Looking Back at 2025 Nonfiction

1/12/2026

Nancy Brashear and Carolyn Angus
As in previous years, we prioritized the identification of outstanding trade books with curriculum connections and considered the diversity of reading interests in looking back at the bounty of informational books, biographies, poetry, and folklore published for children and young adults in 2025. Here are our best-of-the-year picks.

Alberto Salas Plays Paka Paka con la Papa. Sara Andrea Fajardo. Illus. by Juliana Martinez-Neal. (2025). Roaring Brook.
Fajardo’s playful language, peppered with Spanish and Quechua words, and Martinez-Neal’s equally lively mixed-media artwork tell how Peruvian agronomist Alberto Salas (b.1943) has played “potato hide-and-seek” in the Andes as he collected wild species for his research on preserving the diversity of potatoes needed in the cultivation of this important food in our changing world. (glossary, information on Salas and potatoes, author’s and illustrator’s notes) (PreK Up)

American Spirits: The Famous Fox Sisters and the Mysterious Fad that Haunted a Nation. Barb Rosenstock. (2025). Calkins Creek.
American Spirits is an intriguing, well-researched biography of the Fox sisters, “the Rochester Rappers,” whose holding of séances to communicate with deceased spirits made them key figures in the 19th-century Spiritualist Movement. (excerpt of “The Medium Statement” made by Maggie Fox, author’s note, source notes, bibliography, index, images) (Gr 6 Up)

Banned Together: Our Fight for Readers’ Rights. Ashley Hope Pérez (Ed.). Illus. by Debbie Fong. (2025). Holiday House.
Fifteen authors contribute short stories, poems, graphic narratives, and essays to this anthology dealing with the alarming increase in book challenges and book bans in the United States. Editor Pérez and illustrator Fong intersperse a wealth of related information including book lists that encourage teens to read banned books and join the “fight for readers’ rights.” (selected sources, resources) (Gr 9-12)

Black Diamond Kings (Sports Royalty #6). Charles R. Smith Jr. Illus. by Adrian Brandon. (2025). Candlewick.
Smith’s latest collection of Sports Royalty [BS1] [CA2] poems pays tribute to 12 outstanding legends of Negro league baseball including Leroy Robert “Satchel” Paige, John Henry “Pop” Lloyd, James “Cool Papa” Bell, and Norman “Turkey” Stearnes. Brandon’s stylized hand-sketched and digitally-painted illustrations complement the spirited wordplay, imagery, rhythm, rhyme, repetition, riffs, and varied forms of Smith’s poetry. (“Player Notes” and “More About the Negro Leagues”) (Gr 3 Up)

Celtic Myths: Meet the Gods, Creatures, and Heroes of Celtic Legend (Ancient Myths). Martin MacIntyre. Illus. by Katie Ponder. (2025). DK.
MacIntyre introduces readers to traditional stories told by the Celts of Britain, Ireland, and Brittany. This accessible collection that includes retellings of 20 myths and profiles of ancient gods, heroes, supernatural beings, as well as additional information on storytelling and the Celtic Nations and their histories, is beautifully illustrated by Ponder’s colorful, stylistic artwork. (pronunciation guide, glossary, index, sources, further reading) (Gr 3 Up)

Death in the Jungle: Murder, Betrayal, and the Lost Dream of Jonestown. Candace Fleming. (2025). Anne Schwartz.
Fleming traces the rise and fall of charismatic Jim Jones (1931-1978), who founded a cult-like church in Indiana in 1955. As his paranoia and delusions escalated amidst conflicts with the government and disaffection of church members after relocating Peoples Temple to California, Jones moved his followers to Guyana to build Jonestown—a supposed utopia that became the site of the 1978 mass murder-suicide of 909 people. (archival photos, key figures, author’s note, source notes, bibliography) (Gr 6 Up)

A Forest Song. Kirsten Hall. Illus. by Evan Turk. (2025). Random House Studio. “Into the forest, dark and deep, / With miles to go before I sleep . . .” Turk’s vibrantly colored and textured illustrations dramatically set the scene for Hall’s cento poem in which she uses words and phrases from the poems of other writers to tell the story of a young child’s adventurous exploration of the natural world. (author’s note, list of the poets and the lines they wrote, “About Cento Poems” and “Write Your Own Cento Poem”) (PreK Up)

Grimms’ Fairy Tales. Sandra Dieckmann. (2025). Candlewick.
Author-illustrator Dieckmann retells 20 fairy tales including familiar ones such as “Sleeping Beauty,” “Rumpelstiltskin,” and “Hansel and Gretel” along with lesser-known ones such as “Mother Holle,” “Jorinda and Joringel,” and “The King of the Golden Mountain.” The inclusion of some unexpected twists and modern touches in Dieckmann’s writing style and her stunning artwork (colorful decorative borders, full-page illustrations, and spot art) make the classic stories of the Brothers Grimm appealing to today’s young readers. (afterword) (PreK Up)

The History of We. Nikkolas Smith. (2025). Kokila.
“Let us travel back to the start, so far back that all of our roots begin to tell the same story.” Smith’s lyrical text and poignant acrylic paintings chronicle the origin and history of humankind. Keeping the focus on Africa as the cradle of civilization, he communicates in a child-friendly manner that we all have a common beginning and shared future. (timeline, detailed author-illustrator’s note) (PreK Up)

How Sweet the Sound: A Soundtrack for America. Kwame Alexander. Illus. by Charly Palmer. (2025). Little, Brown.
Alexander’s melodic free verse poems and Palmer’s vibrant artwork invite readers to celebrate the role of Black culture in the history of American music from the talking drums, chants, and praise songs of “the motherland” (West Africa) to the soundtrack of present-day America. “… the sweet sound of people / surviving and thriving / all the while learning / to love themselves / by singing it LOUD and Proud.” (end notes) (PreK Up)

Hurricane. Jason Chin. (2025). Neal Porter. “A storm is raging over the Atlantic Ocean.” While meteorologists monitor the path and intensity of the tropical cyclone, the residents of Hatteras Island, North Carolina, prepare for its expected landfall as a hurricane and make plans to evacuate the barrier island. Once the hurricane moves on and it is safe to return home, the community begins the long task of cleaning up. (end notes, diagrams, maps, further reading, selected sources, author-illustrator’s note) (PreK Up)

Insectarium (Welcome to the Museum). Dave Goulson. Illus. by Emily Carter. (2025). Big Picture.
This latest Welcome to the Museum book invites readers to discover the diverse world of insects by touring an insectarium. Each of the seven galleries (chapters) include rooms (double spreads with an ink-and-digitally-colored plate of insects on the recto page and general information and a key to the plate identifying the insects by common and scientific names on the verso page). (index, biographical notes on “the curators”—Goulson and Carter), “To Learn More” websites) (Gr 3 Up)

Just in Case: Saving Seeds in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. Megan Clendenan. Illus. by Brittany Cicchese. (2025). Charlesbridge.
Buried deep underground on an island in Norway only 800 miles from the North Pole is the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which holds a “treasure priceless” of more than 580 million seeds--just in case. Clendenan’s accessible text, enhanced by Cicchese’s artwork, tells the story of the international conservation project of saving samples of seed varieties from seed banks around the world. (more about seed preservation, author’s note, resources for kids, bibliography) (PreK Up)

My Presentation Today Is About the Anaconda. Bibi Dumon Tak. Trans. by Nancy Forest-Flier. Illus. by Annemarie Van Haeringen. (2025). Levine Querido.
“Hello. I’m an earthworm and my presentation today is on the anaconda.” An earthworm and 19 other anthropomorphic animals make oral presentations on their favorite species. Each presentation contains scientific information about both the subject and the speaker while also cleverly portraying the kind of classroom chaos that may occur on a day when students make oral reports—especially when the speaker ends by asking if there are any questions. (index) (Gr 3 Up)

Nightmare Jones: Poems. Shannon Bramer. Illus. by Cindy Derby. (2025). Groundwood.
Bramer’s weirdly imaginative collection of 28 expressionistic storytelling poems about monsters, hybrid creatures, and human fears and Derby’s dark mixed-media illustrations (described as “created with powdered graphite, watercolor, gouache, color burst powder, pastels, and lots of puddles”) will have teens who like poetry and artwork that is eerie and nightmarish returning to Nightmare Jones again and again and pondering the sense—or nonsense—of this beautifully-crafted book. (Gr 9-12)

The Six: The Untold Story of America’s First Women Astronauts (Young Readers Edition). Loren Grush (with Rebeca Stefoff). (2025). Simon & Schuster.
In 1978, [NB1] Sally Ride, Judy Resnick, Kathy Sullivan, Anna Fisher, Margaret “Rhea” Seddon, and Shannon Lucid were the first women chosen to be members of NASA’s Astronaut Corp. Grush’s collective biography tells the inspiring stories of these astronauts who were the first six American women to fly in space in spite of the overwhelming challenges they faced in the originally male-dominated field of astronautics. (photographs, author’s note, timeline, brief biographies, sources) (Gr 6 Up)

White House Secrets: Medical Lies and Cover-Ups. (Medical Fiascoes #4). Gail Jarrow. (2025). Calkins Creek.
Jarrow presents an intriguing account of the medical secrets of nine U.S. presidents—James Garfield, Chester Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Woodrow Wilson, Warren Harding, Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, and Joseph Biden—during their time in office. She also addresses questions about the public’s right to know about a president’s health that are raised by the history of these White House secrets. (photographs, timeline, glossary, author’s note, source notes, bibliography, index) (Gr 6 Up)

White Lies: How the South Lost the Civil War, Then Rewrote History. Ann Bausum. (2025). Roaring Brook.
Lie #1: “Slavery was a compassionate institution.” Lie #20: “We erase history when we remove symbols of the Confederacy.” Bausum confronts the 20 lies, misinformation that emerged in the South before, during, and after the Civil War, which perpetuate the “Lost Cause” narrative and continue to distort the accuracy of U.S. history. (archival photographs, author’s note, research notes and acknowledgments, timeline, source notes, bibliography, index) (Gr 9-12)

Words with Wings and Magic Things. Matthew Burgess. Illus. by Doug Salati. (2025). Tundra.
Young readers are pulled into this illustrated poetry collection through seven portals (Welcome, Wonders, Wild, Wheee!, Whoops & Whallops, Windows, and Whispers & Well Wishes). Each of Burgess’ worlds includes seven imaginative poems accompanied by Salati’s lively mixed-media illustrations that splash across double spreads, pop up in vignettes, or appear on a page following a poem. (title index) (PreK Up)

A World Without Summer: A Volcano Erupts, a Creature Awakens, and the
Sun Goes Out. Nicholas Day. Illus. by Yas Imamura. (2025). Random House Studio.
Day’s compelling narrative brings the deadliest volcanic cataclysmic event [NB1] in human history—the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa—to life. Tambora’s devastation created a global climate crisis including extreme weather, famine, disease, and death. And amidst the dark days and stormy skies that followed, Mary Shelley wrote her horror novel Frankenstein (1818). (bibliography, source notes, index) (Gr 6 Up)

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.

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