In recent years, nonfiction for children and young adults has garnered increased attention both within the field of children’s literature research and in contexts closer to the target readers, such as library literature promotion, children’s book awards, and various knowledge dissemination institutions where also children and young adults are addressed (e.g. museums of natural history, art, technology, medicine).
In my presentation, I will first introduce various ways of understanding and defining nonfiction for children and young adults. Then, using different examples, I will showcase the thematic as well as artistic breadth of recent nonfiction for children and young adults. In brief, we see a trend towards more visually explorative books and books where the reader is presumed to be, or encouraged to be, both socially engaged and reflective. Finally, I will discuss and propose ways to engage children and young adults in reading nonfiction in both an aesthetic and knowledge-oriented manner.