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From: Marc Aronson <aronson.marc_at_gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 09 Jun 2014 09:11:27 -0400
This discussion strand began with my jump ball on where to take readers -- especially stats-oriented-boys --after Books of Records (and KT's suggestion of Math -- which no one has followed up, glaring silence on Math); then Megan's framing suggestion that, among other subjects we consider author's research notes. Yet very quickly the focus has turned to: sports biographies for girls, and the various difficulties some fine NF authors have had with getting High YA NF published -- then generalized into supposed rules. In other words, we are talking about our own experiences and preoccupations, not NF.
My sense is that High School is a hard nut to crack for NF -- teenage readers have many other demands on their time. However I disagree that they might as well go straight to adult. That is PRECISELY what was said about YA fiction back in the 90s before the current boom began. There is a space for engaging adolescent minds with big ideas in formats designed for them
-- but currently that is a very hard target to hit -- I agree with Charles that it is yet another under-served niche that we can all see, but is difficult for publishers to reach.
However here are some very important trends: CC allows schools to move away from scope and sequence to NF that engages readers in thinking about How We Know. For example Sally Walker's forensics books, or the Scientists in the Field books. I have seen entire states change their curricula to build units around Sugar Changed the World. This is what Megan brought up at first -- books that do not just share information in engaging ways, but share (and thus model to readers) the process of seeking out, evaluating, and explaining discoveries. A nod here to Teachingbooks.net -- where teachers/librarians/students can find many NF authors and illustrators talking about their process.
A second trend is the narrative NF that we have seen from Steve Sheinkin and others. I think this is significant not just because it is popular
(with kids and adults) but because it is an approach well-known in adult that is now taking its place in our territory. In other words the field is expanding -- just as, in YA fiction, we began to get novels in multiple voices, novels in verse, graphic novels as the field expanded. NF is growing.
A third, also coming from CCore, is explicit POV. Whether it is Tanya Stone, or Paul Fleischman's forthcoming book on the environment (Eyes Wide Open), or Kadir Nelson, we are seeing more NF that expresses an explicit POV. This is wonderful -- it makes for more engaging reading, while it also requires the honest author to show readers where they can find differing or opposing POVs.
I think individual authors can carve out territory for themselves in NF; it is not as wide open as, say, paranormal romance, but it is a dynamic field that is growing, trying new styles and formats, finding new voices, and -- most crucially -- shifting from Imparting Knowledge or, even, Telling a Story -- to Showing How We Know What We Know (and thus, also, the limits of what we know, or is even knowable) -- thus treating all readers as potential explorers, scientists, who may well make their own discoveries.
Marc Aronson
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Received on Mon 09 Jun 2014 08:11:50 AM CDT
Date: Mon, 09 Jun 2014 09:11:27 -0400
This discussion strand began with my jump ball on where to take readers -- especially stats-oriented-boys --after Books of Records (and KT's suggestion of Math -- which no one has followed up, glaring silence on Math); then Megan's framing suggestion that, among other subjects we consider author's research notes. Yet very quickly the focus has turned to: sports biographies for girls, and the various difficulties some fine NF authors have had with getting High YA NF published -- then generalized into supposed rules. In other words, we are talking about our own experiences and preoccupations, not NF.
My sense is that High School is a hard nut to crack for NF -- teenage readers have many other demands on their time. However I disagree that they might as well go straight to adult. That is PRECISELY what was said about YA fiction back in the 90s before the current boom began. There is a space for engaging adolescent minds with big ideas in formats designed for them
-- but currently that is a very hard target to hit -- I agree with Charles that it is yet another under-served niche that we can all see, but is difficult for publishers to reach.
However here are some very important trends: CC allows schools to move away from scope and sequence to NF that engages readers in thinking about How We Know. For example Sally Walker's forensics books, or the Scientists in the Field books. I have seen entire states change their curricula to build units around Sugar Changed the World. This is what Megan brought up at first -- books that do not just share information in engaging ways, but share (and thus model to readers) the process of seeking out, evaluating, and explaining discoveries. A nod here to Teachingbooks.net -- where teachers/librarians/students can find many NF authors and illustrators talking about their process.
A second trend is the narrative NF that we have seen from Steve Sheinkin and others. I think this is significant not just because it is popular
(with kids and adults) but because it is an approach well-known in adult that is now taking its place in our territory. In other words the field is expanding -- just as, in YA fiction, we began to get novels in multiple voices, novels in verse, graphic novels as the field expanded. NF is growing.
A third, also coming from CCore, is explicit POV. Whether it is Tanya Stone, or Paul Fleischman's forthcoming book on the environment (Eyes Wide Open), or Kadir Nelson, we are seeing more NF that expresses an explicit POV. This is wonderful -- it makes for more engaging reading, while it also requires the honest author to show readers where they can find differing or opposing POVs.
I think individual authors can carve out territory for themselves in NF; it is not as wide open as, say, paranormal romance, but it is a dynamic field that is growing, trying new styles and formats, finding new voices, and -- most crucially -- shifting from Imparting Knowledge or, even, Telling a Story -- to Showing How We Know What We Know (and thus, also, the limits of what we know, or is even knowable) -- thus treating all readers as potential explorers, scientists, who may well make their own discoveries.
Marc Aronson
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Received on Mon 09 Jun 2014 08:11:50 AM CDT
