Update June 24, 2024: My thinking about nonfiction classification has evolved considerably since I wrote this post, but I’ve decided not to delete it because there’s value in looking back at my past ideas. For my current thinking, please see the book 5 Kinds of Nonfiction as well as information on my website.
about the great presentation nonfiction authors Loree Griffin Burns and Alexandra Siy gave at this year’s NESCBWI conference. During one segment of the
2-hour session, Loree shared her way of thinking about the break down of nonfiction
for kids into categories based on the structure of the text.
Loree
has two broad categories—narrative, which I talked about last week, and concept,
which I’m going to look at here.
Within
the concept category, Loree includes the subcategories alphabet, gimmick (a hook so strong it forms the structural
backbone of the book), time, and curricular
(has direct ties to the curriculum). Here are a couple of examples in each
category:
Alphabet
B is for Blue
Planet: An Earth Science Alphabet by Ruth Strother (illus. Bob Marstall)
Journey Around Cape
Cod & the Islands from A to Z by Martha Day Zschock
Gimmick
Bubble Homes and
Fish Farts by Fiona Bayrock (illus.
Carolyn Conahan)
How They Croaked by Georgia Bragg (illus. Kevin O’Malley)
Time
Being Caribou: Five
Months on Foot with a Caribou Herd by Karsten Heuer
Just a Second: A Different Way to Look at Time by Steve Jenkins
Curricular
An Extraordinary
Life. by Laurence Pringle (illus. Bob
Marstall)
Growing Patterns:
Fibonacci Numbers in Nature
by Sarah Campbell
I’m going to be giving this
approach some serious thought going forward. Clearly, there is a lot of great
nonfiction that falls outside the narrative category, but it’s hard to figure
out how to classify it. Mark Aronson and his Uncommon Corps colleagues have
suggested the system discussed here. Recently, I’ve tried to sort popular nonfiction
titles using the structures highlighted in Common Core, with narrative =
sequence.
Here’s a recap of what I’ve come
up with:
by
Carolyn Cinami DeCristofano
Up! Bird-Watching in Your Own Backyard by Annette LeBlanc Cate
A Guide for Insect Parents (and Curious Kids) by Bridget Heos
Be Giants: How Baby Dinosaurs Grew to Rule the World by Lita Judge
Deadliest Anima’s by
Melissa Stewart
Melissa Stewart
Page
Page
Alligator or Crocodile? How Do You Know by
Melissa Stewart
Butterfly or Moth? How Do You Know? by
Melissa Stewart
Frog or Toad? How Do You Know? by
Melissa Stewart
Insect of Spider? How Do You Know? by
Melissa Stewart
Barbara Kerley
Salamander or Lizard? How Do You Know? by
Melissa Stewart
Shark or Fish? How Do You Know? by
Melissa Stewart
Higgins Bond)
Higgins Bond)
Higgins Bond)
Higgins Bond)
Higgins Bond)
Higgins Bond)
(Sterling)
Hello Bumblebee Bat by
Darrin Lunde (illus.Patricia J. Wynne )
Steve Jenkins & Robin Page
Steve Jenkins & Robin Page
work fairly well, but I’m not sure I’m completely satisfied with them. I think
the bottom line is this: Fiction has well-established genres like science
fiction, romance, fantasy, etc. But people
generally sort nonficiton by topic—science, social studies/history, math, Arts, but it
seems like there must be a better system. I think it’s really exciting that so
many people are now beginning to think about it deeply and coming up with different
ways of classifying nonfiction. It’s all
good.
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3 Responses
I have been trying to figure out how to best do this as well to help teachers I work with. Additionally, do you use nonfiction for all things or as a subcategory to informational text? Thanks for sharing this…I am going to ponder on it as well.
Hi Alyson,
I think we should all think about this. It helps us all as writers and readers. There is well-established lexicon for describing fiction. Nonfiction needs something similar.
I'm not a fan on "informational text" because people don't use it consistently. I generally use "nonfiction." I think Marc Aronson may have come up with the best term of all–"reality books." What do you think?
One more thing, Alyson, can you think of other good examples of cause and effect books? I wish I had more for my list.