Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Fiction v. Nonfiction

Just curious if anyone had noticed a preference in the gifties they knew and what it might mean.

DH and his father have strong preferences for nonfiction and I like fiction. DS seems to be following dad and grandpa.

He has free reading time at school. The kids select a book to keep at their desk each week. He has selected a large science encyclopedia each week so far. His teacher asked if I would mind letting him bring smaller science books from home. Of course this is fine and we even talked about letting him pick books that go into more depth on a topic they are covering in class. He likes sharing interesting facts with his classmates.

Just curious if anyone had theories on why some people prefer one over the other.

DS refused to read fiction until he was, late five I think? (With the one exception of Pippi Longstocking, never really understood why). I have the theory that he was overwhelmed by the the description of emotions and the slightest tension undid him. Nonfiction felt much safer. Magic treehouse helped us with the transition, the formula making him feel safe as well I guess. He still self censors carefully and I rarely find books at his level that are appropriately gentle. Classics work best, though it have to watch out for parental death and disease.

Since having kids with a variety of health issues, I cannot tolerate books and films which kill children off, and wonder whether I will ever be able to do so again. There are times when I feel safer with nonfiction, too, though I do prefer fiction most of the time.

My ds25 preferred nonfiction and enjoyed reading facts.
My ds12 prefers fiction. Both children are gifted. My eldest is from a previous marriage.

MY DS6 goes through long phases of each. Fiction only for months, then nonfiction only.

DS tends to prefer non-fiction and is picky about the fiction he reads. If he reads fiction, it tends to be super silly, like "captain underpants", or fantasy fiction where people travel through time or something of the like. He doesn't seem too interested in fiction involving everyday modern life, like "my parents are getting divorced and my friends don't like me" or whatever.

DD on the other had will read any kind of fiction but isn't too interested in nonfiction. I think boys (in general==of course there are lots of variations) have a greater preference for nonfiction than girls. Boys aren't as interested in emotions or social relationships. I know it sounds like stereotyping but from my experiences working with kids reading, and what I was told by teachers, there is some truth to it.

When my son was in early elementary he much preferred reading non-fiction. But now he doesn't really show a strong preference.

Like blackcat I also don't want to stereotype, but I believe that my ds' early preference for non-fiction only was rooted in the choices of books available that appeal to boys. From what I've seen, there is an abundance of early chapter books etc that appeal to girls… but not so much for boys. The only early non-fiction books ds would read were the Captain-Underpants type books. When he discovered Warriors/etc he flew through those and loved them (but it only took a few days to read through each of those types of series… so again.. he was back to reading mostly non-fiction). Now that he's older, he definitely loves Science Fiction, but still enjoys non-fiction too.

I also think it's somewhat a function of personality - my dd who reads all the time for instance, is very happy getting caught up into a story and not coming up for air until she's done. DS likes to be building things, doing things with his hands, solving puzzle-type problems… not so much sitting down with one book for non-stop reading. Non-fiction makes it easier to put the book down, get up, play something on the piano, fiddle with a robot or whatever, then go back to the book.

polarbear

DS is a compulsive reader period. He reads both fiction and non-fiction. DD, on the other hand, is allergic to non-fiction as she is very creative and partial to magical thinking. I think one possible result has been lower test scores for DD, but only when the instrument has a very high ceiling relative to their grade level so capable of differentiating.

I also feel there must be some correlation with affinity to and ability for role play. Ds7 never role played when little, merely built (Lego and playmobil) and told stories, but classic role play? Zilch. He appeared to develop it together with and learn from DD4 (and yes, she's over three years younger). The transition to more fiction happened around the same time.

I don't think that necessarily fits for every child. My son role played a lot as a preschooler and he still wasn't that interested in reading fiction to himself for a while. I have a favorite memory of his wanting to play brother bear with me in the pool for hours, he would pretend to be a bear & I would be the mom and have to "find" him. (This was shortly after that movie came out.) He never really got into playing with lego's the way I expected.

I think in his case it had more to do with needing books that both challenged his reading, while not taking too long, and not being too boring. Most early readers are really not great literature and the topics really didn't interesting. Learning all about tigers, or how the earth formed, or spiders he found much more interesting.