Content may include history and geography, science and nature, hobbies and crafts, experiments, discoveries, and how things work. Illustrations clarify text and add authenticity. Informational books and articles are excellent resources for reading, writing, or hands-on activities on topics of interest. They are frequently superior to textbooks in that they may provide sharper focus, present more specialized information, or more clearly reveal the author's point of view. At all levels, informational material provides provocative content for discussion, from how kittens grow to Shakespeare's England.
Effectiveness depends on accuracy, authenticity, and an appealing narrative style.
Reading about the achievements of others may help students to see history as the lives and events of real people and to appreciate the contributions of all cultures. For adolescents, biographies may help to increase their own aspirations and provide role models for their own lives. They also serve as a useful vehicle for studying bias, fact vs. opinion, and characterization. Books of true experience Content relates to specific episodes or events from a person's life over a limited time span. Author may be the central figure or an objective narrator.