Book Talk: Elementary Non-fiction

One of the things I have learned since becoming our school's completely amateur librarian is that it is very difficult to classify books according to age. It is also not a great idea to do that when it comes to encouraging reading. Particularly in the elementary years, there tends to be a big range of reading levels, as different kids learn at a different pace. Reading levels depend much more on interest and ability than age.

When I labeled the books at school, I made sure not to use the word "beginner" anywhere. If that's the level of students who have been reading for three years, I don't want to discourage them from reading the books that will be appropriate for them to read just because they see that word "beginner" and feel ashamed that they're still reading at that level.

However. 

We're all adults here. I think I can safely use generic terms like "elementary" and you'll all know I mean kids in the range of about the 6-11 years of age. And you'll also know that you may have or know kids who are much younger than that who can enjoy these books, as well as kids who are much older who are in the same position. 

That said, 6 years old to 11 years old often sees a huge jump in reading ability, so even this list will span a pretty big range of reading levels.

Okay! Disclaimers over! On with the list.

Encyclopedia Prehistorica by Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart--These are just cool. There are actually three in this series: Dinosaurs, Sharks and Other Sea Monsters, and Mega-Beasts. They are the most complicated and impressive pop-up books I've ever seen. It really is paper art. They have a ton of information in them, too, and dinosaurs are a perenially popular subject with kids. Every child loves these books. The only downside is that the pop-ups are a bit fragile if you have younger kids. 

Fragile maybe, but look how awesome.

The Way Things Work by David Macaulay--A giant book that explains exactly what the title says: the way things work. "Things" in this case being machines, from the most simple (levers) to more complicated (televisions). We have the original 1988 edition. There are a couple of newer editions that cover things like computers, too.

The Story of the World by Susan Wise Bauer--The subtitle of this series is "History for the Classical Child." I'm not entirely sure what a "classical child" is, but I do know this is an impressive set of world history books for young children. There are four volumes, covering the beginning of humans to the end of the twentieth century. Each volume is written at a successively higher reading level, so the first volume is supposed to be for grades 1-4, and the last one is meant for grades 4-8. However, both my older boys read them when they were in second and fourth grades and had no trouble with all four volumes. And there is a LOT of history in them. They are sort of vaguely Christian, I think, and are often used by homeschoolers for that reason, but I didn't notice it to be particularly pronounced. There are activity books for each volume, too, which are actually pretty cool.

The Backyard Birdsong Guide: Audio Field Guide by Donald Kroodsma--The MiL, who used to work at Cornell University and is a birder, bought Cubby this book. It was put together by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. This is more for beginning birders, so maybe older kids can actually read all the very detailed accompanying text, but what has made it very, very popular with all of my children is that there are recordings of all the different bird songs. Each page has corresponding numbers with an accompanying explanation of each call, so you go to that number, press play, and you can listen to the bird's call(s) while looking at an illustration of the bird. It's really neat. We have the edition for Eastern and Central North America. But I discovered when I looked this up just now that there is an edition for Western North America, and you'd better believe I ordered it immediately.

The only book you will ever see me recommend that requires batteries.

A History of US by Joy Hakim--This 10-volume set of U.S. history is an investment, I will not lie. This set was used by the MiL's sister at the private elementary school she founded and ran for over twenty years. The MiL sent the whole set to Cubby a few years ago, and now that I've seen how much the boys love it and how much they have learned from it, I would absolutely shell out the $100 myself for it if we didn't already have it. It's written for older elementary grades or middle school. Both of my older boys have of course been more drawn to the volumes covering various wars, but they have voluntarily read every volume multiple times. If that isn't an endorsement, I don't know what is. History doesn't seem to be taught at the elementary level much in public schools. A., who was a history major in college, finds this a shocking omission. However, between the above-mentioned The Story of the World and A History of US, I'm confident that my older boys now know a lot more history than I do.

DK Eyewitness Books--Many titles, all published by Dorling Kindersley, a British publishing company. If you have a kid who is interested in a particular subject--weapons, kittens, castles, China--get him or her the DK Eyewitness book (look for the U.S. editions if you're in the U.S.) for that subject. They are packed with information, and they feature actual photographs, not lame illustrations. Some of the more modern DK books for kids seem to have succumbed to the plague of dumbing-down that has stricken children's publishing of late, but the Eyewitness series is pretty reliably high-quality.

National Geographic Kids readers--And speaking of dumbing down . . . What has happened with the National Geographic magazine in the last ten or so years is really disappointing. It used to be a high-quality, well-written, and interesting magazine about nature and the world, and now it is . . . not that. But I will say that their numerous leveled books for beginning readers are still worthwhile. They go from Level 1 (preschool) to Level 3 (about second grade) and cover a ton of different natural history topics. Great for kids who want their own book to read when they're just learning. 

What would you add to this list of elementary non-fiction?