BiblioVault - Books about Juvenile Nonfiction

Raven and River

Nancy White Carlstrom

University of Alaska Press, 2011

Raven and River leads young readers on a fantastical journey with a raven across the icy Alaska landscape on the verge of spring. Along the way, the raven’s sonorous cry wakes a cast of sleeping woodland creatures, including a bear, a beaver, a hare, and a squirrel—all of whom join him in imploring the still-frozen river to melt and thereby initiate the change of seasons. Packed with information and featuring vibrant full-color illustrations by Jon Van Zyle, Raven and River brings to life these two important harbingers of Alaska’s spring.

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A Recipe for Success

Lizzie Kander and Her Cookbook

Bob Kann

Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2007

A Recipe for Success: Lizzie Kander and her Cookbook celebrates the life of Milwaukee’s early twentieth-century culinary wonder. This new addition to the Badger Biography series will introduce young readers to a remarkable young woman who made a difference in the lives of the early immigrants in Wisconsin. Kander originally created The Settlement Cookbook to assist young Jewish immigrant girls in cooking nutritious "American-style" meals for their families. Since its publication, several generations of household cooks have been raised on the delicious recipes of the cookbook. Proceeds from the sale of the original cookbook helped build Milwaukee’s first settlement house and later the city’s Jewish Community Center. The century-old cookbook is still in print today. This is a delightful biography, filled with humorous asides, wonderful period illustrations, and of course recipes!

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Richard Bong

World War II Flying Ace

Pete Barnes

Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2009

Who would have imagined a farm boy from Wisconsin would be the greatest air hero of World War II? Richard Bong was an athletic and hard-working boy from northern Wisconsin who dreamed of flying from the first time a plane buzzed low over his family farm. When war broke out, he left behind a life of sports, deer hunting, and farm chores to fly the new P-38 Lightning for the Army Air Force. Stationed in New Guinea, Bong shot down a total of 40 Japanese flyers in under three years - beating the record of 26 set by Eddie Rickenbacker in World War I. His accomplishments won this modest pilot the title "Ace of Aces" and a Congressional Medal of Honor awarded by General MacArthur himself.

Follow Bong as he navigates his way through basic training, flight school, and life on an overseas army base. Watch as he takes to the skies in his P-38 fighter jet, outflying Japanese aircraft with barrel rolls, dives, and turns. Celebrate as he meets and marries the love of his life back home in Wisconsin, and mourn as his life comes to a swift and unexpected end during an ill-fated training flight in California.

Richard Bong: World War II Flying Ace is part of the Badger Biographies series for young readers. The engaging narrative is complemented by an accessible format that includes historic photographs, a glossary of terms, sidebars on life in the military, and suggestions for activities and discussion.

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Ruth Asawa

An Artist Takes Shape

Sam Nakahira

J. Paul Getty Trust, The, 2024

Brave, unconventional, and determined, Ruth Asawa let nothing stop her from living a life intertwined with art.

Renowned for her innovative wire sculptures, Japanese American artist Ruth Asawa (1926–2013) was a teenager in Southern California when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and the United States entered World War II. Japanese Americans on the West Coast were forcibly removed from their homes. Asawa’s family had to abandon their farm, her father was incarcerated, and she and the rest of her family were sent to a concentration camp. Asawa nurtured her dreams of becoming an artist while imprisoned and eventually made her way to the experimental Black Mountain College in North Carolina.

This graphic biography by Sam Nakahira, developed in consultation with Asawa’s youngest daughter, Addie Lanier, chronicles the genesis of Asawa as an artist—from the horror of Pearl Harbor to her transformative education at Black Mountain College to building a life in San Francisco, where she would further develop and refine her groundbreaking wire sculpture.

Asawa never sought fame, preferring to work on her own terms: for her, art and life were one. Featuring lively illustrations and photographs of Asawa’s work, this retelling of her young adult years demonstrates the power of making art.

Ages thirteen and up

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