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This paper analyzes "production stories," a genre of information literature and media responsible for teaching children how everyday things are made. As nineteenth-century families increasingly consumed tropical commodities produced by slave labor, including sugar, tea, coffee, rum, and tobacco, the production story developed in Britain and the United States as a way to explain to children where everyday household goods originate, making global trade networks visible in the home. These "production stories" developed strategies for raising or eliding ethical questions posed by who makes things, under what conditions, and for whom. Focusing on stories of sugar production, I find that production stories reveal surprising details about technical processes for making things, but conceal the human cost of production. They also end with consumption, when children use the products, symbolically affirming the conditions under which they were made. Drawing on scholarship from the history of technology and the history of the Atlantic slave trade, I contend that problematic representations of manufacturing processes feed into and support whitewashed histories for children. I conclude by analyzing contemporary picturebooks that resist certain genre patterns and encourage positive identification with enslaved black characters, who like child readers, are at once makers, readers, and consumers.

This article examines the relationship between literacy and play in six- and seven-year-olds' engagement with non-fiction writing. I draw from a year-long ethnographic study (Erickson, 1986) of a US classroom's "writing time", intentionally structured on children's own interests and enquiries. Rather than strict adherence to monolithic models described in the school region's mandated curriculum and assessments, the children treated genres as porous and used writing as a tool for multi-modal play. In authoring and interacting with non-fiction texts, they blended "real" and "imaginary" worlds as they communed with historical figures on their own terms. Children used play to enquire into and manipulate the parameters of non-fiction, authoring their relationships with knowledge in the process. Through their exchanges with one another, children became familiar with non-fiction topics. At the same time, their play positioned conventional academic discourses as being open to transformation. This article makes an argument for a more synergistic conception of "serious" and "playful" authoring practices, and for the role of play as a component of critical literacy. (Contains 5 figures.)

The Common Core State Standards' emphasis on informational text arose in part from research suggesting that employers and college instructors found students weak at comprehending technical manuals, scientific and historical journals, and other texts pivotal to work in those arenas. The common core's vision of informational text includes literary nonfiction, as well as historical documents, scientific journals, technical manuals, biographies, autobiographies, essays, speeches, and information displayed in charts, graphs, or maps, digitally or in print. Helping students tackle complex examples of such genres across the disciplines--from English to engineering--bolsters them for work and higher education by building foundational knowledge, vocabulary, and literacy strategies, common-core advocates contend. Many states and districts are responding to the new emphasis on nonfiction with new materials and training. But as this article points out, funding for professional development and instructional materials that reflect new standards is at issue.

This study investigated Korean and U.S. preschoolers' personal and fictional narratives, their classroom book environments, and their teachers' attitudes about reading aloud. The participants were 70 Korean and American 3- and 4-year-olds enrolled in 2 university lab preschools and their 4 teachers. The structures and content of the preschoolers' personal and fictional narratives were analyzed. The teachers' attitudes and practices about their language and literacy curriculum, including books provided in the classroom and selected for reading aloud, were examined for associations with preschoolers' narrative productions. Research Findings: The content of preschoolers' personal narratives and the structural levels of their fictional narratives differed between the 2 Korean and 2 U.S. classrooms. The classroom book environments in the Korean and U.S. classrooms also differed, with more fictional books displayed in the 2 U.S. classrooms than in the 2 Korean classrooms. The 2 Korean and 2 U.S. preschool teachers also held different attitudes about the use of fiction and nonfiction for read-aloud story sessions, and U.S. teachers allocated more time in their school day for reading aloud than did Korean teachers. Practice or Policy: U.S. preschoolers may profit from a greater balance between fiction and nonfiction books in the classroom. Korean children might benefit from more exposure to fiction and fantasy along with more practice in creating fictional narratives. (Contains 5 tables.)

Schools have a legitimate and vital role in providing Americans with a better and more accurate understanding of the Muslim world. Given the cultural and ideological issues at play in any understanding of Islam, the theories and practices of critical literacy can provide useful guidance to teachers. The purposes of this article are to counteract some common stereotypes of Muslims and Islam and suggest how nonfiction materials might anchor a critical literacy study of Islam and Muslims in middle school or high school, with special attention to the potential for engaging students in a critical appreciation for the cultural and ideological diversity within the worldwide and U.S. Muslim communities. The article discusses representative materials that might be used to teach about Islam and Muslims in middle school or high school, and examples are provided for how critical literacy might be used with these resources.

Historical nonfiction is effective in teaching rhetoric for two main reasons. First, historical texts communicate through a real-world lens that students can understand and find familiar. Students study history and are exposed to current events through the news, school, and each other. Second, since history affects people's lives so broadly, its texts--both written and visual--take form in many genres. History is not confined to books but is available in texts ranging from online archives, websites, and blogs to documentaries, videos, photographs, and editorial cartoons, and from documents such as meeting minutes and government reports to personal writing such as diaries and memoirs and literary sources such as poetry and song lyrics. Reading all these genres helps students to think differently about what constitutes a "text." If students are to "read a wide range of print and non-print texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world," then authentic, multigenre historical nonfiction provides an appropriate teaching resource for the language arts. Working historical nonfiction into an existing curriculum to teach rhetoric is not difficult. The author uses a rhetorical and comparative analysis essay to introduce students to rhetoric and textual analysis and she uses a research essay to teach students how to use the research process and synthesize texts. The research essay builds upon the skills learned in rhetorical analysis so that students progress in their analytical writing and critical thinking. In this article, the author explains how she introduces rhetoric and focuses the assignments, and she offers examples of student work that show how the assignments fulfill the goals of using authentic and multigenre texts.

Teachers can use folktales, which often embody core characteristics of a cultural group, as "cultural artifacts" to illustrate or extend the cultural content that might be found in the textbook. In this article, the authors offer some suggestions for using folktales as a resource for illustrating cultural content in textbooks and other nonfiction resources or to extend students' understanding of various cultural groups. Using examples from Denmark, Japan, and the United States, the authors highlight a few aspects of culture that an elementary student might encounter in a typical textbook or nonfiction trade book. The authors then show how these cultural elements are treated in selected folktales, and they recommend strategies for using these folktales in the classroom. While many of the activities they recommend are geared toward upper elementary students, the authors hope to inspire social studies teachers at all grade levels to use folktales as an instructional resource. (Contains 2 figures and 18 notes.)

Children enter kindergarten in the United States with large differences in their background knowledge, vocabulary, and early literacy experiences. There is a strong relationship between language development during the early years and reading ability in the primary grade and teachers must understand the importance of developing vocabulary and its relationship to literacy. It is essential that teachers provide time and effort to quality language experiences. One researched based strategy to accomplish this is the use of interactive read-alouds. Teachers have traditionally used fictional literature in the classroom, but there is growing research that nonfiction or informational literature are also needed to provide children with quality vocabulary building experiences in the early school years. This research study examined the results of a survey that was given to childcare providers and preschool through 2nd grade teachers about the amount of time they read aloud to children and the amount of time they spend reading fiction compared to nonfiction text. Results showed that teachers in classrooms (pre- through 2nd grade) reported reading to children almost every day, though the time devoted to this activity was a small percentage of the total time spent in class. Also, nonfiction literature was a small percentage of the literature that was being read to children. The findings in this paper have implications for practice in the field. Because vocabulary development is a key ingredient in the learning-to-read process and is a predictor of success in future reading skills, teachers in the early grades should be aware of the benefits of using interactive read alouds and the genre of nonfiction literature in vocabulary development. (Contains 4 tables.)

Four years after the 9/11 attack on the United States, the country continues to be in considerable turmoil. Children have lived through the devastation of the September 11th attacks, the panic over the anthrax mailings, the hunt for terrorists in Afghanistan, elevated homeland security threat levels, the war in Iraq, the tsunami disaster, and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Not surprisingly, many children feel anxious and afraid, and some have personally experienced the death of a loved one due to these events. In her 1977 book, Bernstein stated that reading books as a form of therapy (bibliotherapy) gives children the opportunity to identify with others undergoing the same problems, helps them realize that they are not alone, provides catharsis, and facilitates the process of sharing their problems with others. In this article, which gives detailed descriptions of books written about the September 11th attacks, the Iraq War, and other disastrous events, the author shows how children's literature can be used effectively to help students understand and deal with world crises. (Contains 3 tables.)

Discussion of informational books for young people focuses on a study of authors of children's science books. Data are reported from authors in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain in four main areas: (1) background in education and experience; (2) science-related hobbies and interests; (3) research techniques; and (4) reasons for writing. (three references) (LRW)

In this article, the authors outline an interdisciplinary unit of study using quality children's literatures, and they describe several instructional strategies and activities for reading and responding to historical fiction and informational texts. This "piratical study" integrates social studies and the language arts. Several social studies topics emerge during the lessons: (a) the economic impact pirates and privateers had on American colonies; (b) the roles that pirates and privateers played in the wars between England and Spain, the American Revolutionary War, and the War of 1812; (c) the absolute and relative location of major landforms, bodies of water, and ports of call in the early Americas; and (d) the emergence of some democratic practices among some pirates: Pirate's Code-The Articles of Agreement. The authors conclude that combining good historical fiction and informational texts about key social studies topics with engaging and interactive comprehension activities will facilitate students' comprehension and understanding of social studies content. (Contains 6 notes.)

Most of the Albanian literary creators who live and work in the United States of America have experienced their affirmation in their homeland, however, in the case of their exile in the United States of America, they have continued their passion for literary art here. creating important works for the Albanian community, but also for the American one. Adnan Mehmeti is one of those Albanian poets, who will reach his affirmation in the field of letters in the United States of America. He has published several books of poetry, but also non-fiction books. His poetry has been translated into several languages, including English, Spanish, Romanian, and Swedish, and has been featured in several poetry anthologies. He is also the winner of several prestigious literary awards. Adnan Mehmeti works and lives in the United States and is the president of the Association of Albanian-American Writers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Common Core State Standards' focus on nonfiction texts has prompted middle schools to include more historical nonfiction, including books that focus on the United States' racialized past (and present) such as We Are Not Yet Equal by Carol Anderson (2018) and Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You (2020) by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi. But books for youth about racism have been shrouded in controversy, anti-critical race theory legislation, and calls for censorship, suggesting that we need a better understanding of the books' content. Thus, the purpose of this study was to use content analysis to examine messages about racism and antiracism in We Are Not Yet Equal and Stamped. Findings indicated the texts suggest racism takes numerous forms, and it is foundational and persistent throughout the United States' past and present, manifesting as scientific racism, institutional racism, racist violence, representational racism, and racist language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]