19 Nonfiction Books Our Kids Couldn’t Put Down

Kelly R said:  A truly funny, informative and amazingly well-researched nonfiction book featuring real science-based answers to ridiculous questions. My 8th grade son read it cover-to-cover in a couple days and still flips back to some of his favorites, like "How fast can you hit a speed bump while driving and live?"

Shila said:  This book acts as an atlas for kids, with easy-to-read, simple road maps, roadside attractions, national parks and more for each state. I like that kids can learn where we're going, and how to map it. The book also includes fun facts & really beautiful pictures. I think this atlas really helps kids soak in all that's great about traveling & being "on the road."

This excellent series of animal books for kids pits various animals against each other in hypothetical battles, exploring their unique strengths and weaknesses through engaging text and vibrant illustrations.

Kristy Pepping said:  I remember checking this book out as a child from the school library so I thought this would be a fun nonfiction book for our fifth grader. She likes to learn about real-life events and also tends to like books with images to break up the text. The book's broken up by various categories so kids can flip to a particular section like science or just read through the various records currently held.

Dawn Denning said:  My entire family loves the Big Book of Why! This nonfiction favorite offers huge colorful photos of interesting things and explanations of how things came about or why things exist. My kiddos loved reading it everyday to learn more about plants, food, animals and their bodies! The Big Book of Why has an entire series covering animals, science, space and more! We can't get enough of these books! It is fun for the entire family!

Alexandra F. said:  If your kids like collecting and sharing weird or random facts (and I have yet to meet a kid who doesn't!), this will be a fun addition to their bookshelf. The book presents fun facts for kids in list format, often with a silly twist, and they’ll get a kick out of learning things like which 10 dinosaurs were the largest (and how much they weighed in cats) or which 10 breeds of dog are the smartest.

A funny spin on travel guides, these nonfiction books for kids share tips for visiting important times in history, like Ancient Rome or the American Revolution.

Kelly R said:  My 12-year-old is loving these books, especially the one on Ancient Rome! He made it through two of them in about a day, and read his favorite excerpts to anyone who would listen.

Alexandra F. said:  This isn't your parents' old multi-volume encyclopedia set! A visually captivating collection of interesting facts about the things that fascinate kids - space, bugs, the deep sea, animal facts and so much more - with plenty of infographics, images and lists to capture and maintain their interest!

Shila said:  This Is How We Do It is a lovely picture book that depicts the lives of seven kids from around the world: Peru, Italy, Russia, Uganda, Iran, India, and Japan. Readers get to observe general similarities and differences in homes, family structures, food, culture, sports, and more. Not only is this a great nonfiction book for kids, it is an excellent book that celebrates diversity too.

Shila said:  An interesting science nonfiction book for kids that shows how much there is to be learned from the unfortunate animals we cross on the side of the road.

Alexandra F. said:  My 7 year old got this book for his birthday and has loved flipping through it to learn interesting facts about a wide range of topics. The format is perfect for picking up and browsing any time - lots of pictures and lists of short facts.

Interactive non-fiction book about animals' skeletons. Directed at younger children, it uses a guessing game format, revealing record-breaking bone facts about animals using vibrant illustrations.

Kelly R said:  This is a huge book (I spotted it waiting for me on the holds shelf at the library from across the room) with photos and profiles of the countries of the world from A to Z. The kids and adults in my family have all loved flipping through it, looking at the beautiful photos and learning cool facts about different parts of the world.

Shila said:  Tod Olson's Lost is a series of narrative nonfiction books for kids, capturing a set of harrowing true-story survival experiences. From the Amazon to Apollo 13 to a plane crash in the Pacific Ocean during WWII, these are suspenseful page-turners for kids who love to read about life-and-death events and endurance.

Shila said:  This is one of the best nonfiction books for kids who want to learn more about the first-ever successful moon landing. Others tend to focus primarily on the astronauts and mission control, but this award-winning book pays homage to the greater team. From seamstresses and suit testers to the launch pad engineers, thousands of people worked to achieve this. The book also uses actual photos and vivid imagery from space to bring readers back to that epic mission.