Non-Fiction & Biography Grades 6-12

Atomic Habits - James Clear

Reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results. 

Grades 10-12

I Am Malala - Malala Yousafzai

 The inspiring memoir of the youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner who fought for girls' education in Pakistan, surviving an assassination attempt by the Taliban. 

Grades 7-12

Into the Wild - Jon Krakauer  

A young man named Chris McCandless abandons his possessions and wealth to travel into the Alaskan wilderness, seeking freedom but ultimately facing the harsh realities of nature. 

Grades 10-12

Make Your Bed - William McRaven

The book expands on ten life lessons from McRaven's military training as a US Navy SEAL, illustrating how small disciplines and daily choices can lead to extraordinary success and personal fulfillment. 

Grades 9-12

Free Lunch - Rex Ogle

Rex Ogle recounts his first semester in sixth grade in which he and his younger brother often went hungry, wore secondhand clothes, and were short of school supplies and he was on his school's free lunch program. Grounded in the immediacy of physical hunger and the humiliation of having to announce it every day in the school lunch line, Rex's is a compelling story of a more profound hunger--that of a child for his parents' love and care.

Grades 6-8

Bomb: The Race to Build and Steal the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon -

 Steve Sheinkin

Examines the history of the atomic bomb, discussing the discovery of the behavior of uranium when placed next to radioactive material, the race to build a bomb, and the impact of the weapon on societies around the world.

Grades 7-10

Lafayette! - Nathan Hale

Gilbert du Motier became the Marquis de Lafayette at a young age, but he was not satisfied with the comforts of French nobility. He wanted adventure! A major general by nineteen, he was eager to prove himself in battle. When he heard about the revolution going on in America, he went overseas.

Grades 4-7

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind 

 William Kamkwamba

African teenager William Kamkwamba explored science books in his village library when he was forced to drop out of school, and was able to change his family's life by creating a windmill to pump water for his family's farm.

Grades 5-8