By Ana Garralón *
The most basic thing to know the informative books is to be interested in them. We already know: fire ants have never interested you, but opening a book that tells curiosities that you did not know, that brings you closer to a different world, and has been designed so that you can read it as you see fit, you are going to love it. There are books for all tastes, you just have to dare to open one and be surprised.
Yes, we already know that dinosaurs are guaranteed success and those of animals in general. But with books it's like with everything else: if children never taste mushrooms, how are we going to know if they like them or not? So go ahead and introduce children to books with less popular topics. All these books will take them to unknown places and will open new questions in their curiosities.
Just as each book is different, each child is different too: don't assume that everyone will like the same book, the same topic. There will be little ones who are interested in buildings, others will be curious about pets because they have one in their house. From a young age, boys and girls have some inclination and a book can help them motivate them in that concern. Not a few researchers and scientists comment on how a book awakened their vocation. The thing is, the more varied the books are, the more vocations can be activated, or even changed.
We must remove that idea from our heads, so widespread in literature, that books go by age ranges. Except for the informative ones for early childhood, the rest of the books admit different ages. With informational books, it is not the level that matters, but the interests of the readers. A small child can dare with a technical book on insects, because the subject fascinates him and he is able to tell us things that even we would not know: his interest in the subject goes beyond language barriers.
We must give him this opportunity to read books that do not seem for his level because many books are designed for different ages: fonts in different sizes allow them to read pieces of the texts, the use of the double page, the information that the images contain ... everything It is intended for different levels, it does not matter if the reader is five, or fifteen or fifty years old, as in this book, Incredible evolution, which allows multiple readings.
There are few social science books ... They are worth including as they will provide you with unique conversations, will arouse many concerns, will make you want to know more and will not leave anyone indifferent. On What is power? Different issues of power in the world are explored, which affect us in our day to day life.
Once interest in one topic has been aroused, it leads to another and that to another… the ramifications are endless. Reading a book about Japan we can become interested in haikus (My Haikus notebook); or any other matter, an art book makes us want to know more about artists; and a book like, for example, Lost in Translation, invites us to look at old dictionaries in search of strange words.
Lost in Translation
* For more information you can consult Ana Garralón's book: Read and Know, informational books for children from Editorial Educal.
You can also visit Ana's blog at this link.