Recently, I’ve been receiving
emails from authors who haven’t had a chance to read 5 Kinds of Nonfiction:
Enriching Reading and Writing Instruction with Children’s Books. They are sending me a PDF of their nonfiction
book and asking me to classify it for them.

While I do read the PDF and
send them my thinking about how to categorize it, I also let them know that
there isn’t always a single “right” answer. Two people might read the book and
classify it differently, and that’s totally fine.

The real purpose of the 5 Kinds
of Nonfiction classification system is to get people thinking about a book’s
characteristics and appreciating the craftmanship that went into creating it. The
system provides teachers and students and writers with terminology for analyzing the
text, art, and design elements of nonfiction. It can also help people to
compare two or more books.

For
years, we’ve been dividing fiction into genres like mysteries and science
fiction and historical fiction, but then we just lumped all nonfiction together.
The 5 Kinds of Nonfiction classification system allows us to see that different
categories of books can be used in different ways.

Understanding
the system allows students to predict the kinds of information they’re likely
to find in a book and how that information will be presented. It also helps
them identify the kind(s) of nonfiction they enjoy reading most.

Traditional nonfiction books are a great choice for early stages of the research process,
while browsable books are better suited for later stages. Expository literature
titles are ideal mentor texts for informational writing, while active
nonfiction is a better model for procedural writing. Some students love reading
narrative nonfiction, while others get more excited about browseable
nonfiction. 

The true value of the 5 Kinds of Nonfiction is that it helps us
understand the wide world of nonfiction and all it has to offer young readers
and writers.