From: Karen Cruze <kcruze>
Date: Fri, 12 Apr 2002 10:07:16 -0500

Fairrosa and Christine Hill both touched on an area of interest to me: the creative use of layout and design (notes, asides, etc.) to present information not in the main body of the text. So far noone has addressed the influence of DK on this trend towards sound bytes of information and creatively presenting nonfiction information. What do people think of these trends and how do children respond to information presentation?
     For myself, I'd have to say I love books that mix it up with lots of pictures, snippets of information, quotes, etc. At my library we just received "An Elephant Book" by Ian Redmond, and I've been poring through it. Quotes and pictures and a layout that breaks up the text into columns appeals to my eye. As a child I loved browsing nonfiction books, not so much reading them straight through as gleaning things of interest to me, and I think a lot of children still like to do that. If I had had the DK books when I was a kid I would have been in heaven. It seems to me that offering visual appeal for browsers is not selling out the idea of nonfiction. Kids who browse and glean often find where their interests lie and pursue longer more informational tomes as they get older. I certainly did.
     What do others think?

Karen Cruze, youth services librarian, Northbrook Public Library, Northbrook, IL
Received on Fri 12 Apr 2002 10:07:16 AM CDT