Organised by the Federation of Children’s Book Groups, based in the UK, National Non-Fiction November is an annual celebration of the power of non-fiction to inspire children and celebrate readers who have a passion for information and facts. 2020 celebrates the 10th anniversary of National Non-Fiction November.
This year’s theme for National-Non-Fiction November 2020 is The Planet We Share, reflecting the widespread concern for our beautiful planet which is under serious threat – particularly from climate change and plastic pollution.
This may be a UK-based calendar event, but it seemed like a good time to focus on the non-fiction part of our school library collection.
WHY READ NON-FICTION?
Much has been written about how reading fiction books helps us develop empathy. Well, non-fiction books can achieve the same results.
In her article, “Empathy – non-fiction does it just as well as fiction!”, author of over 100 information books, Nicole Morgan states that “Stories are equally stories when they are true stories.” Any well told story is a powerful tool to produce empathy in its readers or listeners.
“The true stories of suffering in Nazi concentration camps or in the Black Hole of Calcutta or in Syria or of human trafficking today are stories with immense power to move us and widen understanding. Stories of anyone in a difficult or different situation have the power to transport us into other minds. To do this, the stories must be well told, following the rules of great story-telling, gripping us emotionally and deeply, so that we can begin to feel a true connection to the people in them.”
The school library has many non-fiction, true life, books available.
Whether you love to read stories about real people from our Biography collection, or to read about information about the world around us from our non-fiction collection, the school library staff can help you find something to interest you.
Also in this week’s newsletter, you can get an overview of how non-fiction books are shelved in the library using the Dewey Decimal Classification system and hear from Ms Baucke about what she likes to read.