Today's Nonfiction

When we hear the word nonfiction we think of facts. That's what the word means - not fiction. But today's narrative nonfiction is so much more than just facts.

My book This Is The Sunflower, published by Greenwillow Books, was my first attempt at narrative nonfiction. It is a cumulative tale that follows the life cycle of one sunflower through four seasons until it produces "a patch of sunflowers, tall and bright, (that) stands in my garden day and night." At the time, I didn't even know what I had written, but I read a short article in a writer's magazine that explained how narrative nonfiction fuses accurate information with a narrative format. Since then I have published six more books in this genre and I'm sure there are more bubbling up inside me of me right now.

Like most kids, when I was a child I loved learning about the real world. I observed turtles and insects, collected rocks and flowers, read about other countries and space, wanting to know more. But I've always been charmed by a good story and unusual formats. So, it seems natural that as a writer of children's books one of my creative outlets is narrative nonfiction.

I'm not the only author who enjoys sharing information this way. Narrative nonfiction is a genre that continues to explode with wonderful books to engage readers and launch them into their own personal discoveries. Not only do I write these kinds of books, I voraciously read the many works of others.

Quite often I'm asked into schools to demonstrate how students in grades K-8 can write narrative nonfiction. Why? Because educators know that when students write what they're studying, they revisit their resources and think about their topics until that information makes sense and they own it. There are two main considerations when anyone writes narrative nonfiction. Know the facts and don't compromise them and find a format, an organization, that showcases your focused information.

I always take lots of picture book examples with me. I show the students 3-4 different ways of organizing a body of knowledge and I let them select the one that they want to explore. I've never been disappointed in what they write. Students are much more engaged while writing narrative nonfiction rather than reports. They take time to select the most interesting facts for their format. And word choice becomes so important. They want to use correct terminology, but in a way that engages their audiences.

Here are just a few of my favorite narrative nonfiction picture books. See which ones can excite you, your child, or your students about the real world.

First the Egg by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
Waiting for Wings by Lois Ehlert
Vulture View by April Pulley Sayre
Now and Ben: The Modern Inventions of Benjamin Franklin by Gene Barretta
A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams by Jen Bryant
A Seed is Sleepy by Dianna Aston
An Island Grows by Lola Schaefer
Neo Leo: The Ageless Ideas of Leonardo da Vinci by Gene Barretta
Actual Size by Steve Jenkins
What is Science by Rebecca Kai Dotlich
This is Your Life Cycle by Heather Lynn Miller
One Is a Snail, Ten Is a Crab by April Pulley Sayre
On This Spot: An Expedition Back Through Time by Susan E. Goodman
This Is the Rain by Lola Schaefer
Trout Are Made of Trees by April Pulley Sayre
Animal Dads by Sneed Collard
An Egg is Quiet by Dianna Aston
Unbeatable Beaks by Stephen R. Swinburne
Flight by Robert Burleigh
Home At Last by April Pulley Sayre
Lives: Poems About Famous Americans selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins