Photo Essays and Non-Fiction

Historically, children's non-fiction literature has been sparse in terms of illustrations, presumably under the assumption that visual stimulation is counterproductive to the learning process. I kind of linked the explosion of illustrations in children's or YA nonfiction because of the re-discovery of childhood post Second World War in the 1950s. After some depression of this type of publishing during the Vietnam War (Thanks, President Nixon!) the 1970s and 1980s mark the first exhibits of photo essays. Cart mentions the Eyewitness series, which I always loved when I was young. They are not text-heavy at all, and the visuals are great. While I think there should be some kind of preparation for YAs for post-secondary non-fiction, the kinds of illustrations of pictures I recall from my history textbooks made the entire process less overwhelming. Cart makes a point to mention that not all YA non-fiction has to be curriculum-based textbooks. YALSA's award for best non-fiction could point to an increased interest in non-fiction. I wonder if illustrated e-book biographies on interesting people, historical or otherwise, would be an effective way to increase non-fiction for YAs. As a historian, I found it kind of discouraging that there is still such a stigma attached to the alleged boringness of history, but changes in approaching its study (i.e. through less dense text and pages heavily illustrated) could alleviate that issue.