Recommend a great non-fiction book to middle/high schoolers

A short history of nearly everything By Bryson, Bill The book really covers almost everything, from cosmos to atoms, from earth to human origin and DNA structure. I notice an interesting fact which the author mentioned about Einstein. He failed his college entrance exam on his first try. But soon after he finished his undergraduate education, while working as a clerk at Swiss Patent office, he started his deep thought about physics and universe, and published his famous theories. Even after his famous theory of E=mc*c was published (not famous at that time yet), his application to be a universe lecturer was rejected, his application to be a high school teacher was rejected, his application to be a higher level patent examiner was rejected. While working at Princeton University, he did not produce any new theory.