Taiohi: Non-fiction titles you'll enjoy

There isn't very much non-fiction out there that is published specifically for young adults, so we've brushed off some of our favourite titles from across our library collections that we promise you will enjoy.

Updated November 27, 2025
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The poisoner's handbook : murder and the birth of forensic medicine in jazz age New York
Blum, Deborah
Paper Book
Equal parts true crime, twentieth-century history, and science thriller, The Poisoner's Handbook is "a vicious, page-turning story that reads more like Raymond Chandler than Madame Curie." --The New York Observer "The Poisoner's Handbook breathes...
Smash the patriarchy
Breen, Marta
Paper Book
★ "This is a well-told and highly informative read. Highly recommended for young adult graphic novel and nonfiction collections." - School Library Journal (STARRED review) Winner of the 2024 Global Literature in Libraries Initiative Translated Young Adult...
The observologist : a handbook for mounting very small scientific expeditions
Clarkson, Giselle
Paper Book
A highly illustrated, playful field guide for budding natural scientists and curious observers of the world right under our noses. Observology is the study of looking. An observologist makes scientific expeditions, albeit very small ones, every day. They notice interesting details in the...
Trans history : from ancient times to the present day
Combs, Alex L.
"Combs and Eakett do a fantastic job of providing readers an incredibly comprehensive and strongly researched--yet somehow compact--look into the history of trans identity." --School Library Journal (starred review) An essential introduction to trans history, from...
Smoke gets in your eyes : and other lessons from the crematory
Doughty, Caitlin
Paper Book
Most people want to avoid thinking about death, but Caitlin Doughty--a twenty-something with a degree in medieval history and a flair for the macabre--took a job at a crematory, turning morbid curiosity into her life's work. Thrown into a profession of gallows humor and vivid characters (both...
The Anthropocene reviewed : essays on a human-centered planet
Green, John
Paper Book
Goodreads Choice winner for Nonfiction 2021 and instant #1 bestseller! A deeply moving collection of personal essays from John Green, the author of The Fault in Our Stars and Turtles All the Way Down. "The perfect book for right now." -People <...
Sapiens : a graphic history. Volume one, The birth of humankind
Harari, Yuval N.
Paper Book
Official U.S. edition with full color illustrations throughout. #1 New York Times Bestseller  The Summer Reading Pick for President Barack Obama, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg,  now available as a beautifully packaged paperback From a renowned historian...
The story of art without men
Hessel, Katy
Paper Book
Instant New York Times bestseller One of Vanity Fair's Favorite Books to Gift * One of PureWow's 42 Books to Gift This Year * One of Kirkus's Best Books of 2023 The story of art as it's never been told before, from the Renaissance to the present day,...
Amazons, abolitionists, and activists : a graphic history of women's fight for their rights
Kendall, Mikki
Paper Book
A bold and gripping graphic history of the fight for women's rights by theNew York Timesbestselling author ofHood Feminism "A beautifully drawn, hold-no-punches, surprisingly deep dive through the history of women's rights around the world, which will entrance...
Into thin air : a personal account of the Mount Everest disaster
Krakauer, Jon.
Paper Book
When Jon Krakauer reached the summit of Mt. Everest in the early afternoon of May 10, 1996, he hadn't slept in fifty-seven hours and was reeling from the brain-altering effects of oxygen depletion. As he turned to begin his long, dangerous descent from 29,028 feet, twenty other climbers were still...
The age of magical overthinking : notes on modern irrationality
Montell, Amanda
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A BookPage Best Nonfiction Book of 2024 From the bestselling author of Cultish and host of the podcast Sounds Like a Cult, a delicious blend of cultural criticism and personal narrative that explores...
What If? 10th Anniversary Edition: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
Munroe, Randall
Paper Book
From the creator of the wildly popular webcomic xkcd, hilarious and informative answers to important questions you probably never thought to ask. Millions of people visit xkcd.com each week to read Randall Munroe's iconic webcomic. His stick-figure drawings about science, technology,...
What if? 2 : additional serious scientific answers to absurd hypothetical questions
Munroe, Randall
Paper Book
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! An NPR Best Book of 2022 "The questions throughout What If? 2 are equal parts brilliant, gross, and wonderfully absurd and the answers are thorough, deeply researched, and great fun. . . . Science isn't easy, but...
How to Speak Whale : A Voyage into the Future of Animal Communication
Mustill, Tom.
Paper Book
What if animals and humans could speak to one another? Tom Mustill--the nature documentarian who went viral when a thirty‑ton humpback whale breached onto his kayak--asks this question in his thrilling investigation into whale science and animal communication....
An outbreak of witchcraft : a graphic novel of the Salem Witch Trials
Noyes, Deborah
Paper Book
A gripping tale of paranoia at its worst, this bewitching narrative nonfiction graphic novel visually imagines the haunting details behind the Salem witch trials. From 1692 to 1693, fear reigned in the small village of Salem, Massachusetts. The night Abigail...
Fuzz : when nature breaks the law
Roach, Mary
Paper Book
What's to be done about a jaywalking moose? A bear caught breaking and entering? A murderous tree? Three hundred years ago, animals that broke the law would be assigned legal representation and put on trial. These days, as New York Times best-selling author Mary Roach discovers, the answers...
Side quest : a visual history of roleplaying games
Sattin, Samuel
Paper Book
A Mary Sue Best YA Graphic Novel Runner-Up! For fans of dungeon crawls and dice rolls--and anyone wanting to know more about them--Side Quest is a stand-alone graphic novel history of roleplaying games (RPGs), from ancient games to those played today, with personal stories...

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