traditional nonfiction – The Lerner Blog

5 Kinds of Nonfiction – Evaluate Your Collection

Assess Your Collection with the 5 Kinds of Nonfiction Since so many of you take time over the summer to evaluate and update your collections to make sure they will best serve your students, we wanted to remind you of the 5 Kinds of Nonfiction classification system, created by author Melissa Stewart. The 5 Kinds […]Read more

Traditional Nonfiction Hotlist

Traditional nonfiction is made up of survey/”all-about” nonfiction books. They provide a general overview of a topic, are often part of a larger series, and use clean, straightforward language. They are best for an introduction to a topic, and often used early in the research process to build understanding. Keep reading for a list of […]Read more

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 […]Read more

5 Kinds of Nonfiction: Candice Ransom

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.Read more

5 Kinds of Nonfiction: Jeff Fleischer

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 […]Read more

5 Kinds of Nonfiction: Nonfiction Writers Dig Deep

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 […]Read more

Rethinking Your Book Collection: A Q&A with Melissa Stewart

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.Read more

Introducing: 5 Kinds of Nonfiction with Melissa Stewart!

A guest post by Melissa Stewart Back in 2017, I proposed a five-category system for classifying children’s nonfiction on my blog, and the response was incredible. Teachers loved it. So did librarians and children’s book authors and editors. People praised the clarity it brought to the range of children’s nonfiction available today.Read more

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