In the Classroom: A Smattering of Nonfiction

As a participant in  Share A Story- Shape a Future here I am with some surefire nonfiction hits for the classroom.

When it comes to independent reading, my students tend to prefer fiction; however, they do love compendiums, biographies of intriguing people, and other sorts of works of nonfiction. For example, a couple of years ago I had a student who avidly and exclusively read Horrible Histories.  I’d pick up a few when in the U.K. and he read those and every other one he and his family could find (some of which, I recall, they ordered directly from the U.K.).  These are so witty and visually engaging that I’m surprised that they are not better known in the U.S.

Another sort of nonfiction book that kids love are those that tell you how to do or make things. A recent one of this sort that was a great hit with my students was Show Off.  One of my 6th grade Book Bloggers wrote in her review, “This was the coolest book I have ever read! No, really. This book shows you how to do ‘absolutely everything, one step at a time.'”

I first met this cranky cat in Nick Bruel‘s Bad Kitty, a very clever ABC book.  A few years later the cat was back in  Bad Kitty Gets a Bath.   In this chapter book, Bruel, in a blunt and hysterically amusing manner, instructs young readers on how best to give cat a bath and slips in plenty of additional information about cats and their ways.  Enormously fun and informative.