Nonfiction Education

Vote for me! It's election time, and campaign ads are everywhere. But what does fundraising, door knocking, and campaigning have to do with getting elected? Listeners learn all about political campaigns and how they play a part in our elections.

Caleb doesn’t like going to school in his mother’s car. He wishes he could ride the school bus like his sister. He hates that he is all alone in the car and his mother can’t read to him. One day, he asks if they can try riding the bus to school instead. What will Caleb learn about this new type of transportation?

Learn how a tower crane is operated.

A group of children go on a field trip for a guided tour of a public library, where they learn how to find and check out books and other materials.

Learn how a bulldozer is operated.

This audiobook provides a small business scenario using a lemonade stand. Topics discussed include capital, gross profit, net profit, marketing, supply and demand, monopoly, and competition.

This audiobook provides an introduction to money, including the use of trading, and the origins of coins and paper money.

This audiobook describes how people pay for the things they buy by writing a check, paying with a debit card, paying with a credit card, and paying with cash withdrawn from an ATM.

This audiobook describes some of the things that bus drivers do to help people get where they need to go with city and school buses.

A group of children go on a field trip for a guided tour of a bank, where they learn about how money is stored and distributed.

Learn about street sweepers.

This audiobook provides an example of children getting their allowance, and how they decide to spend, save, and donate their earnings.

Learn how a freight train is operated.

This book looks at the rich diversity of clothes around the world. It introduces children to similarities found in clothes in different cultures, and honors differences.

Why do good manners matter in the library? Can you guess who is using bad manners? Take a peek at children in a library to see how they use good manners to get their work done, be respectful, and take care of library materials.

Police dogs can do everything from tracking criminals to helping prevent riots. With its keen sense of smell and good hearing, a police dog is invaluable to its human partner. Learn more about these amazing animals, including how they are chosen, the training they go through, and the missions they complete.

Distinguished author Phillip Lopate, editor of the celebrated anthology The Art of the Personal Essay, is universally acclaimed as “one of our best personal essayists” ( Dallas Morning News). Here, combining more than 40 years of lessons from his storied career as a writer and professor, he brings us this highly anticipated nuts-and-bolts guide to writing literary nonfiction. A phenomenal master class shaped by Lopate’s informative, accessible tone, and immense gift for storytelling.

In Listening Well, Heather will explore her extraordinary talents as a listener—a skill she employed when she first met Lale Sokolov, the tattooist at Auschwitz-Birkenau. It was this ability that led Lale to entrust Heather with his story, which she told in The Tattooist of Auschwitz. Now Heather shares the story behind her inspirational writing journey and the defining experiences of her life, including her profound friendship with Lale, and explores how she learned to really listen to the stories people told her—skills she believes we can all learn.

Olemaun is eight and knows a lot of things. But she does not know how to read. Ignoring her father’s warnings, she travels far from her Arctic home to the outsiders’ school to learn. The nuns at the school call her Margaret. They cut off her long hair and force her to do menial chores, but she remains undaunted. Her tenacity draws the attention of a black-cloaked nun who tries to break her spirit at every turn. But the young girl is more determined than ever to learn how to read.

In Just Ask, United States Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor celebrates the different abilities kids (and people of all ages) have. Using her own experience as a child who was diagnosed with diabetes, Justice Sotomayor writes about children with all sorts of challenges - and looks at the special powers those kids have as well. As the kids work together to build a community garden, asking questions of each other along the way, this book encourages listeners to do the same.