NONFICTION MINUTE - The Nonfiction Minute The Nonfiction Minute

• The Magician of Iron

  on April 13, 2021 at 4:00 am

  Roxie Munro​Visual Thinker​​      The great Paris tower was underway. From each corner of a broad base the size of a football field, four spidery iron structures rose, curving inward in one majestic sweep toward the middle. The construction – a web of connecting girders – called [...]

• The Man Who Held Up Britain:  A Superhero in a Supership

  on April 12, 2021 at 4:00 am

  Jan AdkinsThe Explainer General       The Revolutionary War should have won us independence from Britain. Britain’s Royal Navy didn’t care. In the early 1800’s it was busy fighting Napoleon but it had time to stop United States merchant ships on the high seas from trading with France or British colonies. It always needed sailors, so its officers seized our sailors, claim [...]

• Scraps of History from Negro League Baseball’s Heyday

  on April 10, 2021 at 4:00 am

   Carol Boston Weatherford   The Poet Professor​   ​In the foreword to A Negro League Scrapbook, Buck O’Neil, former player/manager for the Kansas City Monarchs and the first black major league coach, says “Segregation was the only reason the Negro Leagues existed. Negro League baseball was outstanding.” The players—most of whom neve [...]

• Snakes on the Dinner Table! Life in a Sod House

  on April 10, 2021 at 4:00 am

  Andrea WarrenGiving Voice to Children in History      In the late 1800's when homesteaders first located their new claims in the Midwest, some saw nothing in any direction but tall prairie grass. On 160 acres of windswept land, there might not be a single tree. But these settlers were resourceful. They set to work building homes and barns from the one thing they had in abundance: the sod b [...]

• George Washington’s Hair

  on April 10, 2021 at 4:00 am

  Carla Killough McClafferty illuminating lives from the past, impacting lives in the present      When you hear the name George Washington, what comes to mind?  If you are like most people, you think about his image on the one dollar bill.  And it’s no wonder since 9 billion dollar bills are in circulation at all times.  This image is so familiar we sometimes forge [...]