Marc Aronson, who blogs about nonfiction for young people at the School Library Journal website, recently asked his readers what they love about reading nonfiction. I’ve been mulling the question for days, and my answer is this: the stories are true.
Before anyone gets outraged, let me state, for the record, that I adore fiction. I read an awful lot of it, and I react strongly and emotionally to made-up characters and situations all the time. (For a fine example, ask my three kids how I handled Dumbledore’s death.) But my reaction to fiction is always tempered, just the tiniest bit, by the knowledge that the stories and the characters and the situations are not real, but instead dreamt up in the mind of a working writer.
Conversely, the emotions stirred when I read non-fiction are boosted, sometimes imperceptibly and sometimes by leaps and bounds, simply because the stories and characters and situations I have just discovered are real. The people existed in flesh and blood. Their deeds are a matter of historical or personal record. I could learn more, should I choose to, without the author’s knowledge or consent, because the story is not his or hers, but ours; it belongs to you and to me and to all of humankind.
Corny, I know, but that’s my answer.
Here are two works of nonfiction I read recently and adored. These are not reviews, mind you, but hearty recommendations.
WRITTEN IN BONE
By Sally M. Walker
Carolrhoda, 2009
Category: YA Nonfiction
Sally M. Walker’s meticulously researched and sparklingly rendered young adult standout, WRITTEN IN BONE is perfect for any person of over the age of ten with an interest in history or science or real-life mysteries. In fact, I suspect persons over the age of ten heretofore uninterested in these topics, upon reading the book, will be inspired to wonder about history and science and real-life mysteries and, perhaps, why they hadn’t wondered about these things before.
THE DAY-GLO BROTHERS
The True Story of Bob and Joe Switzer’s Bright Ideas and Brand-New Colors
by Chris Barton
Illustrated by Tony Persiani
Charlesbridge, 2009
Category: Picture Book Nonfiction
In THE DAY-GLO BROTHERS, Cris Barton and Tony Persiani share the story of Bob and Joe Switzer and their somewhat accidental discovery of colors that glow in the dark AND in the light. The spotlight here is on serendipity, the unique strengths of two very different brothers, and how the road to our childhood dreams is often circuitous, eye-popping … and not so very hard to navigate after all.
Do YOU read nonfiction? What books have you adored lately? Do tell! And for a roundup of web-wide posts on nonfiction for children, check out today’s post at Wendy’s Wanderings.