Article Review: Can photos alone make nonfiction more fun?

Article:

Cart, M. (2010). The eyes have it - other visual forms: Photo essays and the new nonfiction. In Young adult literature: From romance to realism (pp. 179-185). Chicago: ALA.

Nonfiction for youth has certainly had a rough history.  Cart guides us through the last century or so of nonfiction meant for children and teens, with some distressing statistics.  Thanks to library grants from the National Defense Education Act and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, unimpressive nonfiction titles were made a thing of the past and series nonfiction were released in all their colorful, photographed glory... until the money ran out and children and teens (and let's not forget the librarians) were, again, left disappointed.

Cart mentions the emergence of "lexigraphical" nonfiction, as famously produced by Dorling Kindersley (DK Publishing) (181).  The combination of detailed, colorful, or otherwise interesting photos and illustrations with informational text was revolutionary in that it got kids to read and enjoy nonfiction.  I am in full agreement that the images and text inform each other and help to improve the reading (and learning) experience for the young reader--even for the old reader!

I think that readers, young and old alike, do not truly realize that, unlike fiction, nonfiction does not need to be read fully or consecutively.  Unless you are truly interested in a subject, or are particularly immersed in the reading experience, there may not be a need to read a nonfiction book in its entirety.  I feel that this is part of what turns people off from reading nonfiction--it has a (long) history of being boring and unappealing, and there is that connotation of it being "just a school thing," (184) so why would anyone want to read it in full, when there are so many more interesting things you could be doing?  You can still enjoy a nonfiction title while maybe not reading the entire text--just stick to what catches your eye (hopefully, it's not just the pictures) and continue as you see fit.

While children's nonfiction is certainly plentiful, having seen many juvenile nonfiction sections across libraries, oftentimes young adult fiction seems to get very little notoriety or attention in the teen room.  What little may exist in the collection is likely collecting dust in the space, or is relocated to adult nonfiction with no indication but a simple "YA" spine label.  Teens do not seem to realize that nonfiction can be enjoyable, so these titles get left on the back burner (or, rather, in the adult stacks) and they rarely see the light of day.  Children's nonfiction has had quite the number of makeovers in its existence as a genre, so that now we have access to beautiful photographs in each nonfiction picture book, with enthusiastic colors and text, simply bursting from the shelves.  I see plenty of kids that are excited to take home a nonfiction book, whether it be on mammals or outer space, and even though publishing is still working hard to make nonfiction more appealing for a teen audience, I think they still have a long way to go before teens stop rolling their eyes at the YA librarian for suggesting they take home that JFK biography for some light weekend reading.

Adding more photos, illustrations, fiction-like narratives, or comic book elements to nonfiction are a great start to reinventing the reputation of youth nonfiction.  At the same time, it is a science that has still not been fully explored.

I cannot say for sure whether or not the inclusion of photos or illustrations are the only way to improve youth nonfiction, but maybe that just means it is time to experiment!