December
31
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The 2015 Nerdies: Nonfiction Winners Announced by Donalyn Miller
We celebrated the Nerdy Book Club Award winners for best nonfiction picture books earlier this week, and today, we honor longer works of nonfiction. These outstanding books take us on a journey through human or natural history—uncovering forgotten stories and revealing Nature’s mysteries.
Each book makes a unique contribution to school, classroom, and home libraries—enhancing children’s understanding of our world and illustrating how one person or dedicated group can make a difference. These engaging titles pair extensive research and lyrical writing into texts that exemplify high-quality children’s and young adult nonfiction.
Congratulations to the 2015 Nerdy Book Club Award winners for Best Nonfiction.
Fatal Fever: Tracking Down Typhoid Mary
by Gail Jarrow
Calkins Creek
Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War
by Steve Sheinkin
Roaring Brook Press
Stonewall: Breaking Out in the Fight for Gay Rights
by Ann Bausum
Viking Books for Young Readers
Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shastakovich and the Siege of Leningrad
by M.T. Anderson
Candlewick Press
Terrible Typhoid Mary: A True Story of the Deadliest Cook in America
by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
HMH Books for Young Readers
Susan Campbell Bartoletti’s website
The Boys Who Challenged Hitler: Knud Pedersen and the Churchill Club
by Phillip Hoose
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
The Octopus Scientist
by Sy Montgomery, photographs by Keith Ellenbogen
HMH Books For Young Readers
Untamed: The Wild Life of Jane Goodall
by Anita Silvey
National Geographic Children’s Books
Why’d They Wear That: Fashion as the Mirror of History
by Sarah Albee
National Geographic Children’s Books
Rhythm Ride: A Road Trip Through the Motown Sound
by Andrea Davis Pinkney
Roaring Brook Press
Andrea Davis Pinkney’s website
Donalyn Miller has taught fourth, fifth, and sixth grade English and Social Studies in Northeast Texas. She is the author of two books about encouraging students to read, The Book Whisperer (Jossey-Bass, 2009) and Reading in the Wild (Jossey-Bass, 2013). Donalyn co-hosts the monthly Twitter chat, #titletalk (with Nerdy Book Club co-founder, Colby Sharp) and the Best Practices Roots (#bproots) chat with Teri Lesesne. Donalyn launched the annual Twitter summer and holiday reading initiative, #bookaday. You can find her on Twitter at @donalynbooks or under a pile of books somewhere, happily reading.
Nerdy Book Club 
New Year’s Resolution- Buy these books. Thanks for the recommendation.
Listening to Audible version of The Boys Who Challenged Hitler – remarkable true story of Teens vs. Invaders. Glad to see it on the list.
In each list there have been a couple I still need to catch up. IN this category, I’ve read every one and plan to reread most! Wow, such powerful stories! TY to the committees who make these recommendations.
I loved Terrible Typhoid Mary, but then I love all of Bartolleti’s books. Do you notify your winning authors?
Ooh, I missed some of these. LOVE that there are two Typhoid Mary’s. Feeling like some peach melba!
What an impressive group of books. Very proud to see the Nat Geo representation!