This 12 months’s Sibert honor books for excellence in nonfiction embody two minority sports activities heroes, a really younger Holocaust survivor, and a World Conflict II espionage story.

Name Me Roberto! Roberto Clemente Goes to Bat for Latinos by Nathalie Alonso, illustrated by Rudy Gutierrez. Calkins Creek, 2024, 36 pages

Studying Stage: Image E-book, ages 4-8

Really useful for: ages 6-10

When Roberto Clemente was rising up in Puerto Rico, he had just one ambition: to play Main League béisbol. As gifted as he was, that ambition was prone to come about, however not with no battle to be understood and acknowledged. After a season on the bench in Montreal, he was recruited into the Pittsburg Pirates in 1955, the place he scored in his first sport. “Many Pittsburg followers love Roberto’s daring fashion, however not everyone seems to be fast to embrace a Black man from Puerto Rico who speaks español.” Regardless of his invaluable assist in successful the 1960 World Collection, he’s neglected as MVP and banned from his teammates’ lodging throughout spring coaching in Florida. However he endured and achieved MVP standing after the Pirates’ World Collection win in 1966.

The creator, a sports activities journalist, is aware of her baseball and the narrative is dramatic and well-paced. The illustrator attracts on colourful Caribbean fashion components and fluid movement to seize Roberto’s athleticism. Although his profession was minimize tragically quick when he died in a airplane crash, Roberto Clemente blazed a path for Latino baseball gamers who’re a few of the brightest lights of the sport.

Backside Line: An accessible and rousing introduction to a star participant.  

 The Enigma Ladies: How Ten Youngsters Broke Cyphers, Stored Secrets and techniques, and Helped Win World Conflict II by Candice Fleming. Scholastic Focus, 2024, 384 pages

Studying Stage: Teen, ages 12-15

Really useful for: ages 12-18

On a beautiful late-summer day in 1939, the morning mild over Poland darkened with hundred of planes embellished with the Nazi swastika, and the world modified without end. Quickly Europe was gearing up for battle, however as one nation after one other fell to the German blitz, Nice Britain discovered its again in opposition to the wall. Intelligence turned as very important to the battle effort as weapons and manpower, as a hastily-assembled workforce of misfits and geniuses assembled at Bletchley Park to assemble data and crack codes. As glamorous as it might appear in hindsight, code-breaking is tedious within the excessive, and the harder the code the extra knowledge wanted to interrupt it. That’s the place the women got here in–lots of of younger girls recruited to take heed to Morse code coming over the airwaves, to function the deciphering machines, and to attempt to decide what was vital and what wasn’t.

The allies had these listening stations all around the world, however Enigma Ladies facilities on Bletchley Park, the place the Nazi’s fiendishly troublesome Enigma code was lastly mastered. By following the tales of a handful of those women, who all emerge with distinctive personalities, the creator presents a well-rounded image of the tedium and the discomfort, in addition to the drama, of this necessary story. With the variety of essential characters and the wealth of element, a reader has to concentrate, however that effort will likely be rewarded. A wealth of images and details about codes and cyphers assist to, not precisely simplify a fancy story, however make it comprehensible.

Backside Line: An absorbing historical past of a significant World Conflict II accomplishment.

The Woman Who Sang: A Holocaust Memoir of Hope and Survival by Estelle Nadel, paintings by Sammy Savos. Roaring Brook Press, 2024, 245 pages

Studying Stage: Center Grades, ages 8-10

Really useful for: ages 8-12

Enia Feld’s household was poor however content material of their nook of rural Poland. They’d all they wanted and father Reuven typically reminded the household of God’s safety. Enia was a lot youthful than her three brothers and sisters, however being the newborn had its benefits. She was everybody’s pet who appreciated to make up songs concerning the world round her, “And I assumed we might be this joyful without end.” However that was 1939, and Poland would quickly be the worst place on this planet for a Jewish household.

Enia (now referred to as Estelle) survived the Holocaust by means of the kindness of Gentile neighbors who hid her in attics and barns—5 years of seldom venturing exterior, having fun with the heat of the solar, or consuming something like a full meal. Her household was picked off one after the other: labored and starved to dying, kidnapped, or captured and shot. Solely two brothers survived, to finally journey to the USA with their little sister and set up lives there.

The graphic-novel fashion is easy however emotionally efficient because the palette shifts from sunny blues and yellows to grim grays and browns. Readers will get a way of limitless ready because the years drag on and Enia’s singing voice is stilled. What turned of her father’s religion that God would care for them? That’s one in every of world historical past’s best conundrums, by no means addressed within the textual content. Many Holocaust memoirs exists; this one communicates the tragedy with out changing into too heavy, falling someplace between Hidden: A Little one’s Story of the Holocaust and Diary of a Younger Woman in its appropriateness for youngsters.

NOTE: The Woman Who Sang is the winner of the 2025 Sidney Taylor award for excellence in Jewish literature.

Backside Line: An efficient and affective addition to Holocaust literature.

Wings of an Eagle: The Gold Medal Desires of Billy Mills by Billy Mills and Donna Janell Bowman, illustrated by S.D. Wilson. Little, Brown, 2024, 42 pages.

Studying Stage: Image E-book, ages 4-8

Really useful for: ages 6-10

Life on the South Dakota Lakota reservation was spare, although warmed by prolonged household. However younger Billy Mills was devastated by the dying of his mom when he was solely 9. His father recommended, “The pursuit of a dream will heal you. Do that and you might have wing of an eagle.” Comforting phrases, however whereas Billy was nonetheless in his early teenagers his father additionally handed away. The boy misplaced himself in sports activities and odd jobs, with observe rising as essentially the most promising outlet for his energies. Obstacles saved intruding—well being points, poverty, and prejudice—however Billy ran by means of his highschool years on the Haskell Institute in Topeka, Kansas, and made the observe workforce on the College of Kansas. By then a dream had taken form: to run the ten,000 meter run within the Olympics. By 1964, he had his probability.

The illustrations incorporate Native American motifs into stylistic figures in soft-toned colours. Eagles are a recurring theme, not surprisingly, lastly hovering as Billy Mills, in opposition to all odds, pulls off a win within the 10,000 meter. An prolonged appendix particulars Mills’ post-Olympic work with the charity he based, Working Robust for American Indian Youth.

Backside Line: an inspiring life story with a robust cultural taste.

Additionally at Redeemed Reader:

Evaluations: See our roundup of Sibert honor books from 2019 and 2022.

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Order Name Me Roberto!, The Woman Who Sang, Enigma Ladies, and Wings of an Eagle from Amazon.