non-fiction?

Question

what is a good non fiction book for a highschool student to read when he/she has to write an essay on it afterwards

Answer 1

Try any of these:

Girl, interrupted by Susana Kayson, 1994. 168p.

Who's to say what's crazy and what's not? Kayson remembers the two years she spent in a mental institution after high school. If you saw the movie version, you owe it to yourself to read the reality.

Chinese Cinderella: The true story of an unwanted daughter By Adeline Yen Mah

Her mother died shortly after giving birth to Adeline. And not long after her mother's death, her father remarried a much younger woman. This woman, the only mother that Adeline ever knew, made her life terrible. Her older siblings picked on her, and her younger ones were kept separate from her.

Hurry Freedom: African Americans in the Gold Rush
By Jerry Stanley


Many Americans heard of the gold found in California, and made the mad dash across the country to try and get rich quick. It was hard work, and few got rich. But it was even harder for African Americans, who had to deal with the inequalities facing them at every turn.

Raoul Wallenberg: The Man Who Stopped Death
By Sharon Linnea

Raoul didn't want to be a banker, which is exactly what his grandfather had always wanted him to be. He wasn't good at math. But on the other hand, he wasn't sure what he wanted to do, until one day the United States government asked him to help the Jews still left alive in Budapest, Hungary. Raoul soon had his purpose in life, and he attacked it with all his heart.

After the Holocaust By Howard Greenfeld

What happened when survivors of the concentration camps, and various hiding places tried to go back home after the war? Were they welcomed, or turned away? This book takes a look at the lives of eight young people who survived the war, and all the after effects of it.

Bad Boy By Walter Dean Myers

Growing up in Harlem, New York, Walter Dean Myers faced many obstacles, but also knew much love from his adopted family. Follow him as he begins his life and the events that shaped him into the writer he became.

Good luck

Answer 2

Definitely fiction for me. My three favorite books are To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee, Life of Pi by Yana Martel and The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. The last book I read was a reread, The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver.I only buy hardback books so they'll last and I'll read the same book every 3 or 4 years. I always find something new when I read them again. A few of my favorite authors are Toni Morrison, William Faulkner, Joyce Carol Oates and Larry McMurtry. Reading is a huge part of my life and the only sedative that really puts my mind at ease. I'm the one who reads the cereal box if there's nothing else available.

Answer 3

"The Diary of a Young Girl" ("The Diary of Anne Frank") by Anne Frank provides tons of material that can be turned into a good essay after reading. You can write about how people are affected when they are in hiding, you can write about the fate of the Jewish people during WWII, you can write more generally about the Holocaust, you can write about how the diary came to be published. It's kind of a goldmine in that respect.

Another title about the Holocaust is "Night" by Elie Wiesel.

"Death in the Afternoon", by Ernest Hemingway is a non-fiction book about Spain and specifically about bullfighting. It also provides a lot of food for thought, and though it is kind of a hard read, there is a lot you could do with it in the form of essays. One of the easiest topics would simply be about the bullfights themselves, and what you think of bullfighting. You can compare your feelings about it to Hemingway's, or you can write about the history of bullfights, or you could even write about Hemingway's writing style. It's another book that provides a lot of stuff to think about.

Answer 4

I really enjoyed Blink. It has excellent writing and keeps you engaged. I read it in high school. I've also heard Freakonomics is entertaining. In fact, I need to check that out next time I go to the library.