The final installment of the Best Books of 2012 from School Library Journal features nonfiction books for all ages of children. Here are their top picks:
Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass: The Story Behind an American Friendship by Russell Freedman
Barnum’s Bones: How Barnum Brown Discovered the Most Famous Dinosaur in the World by Tracey Fern, illustrated by Boris Kulikov
The Beetle Book by Steve Jenkins
A Black Hole Is NOT a Hole by Carolyn Cinami Decristofano, illustrated by Michael Carroll
Bomb: The Race to Build – and Steal – the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin
Buffalo Bird Girl: A Hidatsa Story retold by S. D. Nelson
Chuck Close: Face Book by Chuck Close
Faces from the Past: Forgotten People of North America by James M. Deem
Fifty Cents and a Dream: Young Booker T. Washington by Jabari Asim, illustrated by Bryan Collier
I Have a Dream by Martin Luther King, Jr., illustrated by Kadir Nelson
The Impossible Rescue: The True Story of an Amazing Arctic Adventure by Martin W. Sandler
Island: A Story of the Galapagos by Jason Chin
Life in the Ocean: The Story of Oceanographer Sylvia Earle by Claire A. Nivola
Little Rock Girl 1957: How a Photograph Changed the Fight for Integration by Shelley Tougas
Looking at Lincoln by Maira Kalman
The Mighty Mars Rovers: The Incredible Adventures of Spirit and Opportunity by Elizabeth Rusch
Moonbird: A Year on the Wind with the Great Survivor B95 by Phillip Hoose
Nic Bishop Snakes by Nic Bishop
Their Skeletons Speak: Kennewick Man and the Paleoamerican World by Sally M. Walker and Douglas W. Owsley
We’ve Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children’s March by Cynthia Levinson