It’s never too early to introduce preschoolers to great nonfiction

Certainly one of the most common words in a preschooler’s vocabulary is “why.” Once they get past the “no” stage, it’s probably the word that trips up adults most often. Just how do we explain why the sky is blue?

Those of us who spend our days surrounded by topnotch children’s books know something that many parents and caregivers haven’t caught onto yet—the treasure trove of information found in nonfiction books for young children. How can we share these materials with adults who will put them to good use?

Recently, we had a satisfying discussion about best practices at our library’s monthly youth services meeting. Everyone brought a nonfiction title, and we talked about how we use nonfiction books in storytime. It was inspiring to hear about the different ways our colleagues are plumbing the riches of the children’s collection.

Joy Cowley’s colorful Red-Eyed Tree Frog (Scholastic Press, 1999) emerged as a staff favorite for four- and five-year-olds. Perfectly paced for storytime reading, it has great suspense and stunning photos of creatures who live in the rain forests of Central America. Older preschoolers whose interests are expanding especially enjoy adventures that transport them beyond their familiar neighborhoods. Another hit with this age group is Barbara Kerley’s A Cool Drink of Water (National Geographic, 2002), which uses handsome full-page photographs and a spare poetic text to explore the many ways people around the world get their drinking water.

Jane Corry, one of our youth librarians, talked about the strong connection between the picture-book fiction and nonfiction collections. In her storytimes, Jane makes an effort to follow up tales about ducks or bugs or farm animals with a nonfiction book. Jane’s unabashed goal is to emphasize how many delights await families just outside the storytime room—on the library’s nonfiction shelves. A new staff favorite for this kind of pairing is Katya Arnold’s Elephants Can Paint Too! (S & S/Atheneum, 2005). A simple stand-alone story is told in large print, while alongside the main narrative, boxes with smaller print offer details to intrigue preschoolers who are ready for more.

Many of our colleagues use a nonfiction book to show just one or two interesting pictures as a lead-in to a featured story or themed storytime. Who can see the pull-out page featuring the life-sized crocodile snout in Steve Jenkins’s Actual Size (Houghton, 2004) without wanting to hear about crocodiles? Invite the children and their adults to hunt for more cool titles about large reptiles after storytime. It’s never too early to learn that librarians know the best books and will happily help you find them!

Don’t forget the magazines, several librarians urged. Like adults, kids often prefer magazines to books. Storytime is a perfect time to introduce them to Your Big Backyard or National Geographic Little Kids.

Our discussion also revealed the plentiful opportunities nonfiction provides us to show adults how reading aloud helps children develop vocabulary and other early literacy skills. Byron Barton’s My Car (Greenwillow, 2001) may be catalogued fiction, but it’s really a very easy nonfiction book. It’s a fine example of how the best books for even the youngest children have lovely, strong, interesting words to learn. “I stop for pedestrians,” says the driver. Librarians can briefly stop here, too, and demonstrate how to use the illustrations to define pedestrians.

After impressing each other with other great words in the books we passed around, many librarians left the meeting determined to start bringing a children’s dictionary to storytime. Not a bad way to introduce the youngest to one indispensable nonfiction book!