Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Fiction v. Nonfiction

I'm not sure; are ingredients labels fiction or non-fiction?

Overall quite mixed, here.

depends on the quality of the food, I'd say!

In preschool, K, and 1st, DD preferred non-fiction and fiction with lots of real facts (like the Adventures of Riley series). Starting in 3rd, her teacher forced her to mix more fiction into her weekly reading. Since then she's been an avid fiction reader, but will still mix in non-fiction/biography depending on the subject.
--S.F.

Both of my kids read both, but with a preference for fiction--stronger in my DD. However, she has read every nonfiction book of interest (and some NOT of interest) in the children's area of the library about birds, and many in the adult section. Nobody here reads biography.

I personally notice a lot of poor-quality kids' nonfiction--ugh. Maybe my library is not good at this? I think my kids would read more if it they could find more they liked. They were both totally crazy for Magic Schoolbus (not exactly NF, but close) and read every book in the series, chapter and picture.

I do find a bit harder to find books for DS6 than I did for DD at this age. Well, I take that back. I find it harder to find GOOD books for him. I feel there's plenty of book "boy" series dreck, but more girl-oriented lovely classics.

DS6 prefers non-fiction. One exception is the Geronimo Stilton series, which he loves. He is also one who gets very upset with the inevitable tension in fiction - whether it's kids behaving badly (as in most boys' fiction series) or parents or animals getting sick or injured or dying. I don't know why it's so hard to find good fiction for boys that is not too upsetting. But it just appears to be the case for DS.

My boys (8 and11) both prefer non-fiction. They love to read reference books and bookmark their favorite pages with post-it notes. DS8 also reads a lot of fiction because he reads constantly, but he rarely reads fiction outside of the fantasy genre. My DD15 also read a lot of fantasy at that age, but little non-fiction. I think that it is much easier to find appropriate fantasy novels for highly advanced readers than it is to find books in other genres of fiction.

I preferred nonfiction until I was about 8, because it didn't really take long to burn through every interest area in the school library. You only need to check out 3 books on dinosaurs before you notice they're all saying the same thing, nothing new here, time to move on.

I didn't circle back to nonfiction with any kind of regularity until approximately my mid-30s.

DS2.10 enjoys both and seems to have achieved equilibrium with a fairly even mix of both. He goes through periodic kicks where he tilts heavily in one direction, but quickly reverts to a balance (or a compensatory swing in the other direction.)

My DS 11 has been fiction all the way.