Nonfiction/Biography/Graphic Novels/Poetry

1. Henry’s Freedom Box: A true Story from the Underground Railroad by Ellen Levine

Summary: After a slave is separated from his family growing up and the family he had raised, he decided to run away to Pennsylvania.

2. My Great Aunt Arizona by Gloria Houston

Summary: This story is about a girl named Arizona and her life growing up in school and eventually she grew up to become a school teacher.

3. We the Kids: The Preamble to the Constitution of the United States by Dave Catrow

Summary: This is a story about what they constitution means in the eyes of a child.

4. What Do You Do with a Tail Like This? by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page

Summary: This book is about animals in the wild and what their different body parts do.

5. Around the World by Matt Phelan

Summary: Thomas Stevens was working in a mine and he decides that he want to ride his bicycle across the Unites States.  Once he gets to the coast he decides that he wants to ride his bike around the world in eighty days.

6. Killer Whales by Seymour Simon

Summary: This is a book about Killer Whales and how they live in the ocean and the kinds of things they eat.

7. Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave by Laban Carrick Hill

Summary: Dave is a slave who looks at the dirt and sees clay; he makes bowls out of this clay so he can store things that he needs to survive.

8. Bilby Secrets By Edel Wignel

Summary: This is a delightful non-fiction picture book that teaches us in narrative form about the life of the wonderful bilby, an Australian marsupial. It traces the events of a typical day for mother and baby, and the perils of native and feral animals as the baby Bilby tries to survive life in the Australian landscape.

 

9. Amazing Grace: An Adventure at Sea By Stephanie Owen

Summary: This is a story about the courage of 16-year-old Grace Bussell. The year is 1876, when a steam ship, the 'Georgette', runs aground near Margaret River in Western Australia. On shore an ordinary 16 year old girl sees the unfolding drama and heads off on horseback with the family servant Sam Isaacs to try to help the stranded passengers. Grace and Sam head into the water with their horses and rescue many people. 

 

10. The Boy from Bowral By Robert Ingpen

Summary: Bradman is seen as a legend in any cricket playing nation and Ingpen provides a lucidly written and historically accurate picture of Bradman's early life in Bowral, his rise to prominence as a cricketer, and his sporting career.

 

11. The Legend of Moondyne Joe By Mark Greenwood

Summary: Moondyne Joe was not known for gunfights or holding up stagecoaches in the early days of the colony. It was the convict bushranger's ability to escape each time he was placed behind bars that made him infamous.