5 Kinds of Nonfiction

Non­fic­tion for chil­dren has under­gone excit­ing changes in recent years, evolv­ing into a new breed of visu­al­ly dynam­ic, engag­ing texts that delight as well as inform. The tim­ing of these ground­break­ing changes couldn’t be bet­ter, as ELA stan­dards put an increased focus on non­fic­tion read­ing and writ­ing. As a result, fine­ly craft­ed non­fic­tion children’s books are ide­al­ly suit­ed for aug­ment­ing con­tent area cur­ric­u­la, serv­ing as reli­able resources for research projects, act­ing as men­tor texts for writ­ing work­shop and, as always, serv­ing as a great source for plea­sure reading.

In 5 Kinds of Non­fic­tion: Enrich­ing Read­ing and Writ­ing Instruc­tion with Children’s Books, present a sim­ple, prac­ti­cal sys­tem for sort­ing non­fic­tion into five major cat­e­gories (active, browseable, tra­di­tion­al, expos­i­to­ry lit­er­a­ture, and nar­ra­tive) and describe how clas­si­fy­ing books in this way can help teach­ers and stu­dents effec­tive­ly uti­lize the books in a school set­ting. Along the way, they:

“Stew­art asks chil­dren to imag­ine approach­ing a tow­er­ing tree with a hole in its trunk that’s large enough for them to slip inside. What if they lived there? How would it feel? This pic­ture book intro­duces 15 ani­mals liv­ing in tree holes that they have either found or made for them­selves and their young. Hevron’s styl­ized illustrations—digital col­lages of acrylics and mark­ers on wood—depict the crit­ters and their homes using a lim­it­ed but effec­tive range of col­ors. A use­ful addi­tion to class­room units on ani­mal homes.” (School Library Jour­nal)