What is non-fiction?

Definition

• “Non” means not, so non-fiction literally means not fiction. Fiction is a made-up story, so non-fiction means not made up.

• Accounts of real people, places, objects or events

• Types of non-fiction include newspaper and magazine articles, autobiographies, biographies, essays, memoirs, nature writing, profiles, reports, histories, and travel writing.

Out of Africa

Karen Blixen went to Kenya in 1914 to run a coffee farm; its failure in 1931 caused her to return to Denmark where she wrote this classic account of her experiences. "Out of Africa" is a celebration of her life there; her friendship with the various people of the area and her sympathetic response to the landscape and animals are drawn with warmth and unusual clarity. Although the book is pervaded by her sense of loss, Karen Blixen looks back with an unsentimental intelligence to portray a way of life that is now gone forever.

Boy: Tales of Childhood

Twenty-five years ago in Boy, the world’s favorite storyteller recollected scenes from his youth—some funny, some frightening, all true. More About Boy is the expanded story of Roald Dahl’s childhood, with his original text augmented by never-before-seen material from behind the scenes, and some of the secrets that were left out. Dahl’s adventures and misadventures during his school years are crowded with people as strange and wonderful as any character he created and are as exciting and full of the unexpected as his celebrated fiction.

The Diary of a Young Girl

This is a moving account of the life of Anne Frank and her family while living in Amsterdam, Holland during the Nazi occupation from 1942 to 1944. Hiding in a secret annex for more than two years, Anne Frank lived her young life under more than trying circumstances - cut off from the outside world. During her confinement, Anne became a teenager, with dreams and aspirations. Despite the horrible truth and the fate that awaited her, she never gave up cherishing her ideals, dreams, and hopes.

Three Cups of Tea

One day Greg Mortenson set out to climb K2 - the world's second highest mountain - in honour of his younger sister, but when another member of his group fell ill, they turned around and Greg became lost in the mountains of Pakistan. He wandered into a poor village, where the chief and his people took him in. Moved by their kindness, Greg promised to return and build a school for the children.This is the remarkable story of how, against all the odds, Greg built not only one but more than sixty schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and how he dedicated his life to establishing literacy and peace, and understanding.This young readers edition has been specially adapted for younger readers.

Six Days in October

Over six terrifying, desperate days in October 1929, the fabulous fortune that Americans had built in stocks plunged with a fervor never seen before. At first, the drop seemed like a mistake, a mere glitch in the system. But as the decline gathered steam, so did the destruction. Over twenty-five billion dollars in individual wealth was lost, vanished, gone. People watched their dreams fade before their very eyes. Investing in the stock market would never be the same.

For young readers living in an era of stock-market fascination, this engrossing account explains stock-market fundamentals while bringing to life the darkest days of the mammoth crash of 1929.

Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World

In August 1914, Ernest Shackleton and 27 men sailed from England in an attempt to become the first team of explorers to cross Antarctica from one side to the other. Five months later and still 100 miles from land, their ship, Endurance, became trapped in ice. The expedition survived another five months camping on ice floes, followed by a perilous journey through stormy seas to remote and unvisited Elephant Island. In a dramatic climax to this amazing survival story, Shackleton and five others navigated 800 miles of treacherous open ocean in a 20-foot boat to fetch a rescue ship.

Can I See Your I.D.?: True Stories of False Identities

True crime, desperation, fraud, and adventure: From the impoverished young woman who enchanted nineteenth-century British society as a faux Asian princess, to the sixteen-year-old boy who "stole" a subway train in 1993, to the lonely but clever Frank Abagnale of Catch Me if You Can fame, these ten vignettes offer riveting insight into mind-blowing masquerades. Graphic panels draw you into the exploits of these pretenders, and meticulously researched details keep you on the edge of your seat. Each scene is presented in the second person, a unique point of view that literally places you inside the faker's mind. With motivations that include survival, delusion, and plain, old-fashioned greed, the psychology of deception has never been so fascinating or so close at hand.

How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous

Over the course of history men and women have lived and died. In fact, getting sick and dying can be a big, ugly mess-especially before the modern medical care that we all enjoy today. How They Croaked relays all the gory details of how nineteen world figures gave up the ghost. For example:• It is believed that Henry VIII's remains

exploded within his coffin while lying in state.

• Doctors "treated" George Washington by draining almost 80 ounces of blood before he finally kicked the bucket.

• Right before Beethoven wrote his last notes, doctors drilled a hole in his stomach without any pain medication.