Did you know that 80% of the books in a children's library are non-fiction titles? Kids, especially boys, love non-fiction. And interestingly, a League of Conservation Voters study found that most people receive their information about the environment from materials that their children bring home from school. So, adults love non-fiction too. I'd like to point you to an excellent blog about Interesting Non-fiction for Kids (INK) run by a group of non-fiction writers some of whom are also illustrators. Loreen Leedy, one of the posting author/illustrators featured some of the coral reef illustrations from a previous post on my blog:
http://inkrethink.blogspot.com/search/label/2010%20titles
Scroll down the page to see Loreen's post,but it is ALL interesting at the INK blog.

I recently completed an assignment to paint some spring backyard birds for a Canadian children's magazine. The images were drawn and painted using Corel's Painter 11 and I thought that some folks might find the process interesting. I took screen shots as I was going from the pencil to final colour art.
The pencil drawing was completed using the 'real pencil' tool now found in Painter 11, and this one was set at 6B. The color work made use of the 'oils' media, using flat glazing brushes, fine detail camel hairs and a variety of blending brushes.
The final art is included here as well. Click on any of the images, which are posted in reverse order (so start with the pencil drawing at the bottom and work your way to the top to final art) to see a larger version.

You've gotta love these creature comfort guys discussing the nature of art. Click on this link for a good laugh.