Abstract :
An increasingly prevalent and accessible form of hybrid nonfiction
picture books blends factual information with poetry or poetic devices to create
literary nonfiction. This important form of hybrid text has been sparsely examined.
This article addresses three questions about poetic nonfiction picture books: first,
how might we categorize picture books that represent this hybrid text?; second, by
what criteria might we evaluate the quality of these books?; third, based in
Rosenblatt’s concept of reader’s stance, how might we read these books? The author
develops a typology of six categories along a continuum from poetry to narrative or
expository prose. He examines well-established criteria in the fields of picture
books, children’s nonfiction, and poetry that can apply to poetic nonfiction picture
books. He argues that in the best of these books, the poetry or poetic devices are
synergistic with the content and raise the overall reading experience. The author
also argues that, depending where along the continuum each of these books is
located, a reader’s stance moves along the continuum of efferent to aesthetic
experience. All these books demand a dynamic and recursive reading process. He
suggests ways to work with teachers to teach deep readings of these books.
