by Naman Shastri, Grade 10
What does it mean for non-fiction to be “more than just a matter of fact”? Nadine Bailey and Katie Day, veterans of the Neev Literature Festival and jury members of the Neev Book Award, set out to answer this question in their session ‘Non-Fiction Now.’ Both speakers, drawing on their vast experience working with children, aimed to promote the genre as more than “not not-true”, and something that facilitates questions and conversations rather than acting as closure to them. The presentation, backed by 50+ slides worth of research and evidence, portrayed children’s non-fiction as a genre that evokes emotions, contextualises sources, and becomes the voice of both narrative trailblazers and scholars. “Scholarship is a conversation,” the two reminded us.
Bailey and Day described the branches of the genre as a family tree, distinguishing browsable pieces from narrative ones. Metaphors like ‘velcro’ were used to explain how background knowledge allows for new information to hook a reader, relevant in the context of children’s exposure. They suggested that, in an ideal world, students should argue with the books they read rather than simply trying to absorb them.
The audience was largely made up of pre-teen parents, who were given time during the session to think about the way they wanted non-fiction to be perceived. Ultimately, the discussion established the genre as something that informs, inspires, and challenges the reader in equal proportions.
