Hey! Did you know....?
AKA Don't forget to check out the non-fiction shelves
I sort of love it when I unbury the “Your library books are due” email from my outrageously cluttered inbox. Or it might be the secondary “AHEM, I said your library books are due” or if things are really hectic it is the most recently received “HEY! I KNOW WE GOT RID OF LATE FEES ON ALL KID BOOKS BUT C’MON LADY, BRING US BACK THOSE BOOKS.” I don’t know why they are yelling at me, this is obviously the first time I am hearing about it.
When I get those emails I get to hype my kids on looking for books to match the latest and greatest fad in our household. This last week my oldest wanted to find books about blue whales, likely inspired by the new Wild Kratts movie “Our Blue and Green World” which you can watch (for free!) at PBS Kids. My youngest wanted books about “swinging!”
As soon as story time was over we headed to the stacks crossing our fingers that we would find some great books about whales, which means we headed to the non-fiction shelves.
I have to admit, the first time I headed toward the children’s non-fiction shelves as an adult, I was dragging my feet. I wanted to read fun fairy tales, action-packed adventures, and books with silly and loveable characters who learn lessons through everyday circumstances. I didn’t want to be stuck reading encyclopedic books listing the types of dinosaurs or reading pages full of facts and figures. I didn’t remember the non-fiction section containing amazing, beautiful, or particularly entertaining titles. Nobody wants to be stuck reading Cooking With Oatmeal out loud to their kids.
Thankfully, I could not have been more wrong. The non-fiction section is full of beautiful books that flawlessly weave the intersection of science and story to open up our world and teach us about nature (our favorite place to be), animals both wild and domesticated, cultures outside of our own limited experiences, eras gone by, holidays, sports and the great players who made history playing them, the unexplored mystery of space, the deep sea, and pretty much anything else we could care to wonder about.
And if there is one thing we know for certain about kids, they are full of wonder.
One of my favorite by-products of reading books off the non-fiction shelves is how often we get to holler “Did you know?” followed up by some amazing fact. I love watching my kid get excited to share a fun fact he learned from a book with anyone willing to listen.
LIT TIP
Let your everyday experiences and kid’s questions guide your non-fiction browsing. This past weekend we went camping and saw so.many.bugs. SO MANY BUGS! Two walking sticks, clutches of daddy-long-legs, katydids, lichen moths with bright orange and gray striped wings, and enough fuzzy black caterpillars to consider calling it an invasion. We even saw a red-headed centipede! Oh, and these scorpions were hanging out all over outside of the bathroom. Trust me, they were bigger IRL.
We can’t wait to get our hands on some bug books the next time we head to the library.
FROM THE STAX
HOW LONG IS A WHALE by Alison Limentani
How Long is a Whale explores the length of the enormous blue whale, the biggest animal ever to live on earth, through a countdown where other sea creatures are sized up and compared. Each beautifully printed illustration also includes a tiny diver to show how big each animal is compared to a 5’9’’ human.
My kids LOVE this book, we have been reading it on repeat. I love how simple the text is, allowing the puzzle of size and mathematical comparisons to take center stage. My kids love to try and figure out how many of me, Dad, or them would it take to equal the length of each sea creature. This book is an excellent and engaging introduction to scale and size.
HORSES by Gail Gibbons
**This book was gifted to me by Holiday House Publishing, all thoughts and opinions are entirely my own.**
All hail the queen of non-fiction, Gail Gibbons. I know I have reviewed her in Library Stax before because if there is ever a topic your child is curious about, see if there is a non-fiction book by Gail Gibbons on the subject. There probably is. Her books are full of informational gems, vivid and detailed pictures, and are the perfect length and depth for younger readers interested in learning fabulous facts.
Horses does not disappoint, giving some broad stroke history, teaching the kids (and me, let’s be real) about different types and breeds of horses, and a section on horse care. We came away from this book with a lot more horse knowledge and much more specific details about what kind of horses we are pretending to be during our make-believe play.
HOW WHALES WALKED INTO THE SEA by Faith McNulty Illustrated by Ted Rand
Whales are aquatic mammals, which is incredible. They give birth to live young, they breathe oxygen despite their ocean homes, they have tiny little hip bones still nestled deep in the lower body, remnants from when they had back legs and used to walk on the land. Take a walk through the annals of time and learn about and see the ancestors of the whales as they adapted and changed from land-dwelling creatures to creatures of the deep.
This is one of those books that just blows my mind. I love to consider the hand bones of a whale’s flippers. I love to look at the ancestors of modern whales and try to connect these two things that appear so different but are related. It always makes me excited for what else is out there that we have yet to discover or learn!
WHOSE POOP IS THAT? by Darrin Lunde Illustrated by Kelsey Oseid
This book introduces kids to one of the greatest naturalist identification skills through colorful and fun illustrations and an exciting guessing game. Each animal is introduced first with a drawing of their poop and some context clues like tracks and evidence of the animal’s diet. The next page reveals whose poop it is, making the book an interactive guessing game for all the readers.
If you’ve ever been camping or on a long hike with your littles, chances are you’ve played this game. Only out in nature, I am never that sure if I have won.
THE WHALE WHO SWAM THROUGH TIME: A 200 YEAR JOURNEY IN THE ARCTIC by Alex Boersma & Nick Pyenson Illustrated by Alex Boersma
Follow a bowhead whale on a journey through time. Starting 200 years ago and moving to the present day, this book explores how the world around one arctic whale changes and shifts as the years pass. This book does not shy away from the reality of the influx of human existence and our negative impact on the planet including pollution and sound pollution, melting ice caps, and dangers from increased traffic.
Did you know Bowhead Whales can live for almost 200 years? I didn’t! With beautiful illustrations and an important message, we used this book as an entry point for talking about how our choices have an impact on the planet and what kind of things we can do to try and help.
**All purchases made through links may offer me a small commission at no extra cost to you, so thank you!**
After our river adventures and bug-finding expeditions out camping we were sitting around the campfire, everybody with sticky marshmallow and mud residue faces, and my eldest asked “Mom? What is smoke?” I realized I didn’t actually know. Instead of reaching for my phone, I found myself wondering what kind of books we could find on the topic on the non-fiction shelves of our local library.
Do you have any favorite non-fiction titles that you can’t wait to re-read? Tell me about them!
See you tomorrow for Auntie’s Annex and Happy reading y’all!
The nonfiction offerings for kids today are incredible! I write nonfiction recommendations for another blog (mostly middle grade), and I'm blown away by how much more INTERESTING the selections are-- I barely remember reading nonfiction when I was a kid... thanks for this post!!!
We have Gail Gibbons “Hurricanes” AND “Tornados” checked out from the library this very minute!! She’s the queen for sure.
I cannot recommend “The Street Beneath My Feet” by Charlotte Guillain enough! It’s the coolest book I’ve ever seen! You open the book and it unfolds into a 10+ foot dive underground all the way to Earth’s core. And if that isn’t cool enough, you flip the book over and get to go all the way back up! The whole series is amazing; there’s the skies, oceans, and a river so far.