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Children’s non-fiction as a genre has re-emerged stronger than ever

Children’s non-fiction has changed a lot since I was in elementary school.
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By Aaron Francis

Children’s non-fiction has changed a lot since I was in elementary school. Mostly absent are the encyclopedia and old-fashioned books of facts that populated my earliest attempts at bibliography. Nowadays, if anyone needs to discover the capital of New Brunswick or General Brock’s birthday, they just google it.

Despite the huge amount of online information at our fingertips, however, children’s non-fiction as a genre has re-emerged stronger than ever, and is among the hottest areas of publishing today. The new non-fiction is less encyclopedic, emphasizing instead exploration, creativity, discovery, and greater engagement with content.

Take a few examples: Who Wins? By Clay Swartz allows you to put two historical figures head-to-head to see who would be most successful at a variety of challenges, while dropping historical tidbits along the way. Who would win at surviving a zombie apocalypse: Simon Bolivar or Mother Teresa? How about living on a deserted island: Marie Antoinette or Empress Cixi? Choose your own characters and challengers from among over 100 historical figures.

In The Street Beneath My Feet by Charlotte Guillain, pages fold out to show what lies beneath the surface the earth, from electrical conduits and sewage lines to crust and mantle. You will need to find a big room to unfold the pages all the way to the core!

My Pop-Up World Atlas allows you to explore countries and geography through sliding wheels, books inside books, pullout panels and, of course, very cool popups.

In Bedtime Math by Laura Overdeck, families find fun, mischief-making math problems taken from real life. On each page, three levels of challenge (for wee ones, little kids, and big kids) will be provided based on the information provided, which makes this perfect for families with multiple children to explore concepts and ideas together.

What these books have in common is that they present information in a way that is intended to stimulate interest and excitement about science, technology, engineering, arts, and more. They don’t give you all of the facts. Instead, they encourage young people to engage in a process of discovery and exploration.

These changes in children’s non-fiction reflect broader changes in public education— including in BC, where education has undergone a major transformation in the past few years.

While reaffirming a strong commitment to literacy and numeracy skills, BC teachers are moving away from rigid, standardized content-based learning towards an emphasis on core competencies and flexible learning environments.

The fact is that the human brain is wired to learn. Everyone—children and adults alike—are natural learners. But for many learners, traditional schooling hasn’t successfully leveraged this natural inclination.

The new approach encourages self-direction and hands-on learning in tandem with concept building and exploration of big ideas. It allows children to explore and dig deeper into the things that they are passionate about. Literacy and numeracy become necessary tools in this learning adventure, and are strengthened through practical application.

The library’s children’s non-fiction section is designed to meet the needs of the new educational paradigm. Our books are designed to excite an interest in digging deeper, in hands-on play, experimentation, and self-directed learning. They are books designed for curious and adventurous minds.

In addition to books, our children’s ipads are stocked with an array of interactive apps to try out, such as Tinker- Box, Nsquared Circuits, SeeTouchLearn, Roland 808, Adobe Sketch, and Spellix.. For young adults, we offer professional music, video, graphics, and web design editing software.

Beginning in October, we will once again offer a series of after-school workshops on coding with Scratch, which provides an opportunity for children aged 7-12 to design their own computer games and animations.

I plan to visit all of the schools this month to talk to teachers and kids about all of the resources and programs we offer, and how we can support the new school curriculum.

In the meantime, come by and check out for yourself what’s new at your public library, and happy reading!

Aaron Francis is the Chief Librarian at Creston Valley Public Library. He is currently reading Blood’s a Rover by James Ellroy.