Mining Book Resources

Interest Level: 5-8
Reading Level: 5.7

This first book in the How to Get Rich series deftly blends story with history to not only give readers an understanding of a gold rush but also to provide a lighthearted and engaging entry point into frontier life.

Interest Level: 5-8
Reading Level: 7.3

Describes what life was like, especially for children, in coal mines and mining towns in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Interest Level: Young Adult
Reading Level: 5.6

A collection of poems that tell the story of Ludie, a poor woman in a coal-mining town in West Virginia, from her childhood to her adolescent years, and then through her married life into her old age.

Interest Level: 5-8
Reading Level: 7.8

Photographs and diagrams introduce readers to the major environmental challenges the world faces and the importance of preserving the Earth's natural resources.

Interest Level: YA

Explores minerals and metals; discussing how they form, where they occur, their effect on economies and survival, their role in the development of civilization, different types of resources, mining techniques, and their various uses.

Interest Level: 5-8
Reading Level: 7.8

Discusses coal, iron, and other metals that are mined, the effects of mining on the environment, and how mining could be managed more sustainably.

Interest Level: YA

Contains twenty-four essays that offer varying perspectives on issues related to coal, including if coal is the future of energy, the justification and banning of coal use, and the safety of mining; and provides discussion questions, contact information for organizations, and bibliographies.

Interest Level: 5.8
Reading Level: 6.9

Historical photographs and text recount the Monongah mining disaster in which hundreds of men and boys lost their lives in an explosion in a mine in Monongah, West Virginia.

Interest Level: 5.8
Reading Level: 5-9

Examines the history of the California gold rush of 1847 to 1854, a period during which thousands of people rushed across the country hoping to get rich, and provides information about gold fever, the California Trail, mining camps, boomtowns, and related topics.

Interest Level: YA
Reading Level: 6.1

resents first-hand accounts of the discovery of gold and silver in nineteenth-century America, discussing the journeys, tools, living situations, social life, role of women, and laws of that period.

Interest Level: YA


A collection of articles that offers differing opinions on the safety, benefits, global impact, and future of uranium mining.

Interest Level: 5-8
Reading Level: 7.4

Mining and refining -- Generating electricity -- Driving and flying -- What about the environment? -- What does the future hold?. Defines fossil fuels, explains howthey are made and used, and discusses benefits and potential problems of the energy source.

Interest Level: YA
Reading Level: 5.2

Chronicles the California gold rush, discussing the land and water routes taken by prospectors to California, life in shantytowns, the experiences of African-Americans and Chinese, and other topics.

Interest Level: YA

A collection of stories that details the experiences of miners in Colorado, describing the hardships and dangers they faced as well as how the profession created communities.

Interest Level: 5-8
Reading Level: 8.9

Presents a comprehensive survey of the earth's natural resources and discusses such topics as freshwater sources, the Greenhouse Effect, the creation of fossil fuels, deforestation, and the effects of strip mining.

Interest Level: Adult

Traces the history of coal, discussing how it has been used in different cultures, how it is mined, what negative effects it has had on people, economics, and the environment, and the role it has played in world history and development.

Interest Level: Adult

Examines the dangers behind President George W. Bush's assertion that coal holds the key to America's economic future, discussing the economic challenges America faces and the factors that will lead to a dangerous reliance on coal as an energy source.

Interest Level: Adult

Tells stories of the California Gold Rush that serve to reveal the complex social world created by the frantic desire to strike it rich, focusing on the multiracial, and multiethnic make-up of the people who worked the Southern Mines.