The Soviet Union was known for its many incidents and tragedies. Just one such commonly known one is the Chernobyl Incident, in which potentially hundreds of thousands were killed.
So when just nine young hikers suddenly disappeared in the Northern Ural Mountains, not many questions were asked. Yet when the group was found by search parties weeks after their disappearance, investigations showed that all 9 had cut their tents open and fled, poorly dressed in subzero temperatures.
Helen Jukes, unsatisfied with her work and home life, receives a colony of bees as a gift from a friend. Recalling how she enjoyed her previous beekeeping experiences, she decides to keep and care for the colony in her backyard. She describes her year of beekeeping, all the while learning more about honey bees and rediscovering passion.
Caitlin is a popular teenage girl living in the United States, living a very comfortable lifestyle. Martin is a poor teenage boy living in the bush of Zimbabwe in South Africa. Caitlin gets an assignment at school to write to a pen pal. She ends up with Martin. Martin is the top of his class and is the only one at his school who gets a pen pal from America. They learn more and more about each other and their very different lifestyles. They create an unbreakable bond and have the adventure of a lifetime together.
In his brilliant study on the stages of the Earths' history, Peter Brannen in his book, The Ends of the World, brings the five ancient worlds, lost to the five mass extinctions, to life. Including different topics, such as paleontology, geology, climate change, and ecology, Brannen connects these scientific topics through the use of stories, theories, facts, and of course, humor. The author's casual writing style and sense of humor differentiate his book from other books formatted as old-school science textbooks.
You Can’t Say That by Leonard S Marcus is an informative and fascinating collection of interviews by award-winning children and teen authors. These authors share their thoughts and experiences regarding censorship and free expression in eye-opening, sensitive, and sometimes comedic ways, all in an effort to explain why censorship is such an important issue in our modern world. I found the book thoroughly entertaining and would recommend it for older kids, teens, and adults.
Rich Dad Poor Dad for Teens is a helpful and easy to understand nonfiction book by Robert Kiyosaki. This book is about teaching teens how to think rich and it teaches the basics of becoming rich. I love the way Robert Kiyosaki teaches with examples and a little bit of humor. I recommend this book to anyone struggling in their financial life. That is why I rate Rich Dad Poor Dad for Teens a 5/5.
Laura Bufano Edge’s Apollo 13 A Successful Failure is an informative nonfiction book about the Apollo 13 disaster. NASA had already been sending astronauts into space for a while, but wanted to do more research on the moon. The Apollo13 launch crew wanted to land on the moon to do said research. Problems with the oxygen tanks created an explosion, causing the crew to lose a lot of their air, water, fuel, and other supplies. The team now had to focus solely on surviving and getting home.
Into Thin Air is an exciting nonfiction recount of the 1996 Mt. Everest Disaster. Author and protagonist Jon Krakauer is a mountain climber and magazine writer. Krakauer wants to write an article about the commercialization of Mt. Everest, and he joins an expedition team that wants to make it to Everest’s summit. The team is faced with the expected problems of being at high altitudes, such as cold weather and a lack of oxygen.
One of the greatest scientific discoveries has been made - on the brink of a war. It’s 1938, and chemist Otto Hahn has discovered that neutrons, at a high enough speed, can cause uranium atoms to split apart, releasing a huge amount of energy. The idea of an atomic bomb slowly falls into place and spreads like lightning, as Germany begins its campaign across Europe. As Germany begins collecting uranium, the rest of the world needs to catch up and create their own atomic bombs. Renowned scientists coalesce in Los Alamos, researching the atomic bomb, even with spies in their midst.
In this true story, a white man, journalist John Howard Griffin, decides to become a Negro to see how it feels like. At the beginning of the book, he meets with his friend and tells him his idea. Regardless of what others thought, John goes to New Orleans and consults with doctors. He changes his skin color to see how one would treat a negro. However, he learns that some still treat black men without equality. John decides to change that.
