of readers, so you’ll find it on my middle school nonfiction list , too.

How Dare The Sun Rise by Sandra Uwiringiyimana & Abigail Pesta

This gripping, inspiring memoir is the incredible story of Sandra Uwiringiyimana, a  “war child” who survived a brutal refugee camp massacre in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In it, Sandra recounts not only her survival story, but reflects on the trauma, grief, and racism she faced after moving to the United States. But perhaps the best part is what she turned all of that into: resilience, hope, and activism. In addition to being a great addition to any high school classroom library, this book is a great option for mature middle school readers. 

Unbroken: An Olympian’s Journey from Airman to Castaway to Captive (YA Adaptation) by Laura Hillenbrand

Want something to recommend to the survival/war story-obsessed readers in your classroom? The inspiring survival story of Olympian runner and WWII airman Louie Zamperini is sure to captivate these readers. This biography is a bit longer than some of the other texts on this list, but its thrilling narratives, photos, and perfectly-paced chapters will keep readers engaged. Your readers will be happy to know that there’s a movie, too: the perfect incentive for finishing a good book!

I hope these high school nonfiction books help your students learn to love a healthy dose of nonfiction in their reading diet! These are just a few of my favorites, but there are plenty of other high-interest biographies, memoirs, and other nonfiction texts available for your readers. In fact, many of the middle school nonfiction recommendations listed HERE would work for high school, too. If I’ve missed one of you or your students’ favorites, let me know in the comments. I love discovering new books and adding more to my tried-and-true reading recommendation toolbox.

WANT MORE BOOK RECS?

If you like these recommendations, then you’ll love my book recommendation brochures. The high school bundle is currently in progress and will be available soon, but you can check out the middle school collection in the meantime. Each brochure includes an interactive reader personality quiz that automatically gives students personalized book recs based on their interests. In fact, all of the above books (and dozens more) are featured in the different genre brochures.

These high school book brochures are the perfect way to take your book advertising to the next level! You can check out the growing collection of different genre brochures HERE. It’s a magical, self-sustaining system that will help your students answer the question, “What do I read next?” With over 250 book recs within the brochures, your students will never run out of books to read!

WANT MORE IDEAS TO HELP YOUR STUDENTS FALL IN LOVE WITH READING?

Want more ideas to help your students fall in love with reading? Check out the following blog posts:

• Engaging Nonfiction Books for Middle School Readers
• 5 Ways to Help Your Students Fall in Love with Reading
• Book Trailer Tuesday: How to hook students on books in 3 minutes!
• Book Recommendation Brochures: FAQ
• 15 Ways to Use Book Recommendation Brochures
• 10 Reasons to Try First Chapter Friday
• First Chapter Friday: Frequently Asked Questions
• 15 Tips & Tricks for First Chapter Friday
• First Chapter Friday: Middle School Book List
• First Chapter Friday: Middle School Book List PART 2

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An Essential Nonfiction Reading List for High School and Beyond

Recently, we took in a fascinating article entitled “ What Should Children Read? ” over at the Times ‘ Opinionator. In it, Sara Mosle briefly outlines elements of the new Common Core State Standards , contentious national curriculum guidelines which will begin to be implemented in public schools in 2014, and takes a look at some of the arguments over the new standards, suggesting that part of the problem is that high school English curriculums are often lacking in good narrative nonfiction that appeals to teenagers. Inspired by this question of what high school kids should be reading, we’ve put together an essential reading list of narrative nonfiction and memoir, from the canonic to the contemporary, that we think would benefit anyone under (and let’s face it, over) the age of 18. Click through to see our picks, and since every high schooler, past or present, should read way more than ten nonfiction books in their lives, be sure to add your own favorites to our list in the comments.

Maus I & II , Art Spiegelman

You can keep your Anne Frank s and your Night s — while those are excellent and canonical Holocaust texts, nothing brought the horror to life for us as teenagers better than Spiegelman’s postmodern graphic novel, which was, rather appropriately, the first graphic novel ever to win a Pulitzer prize. Part of the story’s power is that it isn’t limited to Nazi aggression and World War II, but focuses on the way families relate, Spiegelman’s relationship with his father in particular, showing trauma on both a minor and maximalist scale.

The Devil in the White City , Erik Larson

Want kids to pay attention to lessons about the turn of the century and the 1893 World’s Fair? Throw a serial killer in there — and don’t worry, he was there already. Larson’s acclaimed and highly novelistic book follows the lives of Daniel H. Burnham, the fair’s architect, and H.H. Holmes, the serial killer who used it as his playground, with special appearances from folks like Susan B. Anthony and Thomas Edison. In our experience, it is un-put-downable.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings , Maya Angelou

This is already a classic work of nonfiction in high school classrooms, so we thought we’d just reinforce the idea here — everyone should read Angelou’s beautiful, heartbreaking coming of age story, whether you need a little push towards self-actualization and inner strength (as teenagers often do) or not.

Into the Wild , Jon Krakauer

This book may have slightly less impact on those not living in snowy climes themselves, but we recommend it anyway. Krakauer is a master of the general interest narrative nonfiction style, and this book is our favorite of his oeuvre, following the story of Chris McCandless as he abandoned everything he knew to hike in Alaska, surviving on almost nothing for months until he finally succumbed to the winter. This book has a special quality for teenagers — or at least it did for us when we were among them — dealing as it does with the urge for separation from society, independence, and the fearsome capabilities of a young person on a mission.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X , Malcolm X

An incredibly important part of American history, one of the most classic American autobiographies of all time, and a fascinating and gripping story to boot, this 1965 book still holds up today. Though the book may not have the same effect on contemporary teenagers as it did on young readers in the ’60s with demonstrations on their minds, it is still a powerful story of change and strength that will help any American understand their country’s legacy.

Persepolis , Marjane Satrapi

Yes, another graphic memoir — but can you blame us? Satrapi’s memoir/bildungsroman of growing up as a young girl during the Islamic Revolution and the Iran-Iraq war is luminous, inspiring, and perfect for any teenager disinclined to hide their band t-shirts from their teachers. Which, as far as we can tell, is just about all teenagers.

A Room of One’s Own , Virginia Woolf

Woolf’s famous and oft-referenced extended essay, originally published in 1929, should still be required reading today, considering how the arguments over “women’s fiction” and the attention given to female writers versus their male counterparts rage on. But even if that were not the case, student could read this as a source text for learning about feminism, or read it simply for its beauty.

Slouching Towards Bethlehem , Joan Didion

Didion’s first collection of non-fiction, published back in 1968, is still one of our favorites, filled as it is with smart reportage mixed with the skeptical, open-eyed musings and incisive criticism that have made her one of the most important writers of all time. Of particular interest to California kids and the children of ex-hippies, we would imagine, but essential for everyone.

Friday Night Lights , H.G. Bissinger

How do you get today’s TV-addicted, bored young men to read narrative nonfiction? Give them the excellent book that spawned their favorite football-based television show, which follows the Permian Panthers of Odessa as they carry an entire town on their backs. Written by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bissinger after spending a year in 1988 in Permian, the view isn’t always pretty, but it is truly fascinating, in all its dusty glory and anti-glory.

The Whole Shebang , Timothy Ferris

They don’t call Timothy Ferris “the greatest science writer in the world” for nothing. This volume, cheekily subtitled “A State of the Universe(s) Report,” seeks to answer some of the unanswerable questions, explaining the many views of the universe — its structure, its shape, its basic geometry — in lucid, welcoming prose. Science nerds and curious teenage stargazers alike will likely fall under its spell.

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Non-Fiction Books for Teens

Today’s teenagers are a generation of compassionate, inclusive young people who care about the environment and their communities. They are enthusiastic about exploring the historical events that have impacted the present and the future and are motivated to contribute positively to society. Teenagers are pretty incredible, so here are 20 of the best new nonfiction titles that our future leaders will love.

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20 Fantastic Nonfiction Books for Teens

Here are 20 incredible nonfiction books teens love:

For the Budding Historian

Teens will find these narrative nonfiction books intriguing, action-packed, and full of lessons that are relevant today. 

Mr. Lincoln Sits for His Portrait: The Story of a Photograph That Became an American Icon

This short biography presents Abraham Lincoln in a unique light: as the country’s first media-savvy president. President Lincoln loved inventions, including the camera–he sat for over 100 portraits in his relatively short life. The book focuses on the iconic portraits taken on the afternoon of February 9, 1965, and how those photographs became deeply ingrained in U.S. history—one of the portraits from that day became the image on the penny; another depicts Lincoln and his son Tad. Teens interested in photography will be especially drawn to the historic pictures on almost every page. 

Doomed: Sacco, Vanzetti & the End of the American Dream

Doomed is the powerful story of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two Italian immigrants wrongfully executed for murder in 1927. The Red Scare gripped America, and the country was rife with prejudice toward immigrants. When two men were robbed and murdered on a Massachusets street, Sacco and Vanzetti were quickly accused. In a trial that relied on flimsy evidence and eyewitness accounts that were later recanted, the men were convicted and sentenced to death, sparking outrage and mass protest. Letters written by Sacco and Bartolemo humanize them and draw readers closer to the story. A compelling examination of how bias can corrupt the justice system; teens will find this book impossible to put down. 

The Mona Lisa Vanishes: A Legendary Painter, a Shocking Heist, and the Birth of a Global Celebrity

This narrative nonfiction book follows the Mona Lisa’s creation and, centuries later, the theft and recovery that made this previously insignificant painting the most famous artwork in the world. In alternating sections, readers learn about Leonardo DiVinci’s interesting life and the 1911 theft, which is full of conspiracy theories and well-known suspects, including J.P. Morgan and Pablo Picasso. The author highlights how the public has always been drawn to scandal, even when the truth is evident. After all, he says, “We’re all suckers for a better story.” A truly enjoyable read for any young teenager. 

For the Teen Sports Fan

After reading these books, young athletes and sports fans will be inspired to pursue their version of greatness. 

The Race of the Century: The Battle to Break the Four-Minute Mile

In the first half of the 20th century, it was widely believed that running a four-minute mile was impossible. However, after having disappointing finishes in the 1952 Olympics, three runners dedicated themselves to breaking that barrier: Roger Bannister from Britain, John Landy from Australia, and Wes Santee from America. Which athlete would break the four-minute marker first? This YA adaptation of The Perfect Mile combines running history with fast-paced action, making for an inspiring read for any teenager interested in sports. 

So You Want to Work in Sports: Advice and Insights from Respected Sports Industry Leaders

This comprehensive guide is an excellent resource for older teens who want to work in the competitive sports industry. Leaders in sports broadcasting, writing, photography, marketing, scouting, analytics, and more share how they got started and offer unique insights about working in their field. Readers learn how team photographers capture memorable shots, how team owners become great leaders, how sports agents negotiate, and how reporters deal with interviewing emotional athletes. Ideal for high school students, the guide is full of practical and actionable advice for launching a career in sports.  

Trust the Grind: How World-Class Athletes Got to the Top

Trust the Grind is an inspiring book for teenage athletes who want to understand how the best athletes achieve success. The author interviews professional athletes across eleven sports, including basketball, golf, football, and hockey, and examines the habits and practices that helped these athletes reach the top. While most interviews are with male athletes, the profiles of Olympic bronze medalist Deena Kastor and mixed martial artist Paige VanZant are some of the best in the book.

Thoughtful Books About Race, Society, and Culture

From movies and media to Indigenous cultures and the unique challenges of first-generation students, these books explore important social topics.  

Everything You Wanted To Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask: Young Readers Edition

This insightful book from Ojibwe author and professor Anton Treuer explores the often misunderstood aspects of Native American culture in an engaging, encouraging, and conversational Q&A style. The book covers various topics, from terminology and tribal history to social activism and spirituality. The author doesn’t hesitate to remind readers that his opinion does not reflect the views of an entire nation, but his responses to even the most offensive questions–such as “Why do Indians have so many kids?”– are thoughtful and well-researched. This book is an essential nonfiction choice for any teenage reader.

Share Better, Stress Less: A Guide to Thinking Ecologically about Social Media

Most teenagers know that pollution significantly damages the environment, but what about information pollution in our virtual environments? This book urges readers to consider how misinformation harms individuals and society, using ecological metaphors to help teens reflect on their online world. By thinking ecologically, readers better understand the connections between technology, networks, and themselves. The book demonstrates this by examining the experiences of teenagers who have dealt with stressors and controversies that come with sharing on social media. This book is invaluable for teenagers who want to make decisions that create healthier online environments.

Rising Class: How Three First-Generation College Students Conquered Their First Year

Rising Class is a narrative nonfiction book that chronicles the experiences of three first-generation college students during their freshman year, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Although Briani, Conner, and Jacklynn navigate different college experiences, they all deal with the evergreen challenges of making friends and dealing with academic pressures. However, as first-generation students, they confront additional challenges, including imposter syndrome and family pressures. Rising Class also highlights the resource disparities often present between first-year students and their more privileged classmates. The book beautifully captures the students’ emotions during a turbulent year and ends on a hopeful note.

The Movie Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained

The Movie Book is the latest in DK’s Big Ideas Simply Explained , an award-winning series that explores complex topics in easily understandable ways. With engaging text and graphics, this visual guide is an introduction to the fascinating history of cinema, showcasing 100 of the best films ever made – from timeless classics to modern sci-fi. The book includes biographies of actors and actresses, narrative timelines, and famous quotes. Teen movie buffs can explore their favorite films visually through mind, diagrams, and posters. The Movie Book is a perfect addition to any coffee table and makes a great gift.

How To Guides

Teenagers want to feel independent from the adults in their lives. Whether they want to build apps, write books, or learn to be fiscally responsible, these books will help them get started. 

Become an App Inventor: The Official Guide from MIT App Inventor: Your Guide to Designing, Building, and Sharing Apps

This companion guide to MIT App Inventor teaches teenagers how to create and publish their mobile applications, regardless of experience.  Engaging graphics and vivid diagrams take readers step-by-step through creating six different apps, ranging from a working piano to a maze game and a functional chat app. Each app builds on the skills learned in the previous one, becoming progressively more detailed. Additionally, the book highlights stories of young inventors who have created apps that positively impact their communities, including an inspiring foreword from Gitanjali Rao, a teen scientist and app inventor who was recognized as Time Magazine’s first-ever Kid of the Year.

Cash is Queen: A Girl’s Guide to Securing, Spending, and Stashing Cash

This guide to managing money, specifically for teenage girls, teaches readers how to establish healthy financial habits. The book is full of eye-catching illustrations and explains topics like budgeting, saving, and investing in an accessible, relatable way. “Crown jewels” summarize the essential points at the end of each chapter, and the entire book is written in an uplifting, empowered voice–a refreshing change from other financial guides! Cash is Queen is a vital resource for a society that neglects financial education, especially for women, and would make an excellent gift for any young reader.

Making Comics

Award-winning cartoonist Lynda Barry takes readers on a creative journey, emphasizing that drawing is a language we are all fluent in–if we let ourselves remember. Making Comics examines children’s art, noticing how drawings may start as one thing but evolve into something else and that stories show up on their own as children draw. Barry emphasizes that artistic skill isn’t as important as sincerity and bravery when it comes to making comics. Any teenager would love this book, but it will especially appeal to those who love art but lack confidence in their own work.

Dear Ally: How Do You Write a Book

This teen writer’s guide offers an insider’s look into becoming a published author. It features interviews with numerous YA writers and delves deeply into key aspects of crafting a compelling story, such as plot development, worldbuilding, creating conflict, and crafting memorable characters. Additionally, the book gives young readers a realistic look at the book publishing industry. The author emphasizes the importance of exploring different approaches to storytelling and finding joy in writing. While there are plenty of writing guides, Dear Ally stands out as a comprehensive and inspirational resource.

Touching Memoirs For Teens

Being a teenager is often overwhelming and confusing, so it helps to know that other people experience similar struggles. Reading these thought-provoking memoirs can help teens feel less alone.

In Limbo is a graphic novel memoir by Deb JJ Lee about a Korean-American girl who has always acutely felt her “otherness.” She experiences intense pressure during high school to find her place among changing friendships and interests. Deb’s abusive mother makes her home life chaotic and unpredictable, and Deb feels trapped. Her mental health deteriorates, resulting in a suicide attempt (another earlier attempt is also mentioned). However, Deb uses her love of art to slowly begin to heal and understand her heritage, her family, and herself. (Note: the author’s pronouns are they/them, but Deb is gendered as she/her, which the author said reflects that period in their life).

Ay Mija! (A Graphic Novel): My Bilingual Summer in Mexico

This graphic novel debuts sixteen-year-old Christine’s solo trip to Mexico to visit extended family. Christine struggles to find common ground with their grandmother and aunts, especially since they don’t speak the same language. This book explores the complexity of families, traditions, and personal identity through a warm, welcoming lens. The graphic novel format works well here–a smaller drawing of Christine on each page narrates their internal thoughts and draws the reader in. Teens caught between two worlds will feel connected to Christine and invested in their experience.

I Have Something to Tell You―For Young Adults: A Memoir

The young adult adaptation of the bestselling memoir of the husband of a former presidential candidate, I Have Something to Tell You, is one man’s story about growing up gay in his small Midwestern town. When Chasten Glezman Buttigieg was a boy, he didn’t quite fit in. He felt different from his father, brothers, and friends. He wanted desperately to belong, so when he realized he was gay, he kept it secret for a long and painful time. Chasten finally realized that truly embracing his authentic self was the only forward. The author tells his story openly and warmly, encouraging young readers to be kind to themselves and reminding them that they are never alone.

Teen Books About Science and the Environment

Hand one of these books to a young person fascinated by science or cares deeply about the environment. 

Saving Earth: Climate Change and the Fight for Our Future

Saving Earth is a powerful account of human involvement in climate change, explaining the decisions contributing to the world’s current crisis. The book looks unflinching at our past failures and examines the future for younger generations. While the book doesn’t shy away from past damage, the stories of young climate activists lend a hopeful look at what can be an anxiety-provoking issue for many young people. Saving Earth asks readers to reflect on how we understand our world and how we can collaborate to create a more positive outlook for our planet.

Hidden Systems: Water, Electricity, the Internet, and the Secrets Behind the Systems We Use Every Day 

In his graphic novel Hidden Systems, author Dan Nott explores water, electricity, and the internet–three fundamental systems that are often overlooked–to discover what’s hidden beneath the surface. Drawings and straightforward explanations explain how these hidden systems work and highlight their histories, inequities, and future potential. When readers are learning about a complex topic, visuals help increase comprehension, so the graphic novel format works exceptionally well here.

How We Got to the Moon: The People, Technology, and Daring Feats of Science Behind Humanity’s Greatest Adventure

Longlisted for the National Book Award, this stunning visual guide explores the history of the moon landing. Collage illustrations and individual profiles highlight unsung heroes–the engineers, mathematicians, welders, seamstresses, and factory workers whose innovation and hard work allowed NASA to achieve a historic accomplishment. Science-minded teens will love the explanations of rocket science concepts through the author’s detailed diagrams and technical drawings. This is an excellent reference book for any middle or high school science or social studies classroom.

Teenagers know what they like but are still willing to explore the world around them. Luckily, this list of new nonfiction books caters to a wide variety of interests and reading lives. Of this list of 20, which sounds the most interesting?

More Books for Teens

• Mystery books for teens
• The best books for teens
• Graphic novels for teens

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About Katie Wickliff

Katie is a writer and educator who fell in love with books after reading Lois Lowry’s Number the Stars. She shares her lifelong passion for children’s literature through her newsletter, The Magic Book House . Katie is the mother of two little bookworms, ages 9 and 11, who still allow her to read to them every evening. She’s keeping her fingers crossed that this habit (somehow) lasts forever.

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The Best Nonfiction Texts For Teaching ELA

Nonfiction texts are incredibly valuable for your secondary ELA classroom, and there are so many things you can do with them, from pairing them with poetry to using them as springboards into discussion about societal issues. 

One of my favorite classes to teach is AP Lang because it is packed to the brim with nonfiction, but you know what's funny? I didn't even read nonfiction until I was in my late 20s. I'm a lover of literature (as you probably are if you're an English teacher). So, if you are like me, and you have come to the world of nonfiction a little later, I've got good news: we've narrowed down some amazing nonfiction texts to start using in your classroom this week. No need to sort through the bowels of the internet to piece something together. 

This is a collaborative blog post where I include my favorite nonfiction text to teach, and my fellow teacher friends chime in on theirs!

A Nonfiction Text That You Can Pair With Poetry

Jeanmarie from McLaughlin Teaches English loves to be able to pair non-fiction with fiction and poetry.  So, when she stumbled upon the essay, “I Too, Sing America” by Julia Alvarez , she was excited for the possibilities because she was immediately reminded of the poems by Walt Whitman and Langston Hughes.

In this essay, Alvarez recounts the role that books and education played in her early years, growing up in the Dominican Republic. She chronicles how she felt lost once she came to America because she had lost almost everything in the move.  It was the 1960’s and she faced prejudice and a melting pot mentality.  She struggled to find her place.  That is until she found the pair of poems “I Hear American Singing” by Walt Whitman and “I, Too” by Langston Hughes .

Langston Hughes’ words resonated for her.  It made her realize there was a place for her and she talks about the importance of “one human family.”  She ends with is own poem:  “I, Too, Sing America.”

How To Teach This Nonfiction Text 

Have students first read the essay for its big ideas.  Have them annotate for anything that pertains to identity.  Then share the three poems (Alvarez’s poem appears at the end of her essay) to make comparisons.  Students could work in groups on one poem and then share or each group could work on all three poems.  Consider a three way venn diagram or having the students begin with dialectic journals .  Your choice.  Enjoy this non-fiction-poetry pairing.  Your students certainly will.

A Nonfiction Text With Unlimited Possibilities: Teen Vogue

It’s difficult to pick just one non-fiction piece so why not look to a source of many and offer options to students? 

Lesa from SmithTeaches9to12 loves Teen Vogue to offer different points of view on a variety of topics! You might be thinking this publication is just about fashion or style, and that certainly exists, but it’s so much more than that too!

The Politics section focuses on government, environment, immigration, justice, and history! Here are just a few options: this one about young voters   or this one with advice to current students from graduating seniors or even this one about climate change action in the face of wildfires in California . 

The Culture section is jam-packed with music, movies, tv, books, and tech. This article with 8 profiles of creators in Hollywood making a difference combines pop culture with difference-making.

The Identity section includes health and wellness as well as relationships and advice, but the best part of this section is Voices. In Voices current and trending events and ideas are addressed in a teen-friendly and teen-accessible way. This one about residential schools or this one about Muslim women in sport could be great.

Lesa uses a variety of articles about self-love and self-care as part of an SEL approach in her English courses. Luckily Teen Vogue has lots to work with on those topics too! 

To avoid having to sift through the site, check out this ready-made lesson with suggested articles, key questions for reflection and discussion, plus extension activities too. This lesson can work at any time of year but Lesa finds it particularly helpful as we approach Valentine’s Day. The lesson shifts the focus away from romantic love and this has been really helpful for all students in class!

Nonfiction Text For Developing Empathy

And now it's my pick! I have a deep love for this article by Tom Junod about Mr. Rogers that first appeared in 1998 in Esquire. 

Maybe you've seen the film staring Tom Hanks, but didn't know that you can still find that article? Well, yep! You can, and it is outstanding. You can also go to Esquire and see the actual article (but you have to pay). 

I actually used this article on a job interview a few years ago. For the interview I was required to teach a class of AP Lit students whom I'd never met before. It was scary, to be perfectly honest. But the students loved the article and they did fabulous with that lesson (and I got the job!). 

This article is so rich in use of language as well as it's structure, but perhaps the best thing about it is that it can actually serve to help teach empathy. 

How To Teach It:

You can use the whole article, or you can condense it, and just focus on a few parts. I've got to say that using the whole article is quite powerful, and I'd strongly suggest doing the whole thing if you can.  It's a long article, but students can still read and interact with it in a single class period. 

I love having students focus on what sentences stand out to them in the article, and even having them jot down sentences that "pack a punch." Then we talk about  why those sentences got their attention. Was it the imagery? The symbolism? The repetition? 

After reading the article and discussing some particularly powerful sentences and the crafting of those sentences, I'll have students do what Mr. Rogers himself would do: ask the group to think about an adult who deeply impacted their life. Sit and think about them for 2 minutes (it describes Mr. Rogers doing this in the article). 

After students have done this, I'll ask them to write about who they were thinking about. If we have time, I might have them go back and craft a few of their sentences in a way similar to Junod (i.e. using repetition or strong imagery). 

If you want to see exactly what I used for my interview, check the lesson out here. 

For most students, this is a powerful lesson that put them in a state of sincere gratitude for the adults in their lives. 

Using nonfiction texts allows your students to jump into deep and meaningful topics without reading a full-length novel: they're accessible, relevant, and absolutely necessary for the ELA classroom. 

Related Articles:

What Are Mentor Sentences?

4 John Green Essays That Are Perfect for High School ELA - SmithTeaches9to12

11 Brilliant Strategies for Dialectic Journals to Better Close Reading - McLaughlin Teaches English

5 Ways To Celebrate Black Voices In Your ELA Classroom This Year (abetterwaytoteach.com)

21 Nonfiction Books for Secondary ELA Classrooms | SECONDARY SARA

Engaging Nonfiction for High School Readers - Write on With Miss G

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8 nonfiction texts that will captivate middle school and high school students.

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I'm always looking for new books to include in my classroom library. These are fantastic recommendations!

Thank you for the recommendations! I've had The Other Wes Moore on my WTR list forever...I need to get that book! :-) I have an Audible subscription, and, luckily, my students this year really like to listen to audiobooks. I have low-level freshmen, so hearing it as they read really pulls them in and helps them get a better understanding of the text. Plus, the narration is so much more engaging than my daily "performance." Hehee! Right now, I'm going to go check out How They Croaked; it sounds perfect! Thank you, again!

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High-Interest Nonfiction Resources for High School

Looking for high-interest nonfiction resources for high school students can take time. Free or paid, finding nonfiction that will help you meet standards and interest students can be an endless search.

I am continuously searching for appropriate nonfiction to share with my secondary ELA students. Often, I need short nonfiction articles to add to a poetry, literature, or public speaking lesson. Below, I’ve included places where I find nonfiction PDFs for English class. Hopefully, you can pick and choose what will work for your community.

Before I begin, my belief about informational texts is that they should be present in a variety of ways, and my ideas below reflect that. For instance, I desire my students to hone in on a topic, to really become impassioned about a topic that influences them. For that reason, I really use my librarian to bring me resources to flesh out lessons and encourage further learning about whatever topic we’re covering in class. Additionally, in my classroom library, I want to include nonfiction texts. My First Chapter Friday choices should also include nonfiction.

So! How can I include nonfiction naturally in my class? My ideas are below.

Keep your eyes open.

I came across a nonfiction resource today, and I think it will interest students. Many of our students focus on college. . . and for good reason: some will be there in four years or less.

Sure, I was intrigued when I read about Starbucks CEO announcing the company would pay for employee’s college tuition. I was skeptical, but excited.

Like many future teachers, I worked multiple jobs through college, and I still had loans. A boost would have been helpful. I continued reading about the free college assertion, because I wanted to know how true it was. It is true (with rules) and Starbucks employees are ready to get their educations.

Sure enough, my continued researching found an opposing viewpoint today. “ Starbucks price hike ” by Pat Schneider highlights:

Other analysts said the program fails to address systemic problems in higher education and financial aid, and even threatens to exacerbate them.

Include texts in your library.

One of the easiest way to incorporate nonfiction into your classroom is to display books for students. I’ve reviewed several memoirs and other pieces of nonfiction:

How I Resist

The Sun Does Shine

When I shop at thrift stores, I grab nonfiction “coffee table” books off the shelves. Those books are full of pictures and easily accessible information. I’ve discovered books about golf, cars, presidents, and animals. I even have a nonfiction book about animal waste, and it is one of the more popular books in my library.

Adding nonfiction books is a great way to naturally add informational texts to students’ reading diets. Plus, pulling excerpts from nonfiction books is a quick option. I use Small PDF to help me with 

Incorporate nonfiction with literature.

You might teach more nonfiction than you credit yourself. Do you teach the background of stories, either the author’s life or pieces about the setting? For instance, when I teach The Hunger Games , I pull current data about poverty, food scarcity, and income inequality. Unfortunately, I always find a current article. 

When I teach a Shakespeare play , we read about Queen Elizabeth, Shakespeare, and the play’s time period.

As you incorporate informational texts with literature, ensure that you are meeting standards. With a few additional questions or activities, you might be checking off more standards than you realize.

Finally, directly connect the facts to the literature. Students might not intentionally realize how that information influences the literature. Be sure to model realization of that connection.

Find free nonfiction resources for high school students.

Free nonfiction resources for high school students? Here is where I browse:

I use Common Lit, but sometimes, I want my students off their iPads and not answering multiple choice questions. Plus, all of the answers are online for free! Students manage to find previous answers which hurts an authentic discussion and brainstorming session.

Still, I use the articles and create my own questions.

Recently I stumbled upon News ELA, and I have found some quality materials. Sometimes I ask students to search the homepage and present an article of interest to the class.

New York Times

I pay for the NYT, but you can access many articles for free. Download a few, and you’ll have nonfiction article PDFs for students.

Students love reading articles from ESPN. Personally, I am not a huge sports fan. I know many of my students are, and when a big sporting event happens, I might share an article with the class to interest students with which I might not already connect.

Do you have any other places to find nonfiction articles for high school students? Share your ideas below.

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brainstorming high school students nonfiction

Teaching Nonfiction: 10 Engaging Ways to Teach Nonfiction in Secondary ELA

When it comes to reading nonfiction, my students tend to get bleary-eyed and hard-of-hearing. It’s like they instantly think of their history textbooks and informational articles and they decide before they even know the topic that they aren’t going to like it. And that is one of the big hurdles when it comes to teaching nonfiction texts at the middle school and high school level.

For many students, nonfiction is like the vegetable of literature, but it doesn’t have to be this way. This is why I work hard to make sure I have a variety of activities to engage my students. Read about some of my favorites below.

1. Teaching Nonfiction: Fact vs Opinion

This super easy activity simply involves you presenting the topic of study and having students create a class list of information. Students share what they know (or think) they know about the subject. You can then assign a pre-reading activity separating fact from fiction, or have students revisit the list after reading.

2. Teaching Nonfiction: Learn to Annotate

3. Teaching Nonfiction: Connect to Real Life

It truly is important for readers to connect to text in order to retain information and stay engaged.

Have students keep a journal during the reading to jot down connections that they see either to themselves, or to society as a whole. While not every subject will necessarily personally resonate with students, they can learn to look at the “bigger picture” and see the connections to the world around them.

4. Teaching Nonfiction: Mix Nonfiction and Fiction

Sometimes choosing nonfiction study feels like we are making a sacrifice in the literature category. It seems hard to fit everything in, so why not combine? Teaching nonfiction works very well when you pair it with the literature you are already reading in class. When you have fictional literature to study, take time to showcase the nonfiction connections with your students. For example, a contemporary novels class reading The Hunger Games might choose to make connections to works like Diary of Anne Frank or Elie Wiesel’s Night. You can also work with your librarian to showcase fiction/nonfiction pairings to encourage students to read a variety of different types of texts.

5. Teaching Nonfiction: Artistic Vocabulary

Another turn-off for nonfiction is that it also comes with vocabulary. Instead of a vocabulary list paired with a quiz, consider tapping into creative and artistic activities instead. Students can create a visual word wall on the bulletin board, digitally create slides or images (a great alternative for those working virtually), or have students create Wordles after reading the text to show their understanding.

6. Teaching Nonfiction: Sticky Note Questions

Sticky notes are so versatile. Give your students a small stack before reading and have them write questions, connections, or thoughts and stick them right on the page. Students can then turn to their sticky notes rather than leafing through their notebooks for their questions and figuring out where in the reading their thought came from. You might have students read individually with their sticky notes and then come together as a class or group to answer. This also can pair nicely with annotation activities.

7. Teaching Nonfiction: Tweet About It

Another way to have students practice critical thinking and summarizing skills is to have students “tweet” about the nonfiction work. You can provide prompts about specific events or people, or simply have students jot down their tweet as you check for understanding. This is a great way to break up long texts into manageable “chunks” by tweeting about independent events, people, or chapters. The tweets can later serve as a class review in manageable bits.

8. Teaching Nonfiction: …or TikTok

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but there’s no doubt that viral video trends are a major influence in students’ lives. Use that to your advantage and let students create short videos to showcase information. Find school-appropriate challenges or songs that are trending and let students use their creativity. Even if you’re virtual, students can use their video features to film. Have them think about how they would recreate an event in a modern way, and make it bite-size to fit the one-minute time limit. Have them pretend to be a person you’re studying – what challenges would they attempt?

9. Teaching Nonfiction: Play to Interests

It can seem overwhelming trying to fit in all of the topics of study during the year, but it is worth the time to squeeze in the opportunity for your students to choose their own topics. Why not make it nonfiction study to help encourage engagement? Alternatively, you can have the class make a list together of their interests and then you select at your discretion.

10. Teaching Nonfiction: Make it Interactive

Rather than a go-to research paper, or simply studying from autobiographies, make a more interactive assignment. There are many different types of escape rooms for a variety of subjects. There are even escape room templates so you can design your own with the puzzles already created – you just need to fill in the information. If you’re not looking for a full scale escape room, start with smaller puzzles, riddles, or decoding and apply it to a scavenger hunt style of assignment. Your students will still read the same nonfiction, but might be more invested in solving brain teasers like these.

For more reading about teaching nonfiction, check out this blog post about 5 ways to analyze nonfiction!

If you are looking for more nonfiction teaching materials, you might be interested in these resources: Annotating Made Easy Paraphrasing, Summarizing, and Quoting

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Home › Blog Topics › Literacy › Engaging Nonfiction Titles for High School Students

Engaging Nonfiction Titles for High School Students

By Karin Greenberg on 08/30/2022 • ( 0 )

Summer is a reading marathon for me. Each year, as I prepare to go back to my high school library, I take stock of titles I’ve read that might engage my students. I’m not always successful at motivating resistant teenage readers but with the right content (narrative nonfiction seems to be a favorite genre) I stand a better chance of creating interest. Here are four books I think high school students will enjoy:

The Man Who Could Move Clouds by Ingrid Rojas Contreras

Heartbreaking, uplifting, mystical. . .a unique memoir that transports readers to the mountains, forests, rivers, and communities of Colombia. Contreras traces her family’s history and their connection to ghosts, dreams, and the power of healing. She and her mother both suffered from amnesia many years apart and through this shared experience she explores memory and its relationship to the way we make sense of life and death. The memoir has many of the same magical elements as her novel Fruit of the Drunken Tree.

Never Simple by Liz Scheier

With her honest, funny, New-York-sarcastic tone, author Liz Scheier writes about her complicated life growing up in Manhattan with a single mother whose mental illness was a mystery to her until she was an adult herself. Not knowing the identity of her father is the catalyst for all kinds of soul searching by Scheier; she learns intriguing and unexpected details about her family’s past. Incredible writing, impeccable editing, and a joy to read. 

Bookends by Zibby Owens

She’s become known in literary circles as a famous bookfluencer. Zibby Owens not only has a thriving podcast, Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books , but she published a children’s book and wrote this personable, page-turning memoir. In it, she recounts formative times of her life, the most poignant being when her best friend and college roommate died in 9/11. Her writing is just like her interviews: open, honest, and not afraid to tackle the deep questions that keep her up at night. At the same time, she’s quick to laugh and adds humor to the pages.

The Ravine: A Family, A Photograph, A Holocaust Massacre Revealed by Wendy Lower

One Photo. A young mother in a polka dot dress. Holding her toddler’s hand. Hugging another child close to her. It could be any picture of a mother and her children taken in 1941. Except that it isn’t. This mother was forced to flee her home with her family on October 13, 1941 and was brought through the forest behind her hometown of Miropol, Ukraine to a ravine where she was brutally shot while holding her children. In this devastating, important, well-researched book, Wendy Lower investigates this photograph, which she came across at the United States Holocaust Museum, to uncover information about the victims and their perpetrators. Six million lives lost. Lower reminds us that every single death was connected to a person who had relationships and plans for a future. 

Author: Karin Greenberg

Karin Greenberg is the librarian at Manhasset High School in Manhasset, New York. She is a former English teacher and writes book reviews for School Library Journal. In addition to reading, she enjoys animals, walking, hiking, and spending time with her family. Follow her book account on Instagram @bookswithkg.

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Categories: Literacy

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10 ultimate nonfiction guided reading activities for effective high school reading comprehension

I am going to be completely candid here… teaching nonfiction reading comprehension has never been my strong suit as an educator. 

In my five-year career as a teacher, I have often wondered: how do you engage students with nonfiction texts?

In a search to answer this very question, I have tried several nonfiction guided reading activities to better support my students. 

Regretfully, these attempts resulted in my students showing mastery in apathy and disengagement rather than high school reading comprehension.

This year I used several of the resources in Danielle’s nonfiction bundle and FINALLY feel as if I am on the right track! 

My students showcased an interest in the nonfiction guided reading activities, and the best part is… I didn’t have to prep or plan any of it.

Boost your high school reading comprehension skills with this ultimate bundle of nonfiction guided reading activities. Packed with engaging texts and comprehension exercises, this bundle is perfect for high school students of all reading levels. 

If you’re still not totally sold, read along to discover if this resource is the right fit for you and your students!

High School Reading Comprehension Passages – Riveting Nonfiction Bundle

What's included in this bundle.

✨ “Abandoned places” – vocab, creative writing from nonfiction

✨ “Double trouble: the fascination with twins” – multiple-choice (MC) questions

✨ “Off-track: train heists & outlaws” – creative writing from nonfiction

✨ “Dying around the world” – MC questions, critical thinking prompts

✨ “Demystifying fear” – vocab

✨ “Careers in video games” – inference practice

✨ “Codes & codebreakers” – creative writing from nonfiction

✨ “The rise of skateboarding” – includes QR codes for further research & discussion

✨ “Lizard make-up tutorial” – procedural writing

✨ “Dr. Daniel Hale Williams” – biography

How did I implement these nonfiction guided reading activities in my classroom?

The “appetizers” 🥗 Students played Chapter 1 of Burnbridge Breakout digital escape room 🥗 Students practiced analyzing nonfiction texts using creative writing with images of REAL (creepy) abandoned places

The “entrees” 🍔 Students have the choice of reading one of two nonfiction articles: one about careers in video games and the other about careers in STEM 🍔 Students practice high school reading comprehension with the nonfiction guided reading activities already prepped and embedded with their choice of reading 🍔 I conducted a Jigsaw reading method with this as I have large class sizes of approximately 40 students 🍔 Then, we do a whole class discussion using equity sticks or various other collaborative efforts to hear as many voices as possible

The “desserts” 🍪 Students played the remaining chapters of the Burnbridge Breakout series along with many of the included reading activities within the resource

Other helpful hints:

✨  ‘Tis the season! If you’re teaching this unit near winter break, consider including a third nonfiction text in the mix: The Hendersons Cancel Christmas. It’s a class favorite!

✨ If your students enjoy STEM, video games, and/or mysteries, have them play Terminus, a digital escape room game. Seriously, my students LOVED playing this, and it includes supplementary learning materials to pair the game with. Here’s the first chapter if you want to see how much your students will love it before buying the series!

✨ If you’re looking for a shorter nonfiction reading, consider one of these 8 excerpts from nonfiction books. 

What teachers like you are saying about this high school reading comprehension bundle :

Closing Comments

How can I help my high school students with reading comprehension? How do I teach nonfiction reading?

If you’ve ever asked yourself any of these questions, you have nothing to be embarrassed about! We all have our strong suits, and mine is NOT nonfiction reading. Whenever I struggle to create a unit that engages my students and makes the magical lightbulb go off, I reach out for support from other educator experts.

Luckily, I happen to work alongside an educator who is excellent at creating some nonfiction guided reading activities. If you resonate with any of my struggles or you simply want a rockin’ high school reading comprehension resource, you’ve found it!

In need of some more nonfiction reading support? ✨ Inclusive nonfiction reads for your classroom library ✨ More ways to use nonfiction to engage even your most reluctant readers ✨ Memorable nonfiction writing activities

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Diversifying education with music: 5 popular songs with literary devices by aapi artists, include 7 unforgettable short texts for immigrant heritage month in the class this june.

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Nonfiction Reading Response Activities for Secondary

Common Core Standards have required that English courses for older students have a heavy emphasis on informational texts. The problem with this mandate? Informational texts aren’t always enticing to reluctant readers, nor are nonfiction reading response activities.

Yet, comprehending, analyzing, and reflecting on nonfiction is an important life skill. When approached intentionally, lessons can be enjoyable, meaningful, and memorable for teens. The key to success is finding ways to get students to dig deep while engaging them and scaffolding learning.

In this post, you’ll find specific nonfiction reading response activities to use with junior high or high school classes.

Setting the Stage

Before asking students to analyze nonfiction, I’ve found it helpful to teach them about the reading skills I’ll be asking them to use, and I give them an introduction to informational texts .

During reading strategies units, I try to incorporate as many high-interest nonfiction articles as possible. My favorite sources are Common Lit, Newsela, New York Times Upfront, Scope, TED Talks ,  and any recent and relevant news article I can find. I want my students to understand how to navigate and utilize the text features, to be equipped with the tools they need to summarize and analyze them confidently, and to know how to think critically and evaluate them rather than passively accepting everything they read.

Introducing students to reading strategies and informational texts at the beginning of the year gives me a picture of their current strengths and weaknesses as readers. It also sets the stage for my expectations for them being active readers throughout the year.

Many of my favorite nonfiction reading response lessons from this unit follow a similar structure. They include all or most of these elements, depending on the time we have available and the complexity of the text:

Activate Background Knowledge

In order to engage students in a meaningful reading of a nonfiction text, they need to care about the topic. One of my favorite approaches for gaining students’ interest is through a video clip. I like to show them how the topic is relevant either to their life or in today’s world (their world!).

For instance, before reading about the triangle factory fire , watch this CBS video clip and discuss the responsibility the United States has to be aware of the working conditions of their suppliers. Ask, Should the United States refuse to purchase clothing from countries that do not ensure safety of their workers? How might this decision impact us on a daily basis? When students realize they are talking about some of the very clothes they are wearing, many will have a vested interest in the topic.

Close Reading and Annotation

With complex nonfiction, lead students through the process of previewing text features in order to make an educated prediction. Then, read the text out loud with students the first time through. Pause and summarize, and model for students how to ask questions or offer comments. As you read, work on monitoring predictions, adding to them and altering them as necessary.

After the initial read, ask students to comb back through a second time with a purpose. As they do, they . should annotate the text with specific questions in mind. For example, they might look for new vocabulary words they would like clarified, jot notes about what surprised them, and question the validity of the information. This first step of responding to the text is personal, and it helps students focus on basic comprehension.

Follow-Up Activity

Don’t let the annotation process to drag on. Students become bored quickly. If there are any reading strategies we don’t get to cover thoroughly during the first round of our close reading, incorporate them into a second activity, which students can complete in small groups or with a partner.

With nonfiction, try using a dice board full of questions that span a variety of depth of knowledge levels. Students roll the dice, discuss the answer with their peers, and ask questions if they need clarification. During this time, the teacher is able to walk around the room, carefully listening for misunderstandings and skills that are tough for my students. We can turn those into follow-up mini-lessons – bonus!

Incorporate Movement

After thinking through the meaning of the text, ask students to develop an opinion. Getting students up and moving has obvious benefits. One approach is to write a question on the board. Then, draw a continuum. Have students place a sticky note on the continuum to indicate their opinion on an issue or agreement/disagreement with a statement. Ask for volunteers to discuss their thoughts.

I’ve also asked students to complete carousel activities. Basically, that means you place large Post-It easel pad sheets around the room. On each sheet, write a question, or students generate the questions in small groups. They they circulate around the room with their several others. They discuss the question, and then one person writes a response. After all groups have answered all questions, review the responses as a class.

Extension Activities

I’ve used a variety of methods to ask students to respond to nonfiction texts both verbally and in writing. One of my favorites is to use task cards as writing and discussion prompts. I’ll ask students questions that require them to think critically, like:

• What information would you include in an Insta story or Facebook live video about this article?
• What symbol would best represent the ideas presented in this text?
• How would you best capture the meaning of this text in exactly six words?

You can also ask students to take the information from a factual text and create an infographic, a one-pager, or a creative combination of the two. Students often love tasks like this because they can be completed artistically on paper, on the computer, or with a different medium. Plus, they can pull from information they have discussed during the previous exercises when completing this extension activity.

When I first began incorporating more nonfiction, I was less than enthused. (Major snooze fest.) Now, I look forward to finding new nonfiction articles and informational texts. When I’m watching the news or reading a magazine, I’m always on the lookout for fresh material to pique students’ interest. Nonfiction reading response can be rewarding and meaningful. Students have a hard time disliking a lesson when their teacher is passionate about it.

If you’re looking for more guidance regarding incorporating nonfiction texts, check out Language Arts Classroom. While I do this, she does that .

• Summarizing Nonfiction: A Lesson Plan
• Teaching Students to Read Visual Texts
• Comprehension Strategies for Struggling Readers

RELATED RESOURCE:

Here are three nonfiction activities to use with any nonfiction article. They are scaffolded to move students from basic comprehension to a more analytical thought process.

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Hello! I only have one English 9 class this year (the others are Spanish), and I feel like I’m spending SO much time planning and prepping for this one class. So, this post was very helpful! We do not have books or student computers in my building, so (pretty much all year) I’ve been teaching a large variety of just about every type of informational and nonfiction text that I feel will help to improve their skills in a specific area. This is mainly because it is the most affordable way for me to teach my students right now, but I also feel using nonfiction texts help me teach grammar and writing more easily. I also have been using podcasts in the classroom on and off all year, and I’m so happy I chose to do so. I guess I never really know if I’m teaching/covering everything that I’m supposed to because I don’t really have anything (or anyone) to help guide my lessons (except the list of benchmarks and standards). Therefore, blogs like yours are a huge help to me! I just want to say thank you for all you do! You are appreciated more than you know! 🙂

Tara, thank you! How sweet. I think your situation is a common one. Please let me know if you ever have any specific questions because I’d love to write a post tailored to your situation. I’m sure there are other teachers who have very similar concerns. It sounds like you are doing awesome! Using high-interest nonfiction is extremely important for developing critical reading and writing skills.

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100 Must-Read Essay Collections

Rebecca Hussey

Rebecca holds a PhD in English and is a professor at Norwalk Community College in Connecticut. She teaches courses in composition, literature, and the arts. When she’s not reading or grading papers, she’s hanging out with her husband and son and/or riding her bike and/or buying books. She can't get enough of reading and writing about books, so she writes the bookish newsletter "Reading Indie," focusing on small press books and translations. Newsletter: Reading Indie Twitter: @ofbooksandbikes

View All posts by Rebecca Hussey

Well, essays don’t have to be like the kind of thing you wrote in school. Essays can be anything, really. They can be personal, confessional, argumentative, informative, funny, sad, shocking, sexy, and all of the above. The best essayists can make any subject interesting. If I love an essayist, I’ll read whatever they write. I’ll follow their minds anywhere. Because that’s really what I want out of an essay — the sense that I’m spending time with an interesting mind. I want a companionable, challenging, smart, surprising voice in my head.

So below is my list, not of essay collections I think everybody “must read,” even if that’s what my title says, but collections I hope you will consider checking out if you want to.

If you have a favorite essay collection I’ve missed here, let me know in the comments!

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25 Essential High School Reads From the Last Decade

We asked members of our community to share recently published novels they would love to have read in high school. Here are your top picks.

Way back in 2016, we asked our community to share what they would consider essential reads for high school students. The final list of 20 recommended books was dominated by what many would consider the classics: John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men , J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye , F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby , Shakespeare’s Macbeth .

For decades, these works have been required reading in classrooms across the country, but more recently educators like Lorena Germán and advocates for the #DisruptTexts movement —not to mention the millions of students who’ve come and gone during the era—have challenged the notion of a traditional canon, advocating for a more “inclusive, representative, and equitable language arts curriculum.”

“There are problems with teaching only classics—the stories are overwhelmingly told from a white and/or male perspective, and more needs to be done to diversify that,” writes eighth-grade English teacher Christina Torres . “In addition, there’s merit in introducing our students to more recent literature.”

This year, we circled back and asked our community a version of the same question—What novels do you wish you could’ve read in high school?—but this time we specified that titles must have been published within the last decade. Hundreds of responses flooded in, and the contrast to six years ago was stark. Nominations were diverse, representing a broad range of topics, themes, genres, and author identities, as well as a wide variety of characters and experiences—queer protagonists and protagonists of color, characters with differing abilities, and fictional roles representing a refreshing spectrum of body sizes and shapes.

The Hate U Give , by Angie Thomas, was a clear standout, earning the most votes and thus the number one spot on our list. Some authors were multiple winners: Jason Reynolds’s Long Way Down and All American Boys made the cut, and Nic Stone’s Dear Martin and its sequel Dear Justyce were both favorites, but we selected only one for inclusion in the top 25. While fiction titles represent the lion’s share of the final list, a number of memoirs and autobiographies made the grade, including Malala Yousafzai’s I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban and the comedian and late-night host Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood.

The Top 25 Indispensable High School Reads

1. The Hate U Give Angie Thomas’s emotionally wrenching debut novel finds Starr, an African American teen, torn between the affluent, predominantly white school she attends and the impoverished neighborhood where she lives. The fatal shooting of her childhood best friend by a police officer shatters her equilibrium, forcing her to choose where she stands. Primary themes of interest to high school students: identity, race and racial injustice, grief and loss, activism.

2. Educated: A Memoir Tara Westover’s story of growing up alongside—and eventually growing beyond—her decidedly iconoclastic family of Mormon survivalists in rural Idaho is an autobiographical paean to the transformative power of education. Primary themes of interest to high school students: autonomy, family dynamics, learning and education, loneliness and isolation.

3. Dear Martin Author Nic Stone drops readers deep into the life of her 17-year-old main character, Justyce, who suddenly finds himself on the wrong side of an unprovoked, racially charged encounter with a police officer. Primary themes of interest to high school students: privilege, friendship, race and racial injustice, discrimination, the criminal justice system.

4. The Poet X Elizabeth Acevedo’s National Book Award–winning novel-in-verse tells the story of Xiomara Batista, a 15-year-old Dominican-American girl living in Harlem who discovers that slam poetry unlocks answers to questions about her religion, her mother, and her identity and greater purpose in life. Primary themes of interest to high school students: sexuality, self-acceptance, family dynamics.

5. Long Way Down Jason Reynolds, author of Ghost and Ain’t Burned All the Bright , thrusts readers inside an elevator alongside 15-year-old protagonist Will Hollomon, who has about 60 seconds to make one of the hardest decisions of his life. Primary themes of interest to high school students: justice, grief and loss, family dynamics.

6. Refugee Three refugee children—each living in separate parts of the world during different time periods, from Nazi Germany to Syria in 2015—fight to escape the violence of their home countries in Alan Gratz’s timely and moving work of historical fiction. Primary themes of interest to high school students: warfare, family dynamics, trauma, the experiences of refugees.

7. Homegoing The Ghanaian American novelist Yaa Gyasi traces the impact of the Gold Coast’s slave trade on the lives of two African stepsisters and several generations of their descendants. Primary themes of interest to high school students: slavery and human rights, identity, race and racial injustice, family dynamics, oppression, trauma.

8. Firekeeper’s Daughter Witnessing a murder launches Angeline Boulley’s protagonist Daunis—a Native teen torn between her white and Ojibwe culture—into an FBI investigation where she must go undercover in search of the truth. Primary themes of interest to high school students: family dynamics, addiction, risk-taking, authority.

9. All The Light We Cannot See Set during World War II, this is Anthony Doerr’s Pulitzer Prize–winning tale of two teenagers—a blind French girl on the run and a German boy forced to join the Nazi army—whose separate lives ultimately converge. Primary themes of interest to high school students: warfare, grief and loss, disability, power and conformity.

10. Beartown Author Fredrik Backman investigates the ripple effects of a sexual assault, committed by the star athlete, on a small hockey town in rural Sweden. Primary themes of interest to high school students: justice, trauma, power and conformity.

11. I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter A tragic accident causes Erika Sánchez’s main character, Julia, to reflect on the perceived image of her “perfect” sister, Olga—as well as the secrets she may have been hiding. Primary themes of interest to high school students: grief and loss, perfectionism, mental health, sexuality, identity.

12. Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption Bryan Stevenson’s memoir details his work at the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit organization providing legal counsel to the wrongfully convicted, as well as those without the funds for effective representation. Primary themes of interest to high school students: the criminal justice system, race and racial injustice, poverty, trauma.

13. Patron Saints of Nothing In Randy Ribay’s National Book Award finalist, 17-year-old Jay Reguero leaves the University of Michigan and returns to his extended family in the Philippines when he learns that his cousin was recently murdered there—all the while secretly planning to investigate the crime. Primary themes of interest to high school students: grief and loss, culture and identity, the criminal justice system, truth and justice.

14. The Invention of Wings Set in the antebellum South, Sue Monk Kidd’s novel explores the meaning of freedom to two girls from vastly different backgrounds—Sarah, a white girl of means, and Handful, a slave gifted to Sarah on her birthday. Primary themes of interest to high school students: friendship, slavery and human rights, race, privilege.

15. The Midnight Library What if you could read your way into another story of your life? In Matt Haig’s charming fantasy novel, 35-year-old Nora Seed peruses the books in an infinite library and discovers that each magical volume gives her a glimpse into a life she might have led. Primary themes of interest to high school students: identity and purpose, mental health, fantasy.

16. The Nickel Boys In this Pulitzer Prize winner, Colson Whitehead’s main character, Elwood Curtis, experiences firsthand the horrors of a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy—based on the real-life Dozier School for Boys, a now-closed reform school in Florida with a 111-year history of abusing students. Primary themes of interest to high school students: activism, trauma, abuse, race and racial injustice.

17. The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row Convicted of a crime he did not commit, Anthony Ray Hinton relates the story of his 30 years on death row. Cowritten with Lara Love Hardin, the memoir reveals not only how he managed to survive but also how he ultimately found his way to joy. Primary themes of interest to high school students: race and racial injustice, redemption, innocence and guilt, the criminal justice system.

18. The Tattooist of Auschwitz Inspired by true events, this is Heather Morris’s heart-wrenching World War II tale about Lale Sokolov, a Jewish man who—forced to work at Auschwitz as a serial number tattooist—falls in love with an imprisoned woman as she waits to be branded. Primary themes of interest to high school students: warfare, race and racial injustice, the power of love.

19. Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood Comedian and political commentator Trevor Noah’s memoir mines his experiences as a mixed-race child in apartheid South Africa—a period during which the Immorality Act of 1927 outlawed interracial relationships, ostensibly making Noah’s very existence a crime. Primary themes of interest to high school students: identity and purpose, race and racial injustice, oppression.

20. I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban Written by the world’s youngest Nobel Prize laureate, Malala Yousafzai’s memoir tells the story of her fight for the rights of young girls and women in Pakistan—despite an assassination attempt that gravely wounded her in 2012, when she was only 15 years old. Primary themes of interest to high school students: activism, women’s rights, learning and education.

21. The Marrow Thieves Cherie Dimaline’s book is a dystopian vision of a bleak, postapocalyptic world in which humans have lost the ability to dream—except for North America’s Indigenous population, who are hunted for their bone marrow, which holds the key to a cure. Primary themes of interest to high school students: trauma, the climate crisis, family dynamics, oppression.

22. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe In this novel set in 1987, author Benjamin Alire Sáenz traces the story of two Mexican American boys, Aristotle and Dante, who could not be more different but form a bond that makes them confidants—and gives them the courage to share life-changing secrets. Primary themes of interest to high school students: identity and purpose, sexuality, self-acceptance, trauma.

23. Sing, Unburied, Sing: A Novel Jesmyn Ward’s dark but lyrical tale follows a Mississippi family on a road trip haunted by ghosts of the past and present. Primary themes of interest to high school students: race and racial injustice, identity and belonging, mortality.

24. The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives In this journalistic piece of nonfiction, author Dashka Slater reveals the complexities of what transpired between two teenagers on a bus in Oakland, California—Sasha and Richard—and the aftermath that ultimately transformed two families. Primary themes of interest to high school students: gender and sexuality, race, discrimination, the criminal justice system.

25. The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet Adapted from his podcast of the same name, John Green’s humorous collection of 44 essays covers topics ranging from the computer-generated velociraptors in the movie Jurassic Park and sunsets to air conditioners and penguins—rating them all on a five-star scale. Primary themes of interest to high school students: the human condition, mental health, humor and absurdity, the climate crisis.

10 Must Read Non-fiction Books for High School Students

Do you love reading books? Us too! Whoever said a book is a thousand journeys in a lifetime, was correct! Fiction is often immersive and thus high school students often use it as a source of entertainment. 

That said about fiction, What about non-fiction? Do you think fiction is the only thing deserving of your attention? Well, you may be surprised to know non-fiction is equally interesting! We cannot ignore that non-fiction lacks the adventure and romanticism of imagined stories, which fiction supplies well. However, non-fiction is laced with knowledge. 

High schoolers often forget that non-fiction like history, mathematics, biographies, and philosophies form great pieces for reading . This post would showcase the importance of non-fiction works, you will also look into our picks for the 10 best nonfiction books for high school students.

How reading non-fiction can benefit high schoolers?

Non-fiction includes all those pieces of writings that are true to reality for major parts. They depict an event or a personality that has gone down in history, and so, everyone should read non-fiction for information rather than entertainment. The habit of reading non-fiction pieces of writings will benefit students a lot in the later part of their education.

Here are some important benefits for reading non-fiction:

• Non-fictions is often informational and lacks the lustre of imagination. Thus, they introduce the habit of rigorous reading. 
• Non-fiction comes with facts. Reading them will increase the background knowledge, which expands the horizon of the reader’s brains to newer topics.
• Non-fiction has a unique vocabulary that is unfamiliar to those who love fiction. Reading non-fiction adds to the vocabulary of the reader.
• Non-fictional pieces are a source of visual literacies like graphs, tables, and diagrams. For instance, a graph may be used to show how sales of a product have gone up in the past few months. Different variants of a car are compared using a table. 
• Adults go through various pieces of non-fiction every day. These include manuals, memos, job descriptions, etc. As future citizens, high school students should consider reading non-fiction.

Non-fiction books for high schoolers- Our picks

Here are our picks for the 10 best nonfiction books for high school students:

1. Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You 

This book comments on the prevalent racist issues in America and inspires hope for an anti-racist future. Stamped takes the reader through a complete journey of how all this started and why this poison still exists. Gripping and fast-paced narration by Jason Reynolds makes this book a good read. 

Best for students of 10th grade, this book helps students understand various social issues. The language in the book is gripping, fast-paced, and energizing, which leaves the readers assuaged.

2. The Diary of a Young Girl 

When Nazis occupied Holland, many families fled to hide. A family, Franks, built a “secret annexe” to save themselves, where they had to face hunger, boredom, and constant cruelties. Anne Frank, a thirteen-year girl from that family wrote her vivid experience in those difficult times in her diary.

This dairy was found a couple of years after her demise and was later adapted as a book—The Diary of a young girl. Thoughtful, moving, and surprisingly humorous narration and fascinating commentary make this book a good non-fictional pick.

3. Most Dangerous 

Set in 1964, Most Dangerous is the story of Daniel Ellsberg, who was transformed into

“the most dangerous man in America.” When there was a cold war between America and the soviet union, America was ready to do anything to stop communism—with or without the consent of the citizens. 

As the war on communism soon began to pose cruelties on Vietnam, Ellsberg turned against the war. The Book “Most Dangerous” narrates the story of those crucial seven years that made Daniel “the most dangerous man in America.”

4. Drowned City

Written by Don Brown, this book revolves around the worst natural disaster in American history. On August 29, 2005, the monstrous winds of Hurricane Katrina flooded low-lying regions of New Orleans, Louisiana. This disaster recorded the deaths of 1833 individuals.

The book Drowned City shows the selflessness, heroism, and courage of people along with incompetence and criminality. Reading such books can enlighten the students with happenings of the past. Books like such provide a lot of facts, without much bias, so that students can get to know the exact picture of the incident.

5. Chasing Lincoln’s Killer

Chasing Lincoln’s Killer is a fast-paced thriller written by James L.Swanson which narrates the 12-day chase of the man who killed Lincoln. The story navigates through the streets of Washington D.C., swamps of Maryland, and forests of Virginia.

It is claimed to be the real story of a manhunt that took place in April 1865. The letters, newspapers, manuscripts, and other documents shown in this book are also original.

6. An American Plague

The American Plague shows the scenario of Philadelphia, the nation’s capital during the epidemic of Yellow fever in 1793. The author, Jim Murphy, explained the major social and political events that took place in the early 1800s due to this epidemic.

This book shows how the president had to leave the city due to the constitutional crisis. The cause and cure took almost a century to come out, which forms a riveting point of this book. Such events in history have been significant which the student must know of. The book has stories of people who suffered from yellow fever and how they got cured. 

7. The Art of Statistics

This book is a comprehensive guide for understanding everything about statistical problems. Written by David Spiegelhalter, this book shows that statistics are everywhere and thus teaches the readers to think like a statistician.

Beyond stats too, we get the idea of how to clarify questions, assumptions, and expectations when a problem is approaching. The book teaches to answer questions as simple as ‘does eating meat causes cancer?’ in a statistical way. The author has explained statistics, and the use of this concept beautifully blending it with modern problems, and situations.

8. Humble Pi

Humble Pi is the book-length answer to those who ask, “When are we ever going to use algebra or vectors in reality?”. Matt Parker, the author, managed to fill the book with fun, information, and relentless entertainment, thus, making this book a guide for all the miscalculations in life.

Humble pi makes the readers see everything including website codes and street signs in the language of maths, which makes it a unique fiction pick.

9. The Equation That Couldn’t Be Solved

Mathematicians solved a number of algebraic equations but failed to find the equation on symmetricity. The equation of symmetry did not emerge from the study of symmetry, rather from the equation that couldn’t be solved.

The book, “ The Equation That Couldn’t Be Solved: How Mathematical Genius Discovered the Language of Symmetry” narrates the story behind the equation and how it was solved.

10. The Greatest: Muhammad Ali

Written by Walter Dean Myers, this book shows Muhammad Ali, his accomplishments both inside and outside the ring, and his personal ventures up close. Biographies are usually gripping tales of courage, fight, and inspiration. The same can be said about this one too!

This book throws light on the race issues in the 1960s and how it became tough for the children to understand these gaps. The book centers around Muhammad Ali, and his struggles with racism, which finally molded him into a champion of his field.

The bottom line

Non-fictional books are a great source of knowledge. As a high schooler, you could start with our favorite ten best nonfiction books for high schoolers. The best book for a young adult is the one that focuses briefly on everything- facts, figures, language, information, and even knowledge. Books which tell about a certain past event in detail helps to broaden the knowledge of the child, whereas books which teach something better about academics are also bliss. The best part of non-fiction books is that it gives first-hand information to the reader, and it is almost like living in the era of the story, which opens many horizons for the young adult.

If you have some more additions to this list or you have a review on these books, let us know in the comments. 

Sananda Bhattacharya, Chief Editor of TheHighSchooler, is dedicated to enhancing operations and growth. With degrees in Literature and Asian Studies from Presidency University, Kolkata, she leverages her educational and innovative background to shape TheHighSchooler into a pivotal resource hub. Providing valuable insights, practical activities, and guidance on school life, graduation, scholarships, and more, Sananda’s leadership enriches the journey of high school students.

Explore a plethora of invaluable resources and insights tailored for high schoolers at TheHighSchooler, under the guidance of Sananda Bhattacharya’s expertise. You can follow her on Linkedin

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Sat / act prep online guides and tips, the 17 best writing contests for high school students.

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If you're a writer—fiction, non-fiction, or fanfiction—you can put those skills to work for you. There are tons of writing contests for high school students, which can award everything from medals to cash prizes to scholarships if you win .

Not only will a little extra money, whether cash or scholarships, help you when it comes time to pay for college, but the prestige of a respected reward is also a great thing to include on your college application.

Read on to learn more about what writing contests for high school students there are, how to apply, and what you could win !

Writing Contests With Multiple Categories

Some high school contests accept entries in a variety of formats, including the standard fiction and non-fiction, but also things like screenwriting or visual art. Check out these contests with multiple categories:

Scholastic Art and Writing Awards

• Award Amount: $1,000 to $12,500 scholarships
• Deadline: Varies between December and January, depending on your region
• Fee: $10 for single entry, $30 for portfolio

The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards celebrate art by students in grades seven through twelve (age 13 or older) on a regional and national scale. These awards have a huge number of categories and styles, including cash prizes or scholarships for some distinguished award winners . Categories include science-fiction and fantasy writing, humor, critical essays, and dramatic scripts, among others.

Deadlines vary by region (but are mostly in December and January), so use Scholastic's Affiliate Partner search to find out when projects are due for your area.

Scholastic partners with other organizations to provide prizes to winners, so what you can win depends on what you enter and what competition level you reach. Gold medal portfolio winners can earn a $12,500 scholarship, and silver medal winners with distinction can earn a $2,000 scholarship , as well as many other options in different categories.

The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards are open to private, public, or home-schooled students attending school in the US, Canada, or American schools in other countries. Students must be in grades seven through twelve to participate. Eligibility varies between regions, so consult Scholastic's Affiliate Partner search tool to figure out what applies to you .

The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards have a $10 entry fee for individual submissions and $30 for portfolio submissions, which may be waived for students in need . These fees may vary depending on location, so be sure to check your local guidelines .

Ocean Awareness Contest

• Award Amount: Scholarships up to $1,500
• Deadline: June 13, 2023 (submissions open in September)

The Ocean Awareness Contest asks students to consider the future of a coastal or marine species that is under threat from climate change. Submissions are accepted in a variety of art forms, but all must consider the way that climate change impacts ocean life .

Submissions for all categories, including art, creative writing, film, interactive and multimedia, music and dance, and poetry and spoken word are due in June, although the exact date varies slightly each year.

Winners may receive prizes of up to a $1,500 scholarship , depending on which division they fall into and what prize they win.

The contest is open to all international and US students between the ages of 11 and 18.

River of Words

• Award: Publication in the River of Words anthology
• Deadline: January 31, 2023

The River of Words contest asks students to consider watersheds—an area that drains into the same body of water—and how they connect with their local community. Students can explore this concept in art or poetry, with winners being published in the annual River of Words anthology .

Entries in all categories must be submitted by January 31, 2023. 

The River of Words contest is primarily for recognition and publication, as the website doesn't list any prize money . The contest includes specific awards for certain forms, such as poetry, some of which may have additional prizes .

The contest is open to International and US students from kindergarten to grade 12 (ages 5 through 19). Students who have graduated from high school but are not yet in college are also eligible.

Adroit Prizes

• Award Amount: $200 cash award
• Deadline: Typically April of each year

Sponsored by the Adroit Journal, the Adroit Prizes reward high school students and undergraduate students for producing exemplary fiction and poetry. Students may submit up to six poems or three works of prose (totaling 3,500 words) for consideration. Submissions typically open in spring .

Winners receive $200 and (along with runners-up) have their works published in the Adroit Journal . Finalists and runners-up receive a copy of their judge's latest published work.

The contest is open to secondary and undergraduate students, including international students and those who have graduated early . The Adroit Prizes has a non-refundable fee of $15, which can be waived.

YoungArts Competition

• Award Amount: Up to $10,000 cash awards
• Deadline: October 15, 2022; application for 2024 opens June 2023

Open to students in a variety of disciplines, including visual arts, writing, and music, the YoungArts competition asks students to submit a portfolio of work. Additional requirements may apply depending on what artistic discipline you're in .

Winners can receive up to $10,000 in cash as well as professional development help, mentorship, and other educational rewards.

Applicants must be 15- to 18-year-old US citizens or permanent residents (including green card holders) or in grades 10 through 12 at the time of submission . There is a $35 submission fee, which can be waived.

Fiction Writing Contests for High School Students

Many contests with multiple categories accept fiction submissions, so also check out the above contests if you're looking for places to submit original prose.

EngineerGirl Writing Contest

• Award Amount: $100 - $500 cash prize
• Deadline: February 1, 2023

This year's EngineerGirl Writing Contest asks students (though the name of the organization is "EngineerGirl," students of any gender may participate) to submit a piece of writing that shows how female and/or non-white engineers have contributed to or can enhance engineering’s great achievements. Word counts vary depending on grade level.

At every grade level, first-place winners will receive $500, second-place winners will receive $250, and third-place winners will receive $100 . Winning entries and honorable mentions will also be published on the EngineerGirl website.

Students of any gender from third to 12th grade may submit to this contest. Home-schooled and international students are also eligible.

Nonfiction Contests for High School Students

Like fiction, non-fiction is often also accepted in contests with multiple categories. However, there are quite a few contests accepting only non-fiction essays as well.

The American Foreign Services Association Essay Contest

• Award Amount: $1,250 to $2,500
• Deadline: April 3, 2023

The American Foreign Services Association sponsors a high school essay contest tasking students with selecting a country or region in which the United States Foreign Service has been involved at any point since 1924 and describe, in 1,500 words or less, how the Foreign Service was successful or unsuccessful in advancing American foreign policy goals in this country/region and propose ways in which it might continue to improve those goals in the coming years .

One winner will receive $2,500 as well as a Washington D.C. trip and a scholarship to attend Semester at Sea . One runner-up receives $1,250 and a scholarship to attend the International Diplomacy Program of the National Student Leadership Conference.

Entries must be from US students in grade nine through 12, including students in the District of Columbia, US territories, or US citizens attending school abroad, including home-schooled students.

John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Contest

• Award Amount: $100 - $10,000
• Deadline: January 13, 2023

The John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage contest tasks students with writing an essay between 700 and 1,000 words on an act of political courage by a US elected official serving during or after 1917 , inspired by John F. Kennedy's Profiles in Courage . Each essay should cover the act itself as well as any obstacles or risks the subject faced in achieving their act of courage. Essays must not cover figures previously covered in the contest, and should also not cover John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, or Edward M. Kennedy.

One first-place winner will receive $10,000, one second-place winner will receive $3,000, five finalists will receive $1,000 each, and eight semi-finalists will win $100 each.

The contest is open to students in grades nine through 12 who are residents of the United States attending public, private, parochial, or home schools . Students under the age of 20 in correspondence high school programs or GED programs, as well as students in US territories, Washington D.C., and students studying abroad, are also eligible.

SPJ/JEA High School Essay Contest

• Award Amount: $300 - $1,000 scholarships
• Deadline: February 19, 2023 (submissions open in November)

The SPJ/JEA high school essay contest , organized by the Society of Professional Journalists and the Journalism Education Association, asks students to  analyze the importance of independent media to our lives (as of now, the official essay topic for spring 2023 is TBD) . Essays should be from 300 to 500 words.

A $1,000 scholarship is given to a first-place winner, $500 to second-place, and $300 to third-place.

The contest is open to public, private, and home-schooled students of the United States in grades 9-12 .

Playwriting Contests for High School Students

For those who love the stage, playwriting contests are a great option. An original play can earn you great rewards thanks to any of these contests!

VSA Playwright Discovery Program Competition

• Award: Participation in professional development activities at the Kennedy Center
• Deadline: January 4, 2023 (Application opens in October)

The VSA Playwright Discovery Program Competition asks students with disabilities to submit a ten-minute script exploring their personal experiences, including the disability experience . Scripts may be realistic, fictional, or abstract, and may include plays, screenplays, or musical theater.

All entries are due in January. Scripts may be collaborative or written by individuals, but must include at least one person with a disability as part of the group .

One winner or group of winners will be selected as participants in the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. Winners will have access to professional assistance in developing their script as well as workshops and networking opportunities.

This contest is open to US and international students in ages 14 to 18 . Groups of up to five members may collaborate on an essay, but at least one of those students must have a disability.

Worldwide Plays Festival Competition

• Award: Professional production in New York
• Deadline: March (official 2023 deadline TBD)

In the Worldwide Plays Festival Competition , students from around the world can submit an eight-minute script for a play set in a part of a neighborhood —specifically, at a convenience store, outside a character's front door, or at a place where people convene. Each play must have roles for three actors, should not have a narrator who isn't also a character, and should not contain set changes.

Entries are due in February. Winners will have their play produced by professionals at an off-Broadway New York theater . Scholarships are also available for winners.

Any student, including US and international, in first through 12th grade may submit work for consideration.

• Award Amount: $50 - $200 cash prize
• Deadline: 2023 deadline TBD (application opens January 2023)

Students may submit a one-act, non-musical play of at least ten pages to YouthPLAYS for consideration . Plays should be appropriate for high school audiences and contain at least two characters, with one or more of those characters being youths in age-appropriate roles. Large casts with multiple female roles are encouraged.

One winner will receive $250, have their play published by YouthPLAYS, and receive a copy of Great Dialog , a program for writing dialog. One runner up will receive $100 and a copy of Great Dialog.

Students must be under the age of 19, and plays must be the work of a single author.

The Lewis Center Ten-Minute Play Contest

• Deadline: Spring of each year

Students in grade 11 may submit a ten-minute play for consideration for the Lewis Center Ten-Minute Play Contest . Plays should be 10 pages long, equivalent to 10 minutes.

One first-prize winner will receive $500, one second-prize winner will receive $250, and one third-prize will receive $100.

All entries must be from students in the 11th grade .

Poetry Writing Contests for High School Students

For those who prefer a little free verse or the constraints of a haiku, there are plenty of poetry-specific contests, too.

Creative Communications Poetry Contest

• Award Amount: $25
• Deadline: December

Students in ninth grade or below may submit any poem of 21 lines or less (not counting spaces between stanzas) for consideration in the Creative Communications Poetry Contest .

Students may win $25, a free book, and school supplies for their teacher .

Public, private, or home-schooled US students (including those in detention centers) in kindergarten through ninth grade may enter.

Leonard L. Milberg '53 High School Poetry Prize

• Award Amount: $500-$1500
• Deadline: November 

Students in 11th grade may submit up to three poems for consideration in the Leonard L. Milberg '53 High School Poetry Prize . Submissions are due in November .

One first-prize winner will receive $1500, one second-prize winner will receive $750, and a third-prize winner will receive $500. Poems may be published on arts.princeton.edu. All entrants must be in the 11th grade.

Nancy Thorp Poetry Contest

• Award Amount: $500 - $5,000 renewable scholarship, $350 cash prize
• Deadline: October 31, 2022

Women poets who are sophomores or juniors in high school may submit two poems for consideration for the Nancy Thorp Poetry Contest .

One first-place winner will receive a $350 cash prize, publication in and ten copies of Cargoes , Hollins' student magazine, as well as a renewable scholarship of up to $5,000 for Hollins and free tuition and housing for the Hollinsummer creative writing program. One second-place winner will receive publication in and two copies of Cargoes, a renewable scholarship to Hollins of up to $1,000, and a $500 scholarship to attend Hollinsummer.

Applicants must be female students in their sophomore or junior year of high school .

What's Next?

If you're looking for more money opportunities for college , there are plenty of scholarships out there— including some pretty weird ones .

For those who've been buffing up their test scores , there are tons of scholarships , some in the thousands of dollars.

If you're tired of writing essays and applying for scholarships, consider some of these colleges that offer complete financial aid packages .

Melissa Brinks graduated from the University of Washington in 2014 with a Bachelor's in English with a creative writing emphasis. She has spent several years tutoring K-12 students in many subjects, including in SAT prep, to help them prepare for their college education.

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17 Works of Nonfiction Coming This Spring

Memoirs from Brittney Griner and Salman Rushdie, a look at pioneering Black ballerinas, a new historical account from Erik Larson — and plenty more.

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By Cody Delistraty

The House of Hidden Meanings : A Memoir, by RuPaul

Though this isn’t the drag queen and TV personality’s first memoir, it’s arguably RuPaul’s most revealing. Excavating questions of childhood love, a reckoning with his challenging father and the power found in thinking more expansively about gender (especially as a “feminine Black man, in violation of society’s norms by virtue of just existing,” as he writes), “The House of Hidden Meanings” is a powerful coming-of-age of a prominent queer icon.

Dey Street, March 5

Lessons for Survival: Mothering Against ‘the Apocalypse ,’ by Emily Raboteau

As a mother disturbed by Donald Trump’s presidency and the misogyny and inequalities she sees as endemic to many facets of American life, Raboteau turns a critical eye on a number of contemporary issues, including police relations, pollution and the pandemic. The author is an English professor and also a street photographer, who finds hope in “making private anxieties public concerns,” as she writes, as well as in murals and signage, people and birds, as she seeks refuge for herself and her children.

Holt, March 12

Who’s Afraid of Gender? , by Judith Butler

The philosopher takes aim at the new interpretations and weaponization of “gender” in what might be read as a follow-up to their pioneering 1990 book, “Gender Trouble.” No longer just “a box to be checked,” gender has become a politicized concept — and one at the heart of a number of moral panics among far-right and authoritarian movements, Butler writes. The book offers thoughtful arguments placed within larger sociopolitical movements, showing why the modern conception of gender deserves, in Butler’s view, a rigorous examination.

Farrar, Straus & Giroux, March 19

One Way Back: A Memoir , by Christine Blasey Ford

In her 2018 testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the author, a psychologist and professor, alleged that Brett Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her at a high school party. Full of unforgettable moments and pathos, Ford’s words dominated headlines. Nearly six years later, she provides a behind-the-scenes look at both the lead-up to her testimony and its aftermath.

St. Martin’s, March 19

There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension , by Hanif Abdurraqib

In his ode to his home state, Ohio, and basketball, the National Book Award finalist weaves in insightful reflections about so-called bad neighborhoods, grief and staying put in Columbus even as so many peers chose to leave. Dotted with poetic aphorisms and split into sections reflecting a basketball game — a pregame, quarters and a game clock counting down subsections — basketball becomes a lens through which almost everything else in life might be refracted.

Random House, March 26

All Things Are Too Small: Essays in Praise of Excess , by Becca Rothfeld

The Washington Post’s nonfiction book critic mixes analyses of popular culture with an incisive look at literature, film and sex. Rothfeld pushes several steps beyond the surface to reveal a variety of arguments, like how disgust can be a reprieve from banality, how democratizing culture has done so little for politics and how minimalism depletes us spiritually.

Metropolitan Books, April 2

We Loved It All: A Memory of Life , by Lydia Millet

This “anti-memoir” grapples with being a parent and a child as nature is decimated. The book wastes no time exploring the disturbing, persuasive specifics of how humans harm and slaughter animals, reducing them to objects. Full of personal anecdotes and curious histories, this book suggests a shift in our view of ourselves — one in which we are no longer at the center of the world.

Norton, April 2

Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder , by Salman Rushdie

Rushdie was grievously injured in 2022 after being stabbed onstage at a literary event. Now, he tells the harrowing story of his attempted killing and recovery, advancing an argument about the power of art to counter violence.

Random House, April 16

New Cold Wars: China’s Rise, Russia’s Invasion, and America’s Struggle to Defend the West , by David E. Sanger with Mary K. Brooks

Sanger, a New York Times journalist , and Brooks, a foreign policy writer and researcher, offer a deeply-reported account of America’s relations with Russia and China after the Cold War. The questions are timely — Will Xi invade Taiwan? How will cyberwarfare play out? Will the U.S. continue to be a global leader amid its internal political strife? — and anchored by a look at how is global power captured, held and lost.

Crown, April 16

The Age of Grievance , by Frank Bruni

To have a grievance is not inherently bad — it can be a motivator for important change. But as The New York Times contributing columnist and Duke professor lays out in his latest book, certain grievances have been confounded and taken too far. At once an excoriation of Fox News, college speech policing, self-obsession fueled by social media and “oppression Olympics,” this is a book that finds faults and possibilities on both sides of the political aisle. A final “antidote” chapter proposes a reprieve rooted in humility.

Avid Reader Press, April 30

Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees , by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

The daughter of an Indian father and Filipino mother, Nezhukumatathil has crafted 40 short essays, each centered on a different food, from mangoes to waffles. Most include a historical dive and an insightful takeaway, such as how messiness is part of cooking, as it is of life. (And yet, she writes, “you make it anyway.”)

Ecco, April 30

The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War , by Erik Larson

Larson, one of today’s pre-eminent nonfiction storytellers, trawls a variety of archives to explore the historically momentous months between Abraham Lincoln’s election and the Battle of Fort Sumter — the end of which, in 1861, began the Civil War.

Crown, April 30

The Swans of Harlem: Five Black Ballerinas, Fifty Years of Sisterhood, and Their Reclamation of a Groundbreaking History , by Karen Valby

Long before Misty Copeland, there was the Dance Theater of Harlem: This account, building on an article for The New York Times , follows Sheila Rohan, Gayle McKinney-Griffith, Lydia Abarca-Mitchell, Marcia Sells and Karlya Shelton-Benjamin, pioneering dancers who performed for the likes of the Queen of England and Mick Jagger. Valby dives into the story of the group, including their successes and struggles, and brings their overlooked history to light.

Pantheon, April 30

Coming Home , by Brittney Griner with Michelle Burford

In a season of newsworthy memoirs, this will no doubt be one of the biggest. Griner, a W.N.B.A. star and two-time Olympic gold medalist, was detained by the authorities at a Russian airport for carrying hashish oil in her luggage. She was later jailed and eventually freed after nearly 10 months in a prisoner exchange. Her memoir, per her publisher, is about her time in a Russian penal colony, but it’s also about how her family and her love for her wife helped her through some of the most difficult moments.

Knopf, May 7

Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk , by Kathleen Hanna

The front woman of Le Tigre and Bikini Kill, Hanna provides background on her challenging childhood and time at the Evergreen State College, and the excitement and risks of creating a punk “girl band” that became a rallying cry for feminism and a stand against male violence. Told in something of a stream of consciousness style, “Rebel Girl” jumps briskly through stories, including her struggle with Lyme disease and friendships with Kurt Cobain, Joan Jett and other musical legends.

Ecco, May 14

Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space , by Adam Higginbotham

The British journalist’s 2019 book, “ Midnight in Chernobyl ,” clarified and retold a history many thought they already knew well. With “Challenger,” Higginbotham unearths new archival information and conducts original reporting to provide a detailed account of the disaster. The book takes a wide lens, exploring the tragedy and its aftermath but also the years leading up to it, including tracing the lives of the seven crew members who died.

Avid Reader Press, May 14

American Diva: Extraordinary, Unruly, Fabulous , by Deborah Paredez

A journey into messiness and transcendence, this collection includes 10 essays on iconic divas, and draws on the author’s own experience. Moving from the “Mexican” side of San Antonio to the “white” side as a girl, Paredez, a poet and professor at Columbia University, recounts how “the sound of a diva’s voice” taught her what it meant to be Mexican. She explores the careers of divas — defined broadly — from Tina Turner to Venus and Serena Williams, and places them at the center of American ideas on feminism, the free market and freedom since at least the 1970s.

Norton, May 21

Explore More in Books

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When the author Tommy Orange received an impassioned email from a teacher in the Bronx, he dropped everything to visit the students  who inspired it.

A few years ago, Harvard acquired the archive of Candida Royalle, a porn star turned pioneering director. Now, the collection has inspired a new book , challenging the conventional history of the sexual revolution.

Gabriel García Márquez wanted his final novel to be destroyed. Its publication this month  may stir questions about posthumous releases.

Tessa Hulls’s “Feeding Ghosts” chronicles how China’s history shaped her family. But first, she had to tackle some basics: Learn history. Learn Chinese. Learn how to draw comics.

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Each week, top authors and critics join the Book Review’s podcast to talk about the latest news in the literary world. Listen here .

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