History Gives Us Wings!
You may recall in my last post , I admitted that I do not write poetry. But every writer worth their salt and pepper reads and studies the mechanics of poetry. And I discussed Heidi Stemple’s The Poetry of Car Mechanics , offering some ideas on why should writers study poetry. This week I look at another treasure as I discuss a topic near and dear to my own writing. Historical fiction. “We are not makers of history. We are made by history.” -- Martin Luther King, Jr. (Strength to Love. Harper & Row, 1963.) Why should teachers teach historical fiction? History is more than dates. History is people, too. In the best of historical fiction, as with any story, a child becomes a hero who gains power over her situation, a theme that contemporary readers appreciate. Stories make us more human. Stories allow a child to navigate complex emotions, looking at diverse perspectives, and learning to leverage relationships for collaboration an...
