Non-Fiction – Page 5 – Sneak Peek Books

The Mayflower

Myths! Lies! Secrets! Smash the stories behind famous moments in history and expose the hidden truth. Perfect for fans of I Survived and Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales.

In 1620, the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock and made friends with Wampanoag people who gave them corn. RIGHT?

WRONG! It was months before the Pilgrims met any Wampanoag people, and nobody gave anybody corn that day.

Did you know that the pilgrims didn’t go straight from England to Plymouth? No, they made a stop along the way—and almost stayed forever! Did you know there was a second ship, called the Speedwell, that was too leaky to make the trip? No joke. And just wait until you learn the truth about Plymouth Rock.

Messner makes learning about history fun. The Mayflower is written in a factual, conversational tone that explains how some of America’s myths started. The Mayflower explains to readers what a primary source is, as well as discusses why “a primary source isn’t necessarily the truth of what happened; it’s an account of what the writer noticed and believed at the time.” The book contains many passages from primary sources and also translates some passages that are difficult to understand.

The Mayflower doesn’t recite a bunch of boring facts. Instead, readers will learn about the events and their significance. For example, the book explains what the Mayflower Compact was: “It established the idea that people should agree on laws together. It also laid the foundation for the separation of church and state—the idea that the government shouldn’t be run by religious leaders and shouldn’t tell anyone how to worship.”

The book’s unique layout will appeal to readers because it includes some graphic novel panels plus lots of illustrations, maps, sidebars, and historical pictures. Almost every page has a graphic element and many of the black and white illustrations are humorous. The illustrations will allow readers to visualize the people, places, and events while the abundant graphics break the text into manageable parts and help readers stay interested in each story.

The Mayflower starts with who the Pilgrims were and why they wanted to leave England. The book also includes information about traveling to the New World, the harsh conditions of settling an untamed land, and the Pilgrims’ treatment of the Wampanoag’s people. The Mayflower is a must-read book because it shows American history in a new light and explains how many of America’s myths became part of our history.

Sexual Content

None

Violence

John Bilington was a troublemaker who “killed another settler and ended up being sentenced to death by hanging.”
Dermer and a group of men went to America to explore. “They were attacked by Nauset men. Most of Dermer’s men were killed. Dermer was wounded but escaped to Virginia.”
A group of Pilgrims attacked the Natives and killed “two of the community’s leaders.”
After the Pequot people attacked an English trading vessel, “They set the village on fire and killed anyone who tried to escape. About seven hundred Pequot men, women, and children were killed.”

Drugs and Alcohol

While sailing to the new world, everyone, including the kids, drank beer. “But this was different from the kind of beer that only adults drink today. The Pilgrims called it ‘small beer,’ and it had less alcohol.”
On Christmas Day 1620, some of the men drank beer.

Language

A man who enslaved some of the Natives is called a jerk.

Supernatural

None

Spiritual Content

The King of England said he had “permission” to give away land in Virginia because the Pope said, “Christian people could go into the lands of any non-Christian; take the land and resources and enslave the people who lived there. People who weren’t Christians weren’t looked at as human beings.”
Christians believed that taking non-Christians’ lands was acceptable because “God wanted the Pilgrims to convert the Native people, and that could only happen if they lived in the same place.”
On the trip, one sailor died. One of the passengers wrote, “But it pleased God before they came half over the sea, to smite this young man with a grievous disease, of which he died in a desperate manner, and so was himself the first that was thrown overboard.”
The pilgrims found and stole the Wampanoag’s stored corn. One man said the corn was, “God’s good providence.”
A Pilgrim said that Tisquantum “had been sent by God.”
The Pilgrims didn’t have celebrations, but they had days “spent in prayer.”
After the Pilgrims killed everyone in a Pequot village, the English “gave praise thereof to God.”

A Girl Named Rosa: The True Story of Rosa Parks

When Rosa Parks was a young girl, she had to walk to school. Only white children were allowed to ride the bus. Every day, Rosa saw how African Americans were treated unfairly. Everything was segregated—schools, churches, even drinking fountains. During this time, Rosa’s grandfather “taught her to not be afraid of the dangers or hardships she might face.”

When Rosa grew up, she became a part of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. She wanted to help change unfair laws. Then, when riding a bus she was told to give up her bus seat to a white person. She decided the time had come to stand up for fairness by staying seated. What happened next changed America.

A Girl Named Rosa shows how a peaceful protest can lead to important changes in the world. Rosa’s courage helped other African Americans speak up. Rosa’s refusal to give up her seat encouraged others to boycott the bus system, which eventually leads to the end of bus segregation. While the biography teaches about Rosa’s life, the text doesn’t contain any direct quotes from her.

Rosa’s life is described through text and large, full-color illustrations. Each two-page spread has a full-page illustration and one page of oversized text. Some words appear in bold letters and are in a glossary at the back of the book. The end of the book also has a timeline of Rosa’s life, pictures of Rosa and boycotters, and a short article about a girl named Marley who searches for books that portray black girls in a positive light.

Everyone can take inspiration from Rosa’s story. In today’s world, Rosa’s story of courage can help inspire others to demand justice for all people, regardless of their race. Rosa’s story shows that injustice can be overcome. Even though the book’s format will appeal to younger readers, they may struggle with the difficult vocabulary. However, the short chapters make A Girl Named Rosa a good choice to read aloud. Older readers who want to explore more books about racial injustice should read A Good Kind of Trouble by Lisa Moore Ramée.

Sexual Content

None

Violence

When Rosa was a child, “there were white groups who used violence to frighten, and sometimes hurt, black people. In Rosa’s community, gangs of white men wearing robes and masks sometimes attacked black people, setting fire to their churches, schools, and homes.”
While walking to school, some of the white kids “threw things at Rosa and her friends from the bus windows.”
While Rosa was walking down the street, “a white boy tried to knock her down. Rosa shoved him back. . . the mother threatened to have Rosa put in jail.”

Drugs and Alcohol

None

Language

None

Supernatural

None

Spiritual Content

None

Guyku: A Year of Haiku for Boys

Guyku is the right story for little guys on the move!

The collection of poems captures moments of childhood across the four seasons. From fishing to throwing snowballs to playing in leaf piles, Guyku touches on the wide variety of outdoor activities that kids can do. The book is written for boys, like the title suggests, but it is applicable to all children.

Poetry can have a reputation that it is something you give to advanced readers. However, Guyku flips that notion on its head and helps young readers learn through poetry. Because each poem occupies a full page, the poems are not daunting for new readers.

Raczka and Reynolds are an author-illustrator team who are very much on the same page. The pen, ink, and watercolor illustrations capture the simplicity of the poems and the Earth-toned colors take the reader outdoors. These illustrations accompany every poem, and context clues will help struggling readers make sense of the poems. The art is subtle and encourages the reader to explore the meaning of the poem and ask questions. The eye-catching illustrations will make you laugh as you watch boys, and girls explore the outdoors and enjoy childhood. While the book is generally goofy, the illustrations do not shy away from showing an array of emotions from glee to sadness and boredom to enthrallment. Guyku does a good job of normalizing the range of feelings that people encounter, but there is an emphasis on the excitement and wonder of childhood.

Haiku poems are only three lines long; they have five syllables in the first line, seven in the second line, and five in the third line. A haiku is an observation of nature, and nature is a playground for children. The poems do not take long to read, but sometimes more can be said in a haiku than a whole novel. One of the primary rules of a haiku is that it is written in the present tense. Whatever is happening in a haiku, is happening right now! For children who are wrapped up in the moment, the format of the poem lends itself to being active. The book can serve as inspiration for the wide variety of games that can be played, activities to do with friends, and ways to interact with the outdoors.

Guyku is for kids and about kids. All of the characters are children who are doing what children do best, playing! While the poetry moves quickly and the illustrations are fun, there is a reflective part to these poems. The book encourages children to place themselves within all of the great things the outdoors has to offer and brings into question how the outdoors makes the reader feel. It is likely that a child will see themselves in the characters of the book. Guyku encourages outdoor activity in a positive way.

Sexual Content

None

Violence

None

Drugs and Alcohol

None

Language

None

Supernatural

None

Spiritual Content

None

by Paul Gordon

Outcasts United

In the 1990s, the small town of Clarkston, Georgia, became the center for refugee resettlement. The United States government didn’t tell the original residents that soon people from war-torn nations would be settling in the area and trying to navigate a world vastly different than the homes they had come from. When an American-educated, Jordanian woman named Luma Mufleh moves in, she starts a soccer team comprised of refugee kids, hoping to keep them off the streets. They dub themselves “The Fugees.”

Outcasts United tells the true story of one of the Fugees’ seasons, led by dedicated soccer coach Luma. Reporter Warren St. John details the lives of the players and their coach on and off the field as they maneuver through their lives in a town that didn’t see them coming. Their story demonstrates shared humanity and the need for compassion.

Much of the book revolves around Luma’s life. Luma’s old-school coaching methods produce results in her players. St. John captures how much Luma’s players valued her, as she is much more than just a coach to them. Luma consistently helps the boys’ families with daily tasks, especially when English isn’t well-spoken or understood in the households. Despite her tough-love approach to coaching, the players see her as a mentor and someone to be admired.

The boys face serious challenges in their lives, but soccer unites them as brothers. Many of them come from rival nations that carry their own prejudices against each other, and the small southern town in Georgia they now live in certainly carries its own prejudices about the refugees. Despite these differences, Clarkston is a global community. Luma forces the boys to get along or get off the field, and the strategy in unifying Clarkson is not much different – they have to make the situation work. There is no other option.

The sense of community in Outcasts United is striking. Community is built from the ground up, and it requires that everyone makes an attempt to work within it. Luma has built a community through soccer, and the Fugees family still exists today with more teams and schooling opportunities. Luma could not have done this work without compassion—compassion for the refugee families in Clarkson and for the community that they were trying to build. Through that compassion and through soccer, they have created something truly beautiful.

Outcasts United is inspiring because of the work that Luma and her Fugees put forth. Despite their trials, they’re a team that wants nothing more than to live their lives and play soccer. Although soccer fans will be the main target audience of this book, this true story is moving for anyone interested in themes of compassion and community through sports.

Sexual Content

None

Violence

Some of the players on the team are refugees, and they have experienced “the horrors of war. There were Sudanese players on the team whose villages had been bombed, and Liberians who’d lived through mortar fire that pierced the roofs of their neighbors’ homes, taking out whole families.” One boy “had been forced by soldiers to shoot a close friend.”
Descriptions of violence and death are present throughout the book. The players’ stories are revealed, detailing the histories of war-torn nations. In Liberia, one group’s “force grew quickly, in no small part augmented by boys whom [Charles Taylor] armed and drugged into a killing frenzy. Some of these boy soldiers were orphans whose parents had been killed . . . others were kidnapped from their families by Taylor’s own militias . . . Soldiers terrorized citizens and looted at will . . . More than one hundred and fifty thousand Liberians died.”
One morning a player is shot at a practice, and “the exact circumstances of the shooting were murky.” It is made clear that gang activity caused it and one of Luma’s players, unfortunately, got caught in the crossfire. He survives.
There is a lot of discussion about gangs and gang activity throughout the book, and Luma does her best to deter the boys from joining.

Drugs and Alcohol

Former president of Liberia and convicted war criminal, Charles Taylor, was captured on the Nigeria-Cameroon border “in an SUV stashed with cash and heroin.”

Language

Xenophobia is littered throughout the book. The old residents of Clarkston, Georgia often make it clear that they don’t like the refugees or Luma, who is Jordanian. At one point, Luma is pulled over for a broken taillight on the way to a soccer match and the police cuff her and keep her overnight in jail “just in case.” It is expressed here and elsewhere that Luma and the others know that this isn’t normal protocol for a broken taillight, and it is in no way an isolated situation in the book.
The refugees also have their own baggage, which Luma discovers. Luma says, “The Afghan and Iraqi kids would look down on the African kids, and the kids from northern Africa would look down on kids from other parts of Africa.”

Supernatural

None

Spiritual Content

Luma is from Jordan, which is under “Sharia law, which applies to domestic and inheritance matters, the testimony of two women carried the weight of that one man. A wife had to obtain permission from her husband to apply for a passport. And so-called honor killings were still viewed as minor crimes in Sharia courts.” It is also stated that Luma is Muslim.
Places of worship are sometimes mentioned in town. For instance, “A mosque opened up on Indian Creek Drive” in Clarkston, Georgia, where Luma’s soccer team was based.
In Clarkston, “a third of the students at the local elementary school skip lunch during Ramadan. Attendance at the old Clarkston Baptist Church dwindled from around seven hundred to fewer than a hundred.”
Assistant coordinator Tracy Ediger, growing up with her sisters, “attended church three times a week, rarely watched television, and had each enrolled at Christian colleges after high school.”
One of the refugees that Luma meets, says, “God very, very good.”
Before a game, the team prays together, but not everyone practices the same religion. To remedy this, “Grace would offer a Christian prayer; Eldin, a Muslim one. The boys formed a circle at midfield, draped their arms around each other, and bowed their heads.”

by Alli Kestler

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You

Written originally as Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You is the exploration of racism in the United States since before the founding of America. The book is remixed for younger audiences by prolific author and the Library of Congress’s National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, Jason Reynolds. The fast-paced book explores the history of racism and how we can build an antiracist present and future.

Reynolds makes it clear that Stamped is not a history book, but instead a book about racism in present times. Although there is plenty of history described, he pulls the essentials from Kendi’s book and brings these historical events and people to life for younger readers. He shows how racist thoughts have persisted through time and affect everyone today. Most importantly, he uses Kendi’s definitions of segregationists, assimilationists, and antiracists to explore various thoughts about race, race relations, and racist ideas.

Reynolds breaks down the three terms by saying, “The antiracists try to transform racism. The assimilationists try to transform Black people. The segregationists try to get away from Black people.” Reynolds’ ability to bring difficult topics to a level that young teens can understand is remarkable, as racism is so prevalent and widespread across the United States and the world.

Despite Reynolds’ sense of humor and smooth-flowing writing, Stamped is not a cheery book, nor is it supposed to be. The history of racism is terrible; terrible things have happened and still happen – a point which Reynolds and Kendi make throughout. There is are discussions about mass incarceration, lynching, slavery, and kidnapping – all of which pertain to the history of racism. They also analyze major players in the Civil Rights movement, some of which fall into the assimilationist category, and others into the antiracist category.

Racism exists, and Reynolds and Kendi ask that people become antiracist in thought and in practice. Hope is a strong thread that pulls the novel together, despite the atrocities committed because of racist beliefs and policies. If people can become antiracist, the future can be so much brighter for many people who have faced oppression. Everyone should read Stamped because it isn’t a history book; it’s a guide to a better way of being and treating people.

Sexual Content

Reynolds breaks down a scene from the book of Genesis in the Bible, discussing how Noah orders his “white sons not to have sex with their wives on the ark, and then tells them that the first child born after the flood would inherit the earth. When the evil, tyrannical, and hypersexual Ham has sex on the ark, God wills that Ham’s descendants will be dark and disgusting, and the whole world will look at them as symbols of trouble.”
It was not uncommon for slave owners to start “breeding slaves. . . [Thomas Jefferson] and other like-minded slave owners began forcing their men and women slaves to conceive children so that they, the owners, could keep up with all the demands of the Deep South.”

Violence

Reynolds and Kendi detail the racial violence that has occurred throughout history and in present times. They often discuss topics such as murder, slavery, and incarceration, as well as a host of other atrocities. For instance, “Young Black males were twenty-one times more likely to be killed by police than their White counterparts between 2010 and 2012, according to federal statistics.” Other details of violence are frequently shared throughout the book.
Reynolds also discusses violence against Native Americans. For example, he talks about Metacomet, “a Native American war leader, [who] was killed, which basically ended the battle in 1676. Puritans cut up his body as if it were a hog’s, and paraded his remains around Plymouth.”
Reynolds describes the movie The Birth of a Nation, where, “A Black man (played by a White man in blackface) tries to rape a White woman” who then “jumps off a cliff and kills herself,” and “Klansmen avenge her death.”

Drugs and Alcohol

Reynolds writes about tobacco as a major cash crop in the American South prior to the founding of the country.
There is a discussion about the “War on Drugs” and “crack babies” in their relation to racism and racist government policies.

Language

Based on historical context, language is used to dehumanize Black people is scattered throughout the book. The language describes the growth and pervasiveness of racism. Reynolds, for instance, discusses the thoughts of Italian philosopher Lucilio Vanini, who said that “Africans were born of a ‘different Adam,’ and had a different creation story. Of course, this would mean they were a different species. It was kind of like saying that Africans weren’t actually human . . . Africans went from savages to SAVAGES, which revved up the necessity for Christian conversion and civilizing.”
Racial slurs are used in historical context. For instance, Reynolds talks about a group of artists that emerged out of the Harlem Renaissance that referred to themselves as the “Niggerati. They believed they should be able to make whatever they wanted to express themselves as whole humans without worrying about White acceptance.”

Supernatural

Reynolds describes Curse Theory, saying, “In 1577, after noticing that Inuit people in northeastern Canada were darker than the people living in the hotter south, English travel writer George Best determined . . . that it couldn’t have been climate that made darker people inferior, and instead determined that Africans were, in fact, cursed . . . And what did Best use to prove this theory? Only one of the most irrefutable books of the time: the Bible.”
Reynolds talks about witches and witchcraft. Reynolds writes, “[Cotton] Mather wrote a book called Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions . . . Mather’s book, outlining the symptoms of witchcraft, reflected his crusade against the enemies of White souls.” This book launched the Salem witch hunt of 1692.

Spiritual Content

Reynolds uses comparisons to make history digestible and sometimes includes religious descriptors. Gomes Eanes de Zurara wrote propaganda for Prince Henry to encourage the slave trade. For instance, Zurara “made Prince Henry out to be some kind of youth minister canvassing the street, doing community work, when what Prince Henry really was, was more of a gangster.”
Reynolds describes the links between racism and Christianity, and many times the Bible is referenced. For instance, at one point Reynolds says, “Zurara’s documentation of the racist idea that Africans needed slavery in order to be fed and taught Jesus, and that it was all ordained by God, began to seep in and stick to the European cultural psyche.”
Reynolds discusses Puritans. He says, “They were English Protestants who believed the reformation of the Church of England was basically watering down Christianity, and they sought to regulate it to keep it more disciplined and rigid.”

by Alli Kestler