Celebrate Nonfiction

Exploring the Joy of Nonfiction Reading and Writing

Behind the Books: A Look at Specialized Nonfiction

Update June 24, 2024: My thinking about nonfiction classification has evolved 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.


For the last few weeks, I’ve been discussing
what I consider to be the four main categories of children’s nonfiction
literature (life stories, survey
books, specialized nonfiction books, and concept books). You can scroll
down to see the earlier posts.

Today, I’ll focus on specialized nonfiction.

These books provide specific information
about a relatively limited topic. In contrast to survey books, specialized
nonfiction emphasizes depth rather than breadth. It often has an innovative
format and/or structure that presents information in a way that models the
author’s passion for the topic. My feeling is that we will see more and more
specialized nonfiction being published in the future.

Here are some popular specialized nonfiction
books to read and study:

Chasing Cheetahs by Sy
Montgomery

Handle with Care by Loree
Griffin Burns

Feathers: Not Just for
Flying by
Melissa Stewart

Meadowlands: A Wetlands Survival Story by
Tom Yezerski 

Sniffer Dogs by Nancy Castaldo

Sugar Changed the World
by Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos

The Port Chicago 50 by Steve Sheinkin

Next week, I’ll
take look at the final major nonfiction category—concept
books.

Stay tuned.

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