Thank you everyone for all of the great posts each week for the Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge 2014.
Several years before the Common Core State Standards decided to try mandating the amount of nonfiction or informational text students should be reading, I realized that I had a serious book gap. Though I went through phases when I did read nonfiction related to things I was interested in as an adult, I realized that I focused on very little nonfiction for children. Frankly, I saw it as boring and not particularly worth my time. Yes, I needed an attitude adjustment.
However, I can tell you when my attitude changed and by which book. It was January 18, 2010, and I was listening to the ALA Youth Media Awards curled up in bed at 5 a.m. The awards were in Boston that year and in order to hear them live, I had to get up early. As they announced the awards, I was intrigued by several of the Sibert Medal Winners, particularly, The Day-Glo Brothers by Chris Barton. Shortly, after the announcements were made I tracked down a copy of the book and from that moment on I have been on the search for creative, informative, and interesting nonfiction picture books for children.
My interest in nonfiction picture books has lead me to starting this challenge and to getting to know all of you. I have felt good about the amount of nonfiction that I have been able to feature on my blog, especially through this weekly challenge. However, I have been playing with some ideas, and will probably be adjusting my posts.
Once a month, usually the first Wednesday of the month, I feature new nonfiction picture book releases. From the feedback, I have received readers really seem to enjoy this post. So, I am going to keep doing it. I am going to try and find ways to keep improving it but overall, it seems to be working.
Next, I might start doing a What are you reading? type post to share all of the great nonfiction I find. Often, I don't have time to review everything I read, but I would like to give more attention to books that I have enjoyed and want to share with others. I will share these separate from my Monday What are you reading? posts, especially when I have a lot of titles to talk about.
Finally, I want to do more posts that feature a collection of books around a similar topic and include links to various resources or ideas of how to use them in the classroom. I tried it recently with the post for The Sea Turtle Scientist. It seemed to work. So I am trying it again. Let me know with these new posts what is helpful and what you would love to see more of as a teacher or librarian or parent.
If you are looking for the link to the Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday Widget please go here, and check out my post about Tracking Trash, and Plastic Ahoy!
