25 Popular Nonfiction Books for Kids

Nonfiction books for kindergarteners are often short and fun. They can be award-winning nonfiction books for kids or simply what children, parents, and teachers think are the best nonfiction books for kindergarten.

Kids can explore 23 different mini picture book biographies with the I Am series by Brad Meltzer. Each book focuses on presenting basic fun facts about a significant person from history.

In Hey! Water by Antoinette Portis, kids will explore all the different places they can find water and how different it can look. This picture book features fun illustrations of different bodies of water and a young female character who interacts with them.

Children's author Richard Scarry is known for his hilarious BusyTown characters and illustrations. In Cars and Trucks and Things That Go, each page is filled with funny scenes featuring every type of vehicle you can imagine, even vehicles you wish were real.

Told from a wombat's point of view, Diary of a Wombat by Jackie French presents facts about the life of this animal through fun journal entries. This creative nonfiction picture book has sparked a series featuring the wombat character.

Grandfather's Journey, written and illustrated by Allen Say, shares the true story of the author's grandfather. His cross-cultural experience as a man who loves both America and Japan is presented in this picture book.

Everyone Poops by Taro Gomi is a fun and educational book showing how different animals and people poop. The book makes going #2 less taboo, especially for young children.

Using the familiar tune of The Farmer in the Dell, Hey-Ho, to Mars We'll Go by Susan Lendroth explores all the elements of a trip to Mars through a mixture of song and facts.

Any good first grade book list or 2nd grade book list will include a wide variety of nonfiction books. Kids in this age group are able to read on their own and sit for longer story time sessions, so early biographies are popular here.

Hidden Figures: The True Story of Four Black Women and the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly shares the stories of Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden. These women used their math skills to help NASA.

Characterized by cover images of amazing real people with giant heads, the Who Was series by various Who HQ authors features a different famous trailblazer in each book. Kids can read dozens of books filled with facts about famous people who are no longer alive like explorers, singers, and world leaders.

Through lyrical language and verse, readers will explore Native American family culture in Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story by Kevin Noble Maillard.

Mac Barnett and Sarah Jacoby present a picture book biography of a beloved children's author in The Important Thing About Margaret Wise Brown.

Migration: Incredible Animal Journeys by Mike Unwin shares some of the world's most unique animal migrations. Readers will discover the amazing ways 20 different animals migrate.

Readers can follow simple instructions and learn to draw hundreds of animals in How to Draw 101 Animals by Dan Green.

Readers are introduced to Min the microbe in Do Not Lick This Book by Idan Ben-Barak. The book explores everything you need to know about germs.

Earth! My First 4.54 Billion Years by Stacy McAnulty is a fun picture book told from the view of a personified planet Earth. Readers will learn dozens of facts about the planet we live on.

As students master independent reading, 3rd and 4th graders can start to use nonfiction books to learn new skills and explore difficult topics.

Girls Who Code: Learn to Code and Change the World by Reshma Saujani is a fun and empowering how-to book geared toward girls. It teaches readers how to create things like apps and games by coding them.

Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls by Elena Favilli features 100 bedtime stories illustrated by 60 female artists. Each story shares the life of an extraordinary woman from either the past or the present.

Author Yuyi Morales shares the story of her journey as a migrant from Mexico to America with her baby in the picture book Dreamers.

A Boy Called Slow: The True Story of Sitting Bull Slow by Joseph Bruchac takes place in the early 1800s and chronicles the childhood of this legendary Sioux hero.

I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsberg Makes Her Mark by Debbie Levy is a picture book that explores how Ruth Bader Ginsberg's courage to disagree with others led to great changes for our country.

Students ages 10-12 use nonfiction books to learn about things that interest them or important historical events.

Through step-by-step photos and tips from the pros, young chefs learn to cook over 100 recipes in The Complete Cookbook for Young Chefs by America's Test Kitchen Kids.

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank is a translated version of Anne's personal diaries. Anne is well-known for her accounts of life during the Holocaust.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba is a lyrical book about how a teenage boy in Africa figured out how to bring electricity to his village.

Readers will learn how Negro League baseball started in We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro Baseball League by Kadir Nelson. Oil paintings help illustrate some of the amazing people involved in this unique historical event.

Lincoln's Grave Robbers by Steve Sheinkin is a true-crime chapter book that explores an attempt to steal Abraham Lincoln's body in the late 1800s.

Nonfiction books for kids are popular because they cover a variety of topics like reading, reading comprehension, history, math, science, technology, or social skills. Curate your own awesome nonfiction collection by including books about racism and social justice for kids, nonfiction poetry books for kids, and other types of nonfiction books that cover important concepts.