I just finished "Black Potatoes" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti. It's aimed at middle schoolers and above but it tries to cover the bases in simple terms and concentrates on the events of the period. It 'paints' a base layer for further knowledge of the subject. Also reproduces periodical engravings of the events as depicted in English and Irish and American magazines. Many of them haunting.

Just beginning a more recent book that I heard reviewed on NPR: "Say Nothing" by Patrick Radden Keefe.