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RE: ccbc-net digest: March 28, 2012
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From: David Harrison <davidlharrison1_at_att.net>
Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2012 09:39:24 -0500
Thanks for the good conversation about nonfiction. I can offer four examples of how trade authors approach the genre.
After I researched and wrote a step-into-reading nonfiction book about Johnny Appleseed, my editor learned that another publisher was bringing out an Appleseed book at the same time. As a result of a flurry of e-mails, I rewrote the manuscript as if told by John Chapman himself, putting words in his mouth as I could only guess he might have talked. The result was therefore a fictionalized nonfiction book. The facts presented in the book remained the same. Technically, though, I published a book of fiction.
When I wrote Earthworks a series of seven titles about how the earth works, I was given a word budget of 700 words per book. To write seven books, which covered mountains, oceans, rivers, caves, earthquakes, volcanoes, and glaciers, I used a total of 4,900 words. Even with end matter to expound further on the content, such limited space requires the author to read extensively but write with carefully selected facts. Readers who like the books sometimes call them poetic in the telling. When every word counts, the result can indeed have a free verse quality to it. Even so, I had to look for and find ways to introduce each subject with a story-teller's voice to entice young readers to want to learn more.
Pirates is a book of poetry (grades 4 and up) but the writing is informed by a great deal of reading scholarly work about that period. As a result, the book was chosen for VOYA's 2009 Nonfiction Honor List. Is poetry a traditional nonfiction venue? Maybe not so much, but it's another way to reach readers who like to get their facts in what amounts to short chapters. Does it tell them all they might want to know? Probably not, but it can be used in the classroom to support lessons and encourage interest in learning more.
Mammoth Bones and Broken Stones represents the fourth approach. This is also a book for older readers (grades 4 and up), which was five years in the making. This is not a series sort of nonfiction book. It's a stand alone idea that required massive amounts of reading and communicating with scientists who seek answers to who the first migrants to this continent might have been. There's voice in it for sure, but the book carries a lot of information so the writing approach is more reportorial than that of the first three examples. At points where the narrative needed a break, I chose to describe a scene as it might have occurred - such as a mammoth hunt - to create a sense of reality. The hunt was described based on physical evidence found at the site. Does that make the book partly nonfiction or does it give the telling a voice to help carry the reader forward? Prior to publication, the manuscript was read by a number of leading archaeologists who gave it high marks. My point is that even in pure nonfiction, in text or in trade, there needs to be something about the presentation that breathes life into the narrative. Readers of all ages need more than straight reporting in their nonfiction.
David Harrison
http://www.davidlharrison.com
Message-----
From: CCBC-Net digest
Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2012 12:06 AM To: ccbc-net digest recipients Subject: ccbc-net digest: March 28, 2012
CCBC-NET Digest for Wednesday, March 28, 2012.
1. RE: ccbc-net digest: March 27, 2012
2. Non-Fiction: Trade vs. Formula Series
3. Nonfiction Trade vs. Series
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: RE: ccbc-net digest: March 27, 2012
From: Mary Losure
Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2012 09:18:26 -0500
X-Message-Number: 1
I read Heather's post with interest. I'm wondering, what do you see as the main obstacles to the use of more "voice" in school and library informational non-fiction books? Publishers? Librarians? Teachers? Authors? Others? Are there ways to overcome these obstacles? Mary
1. School and Library nonfiction books
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: School and Library nonfiction books
From: Heather Montgomery
Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2012 00:12:38 +0000
X-Message-Number: 1
I am so glad that Lionel brought up the school and library informational nonfiction books... I'd love some discussion on Lionel's question, "How can they be improved and better used alongside trade books?"
area that I feel could be improved is voice. A little more voice in some of those texts could go a long way towards engaging readers.
Heather
Heather L. Montgomery
Science and Nature Writing for Kids
www.HeatherLMontgomery.com
256-426-5871
New! The Case of the Missing Arctic Fox and Other True Animal Mysteries for You To Solve
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Non-Fiction: Trade vs. Formula Series
From: Megan Schliesman
Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2012 09:55:37 -0500
X-Message-Number: 2
Having recently worked with some teachers coming to the CCBC working
specifically on Common Core as it relates to specific areas of the
curriculum, I noticed that certain topics were ONLY served by series
non-fiction--in other words, there weren't always trade books available
on, say, "Rocks" or "Minerals." So I pulled series non-fiction
examples of what we have on topics on their list so they could evaluate
them and think about them in the context of other resources available to
them, including online resources or textbooks. Because the cost of
library-bound series in particular can be prohibitive, especially if you
are looking at books for classroom use (rather than for the library),
they needed to consider if the information provided in the books might
be available elsewhere.
I also noted they were looking for informational books to fulfill
different purposes. Their main purpose was in finding what they were
referring to as "mentor" texts--books that a teacher would use read
aloud, with the idea that over the course of a unit, the same book might
be read to the class multiple times. Each reading would reveal new
things to the students based on what they were learning about the
subject, about reading, and about writing. (That's my summary, not
necessarily theirs.) For that purpose, they were delighted by the wealth
of trade literature from which they could choose, especially when it
came to finding books that would make great elementary read-alouds.
These non-fiction books which I think of as more "literary" or "artful"
(Patrick McDonnell's "Me...Jane" is an example of one they greatly
appreciated) lend themselves to repeated reading and exploration because
of those qualities.
But one area that they were looking at was finding books that could
teach about the "parts" of a non-fiction text: table of contents, index,
glossary, etc.. And when it came to books for elementary
age--especially the lower grades--I said my guess is they would find the
series/formulaic books might better serve their purpose than the more
literary non-fiction--which can be all over the place in terms of
whether or not those traditional "components" of a non-fiction text are
included. A straightforward informational trade book is likely to
include, but so many are not straightforward in the way they present and
explore topics. I think of the books of Steve Jenkins, for example. I
recommend them all the time, but they wouldn't be the first books I turn
to to teach the "parts" of non-fiction.
Finally, something we haven't discussed--diverging from the trade vs.
series point--is non-fiction that non-fiction, in the strictest sense of
the word because of the creative license an authors takes, and the value
such books can have in teaching students to look critically at all kinds
of texts. For example, Ellen Levine's "Henry's Freedom Box" is based on
the account of how Henry Brown mailed himself out of slavery to freedom.
But there is no sense that the dialogue in the book are actual
conversations that took place. A book like this that tells a compelling
story in an engaging, emotionally powerful way can become part of how we
teach children to evaluate what they read for to understand authorial
intent and how they achieved their goals, and to understand as part of
that where fact end and fictions begins.
And, quite frankly, I think that is an essential component of
comprehension that we teach children and teens in this web-connected
world where as much misinformation as information is spread so very quickly.
Megan
Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2012 09:39:24 -0500
Thanks for the good conversation about nonfiction. I can offer four examples of how trade authors approach the genre.
After I researched and wrote a step-into-reading nonfiction book about Johnny Appleseed, my editor learned that another publisher was bringing out an Appleseed book at the same time. As a result of a flurry of e-mails, I rewrote the manuscript as if told by John Chapman himself, putting words in his mouth as I could only guess he might have talked. The result was therefore a fictionalized nonfiction book. The facts presented in the book remained the same. Technically, though, I published a book of fiction.
When I wrote Earthworks a series of seven titles about how the earth works, I was given a word budget of 700 words per book. To write seven books, which covered mountains, oceans, rivers, caves, earthquakes, volcanoes, and glaciers, I used a total of 4,900 words. Even with end matter to expound further on the content, such limited space requires the author to read extensively but write with carefully selected facts. Readers who like the books sometimes call them poetic in the telling. When every word counts, the result can indeed have a free verse quality to it. Even so, I had to look for and find ways to introduce each subject with a story-teller's voice to entice young readers to want to learn more.
Pirates is a book of poetry (grades 4 and up) but the writing is informed by a great deal of reading scholarly work about that period. As a result, the book was chosen for VOYA's 2009 Nonfiction Honor List. Is poetry a traditional nonfiction venue? Maybe not so much, but it's another way to reach readers who like to get their facts in what amounts to short chapters. Does it tell them all they might want to know? Probably not, but it can be used in the classroom to support lessons and encourage interest in learning more.
Mammoth Bones and Broken Stones represents the fourth approach. This is also a book for older readers (grades 4 and up), which was five years in the making. This is not a series sort of nonfiction book. It's a stand alone idea that required massive amounts of reading and communicating with scientists who seek answers to who the first migrants to this continent might have been. There's voice in it for sure, but the book carries a lot of information so the writing approach is more reportorial than that of the first three examples. At points where the narrative needed a break, I chose to describe a scene as it might have occurred - such as a mammoth hunt - to create a sense of reality. The hunt was described based on physical evidence found at the site. Does that make the book partly nonfiction or does it give the telling a voice to help carry the reader forward? Prior to publication, the manuscript was read by a number of leading archaeologists who gave it high marks. My point is that even in pure nonfiction, in text or in trade, there needs to be something about the presentation that breathes life into the narrative. Readers of all ages need more than straight reporting in their nonfiction.
David Harrison
http://www.davidlharrison.com
Message-----
From: CCBC-Net digest
Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2012 12:06 AM To: ccbc-net digest recipients Subject: ccbc-net digest: March 28, 2012
CCBC-NET Digest for Wednesday, March 28, 2012.
1. RE: ccbc-net digest: March 27, 2012
2. Non-Fiction: Trade vs. Formula Series
3. Nonfiction Trade vs. Series
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: RE: ccbc-net digest: March 27, 2012
From: Mary Losure
Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2012 09:18:26 -0500
X-Message-Number: 1
I read Heather's post with interest. I'm wondering, what do you see as the main obstacles to the use of more "voice" in school and library informational non-fiction books? Publishers? Librarians? Teachers? Authors? Others? Are there ways to overcome these obstacles? Mary
1. School and Library nonfiction books
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: School and Library nonfiction books
From: Heather Montgomery
Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2012 00:12:38 +0000
X-Message-Number: 1
I am so glad that Lionel brought up the school and library informational nonfiction books... I'd love some discussion on Lionel's question, "How can they be improved and better used alongside trade books?"
area that I feel could be improved is voice. A little more voice in some of those texts could go a long way towards engaging readers.
Heather
Heather L. Montgomery
Science and Nature Writing for Kids
www.HeatherLMontgomery.com
256-426-5871
New! The Case of the Missing Arctic Fox and Other True Animal Mysteries for You To Solve
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Non-Fiction: Trade vs. Formula Series
From: Megan Schliesman
Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2012 09:55:37 -0500
X-Message-Number: 2
Having recently worked with some teachers coming to the CCBC working
specifically on Common Core as it relates to specific areas of the
curriculum, I noticed that certain topics were ONLY served by series
non-fiction--in other words, there weren't always trade books available
on, say, "Rocks" or "Minerals." So I pulled series non-fiction
examples of what we have on topics on their list so they could evaluate
them and think about them in the context of other resources available to
them, including online resources or textbooks. Because the cost of
library-bound series in particular can be prohibitive, especially if you
are looking at books for classroom use (rather than for the library),
they needed to consider if the information provided in the books might
be available elsewhere.
I also noted they were looking for informational books to fulfill
different purposes. Their main purpose was in finding what they were
referring to as "mentor" texts--books that a teacher would use read
aloud, with the idea that over the course of a unit, the same book might
be read to the class multiple times. Each reading would reveal new
things to the students based on what they were learning about the
subject, about reading, and about writing. (That's my summary, not
necessarily theirs.) For that purpose, they were delighted by the wealth
of trade literature from which they could choose, especially when it
came to finding books that would make great elementary read-alouds.
These non-fiction books which I think of as more "literary" or "artful"
(Patrick McDonnell's "Me...Jane" is an example of one they greatly
appreciated) lend themselves to repeated reading and exploration because
of those qualities.
But one area that they were looking at was finding books that could
teach about the "parts" of a non-fiction text: table of contents, index,
glossary, etc.. And when it came to books for elementary
age--especially the lower grades--I said my guess is they would find the
series/formulaic books might better serve their purpose than the more
literary non-fiction--which can be all over the place in terms of
whether or not those traditional "components" of a non-fiction text are
included. A straightforward informational trade book is likely to
include, but so many are not straightforward in the way they present and
explore topics. I think of the books of Steve Jenkins, for example. I
recommend them all the time, but they wouldn't be the first books I turn
to to teach the "parts" of non-fiction.
Finally, something we haven't discussed--diverging from the trade vs.
series point--is non-fiction that non-fiction, in the strictest sense of
the word because of the creative license an authors takes, and the value
such books can have in teaching students to look critically at all kinds
of texts. For example, Ellen Levine's "Henry's Freedom Box" is based on
the account of how Henry Brown mailed himself out of slavery to freedom.
But there is no sense that the dialogue in the book are actual
conversations that took place. A book like this that tells a compelling
story in an engaging, emotionally powerful way can become part of how we
teach children to evaluate what they read for to understand authorial
intent and how they achieved their goals, and to understand as part of
that where fact end and fictions begins.
And, quite frankly, I think that is an essential component of
comprehension that we teach children and teens in this web-connected
world where as much misinformation as information is spread so very quickly.
Megan
-- Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison 600 N. Park Street, Room 4290 Madison, WI 53706 608/262-9503 schliesman_at_education.wisc.edu www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Nonfiction Trade vs. Series From: Lee Sullivan Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2012 13:46:53 -0400 X-Message-Number: 3 I like Megan's point that informational books fulfill different purposes. It is interesting that these diverging purposes actually drive the creation of the books, themselves. Trade book editors answer to marketing departments and publish books on topics that parents or grandparents will purchase at a bookstore or chain retailer. Many subjects, such as rocks and minerals mentioned by Megan, would not find enough buyers to make publication profitable, yet children still want (need) to learn about them. For example, Carolrhoda Books, a subsidiary of Lerner Publications, published my Building Block Book series, which included titles on bridges, dams, canals, roads, towers, parks, libraries, etc. These topics receive little coverage in the trade book market. The purpose of publishing these books, which were printed in runs of no more than 5,000 copies (tiny by trade-book standards) was to feed the curiosity of budding young engineers and fill an information gap. There is room for a wide variety in the kind of nonfiction books published, because it opens up a wider range of topics and reaches readers of varying abilities and temperaments. Lee Lee Sullivan Hill, Author 20 Bethune Street, Apt 2B New York, NY 10014 hummingrk_at_aol.com --- END OF DIGEST ---Received on Thu 29 Mar 2012 09:39:24 AM CDT
