For the last several years the number of children's literature trade books with direct curriculum applications has increased. Teachers are finding ways of using these trade books across the curriculum. This paper represents an attempt to justify the use of trade books in the classroom, describes the types of trade books available, and suggests ways that trade books can facilitate skill instruction in the language arts arena. For the purpose of this paper, reading, writing, listening, and speaking will comprise the scope of language arts. Much emphasis will be placed on books that focus on the skills that relate to reading and writing.
Most students receive a steady diet of exposure to fiction throughout elementary school.
Basal readers and literature-based reading instruction focus mainly on reading stories with characters, plots, settings, and other traditional story elements. It is only recently that educators are becoming aware of the benefits of nonfiction in the classroom. Traditionally, nonfiction has been used in the form of encyclopedias and reference books in the pursuit of some sort of research project or report. The obvious answer would seem to be to integrate the learning across subject areas, using trade books as the springboard for study. The implication here is that information books do facilitate learning in a unique way.