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2026 Nonfiction Book Nominees
Small Poster made by Janelle Yoder
Video done by Janelle Yoder (YouTube)
Bookmarks
Using Primary Sources (General Information):
The Library of Congress- Using Primary Sources
Brave Baby Hummingbird by Sy Montgomery, 2024
The lightest birds in the sky, hummingbirds are capable of incredible feats, such as flying backwards, diving at speeds of sixty-one miles per hour, and beating their wings more than sixty times a second. The miraculous creatures are also incredibly vulnerable when they first emerge from their eggs. This book tells the story of a hummingbird's early life and how they make their way into the world.
Audubon Hooray For Hummingbirds!
Cactus Queen: Minerva Hoyt Establishes Joshua Tree National Park by Lori Alexander, 2024
How did the Joshua Tree National Park in California come to be? Meet Minerva Hamilton Hoyt, an artist, activist, and environmentalist, whose determination saved the desert and helped to create the park, in this STEAM picture book.
Teachers Pay Teachers
Joshua Tree Coloring Page
Cactus Crafts
Joshua Tree Virtual Junior Ranger Program
Classified: the Secret Career of Mary Golda Ross, Cherokee Aerospace Engineer by Traci Sorell, 2021
Mary Golda Ross designed classified projects for Lockheed Aircraft Corporation as the company's first female engineer. Find out how her passion for math and the Cherokee values she was raised with shaped her life and work.
STEM Guide
Community Values
Discussion Guide
National Air and Space Museum
Courage Like Kate: the True Story of a Girl Lighthouse Keeper by Anna Crowley Redding, 2022
An inspiring and beautifully illustrated picture book biography based on the life of Kate Moore, a twelve-year-old lighthouse keeper in the 19th century who saved the lives of twenty-three sailors.
Educator Guide
Podcast with Author
The Girl Who Heard the Music: How One Pianists and 85,000 Bottles and Cans Brought New Hope to an Island by Marni Fogelson and Mahani Teave, 2023
The true story of award-winning pianist and environmental activist Mahani Teave and the beloved island she is helping to save.
Free Discussion Guide
Teaching Books
Performances on YouTube
Go Forth and Tell: the Life of August Baker, Librarian and Master Storyteller by Breanna J. McDaniel, 2024
Before Augusta Braxton Baker became a storyteller, she was an excellent story listener. Her grandmother brought stories like Br'er Rabbit and Arthur and Excalibur to life, teaching young Augusta that when there's a will, there's always a way. When she grew up, Mrs. Baker began telling her own fantastical stories to children at the 135th Street branch of the New York Public Library in Harlem. But she noticed that there were hardly any books at the library featuring Black people in respectful, uplifting ways.
How Do You Spell Unfair?: MacNolia Cox and the National Spelling Bee by Carole Boston Weatherford, 2023
In 1936, eighth grader MacNolia Cox became the first African American to win the Akron, Ohio, spelling bee. And with that win, she was asked to compete at the prestigious National Spelling Bee in Washington, DC, where she and a girl from New Jersey were the first African Americans invited since its founding. She left her home state a celebrity--right up there with Ohio's own Joe Louis and Jesse Owens--with a military band and a crowd of thousands to see her off at the station. But celebration turned to chill when the train crossed the state line into Maryland, where segregation was the law of the land. Prejudice and discrimination ruled--on the train, in the hotel, and, sadly, at the spelling bee itself.
Discussion Guide
Teachers Pay Teachers ($)
Teaching Books
Jack Knight's Brave Flight: How One Gutsy Pilot Saved the U.S. Air Mail Service by Jill Esbaum, 2022
High-flying history is brought to life in this suspenseful story of an unknown and daring pilot named Jack Knight, who in 1921 flew his biplane straight into a blizzard over America's heartland and saved the US Air Mail Service in the process.
Jumper: a Day in the Life of a Backyard Jumping Spider by Jessica Lanan, 2023
A nonfiction picture book that follows a day in the life of a backyard jumping spider. Includes information about jumping spiders.
Twenty-One Steps: Guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by Jeff Gottesfeld, 2021
With every step, the Tomb Guards pay homage to America's fallen. Discover their story, and that of the unknown soldiers they honor, through resonant words and illustrations.
Discussion Guide
Teachers Pay Teachers ($)
Arlington National Cemetery
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