Matt Doeden
Basketball's Biggest Rivalries
A punchy, illustrated deep-dive into the lore of college and pro basketball feuds that will hook any kid who loves sports stats and drama.
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Runner of the Mountain Tops: The Life of Louis Agassiz
by Mabel Robinson
Nonfiction · ages 8–12 · 720L · 2018
A vivid, movement-filled biography that makes a 19th-century naturalist's obsessions contagious—kids who like adventure and science will chase Agassiz up mountains and across glaciers.
Davy Crockett
by Constance Rourke
Nonfiction · ages 8–12 · 800L · 1998
Rourke's 1934 biography captures the real person beneath the legend—scrappy, ambitious, sometimes fallible—with the kind of narrative drive that makes frontier history actually stick.
Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: The Extraordinary True Story of Shackleton and the Endurance
by Jennifer Armstrong
Nonfiction · ages 10–14 · 800L · 2000
The gold standard for introducing true adventure and moral courage to middle graders — Armstrong's restraint and primary-source integration make a 100-year-old disaster feel immediate and real.