Back in 2017, I proposed a five-category system
for classifying children’s nonfiction on
my blog, and the response was incredible.


Teachers loved it. So did librarians and
children’s book authors and editors. People praised the clarity it brought to
the range of children’s nonfiction available today. In May 2018, School Library Journal published an article
about the 5 Kinds of Nonfiction. Again, the response was incredibly positive. I’ve
spoken about the system at a number of conferences, and later this year, 5 Kinds of Nonfiction: Enriching Reading and Writing with Children’s Books, co-written by literacy educator Marlene Correia, will hit bookshelves.


Because so many people want information now, I’m discussing each of the categories and providing an
updated list of exemplar books. On March 11, I focused on traditional nonfiction.
Today, I’ll talk about browseable books. 


Thanks to Dorling
Kindersley’s innovative Eyewitness Books series, the 1990s brought remarkable
changes to traditional expository nonfiction. These beautifully designed,
lavishly illustrated books with short text blocks and extended captions
revolutionized children’s nonfiction by giving fact-loving kids a fresh,
engaging way to access information. 

Readers
can easily dip in and out of browseable books, focusing on the sections that interest
them most, or they can read the books cover to cover. Today, National Geographic, Time for Kids, and
the Discovery Channel are all publishing fact-tastic books in this category, and kids
love them. In many ways, they are the nonfiction analog to graphic novels.


Due to their wide array
of text features, browseable books are well suited for the later stages of the
research process, when students are seeking specific information and looking for
tantalizing tidbits to engage their audience of readers.


Here
are some examples:


The Book of Queens by Stephanie
Warren Drimmer


Discovery Channel Sharkopedia:
The Complete Guide to Everything Shark by Discovery Channel


Eye Spy: Wild Ways Animals See the World by Guillaume Duprat 


Eyewitness Books: Rocks & Minerals by R.F. Symes


Guinness World Records 2019 by Guinness World Records


North America: A Fold-Out Graphic History by Sarah Albee


Trees:
A Rooted History by
Piotr Socha and Wojciech Grajkowski


Time for Kids Big Book of Why
by the Editors of Time for Kids