I’m happy to be a BookShark Ambassador. I received this year’s history curriculum free of charge in exchange for honest reviews. All opinions are my own.
Can I tell you a little secret? I got good grades in my history classes, but I have a hard time with keeping the dates, places, and events straight. Who came first Cornwallis or Charlemagne? I’m not sure.
I read what I needed to for class and took notes. I also invented a symbol for my notes anytime the teacher would say “This will be on the test.” That way when I went to study, I focused mostly on the ideas with that mark. If the goal of the class was a passed test, I met the goal. If the goal was an understanding of the complex, dynamic dance that is history– I failed for sure.
Knowing the relationship with history I want for my own kids, I decided to trade the traditional history textbook for BookShark’s Reading with History approach.
Can you teach history through fiction? Yes– and here’s why!
It’s Engaging
The language has to paint pictures of the setting. Instead of telling the reader that pioneers faced tough conditions, a book like Little House on the Prairie shows the reader what life was actually like.
Textbooks focus on who did what and when in a distant, uninvolved way. Historical fiction typically involves more character development and shows what people were feeling. It gives background information into why did people act/believe what they did. These stories behind the events make history come alive.
Re-Reading Inspires Internalization
I don’t know how many times my girls have re-read Mara of the Nile or The Beduin’s Gazelle from Level G Reading with History. I do know that I haven’t ever voluntarily re-read a history textbook.
The first time we read anything, we’re just trying to piece together what’s happening. With every re-read, we can go deeper into the story. We learn more. We absorb new details. We make connections.
We See Little Moments Within the Big Picture
When using historical fiction, kids experience a wide-range of stories, creating a great framework for learning history in the future.
Because kids have deep insight into how people lived, it’s easy to see how life changed over time. New facts can get incorporated into this mental time frame. Unconsciously readers ask, “Did this happen before or after Book XYZ?”
Stories Inspire a Love of History
My kids love history. We have had to talk about how not all the characters in historical fiction are real people. And in some books, there’s a mix of actual historical figures and created characters that move the story along. Either way, we latch onto stories, not dates and locations of events. But those stories help those dates and places stick out in our minds.
A Word of Caution
Not all historical fiction is created equal. Some historical fiction explores “what might have been” instead of “what actually happened.” Other historical fiction is flawed, biased, or uninteresting. Just because a book is set in the past doesn’t mean it will develop historical understanding.
When picking historical books for my kids, I choose to start with the Reading with History books from BookShark. With many books listed at every level, BookShark has done a lot of the legwork for me in weeding out the boring and blatantly false.
When my seven-year-old starts talking about the players in World War II, when my eleven-year-old is doodling costumes from the Renaissance, when my ten-year old mentions a historical figure in the right context, I feel confident that yes, kids can learn history through fiction.