Once upon a time, all
nonfiction for kids (and adults) was expository. These books presented facts
and offered explanations in a direct, straightforward way. Text flowed
uninterrupted for pages at a time with occasional B&W photos decorating the
pages. Let’s face it. Sometimes the writing was pretty dry and stodgy by
today’s standards.

But nonfiction has
evolved tremendously over the last 20 or so years. I entered publishing in the
early 1990s, so I’ve had a front row seat to all these changes.

I have vivid memories
of pasting up a book called Animal
Skeletons in 1995. It was a great book, but pasting it up was a royal pain
in the neck because it had so many illustrations of (what else) animal
skeletons.

Pasting up involved
cutting out blocks of text and images, slathering the backs with rubber cement,
and creating the pages by hand. I remember there was a lot of tissue paper
involved, and making changes was to be avoided at all costs. This labor
intensive process really limited the creativity involved in designing and
laying out books.

But technology saved
us! Desktop publishing
software came on the market in 1987.
It caught on in the U.S. around 1992, and publishers had fully transitioned by
1996.

Before most American
publishers were up to speed, the Brits took us by surprise. Dorling
Kindersley’s Eyewitness Books entered the U.S. marketplace in 1991. And by the
late 1990s, these Data (Facts First) Books had revolutionized children’s
nonfiction.

All publishers began
using subheads liberally and including sidebars to breaking things up. Most
elementary-level books were printed in full color and, of course, designers
went to town.

Join me next week for more of the story.