4 Nonfiction

I recently received 4 shorter nonfiction books to review for my work on the Maine Student Book Award committee.  I read all 4 of them today and I was thinking as I was reading...why were these books written?  I am not trying to be disrespectful or even imply that the books were bad...in fact they all had good information.  In one aspect I was thinking as a teacher...we often ask our students to identify an author's purpose - to inform, persuade, entertain.  Then I was also thinking...does the author have a purpose beyond that?  Does he or she see this book as being used for instruction?  Does the author think students will stumble upon the book in a random search of the computer or on the shelves?  Will the readers be drawn to the text because of curiosity, interest, and assignment?  What about the publisher?  Why was the book published - for educational reasons, to fit the Common Core?  Again there is no real implied statement of whether I think the book should have been published or not.  Some of this is from a librarian perspective.  I get these books and I think they are pretty good.  Now how will students find it?  If I just put it on the shelves will students go specifically looking for it, stumble upon it, should I market it in some way to teachers or students?  I want the books in my library to be used.


  

So this book...written to inform the reader about the sky caves in Nepal.  Is there more to it?  To show how archeologists work?  How they teamed up with climbers?  To show that research and discover takes time?  Are my students interested in Nepal, caves, archeology?  The book was well researched, interesting, had good photographs.  Will it get checked out?

  

I think this book was written to both inform and persuade.  Plastic in the oceans is an issue and people can and probably should do something about it.  Why else would students read this?  To show that research often leads to more research?   Who will check this out - teachers or students?  Do I market it specifically around Earth Day or to classes interested in service learning?

  

Just a snippet of Ben Franklin's life.  The purpose to inform but also to entertain.  The use of alliteration is not an accident and makes this book more fun.  But again...this isn't a long enough biography for the 4th grade biography report.  Or should I be talking to the teacher about how that report is done?  Do we look at multiple sources and pull out moments in a person's life?  Of the four books I read I found this the most engaging but is that because I want to be entertained while I am being informed or persuaded?

  

Body language...I get it, it's an important aspect of communication.  But a 64 page book?  Who will check it out?  Students, health teachers?  What age is the book really geared for?  I use Titlewave and it says grades 5 - 8.  I can see students being interested by the cover maybe but would they read the whole book.

Overall, I actually found all of the above books interesting but I'm an adult and a curious one at that.  Will my students find the books as interesting?  Will they find the books?  Will teachers find a way to use them?  Would they use the whole book or parts of it?  I am really curious about what people think?