Best Non-Fiction for Teens

Winter is the season for book awards, and nominees are starting to be announced. The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) has announced the nominees for the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults. (Whew! That's a mouthful!) The Mahomet Public Library owns copies of all five nominees:

• Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom and Science, by Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos. YA/664/ARO
• Bootleg: Murder, Moonshine, and the Lawless Years of Prohibition, by Karen Blumenthal. YA/363.4/BLU
• Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom (With a Few Flat Tires Along the Way),by Sue Macy. J/796.6082/MAC
• Music Was It: Young Leonard Bernstein, by Susan Goldman Rubin. JB/BER
• The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism, & Treachery, by Steve Sheinkin. J/973.3/SHE

These were all written not just to be a resource for writing reports, but to be interesting reads for fun. What do you think? Have you read any of the titles? Do you read any non-fiction for fun?