The Developing Form of Nonfiction Resources

The problem which arises with nonfiction resources is that, in the absence of fantasy or a fictional tale, many children automatically perceive it to be uninteresting and certainly not the preferable option when browsing their school or local library. It is the aim of nonfiction suppliers and creators to make the nonfiction genre a more engaging and enticing option for all ages, to create in children, from a young age, a passion for learning.

One of the emerging trends is the presentation of nonfiction as a picture book, writing a fictional story about a specific topic and interweaving it with facts and educational information so that the nonfiction information is more accessible for younger readers and more enjoyable. Two strong examples of this strategy are ‘Python’ by Christopher Cheng and ‘Bilby Secrets’ by Edel Wignell. ‘Python’ tells a story about a python, while also educating the reader about pythons, ‘combining informative facts with a lyrical, mesmerizing narrative, and with expressive illustrations’ (Cheng, C 2013). ‘Bilby Secrets’, in a similar fashion, ‘features two kinds of text on each double-page spread: a lyrical text and a descriptive one – each in a different font’ (Wignell, E. 2013). This process educates the reader while they enjoy a fictional tale. Both of these books were nominated for Children's Book Council of Australia awards, so this strategy is clearly an effective one for promoting the nonfiction category.

Another trend emerging in the nonfiction sector is the introduction of interactivity with a text, encouraging a stronger feeling of involvement between reader and resource. Two very relevant examples of this are ‘Surrealism for kids’, a publication by Queensland Art Gallery, and ‘Press here’ by Herve Tullet. ‘Surrealism for kids’ introduces the reader to a variety of surrealist artists and their works, but the pages of information are then partnered by pages of craft and interactive activities to encourage the reader to engage with the surrealist art movement and experiment with the variety of art forms explored by the artists discussed in the text. ‘Press here’ is a simple, interactive book which gives directions to the reader to touch and interact with the page, appearing to then affect the next page in the text. This level of interactivity leads to a stronger connection with the text and therefore a greater permanency to the facts learnt from the text.

Another trend, which works along a similar strain as the previous two, is the strategy of changing the format of books, mixing text and images with no direction as to an order for reading. An example of a text which employs this strategy is ‘Stuck on History: the story of Australia in stamps’ by Chris Miles. This book presents information in a varied, broken up formation, with images intermingled freely with blocks of text, graphs and tables, and interactive questions and activities.

One of the most significant trends now facing the creators of texts, both fiction and nonfiction, is the strategy of redefining what is reading and what is a book. The above listed trends all work with this same theme of challenging the ‘norm’ and attempting to develop a new understanding of how things ‘should’ be done. An example of this is the text, ‘Composition No. 1’ by Marc Saporta, a ‘book-in-a-box’ which claims that it “can be read in any order” (Visual Editions, 2013). This text, while originally published in 1963, is becoming very popular recently due to the challenge that it makes to the accepted book format. The fact that it challenges the restrictions that are usually placed on texts is what makes it so enticing for the reader and thus it is not surprising that this strategy is being employed by a wider range of resource suppliers to encourage further engagement with texts.