Guest Post: Patricia Newman

By Patricia Newman, Sibert Honor-winning author of Sea Otter Heroes, Plastic Ahoy!, Eavesdropping on Elephants, Planet Ocean, and many other books

I’d like to extend a huge thank you to Lerner Publishing Group for embracing Melissa Stewart’s 5 Kinds of Nonfiction, a system that has been a boon for educators—and writers—in understanding and appreciating this rich and varied genre.

Candice Ransom writes series nonfiction for Lerner, including the Bumba Books Discover Your Senses series. These fall into the Traditional Nonfiction category in Melissa Stewart’s 5 Kinds of Nonfiction framework. Read on to learn about how Candice does her research and writing, and more about Traditional Nonfiction and the 5 Kinds of Nonfiction.

In preparation for election day, we explore Traditional Nonfiction with Jeff Fleischer, author of Votes of Confidence 2nd Edition: A Young Person’s Guide to American Elections. This updated edition provides the next generation of voters with essential guidance about the past, present, and future of American elections. Continue reading to learn more about Jeff’s research process, Traditional Nonfiction, and the 5 Kinds of Nonfiction.

A guest post by Melissa Stewart

Many teachers and students seem to think that writing nonfiction requires nothing more than doing some research and cobbling together a bunch of facts, but nothing could be further from the truth. To dispel this alarming myth, fifty of today’s most celebrated authors for children have come together to share a critical part of the nonfiction writing process that often goes unseen. The result is the illuminating anthology Nonfiction Writers Dig Deep: 50 Award-winning Children’s Book Authors Share the Secret of Engaging Writing

To craft high-quality prose, nonfiction writers have to dig deep. They have to get in touch with their passions and their vulnerabilities and use them to fuel their work. Each book has a piece of the author at its heart, and that personal connection is what drives writers to keep working, despite the inevitable obstacles and setbacks.

Last week, Melissa Stewart hosted an absolutely awesome webinar with SLJ – Rethinking Your Book Collection. If you missed it, you can watch it on demand through the end of the year. The presentation and discussion were so great that we couldn’t get to all the questions, so Melissa graciously answered them for our blog.