Kathleen Baxter

The Joys of Nonfiction Booktalking (cont'd)

Exploring the Titanic

Many times, I have learned, young children will be motivated to read harder books because they contain more and better pictures. At the very least they will try to make out the captions. I have left many a group of fourth graders wailing because I would not leave Robert Ballard's Exploring the Titanic in their classroom.

As time went by, teachers spread the word that I was really good at finding books children want to read. They seemed to think I had some mystical power for ascertaining such things. In truth, I did not think that at all. I am a fairly ordinary person with a healthy streak of curiosity and an active interest in a lot of things. I believe that if I find something particularly interesting, it is likely others will too. The main thing I do is look at new books as they arrive at my library and pick out ones that have something intriguing in them. This is hardly a daunting task. In some cases, it is simply a matter of finding a great photograph. Sometimes all I need to do to sell a book to an audience is hold up that photograph.

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