Navigating Nonfiction - Melissa Stewart

Melissa Stewart has written more than 200 science books for children! Her work has been translated into more than a dozen languages and garnered such awards as the Sibert Honor, AAAS/Subaru Prize for Excellence in Science Books, eighteen NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students, two Green Earth Book Awards, and four ALA Notables. She co-wrote 5 Kinds of Nonfiction: Enriching Reading and Writing Instruction with Children’s Books as well as maintains the award-winning blog Celebrate Nonfiction.

Melissa helps explain the popularity and impact of different types of kids' nonfiction titles in today's publishing market. Changes in the economy at macro and micro levels as well as state standard educational requirements have had a massive impact on shaping not only what types of nonfiction books are getting published but what is even considered an 'informational' text today. 

When looking at sales only from typical bookstore outlets or a bestseller list like the NYT provides, kids' nonfiction is massively underrepresented compared to the sales nonfiction titles get in school/library and bookfair markets.

Libraries (especially school libraries) are the places kids can go to pick out the books they actually want to read and Melissa advises watching those shelves to understand what is to come in the nonfiction market by what is being checked out today. 

Melissa walked us through the five types of nonfiction with example titles and then shared how a librarian tracked their checkout rates by type from 2024–2025: 

Melissa Stewart's 5 Kinds of Nonfiction

Active (skills and learning oriented how-tos like cooking or craft books)

Browsable (DK titles, short bits of descriptive text with lavish amounts of visuals) 

Traditional (surveys and overviews of topics, usually longer texts with imagery)

Narrative (storytelling, narrative writing style that is ideal for biographies or historical events. (Melissa brings up how narrative nonfiction has evolved over the last few decades and recommends reading the NCTE's 2023 position statement concerning it here.))

Expository Literature (niche and highly specialized topics, innovative formats that impact text structure and imagery) 

Gamification within the reading journey is one example of an innovative format in expository nonfiction, Melissa uses BUTT OR FACE by Kari Lavelle as a great title to study on what is currently selling in kids' nonfiction and as a mentor text (now a series) for gamified, expository nonfiction.

Melissa came up with these categories and has excellent resources on her site, including learning more about these five types, that would help anyone improve their understanding of how to make great nonfiction for kids.