The Real World is a Great Story Too

According to Caroline Royds, non-fiction editor at Walker Books, 'There has been a limited variety of styles of non-fiction for children: fabulous design and artwork, but text which is not the point. In a way it's a kind of caption, so there isn't a flow or a readability. There isn't a point to make you read on.'

One of the authors Royds works with is Nicola Davies, who has written award-winning science titles for children including Surprising Sharks and Poo. Davies laments what she sees as 'a much lower standard generally speaking in children's non-fiction than adults' non-fiction.

'We wouldn't dream of saying in the adult world, "What's the point of science or travel writing". Nobody would ask that question, so why should we be asking that question for children?'

'We wouldn't dream of saying in the adult world, "What's the point of science or travel writing". Nobody would ask that question, so why should we be asking that question for children? We should be asking why isn't there more, and better.'

Perhaps children's publishers have begun to ask themselves that very question, for in series such as FYI (Barrington Stoke), My Story (Scholastic), Explorers Wanted (Egmont), True Stories (Usborne) and Spectacular Cross-section (OUP), they are now producing books that are intend to be much more than reference volumes.

Walker's Read and Wonder series for young children, now over a decade old, was an early foray into this area. 'We called it "non-fiction with a narrative voice"', Royds explains. 'They very much came out of the idea that if you make picture books of stories, that the real world is a great story too. Writers can tell that story, and some of the books that worked best were life cycle ones. The life cycle is a lovely story.'

'We realised early on that librarians and people in schools found it hard to categorise these books because they don't fit the curriculum and we're up against a fairly narrow view of non-fiction.

'We're trying to make non-fiction for the library rather than the classroom, but the classroom could broaden its view of non-fiction to include reading for pleasure. Maybe there has been a sense that it's perceived as worthy, or work you have to do for school, and therefore the pleasure principle hasn't featured hugely.'

The School Library Association, recognizing the importance of good non-fiction for young readers, recently published a list of recommended narrative non-fiction for teenagers.

Chris Brown put together the list for the Riveting Reads series. 'My incentive for doing it was my noticing the mushrooming of what I categorise as "narrative information" following the high sales success of Longitude, in particular, and my awareness that many readers have no inclination towards fiction,' he explains.

'I realised that many boys, in particular, can surprise themselves by finding something they'd like to read by looking outside of the usual range of school stock.'

'I realised that many boys, in particular, can surprise themselves by finding something they'd like to read by looking outside of the usual range of school stock.'

Caroline Royds is working on a non-fiction book at the moment which she believes will be popular with a readership of teenage boys.

'It's about politics, and that will be a very boysy thing and it will be quite a rant. After talking to work experience people, mostly boys, they wanted to know about politics, so we went to Bali Rai and asked him to write one. He has a lot to say about the British political system ... It's partly about getting topics. [Puffin] is doing Fast Food Nation for teenagers. The politics of food is something teenagers should be reading about.'

'The reason [boys] are falling behind is that fiction doesn't interest them,' points out Nicola Davies. 'They want real stuff, and when you offer them factual information, not only do they want to read, but they want to write. There's a very interesting Ofsted report which shows that schools where boys aren't falling behind are schools where non-fiction reading and writing are valued equally with fiction.'

Davies writes fiction in addition to her non-fiction books. She also teaches writing classes at Bath Spa University. 'One of the big mistakes is that the students think non-fiction is different,' she says. 'I ask them, "Where are the characters, the pace, the dramatic structure? What happened to those things you were so familiar with when you were writing a novel?" The only difference is the source of the story. The questions you ask yourself about how to write this story are the same. It has a shape and a story and it should be as satisfying a read in a similarly satisfying way to reading a piece of fiction. When you're writing narrative nonfiction you're using the same things – characterisation, pace, tension, drama. The only difference is the source of the story, the underpinning of the story. If you look at Philip Ardagh or Stewart Ross, or those who are known in one area of non-fiction, you'll find they are writing in fiction as well. Whether the source of the story is out of your head or out of research, the skills are not different.'

Royds points out that good non-fiction need not be narrative in form. 'The word narrative is a misnomer for what I mean. We're talking about non-fiction with a personal voice and that voice doesn't have to be narrative. We've got a whole range of very personal voices, of which Nicola Davies is one. Poo is a voice that is enjoyable to read. There's definitely a person there, not just someone giving you facts and figures. We had eight or ten co-editions with Poo; it did brilliantly. With some books the print runs are as high or higher than fiction. Castle Diary won the Greenaway. There's no reason non-fiction shouldn't be up there with the prizes.'

Recommended titles

The Ice Bear by Nicola Davies illustrated by Gary Blythe. (Walker Read and Wonder Series)

Poo: A Natural History of the Unmentionable by Nicola Davies illustrated by Neal Layton. (Walker)

Think of an Eel by Karen Wallace illustrated by Mike Bostock. (Walker Read and Wonder series)

Pirate Diary: The Journal of Jake Carpenter and Castle Diary: The Medieval Journal of Tobias Burgess by Richard Platt illustrated by Chris Riddell (Walker)

Traitor's Gate by Catherine MacPhail illusrated by Karen Donnelly. (Barrington Stoke FYI )

Stat Man by Alan Durant illustrated by Brett Hudson. (Barrington Stoke FYI)

Greece in Spectacular Cross-Section Stephen Biesty, text by Stewart Ross. (OUP)

Mister Seahorse by Eric Carle (Puffin)

Chew on This by Eric Schlosser (Puffin)

Oscar and the Moth by Geoff Waring (Walker)

Egyptology (Templar)