A true book is a picture book of real facts about something your child picked, such as space, bugs, the ocean or big trucks. It has one fact to a page, a picture on every page, and a list at the back of where every fact came from.
Where the facts come from
Every fact in a true book comes from a source listed at the back of the book.
The facts are kept in a fact bank. Each one is a short sentence written for children in kindergarten to second grade, with the page it comes from: children's science pages from places like NASA Space Place, NOAA, the Smithsonian's National Zoo, National Geographic Kids and the National Park Service. A person on our team reads each fact against its source before it can be used. A fact that has not been read and approved is never put in a book.
Topics that would need upsetting facts are left out. There is no topic about death, and the dinosaur book is about how dinosaurs lived.
How each sentence is checked
When a true book is made, a handful of approved facts about the topic are chosen for it. The writer is given those facts page by page and has to say, for every sentence, which fact it says.
A second check then reads each sentence next to its fact. A sentence that says anything the fact does not say, such as an extra number, color or reason, is written again or taken out. If a page is left with nothing, it is given the fact's own approved words. The book is not drawn until every sentence has passed.
Your child's true books are held to their letter sounds like all their other books, by the same checks. A few words a fact cannot be said without, such as "octopus", are allowed as tricky words, on the same terms as the words a story is about. They are usually the words on the labels, so the picture helps your child read them.
What is on the page
- The words your child reads, one fact to a page.
- Labels on the picture: up to three words, such as "legs" or "shell", pointing out what the page is about.
- A caption under some pictures: one short line.
- Did you know?: on some pages, a box for you to read aloud with a little more about the same fact.
- At the back: Words to know, the science words in the book with what they mean, and Where these facts come from, every source the book used.
On the book's page in your account, the sources are links you can open.
About the pictures
The pictures are drawn in a plain, clear style so that animals and things look the way they really do. Each picture is checked for being true to its fact, such as the right number of legs or wings, and redrawn when it is not. They are illustrations rather than photographs, so they can still simplify.
Who it is offered to
True books are offered to readers aged two to seven, for books in English. They are made on the first screen of the book maker, under Make a true book. A topic appears only once it has enough approved facts to make a whole book, so the list of topics can grow over time.
A true book uses one book from your plan, like any other book. They appear with your child's other books and on a True books shelf of their own.
If you do not see the option
A topic is offered only after a person on our team has read and approved enough of its facts to make a whole book. Until the first topic gets there, the book maker does not show Make a true book, and nothing else about making a book changes. Check again later, or make a story about the same thing in the meantime. Books already made stay on your child's shelf even if a topic is later taken away.