Fiction is the section with stories, and non-fiction is the section with facts and figures. True or false?
Believe it or not, this is actually false. Not everything in the non-fiction section of the library is factual. You will find folklore, fairy tales, religious parables, ghost stories, poetry, and UFO sightings. Some may argue that there is a bit of truth in all these stories, but I think it would be misleading to simply tell kids that all non-fiction is true.
In the world of Dewey Decimal, 398 is where all the folklore and fairy tales hide. This is a very popular section in my library. This is where you can find multiple versions of Rapunzel, Snow White, Cinderella, or The Frog Prince for all you parents who are tired of the Disney-fied versions. This is also where you will find stories from around the globe. If you are looking for a traditional tale your grandma in Korea used to tell you, it will be in 398. If you are looking for the works of the Grimm brothers or Hans Christian Andersen, they can be found in 398.
398 is another anomaly in non-fiction because it is one area where books from 1964 still circulate. In most areas, the facts held within the books become dated so they do not have a long shelf life. 398 has many stories that are centuries old so we cannot withdraw a book based solely on age in this section. Do not think that 398’s are only old books, though. There will always be author’s retelling old stories or finally putting to paper an oral narrative that ought to be immortalized in book.
It should also be noted that 398 is a section for all ages. You will find books that are at a preschool level as well as books with antiquated words an adult would have to look up in a dictionary. Since the Dewey Decimal system does not divide these books based on skill level, they are all mixed together in the same area. I have been making a point of reading one fairy tale or folk tale to my storytime group each week, which can be tricky since I am limited to only finding the shorter stories. It has been a fun challenge to find these books, though. There are so many books and movies that play off these classic tales (the Shrek series, for instance) that it is fun introducing kids to the original tale so they can hopefully be in on the joke one day.
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