Reading Nonfiction Books

Reading Nonfiction Books on Hello Rascal Kids

When my husband and I first began buying books for our kids, we imagined shelves upon shelves of books. In that, we succeeded and it really makes us happy. Back then, I was also insistent on those books having storylines (or a plot), with characters, a setting, and a plot climax. This was mostly because those are the kinds of books I enjoy reading. However, I quickly realized that many board books for babies are less about characters and a story, and more about identifying images.

As many good parents do, we embraced these books and read them every day. We also enhanced our kids’ knowledge base with non-fiction board books like these.

My Big Dinosaur Book by Roger Priddy. A very simple book of pictures of dinosaurs with their names, sorted by categories and a few comprehension questions per layout. (A phonetic guide would be helpful with this book.)
Usborne Book What is Poop? A very cute and practical book about what poop is made of, how people poop, and what happens to poop after it leaves the body and the toilet.
Solar System by Jill McDonald. A brilliantly colored book about the parts of the solar system, and a fact or two per planet.

As our children moved from infants to toddlers, we also updated their library to include paperback books with more words and more non-fiction features (graphs, diagrams, labeling, and glossary, to name a few).

National Geographic Kids Look & Learn Dig. A very simple look at different things on our planet that dig, with non-fiction text features such as photographs and captions.
The Sun is Kind of a Big Deal by Nick Seluk. This is a text heavy books with kid friendly illustrations. It is best to take this book a few pages a day.
This Little Scientist: A Discovery Primer and This Little Explorer: A Pioneer Primer by Joan Holub. One person per page makes these books easy to tackle and digest. We found that if one person resonated with our children, then we would dive more deeply into him/her. (PS. There are more books like this in the This Little series.)

In this male-centric world, I am determined to raise my rascals (who are boys) to see women and girls in their surroundings as much as men and boys. To that effect, they have really taken an interest in these books:

For the Right to Learn: Malala Yousafzai’s Story by Rebecca Langston-George. Not only does this book teach us about Malala Yousafzai, but it also raises awareness of how privileged my rascals are in their upbringing, education, and opportunities. (This book is part of the Encounter: Narrative Nonfiction Picture Books series.)
She Persisted and She Persisted Around the World by Chelsea Clinton. Similar in style to the This Little books above, each page provides a brief story about women who persisted despite the people, culture, and rules holding them back.

And now we are entering the world of leveled readers and I couldn’t be more excited about watching my rascals read to me! To keep non-fiction books in their hands, we have turned to these styles:

I Can Read! Our current favorites are the Ranger Rick series that explores the lives and habits of various animals.
Step Into Reading. Right now we are focused on the History series that provides fairly detailed accounts of major historical events. To be honest, sometimes I learn a thing or two!
National Geographic Kids. To me it appears that there is nothing that can’t be figured out through National Geographic so these books are worth it!