It's a fact: non-fiction is essential for young readers

But will my grandchildren still love me if I buy them non-fiction?…was a question put to me in good humour this week as I was proselytising about the virtues of children’s non-fiction. Beneath the joke sits a familiar assumption: that children really only love stories, and that non-fiction is something worthy but dull — the sort of book you approve of rather than delight in.

Conversations about literacy and raising readers tend to centre around stories and characters. I have no objection to this. The books I loved as a child still live with me. I can still feel the thrill, the fear, the comfort of the stories I was read and the ones I later discovered for myself. Fiction matters deeply.

But when fiction dominates the conversation, a large part of the story is quietly left out. Non-fiction and reference books deserve far more recognition for the role they play in turning children into readers.

The truth is, we are living in something of a golden age for children’s non-fiction.

For many of us, the non-fiction of our childhoods felt earnest but uninspiring — heavy on text, light on delight. Today’s children’s non-fiction couldn’t be more different. Advances in design and printing mean that books can be visually rich, playful, and immersive. Children are now surrounded by graphic-heavy, photo-led, beautifully illustrated non-fiction, and they are gravitating towards it in growing numbers.

You can now find wildly engaging books about almost anything. Earth! My First 4.54 Billion Years by Stacy McAnulty and David Litchfield uses humour to tell the history of our planet through the Earth’s own irreverent voice. The Street Beneath My Feet by Charlotte Guillain and Yuval Zommer transforms the pavementinto a portal, guiding readers through layers of soil, rock, and time. Jess French’s What a Waste tackles sustainability head-on, giving children clear explanations alongside a sense of agency and responsibility.

This willingness to zoom in on the specific — the overlooked, the niche, the wonderfully detailed — has made non-fiction especially powerful for children with strong interests. Budding naturalists might lose themselves in Wild by Jack Ashby and Sara Boccaccini Meadows while visually minded readers are drawn to books like Maps by Alexsandra Mizielinkska, which brings data and cartography vividly to life.

Modern children’s non-fiction is also a triumph of design. These books are crafted to invite browsing, lingering, returning. Sean Rubin’s The Iguanodon’s Horn blends dynamic illustration with a narrative exploration of scientific discovery, proving that factual accuracy and visual excitement are not competing aims. Far from resembling textbooks, many of these books rival any fiction title on a child’s shelf for sheer appeal.

It might seem that the need to convey accurate information would limit creativity, but the opposite has happened. Colossal Words for Kids by Colette Hiller uses rhythm, rhyme, and bold illustration to introduce advanced vocabulary in ways that are joyful and memorable. Increasingly, non-fiction borrows the tools of storytelling — voice, humour, structure — without sacrificing rigour. Dara Ó Briain’s Beyond the Sky is a perfect example: informative, funny, and welcoming to children who might otherwise shy away from science.

The best non-fiction today does more than explain the world. It encourages curiosity, nurtures critical thinking, and invites children to ask better questions. In an age of misinformation and endless online content, this matters enormously. Children need opportunities to engage with trustworthy information, to understand how knowledge is built, and to feel confident navigating what they read and hear.

Children’s non-fiction has changed dramatically over the past two decades. It has become more inclusive, more imaginative, and more ambitious. And in doing so, it has quietly become one of the most powerful tools we have for raising readers.

So will your grandchildren still love you if you buy them non-fiction?

Almost certainly. They might even love you more for noticing what truly captures their curiosity.