Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Nonfiction Help!

I'm desperately asking any or all of you for help! It's time to replenish my collections, and I have until next Friday to come up with a list. My fiction section is pretty awesome (if I do say so myself), but I weeded the hell out of my nonfiction section this summer, and would like to restock it with some new, current, incredible titles. I'm scouring the Internet and the resources I have available but I'm not a big reader of nonfiction so I don't really know what's hot. If any of you have any suggestions for must-have YA nonfiction, I would be greatly appreciative!

The titles have to be YA, not adult-with-YA-appeal. I know I weeded a lot in these categories:

  • Computers/Technology
  • Sex/Puberty/Coming of Age
  • Jobs/Careers/College
  • I'm also interested in books dealing with true crime and/or kids in juvenile detention/prison (prison memoirs always go over big at the local juvenile center I visit)
  • I don't think I'm too concerned with history right now--our YA nonfic is interfiled with adult nonfic, and their history collection is pretty tight.

I know there are the nonfiction series (like FAQ, Opposing Viewpoints, etc.), but...eh. I'd rather find some incredible standalones. I did find a bunch of titles that caught my eye and that I think would circ well at my library, but unfortunately they're not in the categories I mentioned above LOL

It's funny how I always say I wish I could pick my own stuff, but when given such a broad assignment, I'm coming up blank! Have any awesome suggestions for me?

Enjoy your reading!
Christi

4 comments:

  1. I am no help when it comes to nonfiction for teens, but I find that the ones I do reference for want adult books when they are researching a topic. Our YA nonfiction is mostly made up of craft books (knitting the prominent subject), hair and makeup books, books about blogging, and biographies of teens like The Burn Diaries.
    Good luck in your quest, and if I see anything by Friday, I'll holler.
    Oh, we DID have a bunch of books about sex, including The Sex Book, but they were all MIA when I did an inventory last month. So they walked. I hope they went to someone who really needed them- not that I condone theft, but you know what I mean.

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  2. I've heard good things about With Their Eyes, edited by Annie Thomas. It's a collection of accounts from high school students who were in school four blocks away from the World Trade Center on Sept. 11th. I haven't read it myself, but you might want to check it out!

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  3. Thanks, guys! And Natalie, I have heard of With Their Eyes, my library actually owns it LOL But thanks!

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  4. Since you mentioned true crime, there is an excellent book about Columbine that you should consider getting: Columbine by Dave Cullen. I read it and loved it. It really does a lot in explaining not just what happened, but why, and who Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris were as people. I think it gives a great understanding to Dylan and Eric as people and a greater understanding to what happened. The book also discusses the survivors, and how people dealt with what happened and whatnot. Dave Cullen spent 10 years researching the book, and he addresses a lot of misconceptions/myths about Columbine.

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