YA Nonfiction

The seventeen eye-opening essays in Disability Visibility, all written by disabled people, offer keen insight into the complex and rich disability experience, examining life's ableism and inequality, its challenges and losses, and celebrating its wisdom, passion, and joy.

The accounts in this collection ask readers to think about disabled people not as individuals who need to be "fixed," but as members of a community with its own history, culture, and movements. They offer diverse perspectives that speak to past, present, and future generations. It is essential reading for all.

"Empowering, modern, and judgment-free."--Booklist

CONSENT. SEXTING. VIRGINITY. THE BIG O. Sex-positive vlogger Hannah Witton covers it all in this informative and accessible must-have sex education resource for teens

Nobody really has sex all figured out. So Hannah Witton wrote a book full of honest, hilarious (and sometimes awkward) anecdotes, confessions, and revelations. Hannah talks about doing it safely. Doing it joyfully. Doing it when you're ready. Not doing it. Basically, doing it the way you want, when you want (if you want).

Doing It works as both an educational introduction to sex as well as a guidebook for those who are already sexually active. It offers valuable insight on important topics that teens don't always learn about in sex ed at school, such as healthy relationships, porn, contraception, sex shaming, and more. Approachable and empowering, this is the go-to resource for all things s-e-x.

As an adult book, Sam Quinones's Dreamland took the world by storm, winning the NBCC Award for General Nonfiction and hitting at least a dozen Best Book of the Year lists. Now, adapted for the first time for a young adult audience, this compelling reporting explains the roots of the current opiate crisis.

In 1929, in the blue-collar city of Portsmouth, Ohio, a company built a swimming pool the size of a football field; named Dreamland, it became the vital center of the community. Now, addiction has devastated Portsmouth, as it has hundreds of small rural towns and suburbs across America. How that happened is the riveting story of Dreamland. Quinones explains how the rise of the prescription drug OxyContin, a miraculous and extremely addictive painkiller pushed by pharmaceutical companies, paralleled the massive influx of black tar heroin--cheap, potent, and originating from one small county on Mexico's west coast, independent of any drug cartel.

Introducing a memorable cast of characters--pharmaceutical pioneers, young Mexican entrepreneurs, narcotics investigators, survivors, teens, and parents--Dreamland is a revelatory account of the massive threat facing America and its heartland.

A revealing portrait of a young Black man asking questions about self-discovery and belonging--long before he became one of the most important voices in America. This unique edition includes a new introduction from the author, full-color photo insert, and family tree.

The son of a white American mother and a Black Kenyan father, Obama was born in Hawaii, where he lived until he was six years old, when he moved with his mother and stepfather to Indonesia. At twelve, he returned to Hawaii to live with his grandparents. Obama brings readers along as he faces the challenges of high school and college, living in New York, becoming a community organizer in Chicago, and traveling to Kenya. Through these experiences, he forms an enduring commitment to leadership and justice. Told through the lens of his relationships with his family--the mother and grandparents who raised him, the father he knows more as a myth than as a man, and the extended family in Kenya he meets for the first time--Obama confronts the complicated truth of his father's life and legacy and comes to embrace his divided heritage.

On his journey to adulthood from a humble background, he forges his own path through trial and error while staying connected to his roots. Barack Obama is determined to lead a life of purpose, service, and authenticity. This powerful memoir will inspire readers to examine both where they come from and where they are capable of going.

Adapted for young people, this edition of Enrique's Journey is written by Sonia Nazario and based on the adult book of the same name. It is the true story of Enrique, a teenager from Honduras, who sets out on a journey, braving hardship and peril, to find his mother, who had no choice but to leave him when he was a child and go to the United States in search of work. Enrique's story will bring to light the daily struggles of migrants, legal and otherwise, and the complicated choices they face simply trying to survive and provide for the basic needs of their families. The issues seamlessly interwoven into this gripping nonfiction work for young people are perfect for common core discussion. Includes an 8-page photo insert, as well as an epilogue that describes what has happened to Enrique and his family since the adult edition was published.

"A heartwrenching account. Provides a human face, both beautiful and scarred, for the undocumented. A must read.--Kirkus Reviews, Starred

Nazario's straightforward . . . journalistic writing style largely serves the complex, sprawling story effectively. A valuable addition to young adult collections.--School Library Journal

This powerfully written survival story personalizes the complicated, pervasive, and heart-wrenching debates about immigration and immigrants' rights and will certainly spark discussion in the classroom and at home.--Booklist

A Kirkus Reviews Best Teen Book of the Year

A Junior Library Guild Selection

"Presents North Korea as a horrifying real-life dystopia. The book, the first of its kind aimed at young adults, is a first-person account of what it is like to be born and raised in a terrifying environment." --The Guardian

Dedicating his book to those he left behind in North Korea, Sungju Lee writes, "North Korea is indeed a Hermit Kingdom; a true-to-life dystopian nation. It's against this backdrop that my story takes place."

To survive, Sungju creates a gang and lives by thieving, fighting, begging, and stealing rides on cargo trains. Sungju richly recreates his scabrous story, depicting what it was like for a boy alone to create a new family with his gang, "his brothers," to daily be hungry and to fear arrest, imprisonment, and even execution.

The book starts with a brief, never-before-told history of modern North Korea that puts Sungju's personal story into context. Then he and coauthor Susan Elizabeth McClelland describe the four years of danger and desperation he endured after being abandoned by his parents. You may not believe the things that he was forced to endure at such a young age. You may not want to believe the horrors of the modern state of North Korea. But this true story of survival and determination allows young readers to learn about another culture where the freedoms they take for granted do not exist.

New York Times bestselling author Steve Sheinkin presents a follow up to his award-winning book Bomb: The Race to Build--and Steal--the World's Most Dangerous Weapon, taking readers on a terrifying journey into the Cold War and our mutual assured destruction.

As World War II comes to a close, the United States and the Soviet Union emerge as the two greatest world powers on extreme opposites of the political spectrum. After the United States showed its hand with the atomic bomb in Hiroshima, the Soviets refuse to be left behind. With communism sweeping the globe, the two nations begin a neck-and-neck competition to build even more destructive bombs and conquer the Space Race. In their battle for dominance, spy planes fly above, armed submarines swim deep below, and undercover agents meet in the dead of night.

The Cold War game grows more precarious as weapons are pointed towards each other, with fingers literally on the trigger. The decades-long showdown culminates in the Cuban Missile Crisis, the world's close call with the third--and final--world war.

Winner of the 2022 Kids' Book Choice Award for 6th to 8th Grade Book of the Year
A Shelf Awareness Best Children's Book of 2021
A Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Book of 2021
A Horn Book Fanfare Best Book of the Year

Praise for BOMB:

"This is edge-of-the seat material that will resonate with YAs who clamor for true spy stories, and it will undoubtedly engross a cross-market audience of adults who dozed through the World War II unit in high school." --BCCB, starred review

"...reads like an international spy thriller, and that's the beauty of it." --School Library Journal, starred review

"[A] complicated thriller that intercuts action with the deftness of a Hollywood blockbuster." --Booklist, , starred review

"A must-read..." --Publishers Weekly, starred review

"A superb tale of an era and an effort that forever changed our world." --Kirkus

Also by Steve Sheinkin:

The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism & Treachery
The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights
Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team
Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War
Which Way to the Wild West?: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About Westward Expansion
King George: What Was His Problem?: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About the American Revolution
Two Miserable Presidents: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About the Civil War
Born to Fly: The First Women's Air Race Across America

Each of the 15 women profiled in Film Makers shares a common trait: she is, as Shonda Rhimes says, "First. Only. Different."

These phenomenal women have redefined the film and television industry, winning awards historically given to a male counterpart, being the only woman in a writers' room, or portraying stories no one else could tell.

While their resumes are impressive, it is how they live their lives that has made a greater impact in the communities they serve. Many of them, like Gina Prince-Bythewood and Greta Gerwig, mentor other women. Some, like Agnieszka Holland and Chloé Zhao, have stood up to those who seek to ignore or silence them. All of them tell their stories with passion and integrity, serving as role models and champions for future generations.

We hope they will inspire you to use the tools of film to tell your story!