[ISLMA-Share] High-Interest Non-Fic

Wed Apr 25 12:33:57 CDT 2018

Gail,

Yes, I would highly recommend The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women.  It provides some interesting local history of Ottawa, Illinois (not far from Chicago) that still affects residents today.  Other books that my students enjoy are the following:

Any books by Ann Rule.  She is an American true crime author.

Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of the Rocky Flats by Kristen Iversen : The author tells the story of growing up near Rocky Flats, a secret nuclear weapons plant working with plutonium in weapons, and investigates accidents and government concealed toxic and radioactive waste released by the plant.  This book was suspenseful and what is really interesting is, this area is now a National Wildlife Refuge despite it being contaminated.  When I have visited Denver, I have asked residents what they know about this park and they are unaware of it's history!  It is a very informative book and it is well-written.

The Death and Life of the Great Lakes, by Dan Egan (It has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize twice): The Great Lakes hold 20 percent of the world’s supply of surface fresh water and provide sustenance, work, and recreation for tens of millions of Americans. But they are under threat as never before, and their problems are spreading across the continent. The Death and Life of the Great Lakes is prize-winning reporter Dan Egan’s compulsively readable portrait of an ecological catastrophe happening right before our eyes, blending the epic story of the lakes with an examination of the perils they face and the ways we can restore and preserve them for generations to come.   This book is very-well written.  In addition to providing information about the ecological changes occurring in the Great Lakes, but it tell an interesting historical perspective of the canal systems near Chicago.

The Worst Hard Time, by Timothy Egan (National Book Award Winner and on Read For A Lifetime Booklist) - This is another well-written book and a thrilling apocalyptic story.  The dust storms that terrorized the High Plains in the darkest years of the Depression were like nothing ever seen before or since. Timothy Egan’s critically acclaimed account rescues this iconic chapter of American history from the shadows in a tour de force of historical reportage. Following a dozen families and their communities through the rise and fall of the region, Egan tells of their desperate attempts to carry on through blinding black dust blizzards, crop failure, and the death of loved ones. Brilliantly capturing the terrifying drama of catastrophe, Egan does equal justice to the human characters who become his heroes, “the stoic, long-suffering men and women whose lives he opens up with urgency and respect” (New York Times).

Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson - This is a classic. It has not lost its validity. It has an important global message still today, 54 years after publication.  Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring was first published in three serialized excerpts in the New Yorker in June of 1962. The book appeared in September of that year and the outcry that followed its publication forced the banning of DDT and spurred revolutionary changes in the laws affecting our air, land, and water. Carson’s passionate concern for the future of our planet reverberated powerfully throughout the world, and her eloquent book was instrumental in launching the environmental movement. It is without question one of the landmark books of the twentieth century.

Carol Lock

Librarian

Macomb Jr./Sr. High School

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From: islma-bounces at list.railslibraries.info <islma-bounces at list.railslibraries.info> on behalf of Email list for the Illinois School Library Media Association <islma at list.railslibraries.info>
Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2018 11:01 AM
To: Email list for the Illin.
Subject: Re: [ISLMA-Share] High-Interest Non-Fic

Hi Gail,
I'd consider The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore. It's amazing and even has an Illinois connection. On the 2019 Lincoln list too.
Jane

On Wed, Apr 25, 2018 at 10:45 AM, Email list for the Illinois School Library Media Association <islma at list.railslibraries.info<mailto:islma at list.railslibraries.info>> wrote:
Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann:  "In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Indian nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, they rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe.
      Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. The family of an Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, became a prime target. Her relatives were shot and poisoned. And it was just the beginning, as more and more members of the tribe began to die under mysterious circumstances.
      In this last remnant of the Wild West—where oilmen like J. P. Getty made their fortunes and where desperadoes like Al Spencer, the “Phantom Terror,” roamed—many of those who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered. As the death toll climbed to more than twenty-four, the FBI took up the case. It was one of the organization’s first major homicide investigations and the bureau badly bungled the case. In desperation, the young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to unravel the mystery. White put together an undercover team, including one of the only American Indian agents in the bureau. The agents infiltrated the region, struggling to adopt the latest techniques of detection.  Together with the Osage they began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history."

Beverly Zbinden
Head Librarian @ Niles North High School
9800 N. Lawler Avenue<https://maps.google.com/?q=9800+N.+Lawler+Avenue+%0D%0A+Skokie,+IL+60077+%0D%0A+(847&entry=gmail&source=g>
Skokie, IL 60077<https://maps.google.com/?q=9800+N.+Lawler+Avenue+%0D%0A+Skokie,+IL+60077+%0D%0A+(847&entry=gmail&source=g>
(847<https://maps.google.com/?q=9800+N.+Lawler+Avenue+%0D%0A+Skokie,+IL+60077+%0D%0A+(847&entry=gmail&source=g>)626-2183

"What a school thinks about its library is a measure of what it thinks about education."
  - Harold Howe, former U.S. Commissioner of Education

On Wed, Apr 25, 2018 at 10:22 AM, Email list for the Illinois School Library Media Association <islma at list.railslibraries.info<mailto:islma at list.railslibraries.info>> wrote:

Any suggestions for our AP Language Summer reading title?  The teacher wants a non-fiction high interest title, potentially true-crime but not necessarily.  She was looking at Girls of Murder City but I haven’t read that and can’t comment.

Past books that didn’t go over well have been:

A Long Way Gone

Outliers

In True Blood

Into the Wild

Devil in the White City is used by another class so that was rejected by administration.

What’s been a hit with your students?

Gail Meyer, Librarian

TF South High School

gmeyer at tfd215.org<mailto:gmeyer at tfd215.org>

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Homewood-Flossmoor High School
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