books suggestion for 11 years old in area of non fiction, history, politics

[mom17]

to increase his vocab/knowledge.

World History is set out encyclopaedia style. Great introduction to see what they might like to explore further.
The Roman Mysteries Series is obviously fiction but great for vocab and sense of time & place. DS loved them.
Politics and Propaganda is non-fiction and age appropriate but can't remember the author. (Publisher was something like Dorling Kindersley.)
My family & other animals by Gerald Durrell again for time, place and of course nature. (Has come up twice in exams for DS.)

Books into the Mythology. Could be the Greeks but also Vikings?

Alexander McCall Smith has an African series for children, called Akimbo. The father is a ranger and the stories are "real" with poacher, etc...

Older series such as the Fabulous Five are written with a more elaborate vocabulary. Try Jules Verne or The Swiss Family. Jack London maybe?

Dorling Kindersly has so many amazing books - Take Me Back is great for that age group. My kids adored that. Then when a teenager kids can move on to The Philosophy Book & The Politics Book.

For Greek and Roman myths D'Aullaires book is great. There's some great retellings of Shakespeare, Don Quixote, and Roman, Celtic and Norse myths out there. A good bookseller w a big kids' dept can help you out, they're often much more knowledgeable than librarians.

I know you're looking ft non-fiction, but a good knowledge of the canon is nice too. These sort of things are good

www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0140389385/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1497154747&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=shakespeare+leon+garfield&dpPl=1&dpID=51DS5KQK6CL&ref=plSrch&tag=mumsnetforum-21

Here's a link to Take me Back.

One of my kids is a huge history buff. At that age he started reading Orwell and loved him. Not everyone's cup of tea, but if yours is that way inclined?

www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/1405332530/ref=mp_s_a_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1497154915&sr=8-9&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=take+me+back&tag=mumsnetforum-21