Fiction vs. Nonfiction

Imagine a story about a brave knight who must save a kingdom from a silly dragon that only steals chocolate chip cookies. Now, think about another story, one that tells you exactly how the first airplane took off into the sky on a windy day, on December 17th, 1903. Do you notice how those two stories feel different from each other. One is a playful adventure from someone’s mind, and the other tells you about something that really happened. Well, that’s where I come in. Hello there. I am a very helpful idea, and I have two names because I have two sides: Fiction and Nonfiction. I help sort every single story in the world into one of two big, happy families so you always know what kind of journey you’re about to start.

For a very, very long time, people told all sorts of stories, and they often mixed make-believe bits with real memories. It was like a big, wonderful soup of tales. But way back in a time called ancient Greece, a super-smart thinker named Aristotle started to notice the difference around the 4th century BCE. He was one of the first people to really think about how some stories were about things that actually happened, while other stories were created by our amazing imaginations. For hundreds and hundreds of years after him, people wrote stories down by hand, which took a very long time. But then, everything changed. Around the year 1440, a clever man named Johannes Gutenberg invented something incredible called the printing press. It was a machine that could make lots of copies of books very, very fast. Suddenly, libraries and bookstores were filled to the top with books of all kinds. It was amazing, but also a little messy. People needed my help to organize everything. That’s when I became really famous. I helped everyone know if they were picking up a book to learn true facts or a book to fly away on a magical adventure.

Today, you can find me helping you in your school library or your favorite bookstore. My Fiction side is your guide to amazing worlds that don't really exist. It’s where you’ll find stories about talking animals, wizards casting spells, and superheroes saving the day. My Fiction family is all about using your imagination. My other side, Nonfiction, is your guide to the real world. This side helps you find books that teach you how to build a robot, learn all about deep-sea sharks, or read about the lives of real heroes like astronauts and artists. Both of my sides are important and so much fun. One is not better than the other. My two families work together to make reading a wonderful journey. Fiction helps your imagination grow big and strong, and Nonfiction helps your brain grow smart and curious. Together, we let you explore real worlds and invented ones, all from the cozy pages of a book.