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[CCBC-Net] Dancing on the Edge of Nonfiction
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From: Hastings, Waller <hastingw>
Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2000 14:42:34 -0600
Many books for children that are essentially nonfiction nevertheless contain fictional elements. This is true in books written for adults, too I am currently using Ted Sizer's book, *Horace's School*, in my thematic writing class. This is a book of educational theory that is presented through the fictional character of Horace Smith and his colleagues at an equally fictional high school - but it is clearly nonfiction, nevertheless. When I teach my class on picture books, we use David Macaulay (*City* once,
*Cathedral* the last time) as one example of nonfiction - but each of his architectural books has a fictional framework to present historical and architectural material, in part because then he can focus on the general concepts rather than the particulars of a real Roman city or medieval cathedral, etc. Ditto for another "nonfiction" book I've used in other classes, George's *One Day on the Prairie*, a chapter book about the prairie ecosystem - she presents the various animals and weather facts within the context of a story about a young boy trying to get a wildlife photograph. I have also used one of the *Magic Schoolbus* books and one by Aliki, *How a Book Is Made* - they all use some kind of story and fictionalized characters
- in Aliki's case, the author and various other people involved in making the book are all anthropomorphized animals.
It seems to me that one of the key features in distinguishing between fiction and nonfiction, at least in children's literature, is the purpose. If the primary purpose is to tell a story about made-up characters, it is fiction, even though it may contain a number of facts about history, science, etc. (Think of E.L. Konigsburg's two Newbery winners, *The Mixed-up Files. . .* and *View from Saturday* - both present a number of "facts" (about museum collections, sea turtles, etc. - but the primary interest of the books is not their natural history or other factual matter, rather it is the events surrounding the child protagonists.) If, on the other hand, the purpose is primarily to present information, then it would seem to be nonfiction even if it uses fictional elements - a simple plot, characters, etc. This distinction does not seem all that difficult in most cases - you can pretty much tell the purpose by looking at the complexity of plot and characterization, the completeness of the factual information provided, etc.
waller hastings hastingw at northern.edu
Received on Wed 29 Nov 2000 02:42:34 PM CST
Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2000 14:42:34 -0600
Many books for children that are essentially nonfiction nevertheless contain fictional elements. This is true in books written for adults, too I am currently using Ted Sizer's book, *Horace's School*, in my thematic writing class. This is a book of educational theory that is presented through the fictional character of Horace Smith and his colleagues at an equally fictional high school - but it is clearly nonfiction, nevertheless. When I teach my class on picture books, we use David Macaulay (*City* once,
*Cathedral* the last time) as one example of nonfiction - but each of his architectural books has a fictional framework to present historical and architectural material, in part because then he can focus on the general concepts rather than the particulars of a real Roman city or medieval cathedral, etc. Ditto for another "nonfiction" book I've used in other classes, George's *One Day on the Prairie*, a chapter book about the prairie ecosystem - she presents the various animals and weather facts within the context of a story about a young boy trying to get a wildlife photograph. I have also used one of the *Magic Schoolbus* books and one by Aliki, *How a Book Is Made* - they all use some kind of story and fictionalized characters
- in Aliki's case, the author and various other people involved in making the book are all anthropomorphized animals.
It seems to me that one of the key features in distinguishing between fiction and nonfiction, at least in children's literature, is the purpose. If the primary purpose is to tell a story about made-up characters, it is fiction, even though it may contain a number of facts about history, science, etc. (Think of E.L. Konigsburg's two Newbery winners, *The Mixed-up Files. . .* and *View from Saturday* - both present a number of "facts" (about museum collections, sea turtles, etc. - but the primary interest of the books is not their natural history or other factual matter, rather it is the events surrounding the child protagonists.) If, on the other hand, the purpose is primarily to present information, then it would seem to be nonfiction even if it uses fictional elements - a simple plot, characters, etc. This distinction does not seem all that difficult in most cases - you can pretty much tell the purpose by looking at the complexity of plot and characterization, the completeness of the factual information provided, etc.
waller hastings hastingw at northern.edu
Received on Wed 29 Nov 2000 02:42:34 PM CST
