Essay collections for an 8th grader

September 13, 2024 3:07 PM

I know an 8th grader who would benefit from reading more non-fiction. She loves fiction (mostly fantasy) but has decided she doesn't like non-fiction so she's not going to read it. But she actually does love learning new things. Are there collections of short non-fiction essays for the young teen set?

Recently she's been studying for a standardized test and admitted that she actually liked some of the reading comprehension prompts. Building on that, I'd love to find her bite size chunks of non-fiction -- anything from a page to 10 pages or longer. She likes inspiring stories, she's political (especially around LGBTQ+ stuff), she likes math and science.

Is there some equivalent to Best American Essays but for teenagers?

posted by Winnie the Proust to Writing & Language (13 answers total)

When I was a teenager, I really enjoyed books of essays by both Oliver Sacks (e.g., The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat) and Stephen Jay Gould (e.g., The Panda's Thumb). I did grow up to be a biology professor, so maybe I was a bit more predisposed than most kids. By 8th grade I was mostly reading adult books in general. A 21st century author along the same lines is Sean B. Carroll. I really like his Into the Jungle and think it's very accessible.
posted by hydropsyche at 3:53 PM on September 13

Erin Chack's This is Really Happening comes to mind as a witty single-author collection for YA audiences.
posted by Wobbuffet at 4:08 PM on September 13

Larry Gonick The Cartoon History of The Universe/World/US are great fun, and have bibliographies for further study!
posted by winesong at 4:09 PM on September 13

I'd give her A Queer History of the United States for Young People for bite-size biographies of LGBTQ+ folk throughout American history.
posted by Jeanne at 4:25 PM on September 13

How about a subscription to Teen Vogue?

The Identity section has personal essays about abortion, using social media to self-diagnose mental illness, and how Gen Z won't be able to afford to have kids.

The Politics section has articles about the myth of criminal migrants, what it's like to be a Muslim during this election season, and young voters' take on the debate.
posted by brookeb at 4:47 PM on September 13

Anne Dillard
John McPhee
Barry Lopez
posted by BlueHorse at 5:38 PM on September 13

I’m not sure how well they’ve aged, but there is always Chicken Soup for the (Teenage) Soul books.
posted by oceano at 6:22 PM on September 13

This is a suggestion for an online magazine, not a book, but I was a very similar sort of teen to your daughter, and wish that Aeon Magazine had existed when I was young! Serious-looking books seemed like a doorstopper and a chore to me, but my aversion to nonfiction never extended to reading online articles — something about the perception of getting to pick and choose from dozens of interesting things.

Aeon is a politically left, intellectually curious magazine that publishes essays (of about 4,000 words each) by experts and academics in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. As an adult I still read primarily fantasy fiction, and I think Aeon's scope appeals to fantasy readers because it focuses on existential Big Questions. It's very philosophical and likes to publish on topics like new discoveries on the frontier of science, unanswered questions, the origins and history of social phenomena, and interesting historical moments.

Sort of like fantasy worldbuilding, but for the real world, if you will.

From their about page: "Aeon’s mission is to explore and communicate knowledge that helps us make sense of ourselves and the world. We ask the big, existentially significant questions and find the freshest, most original answers, provided by leading thinkers on philosophy, science, psychology, society and culture."
posted by fire, water, earth, air at 6:54 PM on September 13

Would the various Mary Roach books on science be too advanced for her? Like Packing for Mars?
posted by kschang at 7:15 PM on September 13

The key will be finding a biography of a person she's already interested in. That's "sneak" non-fiction.
posted by tiny frying pan at 6:05 AM on September 14

My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
The Tipping Point and Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
Teen Vogue archived articles are often grrreat
posted by nouvelle-personne at 3:17 PM on September 14

My 8th grader who similarly surprised me by being into standardized test essays, will read non fiction about amusingly presented weird ideas in physics and math. He is also mainly a fantasy reader, avoids realistic fiction, and most non fiction. "How to" by Randall Munroe (XKCD author), "We Have No Idea" by Jorge Cham (PhDcomics author), and "Math with Bad Drawings" by Ben Orlin (as far as I know is not the author of a web comic) have all gone over very well.
posted by SandiBeech at 10:38 AM on September 16

FWIW, I just found out that there's a "Kid's Edition" of Packing for Mars.
posted by kschang at 11:24 PM on September 18