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Many people, including myself, do not love learning about history. In theory, it is fascinating to learn about how one’s nation came into being, and what’s been going on since then. In reality, it can be a bit dry. Yet it is incredibly important to know your country’s history because otherwise you might repeat it.
How to Start Liking History
If you find it really hard to learn history, then I recommend you stop trying. Stop attending lectures and reading enormous textbooks. Instead, read historical fiction novels. Historical fiction novels are works of fiction based on real historical events. The story itself is not necessarily true, but the events are. These books will pull you into a story and keep you entertained enough to actually take in the information you are reading. You will learn history without even realizing it.
Valuing our history is especially important as we celebrate America’s 250th birthday. To demonstrate that learning history through reading can be fun, I will give some examples of historical fiction books that I have loved and learned from. Since it is a big year for our nation, I’ll focus on American historical fiction.
Middle Grade/Young Adult Historical Fiction
When I was a child, the Rush Revere series got me interested in American history. There are five books, each focusing on an important moment in early American history: the pilgrims arriving, the start of the American Revolution, the Declaration of Independence, the history of our flag, and the first three presidents.
What makes these novels interesting is that they follow a middle school teacher, some of his select students (points here for diversity and overcoming struggles), and his time traveling horse, Liberty. Liberty takes Rush and his students back in time to meet historical figures and help them fight for freedom. If you’re interested in the Rush Revere books, check them out here.
Another great series is Little House on the Prairie. These nine books are autobiographical historical fiction about Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family navigating pioneer life in the 1800s. From a log cabin in Wisconsin to a homestead in Dakota territory, readers will learn about the lives of early settlers in the Midwest and West, as well as themes of familial love and survival. If you want to read the Little House on the Prairie series, you can buy them here.
Adult Historical Fiction
On the adult side of things (not that adults should not read books meant for younger ages), I really enjoyed To Kill a Mockingbird. This novel follows three children during The Great Depression who have a fascination with their town’s famous recluse. Two of the childrens’ father is a lawyer defending an African American man (wrongly) accused of raping a white woman. It explores themes of justice, equality and protecting innocence. The lawyer’s grown-up daughter narrates the book. She looks back on her youth in Alabama and reflects on the valuable lessons her father taught her throughout the time of the trial. To Kill a Mockingbird can be bought here.
The last American historical fiction story that I want to share with you is a book that I read for the second time this summer—The Help. I returned to it because of its valuable themes of friendship, resiliency, and the power of storytelling. This novel is set in the ‘60s in Jackson, Mississippi. African American maids share their stories of working for white women with a sympathetic writer, publishes them. Things start to get dangerous for the maids once people in Jackson begin to realize who the stories are written about. If you want to see how it ends, check it out here.
To Sum Up
Historical fiction novels will teach you history without the dryness and memorization aspects of a textbook. The next time you don’t know what book to read, pick up a historical fiction novel!
The post American History in Fiction appeared first on Big Read Lakeshore.
