A Literature of Questions. Nonfiction for the Critical Child by Joe Sutliff Sanders

Abstract

Reviewed by: A Literature of Questions. Nonfiction for the Critical Child by Joe Sutliff Sanders Jutta Reusch and Nikola von Merveldt A LITERATURE OF QUESTIONS. Nonfiction for the Critical Child. By Joe Sutliff Sanders. University of Minnesota Press, 2018, 274 pages. ISBN: 1-5179-0301-7 Mainstream opinion holds that nonfiction is a literature of answers—especially nonfiction for children. Accuracy of facts is then allied with didactic intent to produce doubt-proof authoritative books claiming to tell things as they are. In his game-changing study, Sanders argues that books adhering to this creed produce less truthful accounts than nonfiction books that invite critical engagement by asking questions and reflecting the process of inquiry. His argument is not ideological, however, but theoretical. Sanders is the first scholar to propose a theory of nonfiction, along with "a method for examining children's nonfiction from a literary perspective" (7), which "looks for where a text is willing to invite its readers to dialogue, to negotiation, to the testing of information to critical engagement, and where it is not" (12). Following a clear-sighted introduction situating his theory within the relevant literary and pedagogic debates, Sanders develops, tests, and expounds his theory over seven chapters. In the first chapter, he critically considers what it means to understand nonfiction as a literature of authority and makes the provocative claim that nonfiction shouldn't be a literature of facts at all. If it is to truly educate young minds, it should invite them "to the dialogue of intellectual work," "to involve them in the analysis and production of knowledge" (44). Based on this argument, Sanders examines formal and aesthetic aspects of nonfiction, which either rebuff or invite critical engagement. In chapter 2, he considers the literary category of voice and shows how visible first-person authors voicing doubt and allowing for alternative perspectives rupture authority and encourage questions. Chapter 3 focuses on the characters of nonfiction, and thus on its human dimension. By presenting knowledge as something provisional produced by fallible humans rather than a collection of immutable, objective facts, critical nonfiction engages both the reader's intellect and emotion. Having identified the timeless rhetorical hallmarks of a literature of questions and thus provided a useful analytical tool kit, Sanders goes on to consider peritexts (chapter 4) and photography (chapter 5) as potential sites of engagement typical for contemporary fiction. The multiple peritexts, such as sidebars, footnotes, or afterwords, he claims, invite nonlinear reading, which in turn promotes critical engagement. Photographs, commonly believed to be true depictions of reality, can draw attention to their artificiality through captions or layout. In a close reading of Russell Freedman's photobiography Lincoln (1987), Sanders demonstrates how photographs in nonfiction can encourage readers to examine the visual information critically instead of simply seeing through them. The last two chapters offer an in-depth case study of Tanya Lee Stone's nonfiction book Almost Astronauts (2009). According to Sanders, this award-winning US title perfectly illustrates the conflicting cultural conceptions of what [End Page 103] children's nonfiction should be; it attempts a delicate balancing act between the commercial demands of the schoolbook market asking for a literature of answers and the aesthetic and intellectual ambitions of the author who wants to challenge and inspire her readers to ask their own questions. The conclusion addresses the question literary historians prefer to avoid: Are children actually capable of engaging critically with nonfiction? Several empirical studies have found that they are and readily do so, even if not prompted by adults. However, adult guidance encourages and improves critical literacy. This is why, in his last paragraph, Sanders urges us all to "invite critical engagement and foster it where we can because doing so is democratic, respectful, and humanizing" (230). Sanders celebrates the "democratic potential" of nonfiction (231). Sanders's theory makes an important contribution to an underestimated and undertheorized field children's literature criticism is only beginning to discover. His provocative claim that nonfiction shouldn't be about facts at all will help overcome the dead-end debates trying to assess the accuracy of facts. His sound theoretical framework, his practical analytical tool kit, and his celebration of the "democratic potential...