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.
In How to Avoid a Climate Disaster, Bill Gates discusses how at this point, climate change is unavoidable; too much time was not used to solve the climate change crisis, so wildfires, rising sea levels, increased storms for some and droughts for others are inevitable now and in the future. However, the worst consequences of climate change are avoidable, just so long as every country can achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. Although the world is far from net-zero emissions, Gates mentions the current t
Just Mercy is a first-person account of Bryan Stevenson, a black lawyer, who helps prisoners that did not receive fair trials as part of a non-profit organization. Stevenson writes about various clients that he has worked for over the years and how the justice system has failed them.
The Republican War on Science is a nonfiction novel detailing the falsification of scientific evidence by the Republican Party written by Washington Post reporter Chris Mooney. This book relays several examples of Republicans falsifying, hiding, or cherry-picking scientific information to promote their own purposes, most of which come from the Bush administration. As expected, this book is clearly biased, but that didn’t make the information any less intriguing.
