For nonfiction picture books, please see the category Picture Books and choose one of the the following:
Picture Books about Famous People
Picture Books about Other Cultures and Countries
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For nonfiction picture books, please see the category Picture Books and choose one of the the following:
Picture Books about Famous People
Picture Books about Other Cultures and Countries
Sharing is good karma:
Here is a list of books my kids enjoyed reading. They are all real stories but written in a way to appeal to kids. The titles in this list are paperbacks, easy readers or longer books for elementary school kids. See more stories under the category Picture Books (About Famous People, History, etc.).
Please note that I just started this list so it is short. I will be adding more titles over the next few months.
The Great Houdini |
The Bravest Dog Ever If you live close to NYC, there is a statue of Balto in Central Park. My kids always want to take a picture with him. |
My daughter (in 3rd grade) loves this series that we discovered this year. Jim Trelease suggests grades 2 – 5 as a read-aloud.
It is called Who Was … or Who Is …? For a complete list of books in this series click here.
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Like all parents, we too try to instill good values and certain character traits in our kids as much as possible. Sometimes things from school come up during our family conversations or we catch our kids telling a white lie. We always discuss it but I felt we were not doing enough.
The following is our recent find. It is geared toward children in grade school (definitely not younger). You can get books or CDs. We opted for the audio version to listen to in the car. The narrator can get on your nerves after a while so it is good to listen to the CD for an hour at most and take a break. We alternate this series with other fiction audio books. Otherwise it is well done and good for kids. Read the reviews if you need more information. We finished the first set and are listening to the middle ages now.
The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child: Volume 1: Ancient Times: From the Earliest Nomads to the Last Roman Emperor
From our library I borrowed The Children’s Book of Virtues It is a collection of fables, adaptations of fairy tales, true stories, and poems that illustrate virtues such as honesty, kindness, responsibility, etc. Our kids didn’t care for the poems much but liked the stories so I decided to find the DVDs based on the book at the library (see the section on educational DVDs). |
As this title is a children’s version of The Book of Virtues I also looked for The Book of Virtues for Young People to read to my daughter. I decided to read it aloud during lunch or dinner. The vocabulary is very difficult and I had to stop reading and explain some words to her because she would not have understood the meaning at all (she is 8 1/2 years old). I found myself paraphrasing the sentences all the time. Although I am sure she’d rather read a Harry Potter book, I believe that reinforcing our attempts at raising individuals with great values is important so I will select a chapter now and then to read to her. It is not a book that could be read at once and my kids will probably get more out of it as they grow older and more mature. I ordered our own copy so that we could just read a chapter any time we are in the mood for it. I found the review Lots of Virtues to Choose From on Amazon very helpful. It describes the difference between the “virtue” books. Maybe it will help you to choose the right one for you. |
Big Questions from Little People: and Simple Answers from Great Minds How does fire get on fire? Why do penguins live at the South Pole but not the North? A fantastic book with a lot of questions, each answered on one or two pages in a way kids can understand. We are hooked. I checked it out from the library to see if it was worth it and we are definitely buying it. Read the reviews on Amazon or here. |
They Stood Alone!: 25 Men and Women Who Made a Difference While reading from a Larousse Kids’ Encyclopedia Who is it? (in Czech) I was wondering if there are some good books in English that would give my kids more insight into world history, culture, religion, or art, books about extraordinary people. We have read some picture books about famous people such as Albert Einstein but it was just a matter of luck whether I stumbled upon it or happened to see a review on Amazon. It never occurred to me to write the titles down so all my lists will be ongoing projects. |
Last year I ordered They Stood Alone because I felt my kids needed to hear about remarkable people who had the courage to follow their dreams and face the obstacles life threw at them. I think this is a book you need to own rather than borrow from a library because you cannot read all 25 stories at once. Although the writing is not complicated, the vocabulary used made it a bit difficult for my son (just turning 6 at that time) to follow and enjoy the story. My daughter liked it. We did not read it all but I will make a point of reading one chapter with them every two weeks.Since my son is not able to absorb the information in this book, a part of my project will be looking up picture books that would supplement each chapter so that both my kids remember the stories better. As soon as we start, I will create a separate entry here, listing each chapter and corresponding picture books. |
A little History of the World Our most recent addition to our library is Gombrich’s “A Little History of the World.”t is a history book written for kids that I discovered by chance while reading an article by Winston Sieck. I loved the reviews so I went ahead and ordered it. My husband is sort of a history buff so before anybody got a chance to flip through the book, he took it and started reading it. He says that it is going to be a bit hard for our son (6 ½) but our daughter (8 ½) would enjoy listening to it. I will probably wait a bit and rather start with mythology or books about famous people (They Stood Alone) because those are not as complex as history.Read the short article on how Winston Sieck looked for good history videos that could accompany the book and would appeal to kids. He posted his list in a pdf file on his website.When we decide to read this history book to our kids, I am going to follow his advice and let you know how we liked his choices. I may also try to find picture books to supplement each chapter of this book. Check back in a few months for any updates. |
A few weeks ago, on back-to-school night, kids in my daughter’s class had a multiple choice quiz ready for their parents. Mine was especially hard because my daughter did not list one correct answer with two unlikely ones. Asking about her favorite subject in school, favorite meal, favorite activity, etc., she’d choose three of her favorite things to do so I had a tough time picking the right one. I had to think about whether she’d rather play a board game with us or look at the National Geographic Magazine with her Dad. Guess which one was the correct answer.
Here are some books she’s had for a while and keeps coming back to them (the first three are her favorites):
National Geographic Kids Almanac 2014 The 2015 issue is out already but a reviewer mentioned that it is very similar to this one so we will probably skip it. |
5,000 Awesome Facts (About Everything!) (National Geographic Kids) |
National Geographic Kids Ultimate Weird but True: 1,000 Wild & Wacky Facts and Photos |
Time for Kids Science Almanac |
Planet Earth I came across this book at a local discount store for $4. |
Encyclopedia Mythologica: Gods and Heroes Pop-Up Although my kids have not had a chance to look at it, I have viewed this pop-up book on Youtube and put it on our Christmas list for this year. Matthew Reinhart’s art is just incredible. |
What Do You Believe? I saw this book at my sister-in-law’s in Prague, translated into Czech. My daughter has asked some questions about different religions in the past so I decided to order it. It gives a nice overview of all the major religions in the world. It is a book we read together. |
One World, Many Religions: The Ways We Worship |
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My daughter takes after my husband in a lot of things. As a little girl she’d prefer more realistic books with kids rather than animals and as she grew older she developed a love for non-fiction. I know, there are plenty of non-fiction books on thousands of subjects but that is not what she likes to take off the shelf and read. She likes non-fiction books similar to encyclopedias and almanacs for kids, books that she can flip through and open anywhere and learn some interesting facts about how a window pane is made or who the gladiators were, how people live in Africa, etc.
I used to buy Larousse encyclopedias for kids translated from French to Czech. My daughter, however, does not pick Czech books voluntarily; she prefers to read in English. I can still use the Larousse books when I have time to sit down with her but I am constantly on a lookout for books that she could just explore on her own when I am busy. You have probably never heard of them but they are fantastic. If you happen to have bilingual kids (Spanish) like some of my friends, you are lucky because you can check out these translations. (More titles are below that book on Amazon so take a look at them). I have never found an English version, which is a shame, but I have discovered some books that our kids have been enjoying for years.
Let’s start with books that you can look at with even very young kids (Scroll down to the end of this list for funny books):
People I bought this book when my daughter was 3 and it’s been among our favorites since then. This review from Amazon says it all:
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Actual Size |
What Do You Do with a Tail Like This? |
Biggest, Strongest, Fastest |
Me On the Map My husband is into maps; he can never walk past a map without stopping and looking at it. He always tests our kids whenever we have a map with us, whether we are hiking or visiting an amusement park, if they know where we are and where we are headed. So one of the first non-fiction books we got was Me On the Map. It is a good introduction to the concept of maps. |
On the subject of geography—my daughter was very excited about The Amazing Pop-Up Geography Book. She even took it off the shelf the other day to look at it with her friend. |
Speaking of great pop-up books, I must mention Robert Crowther’s Pop-Up House of Inventions. I don’t understand why the recommended age range is 6-9. I like to look it myself and learn some fascinating facts. Here is an extract from an Amazon review:
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Encyclopedia Mythologica: Gods and Heroes Pop-Up Although my kids have not had a chance to look at it, I have viewed this pop-up book on Youtube and put it on our Christmas list for this year. Matthew Reinhart’s art is just incredible. |
What Do You Believe? I saw this book at my sister-in-law’s in Prague, translated into Czech. My daughter has asked some questions about different religions in the past so I decided to order it. It gives a nice overview of all the major religions in the world. It is a book we read together. |
One World, Many Religions: The Ways We Worship |
I have only recently come across this book that is awesome: Big Questions from Little People: and Simple Answers from Great Minds How does fire get on fire? Why do penguins live at the South Pole but not the North? A fantastic book with a lot of questions, each answered on one or two pages in a way kids can understand. We are hooked. I checked it out from the library to see if it was worth it and we are definitely buying it. Read the reviews on Amazon or here. |
I know the following two do not exactly belong here but I couldn’t think of a better spot for them. We have them shelved with non-fiction books because the kids just pull them out and read any part of the book they please, exactly like almanacs and encyclopedias. They both love them.
National Geographic Kids Just Joking: 300 Hilarious Jokes, Tricky Tongue Twisters, and Ridiculous Riddles |
Laugh-Out-Loud Jokes for Kids |
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