NNFN: A Guest Post by Nicola Morgan
- Nov
- 05
- Posted by FCBG
- Posted in Uncategorized
- 2
Humans tend to categorise. We like to know where to put things and so where to find them. There are good psychological reasons and, in principle, I don’t have a problem.
I don’t have a problem, for example, with categorising some of the books I write as fiction and some (most nowadays) as non-fiction.
I would have a problem if anyone judged their value according to that categorisation. But no one does, surely?
Hmm. Not so sure. I think there are clues to suggest that many people, albeit subconsciously, value fiction over non-fiction. (I’m just going to focus on children’s books here.)
Let’s look at these clues.
Put away your violins, please – we don’t need them! We’re having too much fun writing our books. I’m just here to fly the flag for great non-fiction everywhere, in National Non-Fiction November, a celebration organised by The Federation of Children’s Book Groups, who never forget the value of non-fiction.
Another organisation which explicitly values non-fiction is the School Library Association. This gives me the chance, ever so unsubtly, to mention their own very important book award, the SLA Information Book Award. I have personal cause to be glad of its existence because The Teenage Guide to Stress is shortlisted. Hooray! I am hugely looking forward to the ceremony on November 11th.
Since I don’t expect a chance to make a speech on the night (even though it is my birthday – double hooray!), I’ll take this opportunity to thank the SLA, the FCBG, my publishers (Walker Books) and super-ace editor Caroline Royds, school librarians everywhere and young readers everywhere, for just reading, whatever category of book it is.
Nicola Morgan writes and speaks, in the UK and internationally, on various topics around the teenage brain, cognition, stress and the reading brain, including digital reading and the challenges of the internet age for parents. She’s also an award-winning teenage novelist and former teacher and dyslexia expert. She is an Ambassador for Dyslexia Scotland and has served on various Society of Authors committees. She divides her time between Scotland and England and owns beautiful boots. And books. www.nicolamorgan.com
This guest post was provided by Nicola Morgan. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Federation of Children’s Book Groups.
2 responses to “NNFN: A Guest Post by Nicola Morgan”
Leave a Reply Cancel reply
Sign up to get every blog post!
Support Us
Follow Us!
Recent news and blog posts
- The Importance of Fairy Tales, and Five Top Tips for Sharing Them
- Good Literature for Children – A Mission
- Translating Non-Fiction from Russia
[…] for part one of this argument, see the FCBG blog post here. And for part two, wait till I’ve calmed […]
Excellent post! Non-fiction is particularly good for capturing reluctant readers (often boys) who prefer to read facts and information, or who are sometimes put off fiction books by the sheer amount of unadorned text which overfaces them, however well written it is.
Many book awards are indeed open to non-fiction but it rarely gets a look-in and therefore is not seen to be as highly valued. Are we sending out the right message to teachers, parents, children…?
I would like to call on some of the book award bodies to be bold and actually create a separate non-fiction category, like the wonderful Blue Peter Award run by Booktrust. The challenge has been laid down!
A second point to make is that non-fiction does not equal fact books alone. There are many categories of children’s books, especially humorous ones (which, of course children love and really encourage reading), that do not fit the traditional view of non-fiction. We need to show that we value good poetry, miscellanies, joke books, TV/film tie-ins, creative activity books, biogs, ‘true-life’ stories and imaginative puzzle books.
Thanks Nicola!