5 Kinds of Nonfiction

This essential guide revolutionizes how we understand and teach informational texts by introducing a clear classification system for modern children's nonfiction. Stewart and Correia identify five distinct categories—active, browsable, traditional, expository literature, and narrative—that reflect the evolution of factual books from dense reference materials to engaging, visually dynamic works. The framework provides educators and librarians with precise language to discuss nonfiction's varied formats and purposes, moving beyond the outdated view of informational texts as monolithic. This taxonomy fundamentally changes how adults can select and present factual books to young readers.

What makes this approach transformative is its practical application across reading and writing instruction, offering specific strategies for matching each nonfiction type to different learning objectives and student needs. Classroom teachers will find immediately usable methods for building text sets that demonstrate various ways information can be presented, while literacy specialists gain powerful tools for developing students' critical reading skills across genres. The book's greatest strength lies in empowering educators to move beyond simply "teaching nonfiction" to strategically deploying specific kinds of informational texts for maximum impact, ultimately creating more sophisticated, engaged readers of factual material.