News
This week, our resident Junior Librarian, Simran from 2YM, has chosen a non-fiction book for you to explore, discover and share. Simran enjoys this book so much that she donated a copy of the book to our library.
Simran recommends The Story of Life: A First Book About Evolution by Catherine Barr and Steve Williams.
Simran’s reason for her selection is:
“This is a non-fiction book about evolution – it is so interesting! My favourite part is when dinosaurs appeared on the Earth. I wonder what your favourite page will be …?”
We hope you will take the opportunity to read Simran’s choice, which is available to borrow from our school library. We have a wide and varied range of non-fiction books in our library.
If children feel that we do not have books on a subject area which interests them, they can propose specific books or genres of books via the Library Suggestion Box (or talk directly to Mrs Harvey).
Mrs Harvey would also recommend the book. Non-fiction books are a popular choice by many of our Grimsdell borrowers. Non-fiction underpins all other learning – comprehending non-fiction is a life skill. I often encourage children to pair their fiction book with a non-fiction text, as this can make their enjoyment and understanding of the fiction text much richer.
Competent readers make meaning from a text not only by knowing what the words mean, but by bringing what they know of the world to the text. It’s worth noting that children are more likely to engage with a non-fiction text related to a story that they are emotionally invested in.
It is important to widen children’s early reading experience into reading non-fiction and information books. The literate, print-bound world for which children are being educated requires the ability to process information and master the many formats in which information is presented.
It is important to follow your child’s lead. Do they love sports or dinosaurs or music or nature? By selecting topics that your child is interested in, you’ll have a higher chance of success to ‘hook’ them into the genre of non-fiction.
Children love facts and information, and while it is vital to teach children to read, it is even more important to help them explore a range of genres for themselves. In this way, children can experience for themselves what reading can do, and realise how it can open the doors of discovery.
When children discover facts and acquire information through text and illustration, they begin to read to learn. Through this process, their curiosity will be heightened, and their store of knowledge and vocabulary increased. In short, their reading will be for a purpose and their intellectual development will be enhanced.
In the immortal words of Dr Seuss …
‘The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go!’
Happy Reading!
Mrs Harvey, School Librarian
