The New Non-Fiction Picturebook for Children : Mending the Rift Between Science and Art

Specific to our modern world is the dualism between scientific research and the humanities, between the knowledge derived from the natural sciences, with their positive experimental approach, and the indemonstrable yet profound intuitions and insights revealed to us by literature, poetry, art, philosophy and physical and emotional engagement with the world. Official Western culture has tended to create an unbridgeable divide between these two aspects of knowing that seem mutually exclusive (Snow 1977). Today, however, a new genre of book for children, the artistic non-fiction picturebook, is bringing these two worlds together in a surprisingly refreshing way. This paper investigates how vital the blending of these two perspectives is, and why the creative, beautifully crafted, powerfully illustrated non-fiction picturebook allows an innovative and culturally crucial approach to knowledge.