In all the searching for books boys will like to read, there is one fact that is often over looked: Boys prefer non-fiction.

Sure, boys will read fiction. They are fans of books about adventure and monsters and murder and fantasy and yes, vampires. But given the opportunity to make their own selection, most boys will choose comic books (yea, these are fiction, but they’re something most teachers are reluctant to let students read), magazines, newspapers, biographies, books of records and histories.

Nonfictions that have been popular in my library:

Shooting Stars by LeBron James

No choirboy: murder, violence and teenagers on deathrow by Susan Kuklin

Always Running: La vida loca: Gang days in L.A. by Luis Rodriguez

Cooked: from the streets to the stove, from cocaine to foie gras by Jeff Hederson

Graffiti world: Street art from five continents by Nicholas Ganz

Subway art by Martha Cooper

In the paint: tattoos of the NBA and the stories behind them by Andrew Gottlieb

American Shaolin: flying kicks, buddhist monks, and the legend of iron crotch: an odyssey in the new China by Polly Matthew

I ain’t scared of you: Bernie Mac on how life is by Bernie Mac

Life in Prison by Stanley Tookie Williams

American Dream: three women, ten kids, and a nation’s drive to end welfare by Jason DeParle

Getting away with murder the true story of Emmett Till by Chris Crowe

Dragon Ball Z kidding! Just making sure you’re still with me! My boys love manga and biographies about any contemporary basketball and football players, as well as Michael Jordan and Reggie Williams. This is Indiana, after all!

I found many of these non fiction titles on the YALSA list for reluctant readers, others I just got lucky and stumbled across