Unbroken (The Young Adult Adaptation) by Laura Hillenbrand (Non-Fiction)

Why read non-fiction? Because it's real and real is interesting! This book is a perfect example of that. Non-fiction is not synonymous with a textbook. Laura Hillenbrand makes that apparent as she takes history and weaves it into a novel, a story, an adventure. And we get to come along for the ride via Louie Zamperini. We get to learn about other aspects of history with Louie as the line pulling us back to the center of the story. I personally learned a lot of facts (real, true, historical facts) about World War II that I didn't know through the telling of Louie's life. Louie's story was both hard and encouraging to read, more so than most stories I've ever read. Why you may ask? BECAUSE IT WAS REAL. The hard stuff is harder to read. The encouraging stuff is more encouraging to read. When you can say to yourself, "Wow this really happened to this guy?" it leaves you seriously considering your own life and how you would have handled yourself in those exact same situations. Reading non-fiction is an incredible opportunity to get in touch with the past in a more exciting way than in a classroom. Non-fiction novels bring these topics to life! Like an exhibit in a museum but it's in your hands, at your fingertips where your mind is given all the details to run rampant recreating history, possibly your history. I loved reading about Louie's life and the life of those he encountered. Humans constantly contemplate and try to test our limits, whether in physical, mental or emotional ways. I mean, there are literally TV shows all about testing how much humans can endure (e.g. Survivor or the once so popular Fear Factor) and movies displaying the valiant resilience of our race. These works of non-fiction bring to life those stories of survival, resilience and hope that actually happened! Real life heroes and conquerors who beat the odds and achieved what so many works of fiction fantasize about.