Picture Books: Nonfiction, Fiction or Both?

For a little different approach to Nonfiction Monday, let’s take a look at some recent picture books that push the boundaries of traditional nonfiction.

As you may already know, I recently was a round I judge for 2018 Cybils Elementary/Middle Grade Nonfiction. It turned out a few of the nominated books were hard to categorize. Were they fiction or nonfiction?

For example, one of the nominees was Janet Halfmann’s Midnight Teacher (reviewed last year at Wrapped in Foil).

Midnight Teacher looks and reads like a typical nonfiction biography. The publisher’s website says it is “based on a true story,” but calls it historical fiction in some of the press materials. In this case, it is probable that there was too little information about Lilly Ann Granderson for a strictly nonfiction biography.

Another example is Walking the City with Jane:  A Story of Jane Jacobs by Susan Hughes.

Again, it has all the appearances of a picture book biography. My library had it shelved in nonfiction. Yet, if you read the author’s note in the back matter, you find out that this is a “fictionalized” account (no details given.) This is more problematic for me, because what is fact and what is fiction is unclear.

Recently, Carol Hinz had an excellent discussion of four picture books that blend fiction and nonfiction at Lerner Blog.

In these, the fictional elements are easier to spot. For example, in Flower Talk by Sara Levine a cactus narrates the book.

A talking cactus is pretty obviously fictional.

In Love, Agnes by Irene Latham, which was categorized in Cybils as Fiction, a octopus sends postcards to her neighbors (reviewed today at Wrapped in Foil).

Again, the fictional aspects are clear. There’s also, however, a wonderful factual underpinning and the back matter is all hardcore nonfiction. Rather than in some gray area between fiction or nonfiction, this book shouts that it is clearly and loudly BOTH.

What do you think of picture books that explore the limits of nonfiction?  Do they belong here at Nonfiction Monday or do we need a new category — other than creative nonfiction — that celebrates books like these?

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