Meet The Mini-Mammals

While choosing a book for read-aloud, I often find reminding myself to give nonfiction an equal opportunity. However, I tend to gravitate towards narrative nonfiction. Perhaps this is because I adopt an aesthetic stance (reading for enjoyment and the experience) vs an efferent stance (reading to gain information) (Rosenblatt, 1978).

In her book “5 𝘒𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘕𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯” Melissa Stewart quotes a 2017 research by Repasky, Schumm, and Johnson that 42% of elementary school students prefer expository nonfiction vis-à-vis 25% for narrative nonfiction. Time indeed to remind ourselves to read more expository text aloud in the class!

“𝘔𝘦𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘪𝘯𝘪-𝘔𝘢𝘮𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘴”, the latest from Melissa Stewart is just perfect to witness the power of nonfiction read-alouds. With life-sized illustrations of mini-mammals such as the dwarf flying squirrel, the three-toed jerboa and more, the book absolutely captivated the Grade 3 class I read it to – they thought it was amazing and so did I!

Give it a go during your next read-aloud time! Perfect for preschool and above.