Truth is Stranger than Fiction

The quote,"Truth is stranger than fiction," is often attributed to Mark Twain, but he borrowed it from Byron. Regardless, these days I couldn't agree more. If anyone had ever told me I’d be writing nonfiction children's books in my retirement, I would’ve called them crazy. I have always preferred a good story to a factual account. As a primary teacher, my classroom library was (sadly, as I see now) eighty percent fiction and twenty percent nonfiction. When I read aloud to my kids, it was always a story—Pippi Longstocking, Charlotte’s Web, My Father’s Dragon. (I know, I’m dating myself, but they’re still good books.)

The nonfiction books I had in my room were mostly about space, animals, sports, and biographies of famous men. (Very few women made the list in those days.) However, I can’t recall ever reading any of those books aloud to my students. Nor to my daughter, once she came along.

And yet, here I am, writing nonfiction for kids--eight books so far. And on my personal list of recently read adult books are Radium Girls, Devil in the White City, The Soul of an Octopus, and Killers of the Flower Moon—all fascinating nonfiction. Heck, I may even tackle Astrophysics for People in a Hurry! What has changed? The world? School standards? My tastes? Whatever it is, there's no denying the growing popularity and diversity of creative nonfiction--for both children and adults.

True stories that read like fiction can be eye-opening. In recent months, I've learned about an arctic explorer whose toes broke off from frostbite and about the  deplorable working conditions of children in our mines and mills at the turn of the last century. Then there was the serial killer who used the 1893 Chicago World's Fair as his hunting ground, and the factory girls who naively painted their lips and eyebrows with radium paint so they could glow when they went out for the night. These "stories" are every bit as amazing or horrifying as any imaginary tale.

I once was asked to write a book for second graders about some of the peculiar things animals do. The editors said, "Like about mating behavior, BUT without mentioning mating!" Well, I discovered a few things while doing my research. First, sex is the motivation for probably 99% of the strange things animals do. Secondly, many of those behaviors are X-rated, like porcupines urinating on the female they choose as their mate and how garter snakes have orgies. But I also learned some fascinating facts that were more PG. The male bower bird, for example, builds a "seduction parlor" (I call it a nest in the book) on the ground and then decorates the area in front of it. Usually, these decorations are all the same color--flowers, pebbles, bottle caps, even plastic drinking straws. Female bower birds choose as their mates the male they think has the most attractive front yard! (This book became Animal Show-offs.)

The secret seems to be in finding a remarkable true story to tell and capitalizing on drama of that reality.

Have you read any riveting nonfiction lately?