Great Non-Fiction for Young Adults

The Dream Book | With Their Eyes | Celebrating a Quinceanera | The Exploding Toilet | The Kid Who Invented the Trampoline | We Beat the Street | Stiff | Pedro and Me | Teens Cook | The T-Shirt Book | The Code Book | Attack of the Killer Video Book | In These Girls, Hope is a Muscle | A Night to Remember | Hole in my Life |Printer Friendly Version

The Dream Book: A Young Person's Guide to Understanding Dreams
by Patricia Garfield
YA 154.6
Do you ever dream you're hanging out with Katie Holmes or Johnny Damon? How about showing up at school in your underwear? Driving a car even though you've never driven? These dreams are more common than you think and there are some reasonable, and surprising explanations for them.
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With their Eyes: The View from a High School at Ground Zero
edited by Annie Thomas
YA 303.625
September 11, 2001 started as a normal day for the students of Stuyvesant High School, four blocks away from the Twin Towers in New York City. Read firsthand accounts from the students about living in the shadow of the World Trade Center attack.
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Celebrating a Quinceanera: A Latina's 15th Birthday Celebration
by Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith
YA 395.25
Ariana watches as plans are made for her cousin, Cynthia's Quinceanera. The beautiful photographs of the ceremony are what make this book great.
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The Exploding Toilet: Modern Urban Legends
by David Holt and Bill Mooney
YA 398.2
Did you hear about the man who gift-wrapped his garbage? Or the man who was accidently taken to a mental hospital? Did you know that your hamburgers may have worms in it? Read about these and other strange stories, which may or may not be true.
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The Kid Who Invented the Trampoline: More Surprising Stories about Inventions
by Don L. Wulffson
YA 609
In 1963, at a middle school in New Jersey, an eighth grader invented the snowboard. The inventor of Liquid Paper (also known as "white out") had a son who later joined the Monkees. Read about these and the minds behind the trampoline, toilet paper, margarine, and Post-It notes.
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We Beat the Street: How a Friendship Pact Led to Success
by Sharon Draper with Drs. Sampson Davis, George Jenkins, and Rameck Hunt
YA 610.92
Three boyhood friends rom Newark, New Jersey, who were getting into trouble, make a pact to better their lives and continue with their education.
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Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
by Mary Roach
YA 611
A funny view of various uses for dead bodies, such as research for medical school, and for organ transplants. There's even a chapter about cannibalism.
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Pedro and Me: Friendship, Loss, and What I Learned
by Judd Winick
YA 616.9792
A graphic novel, detailing the friendship between two men who met while filming The Real World, one of whom, Pedro, suffered from AIDS. Pedro's story is vividly told through Judd Winick's words and drawings. Even if you watched The Real World: San Francisco, you won't know the whole story until you read this book.
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Teens Cook: How to Cook What You Want to Eat
by Megan and Jill Carle
YA 641.5
Two teenage girls give their favorite (and easy) recipes, including chicken quesadillas, frozen bananas with chocolate and toffee, and baked potato soup.
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The T-Shirt Book
by Charlotte Brunel
YA 646.3
A brief history of the t-shirt, accompanied by hundreds of color photographs of all different styles and brands.
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The Code Book: How to Make It, Break It, Hack It, Crack It
by Simon Singh
YA 652.8
Describes a history of code making, from Ancient Egypt to Mary, Queen of Scots, to present day. There are also hints and details given about cracking codes.
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Attack of the Killer Video Book: Tips and Tricks for Young Directors
by Mark Shulman and Hazlitt Krog
YA 778.59
An introduction to making movies, for budding directors or for those of you just looking to have some fun with a video camera.
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In These Girls, Hope is a Muscle
by Madeleine Blais
YA 796.32362
Friday Night Lights
by H.G. Bissinger
YA 796.332
Read the true stories of a high school girl's basketball team in Amherst (In These Girls, Hope is a Muscle), and a high school football team in Texas. (Friday Night Lights)
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A Night to Remember
by Walter Lord
YA 910.452
Before Leonardo DiCaprio was even born, this was the book (and movie) about the Titanic.
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Hole in my Life
by Jack Gantos
YA B/Gantos
Back in the early 1970's, Young Adult and Children's author, Jack Gantos (Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key), wanted a life of excitement and so he agreed to smuggle drugs from Florida, and soon found himself in jail.
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