National Non-Fiction November- The Beginning!

To start this year’s celebrations, the FCBG Chair, Jane Etheridge explains how National Non-Fiction November came into being.

In 2010 Adam Lancaster, the then Chair of the Federation of Children’s Book Groups, announced the launch of National Non-Fiction Day (NNFD) with support from Scholastic to be held on the first Thursday in November. As a librarian in a school, Adam had worked with many children who weren’t particularly interested in fiction but were voracious readers of information books. The aim of National Non-Fiction Day was to dispel the myth that non-fiction belonged solely to the confines of the classroom and to raise awareness of the best information and narrative non-fiction books for children. At the time Adam said:

“Non-fiction has been constantly overlooked as a genre, despite its importance at home as well as in the classroom. National Non-Fiction Day aims to raise awareness of the genre and celebrate all that is brilliant about non-fiction and show that it’s not just fiction that can be read and enjoyed for pleasure.”

A formal launch event was held by Reading CBG with Martin Brown and Nick Denchfield visiting John Madejski Academy, The Ridgway Primary School, Reading Girls’ School and Whitley Park Primary School to talk about their work on the Horrible Histories series. Other schools and book groups around the country organised their own events.

As NNFD grew in popularity, it became obvious to the FCBG National Executive that it was time to expand the initiative and National Non-Fiction November was born in 2014, with a logo created by Giarda Giusti in 2015. Finally, we have a whole month celebrating all those readers that have a passion for information and facts and attempts to bring non-fiction celebrations in line with those of fiction.

FCBG members up and down the country organise group and school events to celebrate National Non-Fiction November as shown by following selection of photos. You can find out more about this and other FCBG initiatives on the Federation website. Why don’t you find your local group and join in the fun!