The best informational books for kids from 2001 to the present.
![Book cover of The Mona Lisa vanishes : a legendary painter, a shocking heist, and the birth of a global celebrity](https://lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2024/e62ef27c2dfc74de03bf21807723f07b.jpg?itok=FRv9IinI)
The Mona Lisa Vanishes: A Legendary Painter, a Shocking Heist, and the Birth of a Global Celebrity
![Book cover for Seen and Unseen: What Dorothea Lange, Toyo Miyatake, and Ansel Adams's Photographs Reveal](https://lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2024/f21b6656764430d3b66257bbaae3379c.jpg?itok=0o0jBFm8)
Seen and Unseen: What Dorothea Lange, Toyo Miyatake, and Ansel Adams's Photographs Reveal
![Book cover for The People's Painter: How Ben Shahn Fought for Justice With Art](https://lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2022/2950ef9617f1c7e020ec1f791677a28f.jpg?itok=Q30qOplP)
![Book cover for Honeybee: The Busy Life of Apis Mellifera](https://lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2021/98128e7e4dde1578cd4f746b7ef3323e.jpg?itok=G8RAGJjQ)
![Book cover for Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story](https://lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2023/7be8d33d539faad5207b40e522a3bda7.jpg?itok=f0-j8po7)
![Book cover for The Girl Who Drew Butterflies: How Maria Merian's Art Changed Science](https://lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2020/8aa1eeaa339052ae393673efe2c22189.jpg?itok=8YBlEvJ4)
The Girl Who Drew Butterflies: How Maria Merian's Art Changed Science
Grades 3 - 8: Sidman’s signature poetry and love of nature shines through in this exquisitely researched, highly attractive and entertaining biography of Maria Merian, a revolutionary and groundbreaking “citizen-scientist” in the 1600s.
![Book cover for Twelve Days in May: Freedom Ride 1961](https://lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2020/121f6059ae8d76e477df20ae26a62c89.jpg?itok=VsBKlPQi)
![Book cover for March: Book One](https://lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2024/4820c8d0da09756d2f31b61206db9d50.jpg?itok=xK69zQQP)
March: Book One
March is popping up all over the place on best graphic novel lists for 2013, and rightfully so. This is the first book in a planned trilogy that tells of the struggle of Congressman John Lewis, his first hand experience of the Jim Crow South, and his experience living through segregation and choosing to fight against it through his participation in key Civil Rights moments, such as the March on Washington and the Selma-Montgomery March. Fantastic assignment book for teachers looking for an engaging document to bring the struggle for racial equality for African Americans to light.
![Book cover for Funny Bones: Posada and His Day of the Dead Calaveras](https://lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2020/850fbd79797fe322e83a72e0bffbb5b9.jpg?itok=3-fEgdXQ)
![Book cover for The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus](https://lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2020/e1b10835d598261aa09d656062d7541a.jpg?itok=kPNhCGSf)
![Book cover for Parrots Over Puerto Rico](https://lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2020/f98a996356453f852a149c91e032462b.jpg?itok=v8sF4mvj)
Parrots Over Puerto Rico
A combined history of the Puerto Rican parrot and the island of Puerto Rico, highlighting current efforts to save the Puerto Rican parrot by protecting and managing this endangered species.
![Book cover for Bomb: The Race to Build and Steal the World's Most Dangerous Weapon](https://lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2020/88082f13e0340b8b98db1a92401ecc87.jpg?itok=LbZwPpyY)
![Book cover for Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy's Parade](https://lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2020/b2b30f8ed154ad2d43944670466278c2.jpg?itok=aqApxDk7)
Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy's Parade
![Book cover for Kakapo Rescue: Saving the World's Strangest Parrot](https://lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2020/126ea581baf085a218a5f2146b1edd4f.jpg?itok=A7kz4Pat)
![Book cover for Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream](https://lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2020/d494746dde8e529be643eb2e7a6a1350.jpg?itok=21HUjQh1)
We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball
Gr. 3 and up. An elderly ball player regales his audience with the trials and triumphs of determined athletes and fans, beautifully enhanced by Nelson's glorious art. Includes a forward by Hank Aaron, himself once a player in the Negro League.
![Book cover for The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain](https://lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2020/54110ed15c1133bb1d7f9c010149e0ed.jpg?itok=_vDh1ReM)
![Book cover for Team Moon: How 400,000 People Landed Apollo 11 on the Moon](https://lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2020/5a8ebf37ccb628b594747ca243e79519.jpg?itok=z0cGgFIW)
![Book cover for Secrets of a Civil War Submarine: Solving the Mysteries of the H.L. Hunley](https://lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2020/2d6f7ecea17dcb111a99653fd97ea373.jpg?itok=B1mc88sv)
Secrets of a Civil War Submarine: Solving the Mysteries of the H.L. Hunley
![Book cover for The Voice That Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights](https://lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2020/54f9f5ca064e903c617bf6407cb29885.jpg?itok=-IHLXBCz)
The Voice That Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights
![Book cover for An American Plague](https://lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2020/3a68b146a593325c3f0ecba54d4c3d82.jpg?itok=VRhMHfHQ)
![Book cover for The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler](https://lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2020/7fb93ed40b29a086b51fdf91bd05db24.jpg?itok=ZEOPLt7v)
![Book cover for Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine, 1845-1850](https://lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2020/361bc811681a8e1469bafa0b36cbec76.jpg?itok=A9OCES6F)
![Book cover for Sir Walter Ralegh and the Quest for El Dorado](https://lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/staff_recommends_x97w/public/items/2020/d02f5e23ea3bf1ba9fe710d73fc928ba.jpg?itok=9UvGVO6Q)