Non-Fiction That Reads Like Fiction

Readitforward had a great little list of non-fiction that reads like fiction (Also known as narrative non-fiction). While these titles adult, not juvenile, I can see this list being gobbled up by older teens, especially those who are not really into science fiction or high fantasy.  (Of course, not all adult fiction is suitable for all young adults, so knowledge of the particular child and the particular title would help before recommending these books to teens willy nilly).

Titles include:

• The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (The incredible events surrounding the 1893 Chicago World's Fair)
• In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson (Portrait of Berlin during the first years of Hitler's reign)
• Dead Wake by Erik Larson (Story of the sinking of the Lusitania)
• A Spy Among Friends by Ben Macintyre (Portrait of Kim Philby, the greatest spy in history, a brilliant and charming man who rose to head Britain’s counterintelligence against the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War — while he was secretly working for the enemy)
• In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (Reconstructs the murder of four members of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas, and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers)
• Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt (About a murder at Savannah's grandest mansion, 1981
• Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer (Also made into a movie. About Christopher McCandless, who died in the Alaskan wilderness)
• The Hot Zone by Richard Preston (account of the first emergence of the Ebola virus)
• Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo (Story of families striving toward a better life in Mumbai)
• The Boys in the Boat by Daniel Brown (Story of the University of Washington’s 1936 eight-oar crew and their epic quest for an Olympic gold medal at the Berlin Olympics, 1936)
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (Henrietta Lacks, as HeLa, is known to present-day scientists for her cells, taken without her knowledge, and used for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions)
• Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer (First-hand account of a fatal expedition up Mount Everest, 1996)
• Pilgrim's Wilderness by Tom Kizzia (True story of a modern-day homesteading family in the deepest reaches of the Alaskan wilderness)
• Black Count by Tom Reiss (Biography of General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas)
• Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand (Made into a movie. Story of WW2)
• Two Lives by William Trevor (Made into a movie. Actually two books: Reading Turgenev, a lonely country girl escapes her loveless marriage in the arms of a bookish young man. In My House in Umbria, a former madam befriends the other survivors of a terrorist bombing)
• Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War by Karen Abbott
• Columbine by Dave Cullen
• A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel (Memoir describes the childhood of the author who grew up in the 1960s in the small town of Mooreland, Indiana)
• The River of Doubt by Candace Millard. (An expedition is led by Teddy Roosevelt down an unexplored river to see if it connects to the Amazon)
• The Circus Fire by Stewart O'Nan (Account of tragedy and heroism-the great Hartford circus fire of 1944)

Other suggestions include:

• Scoop: Notes from a Small Ice Cream Shop by Jeff Miller
• The Demon in the Freezer by Richard Preston
• Five days at Memorial by Sheri Fink
• The Innocent Man by John Grisham
• Under the Banner of Heaven by John Krakauer
• Red Rover by Deirdre Mcnamer
• Dewey: the small town library cat who touched the world by Vicki Myron
• The Blooding by Joseph Wambaugh
• Two Lives by Vikram Seth
• The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
• In the Garden of Last Days by Andre Dubus III (About 9/11)
• Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
• Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally
• The World's Strongest Librarian by Josh Hanagarne
• The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester
• Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horowitz
• The Bounty, the true story of the mutiny on the bounty by Caroline Alexander
• Hot Art: Chasing Thieves and Detectives Through the Secret World of Stolen Art by Joshua Knelman
• Dial M: The Murder of Carol Thompson by William Swanson
• The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean
• One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson
• The Devil's Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea
• A Civil Action Aug 27, 1996 by Jonathan Harr (True story behind the scenes of a civil action lawsuit against environmental pollution and big money)
• Chasing The Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, by Johann Hari

The one that comes to my mind would be

• In Search of the Source by Neil Anderson (About missionaries in Papua New Guinea).

Paper Planes (Jnr Fic)

AUTHOR: Steve Worland (Aust)
PUBLISHED: Puffin ; 2015.
PAGES/ILL: 196 pages.

PLOT:
Twelve-year-old Dylan Webber lives in outback Western Australia in a small country town. When he discovers he has a talent for folding and flying paper planes, Dylan begins a journey to reach the World Junior Paper Plane Championships in Japan.
Along the way he makes unlikely new friends, clashes with powerful rivals and comes to terms with his family's past before facing his greatest challenge: to create a paper plane that will compete with the best in the world.

REVIEW:
Written in the second person, present tense, this is a quick and easy read. It is based on the screenplay of the movie. I'm sure it will appeal to primary school children who see the movie.

AGE: 7+.
GENRE: Realistic fiction.
RATING: 4 1/2 stars.

Top Australian Authors

Booktopia ran a poll asking people to vote for their favourite Australian authors. One of the best features of the poll was that you could vote for multiple people (seriously, who can choose only one favourite author?) and then the votes were collated to give us the TOP TEN!

Children's authors in the top ten are Mem Fox (a must for ANY picture book collection), Andy Griffiths (not hard to see how he made the list when you know how his books are gobbled up in primary school), and John Flanagan (author of the popular Ranger's Apprentice series).

Congratulations!

Series: The Legion (YA Fic)

AUTHOR: Kami Garcia (USA)
PUBLISHED: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers ;c2014.
PAGES/ILL: 384 pages.
SERIES: The Legion
FIRST BOOK: Unbreakable

PLOT: (book 2: Unmarked)
Kennedy Waters has accidentally set free an extremely powerful demon. She thinks she is part of a group called the Legion, which hunt demons down. As they try to figure out how to capture this one, they discover secrets about Kennedy's family as well as the Legion.

REVIEW:
Overall, the plot and storyline weren't bad, but the writing itself wasn't fantastic. There was a lot of repetitive description, especially in regards to Kennedy's "eidetic memory". The book is filled with "my eidetic memory this" and "my eidetic memory that" "I used my eidetic memory..." "I flipped through images in my eidetic memory" "my eidetic memory made me remember..." "thanks to my eidetic memory..." "my eidetic memory filed it away..."

Yeah, I get it. You have an eidetic memory. You want to say it again? (Yes, she does. Over and over and over).

The themes centre around demonology, but there is a bit of a love interest in there, too. Sexual themes are only hinted at.

I can see the appeal to young teens who are getting into the demonology and paranormal fiction, but I wasn't that impressed. For my own rating, I would give it 2 stars, but for teen appeal, I'll give it 3 1/2. One or two teen girls may rate it 4 and maybe even 5 stars.

AGE: 13+.
GENRE: Paranormal romance
RATING: 3 1/2 stars.

RIP R.A. Montgomery (author) 1936-2014

Rest in Peace, Raymond Almiran Montgomery, author and creator of the choose your own adventure series.

The Book With No Pictures (PB)

'The Book With No Pictures' read by author B.J. Novak.

This is an example of the power of a good story, reading with enthusiasm (which we should always do when reading to children), and connecting with your audience.

The Sleeper and the Spindle (Pic Fic)

AUTHOR: Neil Gaiman (UK) ; illustrated by Chris Riddell.
PUBLISHED: Bloomsbury, c2014.
PAGES/ILL: 66 pages, ill.

PLOT:
A thrillingly reimagined fairy tale from the truly magical combination of author Neil Gaiman and illustrator Chris Riddell weaving together a sort-of Snow White and an almost Sleeping Beauty with a thread of dark magic, which will hold readers spellbound from start to finish. On the eve of her wedding, a young queen sets out to rescue a princess from an enchantment. She casts aside her fine wedding clothes, takes her chain mail and her sword and follows her brave dwarf retainers into the tunnels under the mountain towards the sleeping kingdom. This queen will decide her own future and the princess who needs rescuing is not quite what she seems.

REVIEW:
This dark fairy tale adaptation (not for young children) is spectacular (but I have a bit of a soft spot for Gaiman's work). The story has threads of the familiar, but at the same time is a new story. The black and white illustrations are enhanced with gold accents. With the Vellum cover, it's a delight.

AGE: 8+.
GENRE: Fairy tale
RATING: 5 stars.

Series: Take Back The Skies (Jnr YA Fic)

AUTHOR: Lucy Saxon (UK)
PUBLISHED: Bloosmbury, c2014.
PAGES/ILL: 378 pages, map.
SERIES: Take Back The Skies.
FIRST BOOK: Take Back The Skies.

PLOT:

Catherine Hunter is the daughter of a senior government official on the island of Anglya, in the world of Tellus. Since the monarchs went missing during a war, the government officials have controlled everything. She lives a privileged life, unlike the Commoners, whose children have been Collected for a war no one knows much about. Unhappy with her caged life, she stows away on the skyship Stormdancer. As they leave Anglya behind, Cat learns about other lands in Tellus and that her government is involved in a despicable secret scheme and has been lying to the people of Anglya. With the help of the crew of the Stormdancer, she vows to set things right. (And along the way, she falls for one of the crew members.)

REVIEW:
First of all, cudos to a 16 year old for writing it, but I was really disappointed in this story. I really wanted to like this book, and for the first half I did.

The world Saxon has created is rather great. A little steampunk, a little fantasy. The main and supporting characters started off quite likeable. However, the story falls down with some of the plot and character developments.

The plot is developed (if you can call it that), reaches the climax, and ends way to fast. As for the love interest, you can see Fox and Cat falling for each other a mile off. Unsurprisingly (because the characters and the author are teens), it's a fairly juvenile relationship, going from 0-10 in a matter of chapters, and, annoyingly, with constant "saying the wrong thing and being taken the wrong way" back and forth they keep up for almost the entire book.

The progression of events is thus:
- Cat leaves her privileged life and stows away on the skyship Skydancer where she makes friends with the crew and falls for Fox, who does the whole "I'll act like an arse because I secretly like you" thing while Cat does the "I'm independent and I'll overreact" thing.
- The government plot comes to light - they are kidnapping kids for something and lying to their people about being at war.
- The adults on the Skydancer have known something was up for YEARS, but Cat gets them to mount an offensive in one conversation (obviously only those on the Skydancer have a clue and none of the other nations know what is going on, and obviously they should do something without finding out more details or alerting authorities in other lands).
- They plan what they are going to do for all of a day or two, managing to find blueprints of the government building they need to infiltrate, along with making secret video and audio equipment, explosives, etc.
- Once in the building, they discover exactly what is going on (turning children into half-machine soldiers), find the missing monarchs, and Fox and Cat realise their feelings for each other and are in 'love'. (And the previously-missing prince gets an instant crush on Cat that makes you gag).
- The next day, they rescue the monarchs as well as a lot of children, broadcast to the world images of what is going on, and go after the skyship on which the completed child/machine soldiers are being kept. - They find the ship, kill the main baddie, Fox dies (in an unlikely scenario), the Prince makes a move on Cat, she swears she will never love him or marry him (all this within a few hours).
- "Two years later" Cat marries the Prince. The end.

Riiiight. The first part is fine. I'll even overlook the Mission Impossible plot of infiltrating a secret government plot in a matter of days.
What would have made it more interesting, though, is the baddie getting away, finding out there are MORE ships with child/machine soldiers, and Fox living to fight another day in the next book where they continue to hunt for the baddie and try to find the other ships and eventually maybe having to fight those machines. (This also means the prince can get over his nauseous little infatuation and find someone else, Cat and Fox's relationship might actually develop into something quite good while providing the romance in the story, and then the trio could actually work quite well).

Instead, they kill the baddie, and we immediately jump to 'two years later'. So.... a government conspiracy just magically vanished like smoke after destroying one building and killing some people? What about the child/machines? What did they do with them? What about the kids who hadn't been made into machines yet? How far did the conspiracy reach? What was the punishment for those captured? What did the other lands make of it? How did people react to learning about the plot and finding out what had happened to their kids? How about learning that the missing King is actually part of the conspiracy? Or that some people in other nations are in on it, too? There are a lot of options to take this plot further, but instead it's over in one chapter and 'two years later'.

Oh, and Cat goes completely against the 'tough independent' character she's been (sometimes taking it a little too far) for the whole book and goes from a 15 year old losing the 'love of her life' to a 17 year old 'doing her duty' and marrying the sack-of-wet-cement prince which she swore she never would (I HATE predictable and obvious foreshadowing), while still, apparently, being in love with the memory of Fox.

Since a 16 year old wrote it, yes, the writing is juvenile with a lot of "telling" rather than "showing" (although it's still very good for her age). This is another book which is a bit of a let-down and could have been much better (see my review of 'Death & Co.').


AGE: 11+.
GENRE: Fantasy/Steampunk fiction
RATING: I'd give it 3 1/2 - 4 stars until the end. The end gets a 2. Overall, I'll give it 3, but I can see some pre-teen girls giving it a 5.

Series: Death & Co. (Fic)

AUTHOR: McCune, D.J. (Ireland)
PUBLISHED: Hot Key Books, c2013.
PAGES/ILL: 279 pages
SERIES: Frankie Death & Co.
FIRST BOOK: Death & Co.

PLOT:
Lumen are charged with guiding souls down their Light after death. Luman can move fairly freely between the real world and the Hinterland where they meet the souls. Adam belongs to a Luman family, but he's not sure he wants the job. He likes being 'normal' - having friends, going to schools, and beginning to date girls. But Adam has a special gift, and when he starts to embrace it, he realises he can change more than his own destiny. But not without a price...

REVIEW:
This is one of those books which, for the most part, I liked, but which didn't live up to potential. Some parts of the story I'd give a strong 4 stars. Other parts get a 2.
For the potential appeal to children, I give it 4 stars.

The premise of the plot (adapting the 'Ferryman' folklore) is great and it's such a pity that the author didn't do it justice. The target audience is supposed to be teen, but it reads more like a middle grade book.

I found Adam and his friends fairly juvenile. A sub-plot has Adam and his friends playing pranks on a head teacher, fooling and humiliating him. The story shows this teacher as a bully and dumb enough to fall for the pranks - a very juvenile idea. This sub-plot was not necessary and just took time away from the main story line (exploring the world of the Lumen). Sure, it introduced us to the 'normal' part of Adam's life, but it wasn't done particularly well. It felt too lower and middle grade (Captain Underpants-esque) compared to the other themes (you'd think a boy who has grown up with the responsibility of helping souls move on after death would have a little more maturity).

There were missed opportunities for character development and world-building. Children won't notice the lack of development so much, but it would have contributed making the book higher quality (obviously).

Overall, I did enjoy reading the book and will read the next one. Unfortunately, it could have been so much more (hopefully the next book/s will build a bit more guts into the story line).

I can see that it does have appeal for children (suitable age depends on the child). While it's promoted for YA, it's more pre-adolescent (9 or 10+), although you'd have to know the 9 y.o to know how much 'death' is ok for them (for example, in one scene Adam and his family are in the Hinterland, helping souls who have just been mass-executed in a military coup). It's for kids who have moved way beyond Diary of a Wimpy Kid/Captain Underpants, but are no where near ready for Hunger Games. It's about on par with the early Harry Potters or Skulduggery Pleasants.

AGE: 9-14.
GENRE: Fantasy fiction.
RATING: 3 1/2 - 4 stars.

Series: Shoutykid (Jnr Fic)

AUTHOR: Simon Mayle (UK)
PUBLISHED: HarperCollins, c2014.
PAGES/ILL: 397 pages, ill.
SERIES: Shoutykid.
FIRST BOOK: How Harry Riddles Made a Mega-Amazing Zombie Movie.

PLOT:
Told through a series of texts, emails and letters, follow Harry Riddles' ups and downs in life with school, girls and his family.
When his dad looses his job, Harry begins thinking that making a zombie movie might just be his ticket to success (and money).

REVIEW:
This book will appeal to fans of Captain Underpants, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Charlie Merrick's Misfits, or Compton Valance. The format will have high appeal with reluctant and struggling readers.

AGE: 7-10.
GENRE: Realistic fiction
RATING: 4 stars (not because it is a literary great, but because of its high appeal to under 10s, especially reluctant readers).