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Informed by theories of reading as transactions and new literacies, the authors discuss the powerful possibilities of reconsidering reader response with contemporary nonfiction children's literature.
This [Giant Squid] is really a cool book. It's nonfiction and fiction. It's both. I mean it's mostly nonfiction with a bit of fiction, too. I mean it's fun to read and you learn a lot. You can have both in a book now and it's totally fine. See [pointing to award seal]? It even won an award.
-Katy (pseudonym), third-grade student
As teacher educators, literacy scholars, and avid readers of contemporary nonfiction children's literature,1 we readily connect with Katy's comments about Candace Fleming and Eric Rohmann's award-winning nonfiction picturebook Giant Squid (2016). Like Katy, we have noticed how creators2 of contemporary nonfiction children's literature seem to be responding to the longstanding call for an increase in nonfiction or informational texts for young readers (Duke, 2000; Pappas, 1993; Yopp & Yopp, 2012) and for more appealing nonfiction texts (Livingston, Kurkijan, Young, & Pringle, 2004; Moss, 2003) while also responding to curriculum standards for informational texts (Common Core State Standards [CCSS], 2010). Contemporary nonfiction children's literature also seems to reflect our societal shift to more visual and digital-oriented environments and our longstanding preference for narrative (Bruner, 1991; Pappas, 1993; Short, 2018). As a result, readers of contemporary nonfiction children's literature have probably noticed a combination of narrative, lyrical, poetic, and expository styles as well as varied formats and designs that give equal weight to-if not privileging-the visual (Moss, 2003; Pappas, 2006; Rohloff & May, 2017; Shimek, 2019).
The more we pondered the evolution of nonfiction children's literature in concert with-and in response to-larger societal trends, the more we gravitated toward the concepts of mashups, remixes, and participatory cultures that are part of the ethos of new literacies (Knobel & Lankshear, 2008; 2014). While these concepts are more readily associated with media and digital technologies, they do not preclude more traditional texts that are often identified as "peripheral" instances of new literacies (Knobel & Lankshear, 2014). Operating with the understanding of genres as dynamic, fluid constructions that are socio-historically bound and help us construct understanding (Bazerman, 1997; Duke, Caughlin, Juzwik, & Martin, 2012) and acknowledging how book awards can help shape...