Happy Indigenous Peoples Day!
Today we continue the series in
which award-winning nonfiction authors compare the joys and challenges of
writing narrative
nonfiction and expository nonfiction with an
essay by Traci Sorell.
Traci has generously offered to
giveaway a copy of 5 Kinds of Nonfiction: Enriching Reading and Writing
Instruction with Children’s Books, which I co-wrote with Marlene Correia.
To enter the contest, just RT this post. A winner will be randomly selected on
November 1. Thank you, Traci!
I consider myself a reader first, a student second, and
then a writer. I read and write fiction and nonfiction. Regardless of what I’m
reading, I want to be engaged by what is on the page. If I’m drawn into the
writing, then I become a student—looking for clues
on how the author crafted the text through structure, word choice, point of
view, and voice. When I sit down to write my own works, I envision how I will
engage readers with the chosen topic just as the mentor texts I read did for me.
While I do write narrative nonfiction, I find some topics I
want to share with young readers do not work in that writing style. The
subjects do not fit a chronological timeline nor can the story be built to a
climax.
Expository nonfiction provides me with flexibility and expands
the variety of tools available to engage readers—while remaining true to the
facts.
For example, in We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga, I employ
a list text structure. After the introduction, each season has its own stanza.
That stanza begins with lyrical language and the refrain “Otsaliheliga” (which
is the sentence “We are grateful” in the Cherokee language) with the supporting
lines that follow illustrating what Cherokee people are grateful for during
that time of year.
I purposefully chose to write from the perspective of “we”
because these are collective values, traditions, and happenings in the lives of
Cherokee people that we’re taught to give thanks for occurring. I wanted the
voice to be inviting, much like the way our gatherings are—whether at the
ceremonial grounds, a community meal, or larger events like the Cherokee
National Holiday.
For We Are Still Here! Native American Truths Everyone
Should Know, again the subject matter required using expository nonfiction.
The book provides an overview of the laws and policies experienced by Native
Nations within US borders from 1871 to the present. It sounds like I could have
written it as narrative nonfiction, right?
No. While some of the history is chronological, the
policies cycle in and out of a focus on assimilation and, less frequently,
support for the inherent sovereignty of Native Nations. There’s also no climax
to the story as the government-to-government relationships between the United
States and each Native Nation continue to evolve.
Because this book paired me with the same illustrator and
publisher as We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga, the editor wanted the two
books to be related. While We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga focuses on a
single Native Nation’s culture, language, and history through the lens of
gratitude, We Are Still Here! addresses the collective experience of
Native Nations across the country.
To connect the two, I employed the same structure—an
introduction followed by a series of stanzas that share each policy topic or
theme. But this time, I put the repeating refrain, “We are still here!” at the
end of each stanza.
Word choice became my biggest challenge with this book. Given
the topic and complex vocabulary, I knew it would be difficult to make the text
as lyrical as We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga. Because the subject matter
is not taught in K-12 curriculum outside of those tribally run or public
chartered schools with predominately Native students (like the one featured in
the book’s art), I knew very few young readers would be familiar with the
information I’d be sharing. As a result, my focus became making policy concepts
and legal decisions accessible to all readers, not just the targeted
middle grade audience.
To further link the two books, I used the same point of
view—the collective “we.” Although Native Nations usually signed treaties
individually with the United States, the laws and policies enacted by Congress
and the President still affect all of them collectively. While the voice in the
text centers the agency of Native Nations, it is quieter during difficult times
where survival is the focus and more emphatic during times where thriving is
possible.
Writing always involves making deliberate choices. I am
grateful for the flexibility and variety of options that I can employ in expository
nonfiction to do just that.
Traci
Sorell is the author of We
Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga, which is a Sibert, Orbis Pictus, Boston
Globe-Horn Book, and American Indian Youth Literature Award honor book. She is
an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation and lives on her tribe’s reservation
in northeastern Oklahoma. Her recent nonfiction, middle grade titles
include Classified: The Secret Career of Mary Golda Ross, Cherokee
Aerospace Engineer and We Are Still Here! Native American
Truths Everyone Should Know.
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3 Responses
Congrats on all of your books, Traci, and Happy Indigenous Peoples Day!! I love expository nf too–both reading and writing it!
Great article!! Nice to know other authors also love expository NF 🙂
I loved reading about how Traci wrote and linked those two beautiful books of hers!