Looking Back at 2024 Nonfiction

Nancy Brashear and Carolyn Angus
 
As we have done in previous years, we considered the diversity of reading interests of children and young adults and the identification of outstanding trade books with curriculum connections our priorities in looking back at the bounty of nonfiction published in 2024. Here are our best-of-the-year picks of informational books, poetry, and folklore.

​Amazing Immortals: A Guide to Gods and Goddesses Around the World. Dinah Williams. (2024). Abrams.
Williams introduces readers to more than 80 deities in this expansive volume of mythological lore that is beautifully illustrated by 17 artists from around the world. Entries cover the special powers, adventures, and family trees of the gods and goddesses along with “Fun Fact” and “In Modern Times” sidebars. (further reading, notes about the author and the artists, bibliography, index) (Gr 6 Up) 

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​Black Girl You Are Atlas. Renée Watson. Illus. by Ekua Holmes. (2024). Kokila. “Black girl you are Atlas. The way no one expected you to be the fulfillment of prophecy. But it is you, always, who holds the world up.” In this poignant, semiautobiographical collection of 38 poetic entries, Watson explores issues of sisterhood, gender, race, and class through the reflections of a maturing Black girl, Renée, accentuated by Holmes’ vibrant mixed-media collage artwork. (Gr 6 Up) 

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​Call Me Roberto!: Roberto Clemente Goes to Bat for Latinos. Nathalie Alonso. Illus. by Rudy Gutierrez. (2024). Calkins Creek.
Sports journalist Alonso tells the story of how Spanish-speaking Afro-Puerto Rican Roberto Clemente (1934-1972) persevered through racial discrimination after joining the Major Leagues at the age of 19. Playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates for 18 seasons, Clemente won numerous awards and gained recognition as one of the greatest baseball players of all time. (author’s note, photographs, glossary, timeline, bibliography, illustrator’s note) (PreK Up) 

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​Clever Crow. Chris Butterworth. Illus. by Olivia Lomenech Gill. (2024). Candlewick.
Butterworth’s accessible text and Gill’s stunning realistic illustrations invite readers to learn about the characteristics and behavior of crows. Most of the more than 100 species of crows are plain birds. They are not “fancy fliers.” They caw rather than sing. They are intelligent and playful. Eighteen members of the crow family are shown on the back endpaper; their eggs are pictured on the front endpaper. (more about crows, index) (PreK-Gr 2) 

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​A Deathly Compendium of Poisonous Plants: Wicked Weeds and Sinister Seeds. Rebecca E. Hirsch. Illus. by Eugenia Nobati. (2024). Zest.
This fascinating guide, illustrated with botanical drawings and photographs, includes historical anecdotes and scientific information about 22 poisonous plants from aconite to white snakeroot and one “fighting fungus,” ergot. Hirsch offers a cautionary word to the wise in the prologue and ends with a reminder that “plants deserve a healthy dose of respect.” (glossary, source notes, bibliography, further information, index) (Gr 9-12) 

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​​The Enigma Girls: How Ten Teenagers Broke Ciphers, Kept Secrets, and Helped Win World War II. Candace Fleming. (2024). Scholastic Focus.
Fleming tells the intriguing story of ten young women who worked on around-the-clock shifts at Bletchley Park intercepting German radio transmissions, breaking ciphers, and cracking codes to provide critical information to the British government and military about Nazi plans during World War II. (author’s note, bibliography, source notes, index) (Gr 6 Up) 

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​Evidence!: How Dr. John Snow Solved the Mystery of Cholera. Deborah Hopkinson. Illus. by Nik Henderson. (2024). Knopf.
During the 1854 cholera epidemic in London, Dr. John Snow (1813-1858) proves that the disease is water-borne, not air-borne. When he traces the outbreak to the Broad Street community water pump shared by everyone who became infected, Snow removes the pump handle and saves lives by stopping the spread of cholera. (notes on Broad Street pump, Dr. Snow, and infectious diseases; resources) (PreK Up) 

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​The Evolution of an Idea (Discovering Life’s Story #2). Joy Hakim. (2024). MITeen. After beginning with the development of classification systems of living organisms by Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778) and Georges-Louis Leclerc, the Comte de Buffon (1707-1788), Hakim covers the scientific discoveries of how living organisms adapt and change over time and how traits are passed from generation to generation made by Charles Darwin (1809-1882), Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913), Gregor Mendel (1822-1884), and others. (further reading, source notes, bibliography, index) (Gr 9-12) 

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​Folk Stories and Tall Tales: A Treasury of Traditional Stories from Across North America. Claire Cock-Starkey. Illus. by Zanna Goldhawk. (2024). Kane Miller.
This beautifully illustrated collection of folklore is organized into six chapters: “Origin Stories,” “Animal Stories,” “Nature Stories,” “Tricksters,” “Folk Heroes,” and “Tall Tales.” Each chapter includes a two-page introduction to the type of storytelling and five stories shared by groups of people from across the North American continent. (glossary) (PreK Up)  

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​The Great Wolf Rescue: Saving the Red Wolves (Sandra Markle’s Science Discoveries). Sandra Markle. (2024). Millbrook.
Markle covers the work of the North American Red Wolf Recovery Program (established in 1973) to save red wolves. Captive breeding programs in zoos and wildlife refuges and pup fostering with red wolf moms in the wild have been successful in reintroducing the once endangered species to the wild. (author’s note, “Did You Know?” facts, glossary, source notes, resources, index) (Gr 3 Up) 

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​Guts for Glory: The Story of Civil War Soldier Rosetta Wakeman. Joanna Lapati. (2024). Eerdmans.
This stunning picture book biography tells the story of Sarah Rosetta Wakeman (1843-1864) who, disguised as a man, volunteered for the Union Army’s newly formed 153rd New York Regiment as Lyons Wakeman. (author’s note, more about Wakeman and the Civil War, timeline, excerpts from Wakeman’s letters, glossary of items in a Civil War soldier’s pack pictured on the endpapers) (Gr 3 Up) 

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​Home (Spectacular STEAM for Curious Readers). Isabelle Simler. Trans. by Vineet Lal. (2024). Eerdmans.
Simler takes readers on a worldwide tour of the homes of a diverse group of 27 native animals from the weaver ant to the Sumatran orangutan. Stunning double spreads feature colorful digital images of the animals and their dwellings and information-packed poems told from their points of view. (originally published in French; notes on the animals, glossary, resources) (PreK Up)  

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​My Antarctica: True Adventures in the Land of Mummified Seals, Space Robots, and So Much More. G. Neri. Illus. by Corban Wilkin. (2024). Candlewick.
Neri’s engaging field guide to Antarctica, “the most extreme place on Earth,” is a record presented in the form of a scrapbook filled with captioned color photographs, cartoons, maps, diagrams, and interest-catching lists of his adventures while based at McMurdo Station with scientists and support staff. (author’s note, “Antarctica,” sources, index) (PreK Up) 

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​The Observologist: A Handbook for Mounting Very Small Scientific Expeditions. Giselle Clarkson. (2024). Gecko.
The Observologist is an intriguing handbook for curious readers on how to find tiny animals, plants, and fungi and notice interesting details in the world around them. An introduction on observology, the study of looking, is followed by sections of sketchbook-like drawings and facts about four perfect places for mounting mini scientific expeditions: a damp corner, pavement, a weedy patch, and behind the curtains. (index) (Gr 3 Up) 

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​One Long Line: Marching Caterpillars and the Scientists Who Followed Them (Discovery Chronicles). Loree Griffin Burns. Illus. by Jamie Green. (2024). MIT Kids.
Jean-Henri Fabre (1823-1915) concluded that pine processionary caterpillars are born with the instinct either to lead or follow. A century later, Terrence Fitzgerald (b. 1941) studied tent caterpillars, which don’t march in orderly lines but still arrive together at their destination, and came to a different conclusion about the behavior of “marching caterpillars.” (glossary, further reading, source notes, bibliography) (Gr 3 Up) 

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​A Planet Is a Poem. Amanda West Lewis. Illus. by Oliver Averill. (2024). Kids Can.
Lewis’ creative exploration of poetry and astronomy includes 14 poems in different poetic forms. For example, “O Sol! O Helios!” is a sonnet to the Sun, and “What’s in a Name?” is an acrostic poem for Neptune. The poems are set on gatefold flaps of Averill’s impressionistic double-spread illustrations. Opening the flaps reveals scientific facts as well as information about the chosen poetic form. (writing activity, glossary, sources) (Gr 3 Up)  

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​Poemhood: Our Black Revival. Amber McBride, Taylor Byas, & Erica Martin (Eds.). (2024). HarperTeen.
This anthology explores the history, folklore, and diversity of the Black experience through the contributions of Black poets “who are now ancestors” (James Baldwin, Gwendolyn Brooks, Lucille Clifton, Langston Hughes, Etheridge Knight, Audre Lorde, Claude McKay, and Phillis Wheatley) and 27 modern poets. Each poem is accompanied by an outro, a brief closing section written by the editors about the poem. (biographical notes) (Gr 9-12) 

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​Represent: The Unfinished Fight for the Vote. Michael Eric Dyson & Marc Favreau. (2024). Little, Brown.  
Represent tells the story of the ongoing fight for “people power” in the United States. Dyson and Favreau’s informative, well-researched account chronicles the battle for equality of representation that comes with the right to vote, which began with the American Revolution and continues to the present day. (“People-Power Ideas,” “What You Can Do,” timeline, bibliography, source notes, index) (Gr 9-12)  

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​Spirit Sleuths: How Magicians and Detectives Exposed the Ghost Hoaxes. Gail Jarrow. (2024). Calkins Creek.
During the rise of Spiritualism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many people turned to mediums, psychics, and fortunetellers seeking connections with their dead loved ones. Jarrow’s engrossing narrative tells how “super sleuths” such as magician Harry Houdini (1874-1926) and private detective Rose Mackenberg (1892-1968) exposed the supposedly “mystical feats” of spiritualists as hoaxes. (timeline, glossary, “More to Explore,” author’s note, source notes, bibliography, index) (Gr 6 Up) 

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​Stealing Little Moon: The Legacy of the American Indian Boarding Schools. Dan SaSuWeh Jones. (2024). Scholastic Focus.
Jones, a member of the Ponca Tribe, chronicles his family’s experiences with Chilocco Indian Agricultural School during its operation as an American Indian boarding school in Oklahoma for more than 100 years. Little Moon was four when she was taken from home and placed in Chilocco after its opening in 1864. Jones was on the maintenance crew when the institution closed in 1980. (bibliography) (Gr 3 Up) 

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The Unlikely Hero: The Story of Wolf 8 (Young Readers’ Edition) (Chronicles of the Yellowstone Wolves #1). Rick McIntyre & David A. Poulsen. (2024). Greystone Kids.
McIntyre and Poulsen’s narration, with informational insets by National Park Service Ranger McIntyre, begins with the 1995 reintroduction of wolf packs including Wolf 8’s family to Yellowstone National Park and ends with Wolf 8’s death. An afterword by Ojibwe John Potter tells an origin story of the wolf. (Gr 3 Up) 

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​Unlocking the Universe: The Cosmic Discoveries of the Webb Space Telescope. Suzanne Slade. (2024). Charlesbridge.
Unlocking the Universe introduces readers to the world’s most powerful telescope. Designed by a team of scientists beginning in 1989, the Webb was launched from the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana on December 25, 2021. NASA began releasing awe-inspiring images of the Webb’s spectacular discoveries in July 2022. (author’s note, diagram of the Webb’s light-detecting instruments, information about NASA’s four earlier “great observatories,” resources, bibliography) (Gr 3 Up) 

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​Virus Hunters: How Science Protects People When Outbreaks and Pandemics Strike. Amy Cherrix. (2024). Harper.
This scientific exploration focuses on the discoveries of “disease detectives” (nowadays trained as epidemiologists) who identified viruses and addressed outbreaks, epidemics, and pandemics of viral diseases including hantavirus, cholera, influenza, smallpox, HIV/Aids, and Covid-19. In the epilogue, Cherrix considers how the solving of such clinical mysteries gives hope to the survival of humankind. (bibliography, endnotes) (Gr 6 Up)

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​Water: Discovering the Precious Resource All Around Us (Spectacular STEAM for Curious Readers). Olga Fadeeva. Trans. by Lena Traer. (2024). Eerdmans.
“How much water is there on earth?” In Fadeeva’s exploration of the science, history, and other topics related to water, more than 25 questions are pursued with fact-filled responses overlaid on illustrations created with acrylic paint dripped and diluted with water. The book concludes with the thought-provoking question, “How can we protect our planet’s water?” (originally published in Russian) (Gr 3 Up)

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​Wildlife Crossings: Protecting Animal Pathways Around the World. Catherine Barr. Illus. by Christiane Engel. (2024). Candlewick.
After introducing the Earth’s ancient crisscrossing paths “made by 8.7 million species searching for food, water, mates, and safe places to breed,” Barr considers how seven animals from around the world (elephants, hedgehogs, birds, gibbons, fish, bears, and cougars) need these links to nature, which have been disrupted by humans, for survival along with efforts of scientists and citizen scientists to protect these pathways. (PreK Up)  

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Nancy Brashear is Professor Emeritus of English at Azusa Pacific University, in Azusa, California. Carolyn Angus is former Director of the George G. Stone Center for Children’s Books, Claremont Graduate University, in Claremont, California.