When I was seven or eight years old, my dad gifted me a children’s encyclopaedia. It was a big, heavy hardback with an illustrated light blue dust jacket. As I recall, he presented it to me as a reward for something I’d done, although I forget what. Many of my early school reports noted my habit of window-staring, so perhaps it was for daydreaming less than usual. In any case, the encyclopaedia landed in my hands, lifted me up and promptly carried me away.
Here was a book that held the world, or at least seemed to. Penguins and pyramids, islands and icebergs, woolly mammoths and wild-eyed warrior queens. I spent untold hours with it, not following it through in any sort of logical order but flicking the pages until some snippet or picture snatched my attention, then absorbing what I found. I sat with the encyclopaedia whenever the urge took me, browsing it on my own terms and at my own pace. It was empowering.
Non-fiction books get depicted in all sorts of ways, but the description I like best is that they’re fuel for curiosity. In truth, I’m not sure I was especially fussy about the non-fiction I spent time with as a child – the eye-popping miscellanea of the Guinness Book of Records, the reams of statistics of the Football Yearbook, even the magically interlinked spaghetti strands of the London A to Z – as long as it had real-world authority. I loved the idea of holding facts in my hand.
I like to think this remains true for children today. The range of quality non-fiction for young people is more colourful and comprehensive than ever. A good non-fiction book brings its subject matter alive with the right combination of words and images, not only sharpening reading skills and broadening vocabulary but – ideally – igniting imaginations and unlocking future interests, too. If, for some children, it then becomes a gateway into reading for pleasure, or for knowledge more generally, then the positives are huge.
In an era of fake news, a well-researched non-fiction book is also a means of providing children with something reliable and trustworthy, something uncluttered by online adverts or incoming messages. A book’s subject matter might be humorous, historical or any of a hundred other adjectives, but if it contains information that has the power to educate, awe or inspire, it can only be a wonderful thing.
Can non-fiction books lead to a lifelong love of learning? Or even help kindle the young minds of future decision-makers? There’s a good case for saying yes. We often hear, for example, that it’s only when children start to understand the natural world, and feel connected to it, that they develop an urge to care for it. Non-fiction books, presenting sometimes complex information in an engaging way, can certainly play their part there.
And just as fiction helps build empathy in young readers, so too does non-fiction. The telling of a true story can introduce new perspectives, fresh discoveries and different ways of seeing the world. It can even travel the world.
Books should help to open children’s eyes and minds – whether they’re window-starers, high performers or even reluctant readers – and a strong collection of non-fiction titles can do precisely that.
Ben Lerwill is a multi-award winning travel writer and children's author. His words have appeared in the likes of National Geographic Traveller, The Guardian and The Sunday Times, and his children's books cover topics from trees to trains. He lives in Oxfordshire with his family and a very energetic dog.