I love narrative nonfiction–those picture book biographies and other accounts that vividly recount important events. My own books so far have been narrative nonfiction. And I know there is a nice subset of kids who love stories like that. But Melissa Stewart has been on a mission recently to remind us that there are other kids who don’t incline toward narrative stories but love expository nonfiction.

My definition of expository nonfiction may be a little different than someone else’s: I think of narrative nonfiction as a book that has, at its heart, an event, while expository nonfiction is a book that is, at heart, about an idea. That doesn’t mean that narrative nonfiction doesn’t grapple with big ideas–it does!–but always in terms of how the event relates to that idea. It also doesn’t mean that expository nonfiction can’t use the same literary devices that we use to talk about things that have happened–tension, setting, even dialogue. But at its heart, expository nonfiction is exploring an idea.

There’s a lot of recent great expository nonfiction centered around animals. But I’ve been trying to dig out expository nonfiction for young children that’s non-animal related. It’s a lot harder to find! Here are three titles. All of them are fiction, but they feel, at heart, like expository rather than narrative texts: they each tell a story but only so that they can use the story to explore an idea.

Someone New by Anne Sibley O’Brien (Charlesbridge: 2018). This book explores the reaction of three children, in three different schools, to a new immigrant classmate. Each story is, in itself narrative–tracing the initial encounter with someone new, the confusion, and then the ultimate way the distance between two people is bridged–but the three stories are intertwined and, together, build an argument: that kids can reach out to new immigrants. This is a companion book to I’m New Here, a book that tells the same story from the immigrants’ point of view.

Billions of Bricks by Kurt Cyrus (Christy Ottaviano Books: 2018). This rhyming counting book is a non-linear counting book. Instead of 1-2-3, it uses sequences like 2-4-6 or 10-20-30 that then repeat. As the sequences repeat, we watch in the illustrations as an entire city is built on barren land. The central idea of the book is closer to multiplication than to addition: repeat the same sequence over and over, and

you create something huge.

How to Code a Sandcastle by Josh Funk (Viking: 2018). On its face, this book is a fictional account of a girl who takes her waterproof computer to the beach. But at its heart, it’s an exploration of three important computer programming concepts: sequences, loops, and if-then-else routines. A helpful back matter explores these ideas in even greater detail.

Alyson Beecher hosts the Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge at kidlitfrenzy.com. Visit there for more great nonfiction picture books!