True crime is wildly popular with students across the country, and my students are no exception. If your teens are anything like mine, they are just as fascinated by tales of murder and misdeeds. I’ve previously shared how I capitalized… Read More ›
nonfiction
Reading Memoirs to Increase Empathy
One of the most valuable benefits of reading is cultivating a sense of empathy. By reading fiction, readers experience the emotions of an endless range of characters. In an article referencing neuroscience studies, Annie Murphy Paul states that “there is… Read More ›
Young Adult Nonfiction: Engaging Titles to Add to Your Collection
Do you remember when states started adopting the Common Core State Standards? The standards’ emphasis on nonfiction had school librarians scrambling to find “readable” nonfiction as they welcomed the opportunity to help teachers with the shift away from fiction. We… Read More ›
Inspire students with nonfiction!
After a recent weeding bonanza where we tossed late 80s and early 90s versions of teen self-help and how-to guides, we decided to reinvest in those areas and create a Get Inspired subcollection featuring a wider variety of topics our… Read More ›
How to Create a User Friendly K-2 Nonfiction Section in Your Elementary Library
The Problem During inventory, at the end of my first year as a librarian in a K-5 elementary school, I discovered that I had many easy nonfiction books that had never been checked out. (In this post, “easy“ refers to books… Read More ›
What Do We Know about the Writing Process?
We all love books or we would not be in the library business. Unless we are authors, how often do we think about the actual writing process? What do the authors of our addiction go through to write books that… Read More ›
Collection Development: Choosing Nonfiction
While your teachers are working to teach students to distinguish nonfiction from fiction, to recognize nonfiction text features, and to comprehend nonfiction texts, you can support their efforts by purchasing quality nonfiction books. Specifically, you should buy excellent nonfiction books… Read More ›