Teachers and children often refer to texts which follow a time sequence but which also impart facts and ideas as ‘information stories’. The life cycles of plants and animals, journeys and historical events all have a natural chronology which is helpful to young readers and listeners who are familiar with the rhythms of story. This kind of genre is ‘transitional’ in that some of the features of the mature texts it is based on are modified. For example, fantasy elements may be brought in even though the function of the text is informational. Some teachers wonder if mixing text types might cause genre confusion! However, in my experience children understand which elements of texts are ‘true’ and which are devices to entertain us. For example, in The Drop Goes Plop by Sam Godwin and Simone Abel young children love the talking mother and baby seagull who take us on an exhilarating trip through the water cycle. Another favourite title in this series is The Case of the Missing Caterpillar which takes a first look at the life cycle of a butterfly into an intriguing detective story (MacDonald Young Books, M.Y. Bees series, 1998).
Not all information stories incorporate fantasy elements. Some have a number of features associated with children’s non-narrative information books – fact pages at the end, carefully labelled diagrams and sometimes an index. Perhaps the best information stories are written by authors and illustrators with a personal foothold in a subject so that we benefit from their memories and feelings as well as ‘the facts’. The Read and Wonder series (Walker Books) covers topics like apple trees, pigs, caterpillars, beavers and so on bringing a human dimension which strikes a chord with young readers. So we have, for example, Spider Watching by Vivien French and Alison Wisenfield which is based on the author’s memory of persuading some other children not keen on spiders just how interesting these creatures are. It is not easy to write an information story for children that will truly make the young readers reflect and wonder. Karen Wallace and Mike Bostock manage this in Think of an Eel, another book in the Read and Wonder series, by sharing right at the beginning of the book the secret about the Sargasso sea. ‘For thousands of years a secret lay hidden: this salt, soupy sea is where eels are born.’ Yet ‘no one has ever seen a wild eel lay eggs or an eel egg hatch’. The book appeals directly to the young reader’s imagination through words and pictures. So we have the verbal image of the elver ‘like a willow leaf, clear as crystal’ and with ‘teeth like a sawblade’ and the perfectly matching illustration of the transparent creature.
A good example of the ‘journey’ kind of book is River Story, by Meredith Hooper and illustrated by Bee Willey (Walker Books, 1999), which takes us from the river’s source high in the mountains, through valleys and fields, into the city and finally to the sea. A rhythmic text and wonderfully detailed illustrations impart much information about the river and the creatures and plants which inhabit it at each stage of the journey. Books like this often provide an inspirational start to a new topic before children use more conventional information books and resources: I cannot think of a more inspiring way to begin a study of rivers with children about six to eight years than to read this story out loud.
The story approach has a place across the curriculum and is particularly well established in history. Under the ‘history and English’ entry there is an analysis of Seeing Red by Sarah Garland. The legend on which the story is based may be at least partially true and children up to about eight years learn about the eighteenth century from the landscapes, clothes and artefacts in the pictures as well as from the text (Anderson Press). For older juniors, Dorling Kinderley’s Discovery series incorporates a story approach: each book tells the story of an exciting event and then gives an analysis of its significance. For example, in Pompeii: the Day a City was Buried we hear first of a dramatic series of events and then the impact of those events is discussed. Mick Manning and Brita Granström’s Roman Fort and Viking Longship (Frances Lincoln Fly on the Wall series) embed quality information within exciting stories.
‘Facts through story’ kinds of text are likely to be represented in the class and school collections of primary schools. Of course, like other books, they vary in quality. Some can be banal, patronising to young readers and provide very little useful information in either text or illustration. When choosing, we should seek books which arouse curiosity and share, in a way young readers can appreciate, some careful observations, ideas and feelings about the phenomena involved.
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