Thoughts & Things

Young Adult Nonfiction

Many nonfiction books fail to be engaging. Anyone who reads nonfiction has definitely come across this. Even those who don't read nonfiction by choice have likely come across a school book that failed to engage them. Subjects that are considered "boring" are even more likely to fall into this trap. That said, young adult nonfiction specifically has vast numbers of authors who understand that to engage most teenagers, you need to do more than simply state the facts. Fortunately, this makes non-fiction more readable for people of all ages.

To make nonfiction work for a broad audience, you have to captivate them. There will be people who are already interested in the topic, and will read because of that interest, but a quality nonfiction book should manage to make people who are unfamiliar with the topic newly interested in it. Young adult books specifically are geared towards those who have limited background knowledge on the subject at hand. In addition, teenagers can be acutely aware when someone is speaking down to them. Young adult nonfiction has to captivate a new audience, without making them feel stupid or uninformed. Poorly done young adult nonfiction can drive an entire audience away from the category, but well done young adult nonfiction can educate an audience while also bringing teenagers towards a genre they might not otherwise read.

There are two ways that YA nonfiction can best capture the attention of its audience, in my opinion. The first is by creating an introductory list. I am a big fan of lists (see: "Five Reasons I Love Lists" ), personally, so I may be slightly biased, but lists can introduce an audience to a topic to a new audience in an interesting and concise way. Books such as Fight Like A Girl: 50 Feminists Who Changed The World or Scandalous!: 50 Shocking Events You Should Know About present multiple ideas in interconnected ways at an introductory level. These types of books are often written in an almost blog-like style that targets younger audiences specifically, but also works well for anyone looking for something a bit more informal. The facts are straightforward, and the overall books give you the chance to become interested in a topic you might not otherwise have heard about. If something catches your eye, you have the chance to find a book about that topic specifically.

The second way is through a complete narrative. A single book can cover a full event, person, concept in a narrative fashion, often in a short time frame. Using first hand accounts, photography, art, graphs, etc, a story can connect to an audience in a way that feels involved. This type of nonfiction can cover the roots of a particular event, person, concept, thereby introducing the audience to the full picture. You don't need background information for these types of stories, which makes them ideal for a younger audience, or even simply a person who is new to the topic. Books such as Flesh & Blood So Cheap: The Triangle Fire and Its Legacy or They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group show stories from their roots, through their events, and into the future. Although the audience may be entirely new to the story, this type of introduction gives them a full look into the information at hand, without ever making them feel like the author has over-explained things to them.

Whether you are part of the core target audience of young adult nonfiction, or you are simply looking for a way to learn about something you are unfamiliar with, young adult nonfiction can open new doors. I genuinely believe that schools, libraries, the internet, everything should do a better job of promoting young adult nonfiction, which is under-read. It is a true opportunity to present new information to teenagers who might otherwise be bored by their topics. It also simply makes for enjoyable light reading of nonfiction for adults.