Recently, my 4-year-old daughter decided she was done with princesses and moving on to bugs. Not beautiful butterflies and cute ladybugs. No, she was not completely and utterly in love with spiders. Bedtime reading was no longer about “Pinkalicious.” Now, she wanted books filled with spiders, preferably black widows.
Oftentimes, when we think of non-fiction, we think of book reports. We think of facts and citations. Bedtime reading is usually relegated to fiction. My daughter and I have had some very rewarding experiences by choosing non-fiction titles, though. At Santa Clarita Library, we have many non-fiction books that are at a preschool level. They teach the most basic facts and have fantastic pictures. My daughter and I have read every single one about spiders over and over and over and over (Dewey Decimal 595.44, just in case you’re curious).
Once we were done with all the preschool level spider books, we started checking out the books meant for older kids. These books, of course, were way to long and complicated for bedtime reading. They can have great pictures, though. In some cases, I would just read a few sentences, skipping the majority. Sometimes, I wouldn’t read the actual words at all. My daughter and I would just use the pictures as a means of talking about all the spider facts she already knew. She can now tell you about molting and knows the proper name for a baby spider is a spiderling.
The lesson I’m hoping to pass along with this blog entry is: don’t be afraid to take your little one to the non-fiction section. There are a lot of great books over there. Teach them early that non-fiction doesn’t have to mean boring. Their first time in that section of the library shouldn’t be when they trudge over there to find a book for a reort. We can engage with our kids with a book about facts just as we can with a book about a story.
Here are some great spider books my daughter and I have read together:
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