Right
now, the children’s literature community is enamored with narrative nonfiction—books
that tell true stories. It receives more starred reviews and wins far more awards than expository nonfiction.
That's because most of the people who choose jobs related to children’s
literature—editors, book reviewers, librarians, literacy educators, awards
committee members—value and connect strongly with stories and storytelling. And
it’s natural for them to assume that young readers feel the same way, especially
when we hear things like “humans are hardwired to love story.”
But
today, I’m going to disrupt your thinking.
For
years, I’ve been questioning the idea
that everyone loves stories. Based
on my own experience as a reader and conversations I’ve had with children and educators, what
I see is that some children are, indeed, naturally drawn to narratives. But
others are more excited about ideas and information and would rather read
expository nonfiction. Still others enjoy both expository and narrative texts.
My
observations have led me to hypothesize that there’s what I call a
narrative-analytical thinking continuum. The general population spans the
continuum, but the children’s literature community is clumped at the narrative
end.
I’m
concerned that young analytical thinkers are currently being underserved
because gatekeepers don’t appreciate the kind of books that these children
enjoy. Simply put, what the children’s literature community calls broccoli,
many kids call chocolate cake.
By
last spring, I felt so strongly about this issue that I decided to take a
sabbatical from writing and conduct a study of elementary students’ reading
preferences. Because I had no idea how to structure or conduct a study, I dove
into the academic literature. And that’s when my mind was blown.
The
research already exists, and it’s powerful. Why don’t more people know about
it?
Here
are two examples:
Correia, Marlene Ponte. “Fiction vs
Informational Texts: Which Will Kindergartners Choose?”Young Children, 2011,
p. 100-104.
A K teacher who initially believed her students
prefered fiction tracked their library checkouts for 19 weeks and found that
the children chose more nonfiction than fiction titles 14 out of 19 weeks. One
week they checked out an equal number of fiction and nonfiction books. Each
week, more boys than girl chose nonfiction.
Mohr, Kathleen A. J. “Children’s Choices for
Recreational Reading: A Three-Part Investigation of Selection Preferences,
Rationales, and Processes.” Journal of Literacy
Research, 2006, p. 81-104.
190 first graders were invited to choose one of nine
high-quality, well-illustrated picture books to keep forever. The books
included five fiction titles and four nonfiction titles—one expository
nonfiction, one picture book biography, one nonfiction poetry, and one hybrid
nonfiction. The children viewed the books one at a time (so they weren’t
influenced by their friends’ choices). Students could take as long as they
wanted to make a decision and were encouraged to look closely at the books as
part of the decision-making process.
What were the results? 84% of students chose a
nonfiction book. 46% chose the expository nonfiction title, while only 3% chose
the picture book biography. More boys (96%) than girls (69%) chose nonfiction titles.
What was the mega-popular expository nonfiction
title?
I
encourage you to get the full articles and read them. I’ll be sharing more
research in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.