The Craft of Steve Jenkins: Genre and Writing Style

Steve Jenkins writes expository non-fiction children’s books.  Expository non-fiction is used to explain, describe, give information or inform about a particular subject area.  This genre often gives information about the real world and may include numbers, pictures and diagrams to help the readers to understand the facts. 

Author Steve Jenkins became interested in writing children’s books after his two children were born.  He was drawn to the idea of writing books about science and the natural world.  This interest came about after his young children started asking questions about the world around them.  In fact, many of his books started with a question from one of his children.  As he developed answers for his children, book ideas began to grow and his writing process began.

NON-FICTION DOES NOT HAVE TO MEAN BORING BY ANY MEANS.

On his website, Steve Jenkins states “There’s a commonly held view of science as boring and difficult, which has led to well-intentions but unfortunate attempts to make science interesting to children by presenting scientists as goofy and wacky – think wild hair, thick spectacles and a disheveled lab coat.”  When you look at a Steve Jenkins book, this is NOT the view of science you will see.  Jenkins presents science to children in interesting ways.  In his book Down, Down, Down, Jenkins engages his audience with phrases such as “In fact, more humans have walked on the moon than have visited the deepest spot in the sea” and “In this book we’ll descend from the ocean’s surface to the sea floor…along the way we’ll encounter some unusual creatures.”  In other books he uses his illustrations to pull his young readers into the text.  In his book I See a Kookaburra! Steve Jenkins uses vivid illustrations to teach his readers about the animals that live in various habitats around the world.  Each habitat is presented with spread that illustrates an example of the habitat, for example, the desert.  Hidden throughout the picture are animals that can be found living in this environment.  This allows young readers the chance to explore the picture and try to find where animals may be found in that habitat.  The second page is a spread that shows each animal without the habitat.  The purpose of this format was to make a game of searching for the animals.  Younger readers can enjoy searching for the animals and learning about the different animals that can be found in various regions around the world while older readers can spend more time learning about the specific animals.

As mentioned above, expository non-fiction involves giving information about the real world through the text and also through numbers, pictures and diagrams.  In his book, Hottest, Coldest, Highest, Deepest, Jenkins helps his readers to visualize the natural world he is presenting by placing a sidebar on each page that compares this natural element to something else the reader may be familiar with.  As an example, the book talks about the tallest waterfall in the world.  The sidebar illustrates the difference in height between this waterfall and a well-known waterfall here in the United States, Niagara Falls.  These comparisons help the reader to see the intensity of the natural wonders that can be found on our planet.

“My own belief is that the more we understand about what the universe is and how it works, the greater our appreciation of the beauty and wonder of the world, of each other, and of being here to think about it all.” ~Steve Jenkins