Texas Topaz Nonfiction List for Grades K-12

Here are just some of the 57 recommended titles for grades K-12 from the 2025 Texas Topaz Nonfiction Reading List! The purpose of the Texas Topaz Reading List is to provide children, teens, and adults with recommended nonfiction titles that stimulate reading for pleasure and personal learning. It is intended for recreational reading and is not designed to support any particular curriculum. Visit txla.org/topaz for the full list and lists from previous years.

Updated January 8, 2025
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Erno Rubik and his magic cube
Aradhya, Kerry
Paper Book
This first picture book biography of Rubik's Cube creator Erno Rubik reveals the obsession, imagination, and engineering process behind creating an iconic puzzle. Celebrating 50 years of the most popular puzzle in history! In the hills of Budapest, near the banks of...
Mushroom rain
Zimmermann, Laura K.
Paper Book
What can smell like bubble gum, glow neon green at night, be poisonous and yet still eaten by humans, and even help create rain? The answer is mushrooms! From their hidden networks underground to the fruiting body above, mushrooms can do incredible things. But don't call them plants--mushrooms are...
The iguanodon's horn : how artists and scientists put a dinosaur back together again and again ... and again
Rubin, Sean
Paper Book
Highlighting the role of artists in the scientific process, this crowd-pleasing look at dinosaurs explores how new discoveries deepen our understanding of the world. A GOOD HOUSEKEEPING 2024 KID'S BOOK AWARD WINNER A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST BOOK AN ALA BOOKLIST BEST BOOK A...
Impossible Escape A True Story of Survival and Heroism in Nazi Europe
Sheinkin, Steve.
Paper Book
From three-time National Book Award finalist and Newbery Honor author Steve Sheinkin, a true story of two Jewish teenagers racing against time during the Holocaust--one in hiding in Hungary, and the other in Auschwitz, plotting escape. It is 1944. A teenager named Rudolf (Rudi...
Impossible escape : a true story of survival and heroism in Nazi Europe
Sheinkin, Steve
Paper Book
From three-time National Book Award finalist and Newbery Honor author Steve Sheinkin, a true story of two Jewish teenagers racing against time during the Holocaust--one in hiding in Hungary, and the other in Auschwitz, plotting escape. It is 1944. A teenager named Rudolf (Rudi...

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