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Jennifer Bohnhoff's Midgrade Historical Novel The Bent Reed is currently featured on Amazon as a Kindle Give-Away. Five copies of this book, set in Gettysburg during the Civil War, will be given away to participants who are residents of the US, 18 years of age, or older, and opt to follow the author on Amazon. To enter, click here. 

The History We Make

by Suzanne Morgan Williams

It's an election year and adults will be making some important decisions. I can't help thinking that we'd all be better prepared if we had a solid education in history, political decisions, and their consequences for the country and the world.

I do a lot of school visits and I taught for a number of years. Try explaining genocide or slavery or war and conquest to a ten year old. They’ll ask you, “Why?” And they should! I’d say there is no logical answer to this, and yet, we humans continue to back ourselves into places where power, greed, or difficult circumstances breed oppression and hatred. That’s part of the answer.

The bigger question is why don’t people take other paths? How would they do that? And another – when we travel back in time fifty or a hundred or maybe five hundred years and try to understand and portray what happened, is that impossible? Were people so different in their outlooks, values, and expectations that we can’t understand them? What part of humanity is unchangeable and what can be evolved, grown out of, hopefully for the better?

Historical fiction gives faces and emotions to the facts. It can help children explore alternate plots and creative ways to deal with adversity. Are these characters accurate to the times? Are they reworked to modern sensibilities, or a blend of the two? A careful reader will ask those questions. I’d say that historical accuracy is fundamental but that, in creating modern work authors will bring a different point of view. They can’t help it. So is historical fiction real? No, it’s fiction. But historical fiction is a gateway to real history and the questions it poses. I’m all for that.

How does interest in history translate into today’s decisions? What role does history play in current events? By presenting the past in understandable, human details, historical fiction may let our children and grandchildren see that today’s decisions – to go to war, to accept or reject refugees and immigrants, to fund schools, prisons, health care, or armies – these all have direct effects on people’s lives, right now. History is nothing but story after story after story. Decision after decision. What we do with our lives matters. Let’s read historical fiction, then talk about the past and our future. And most of all, what can we do to help each other today?

Cobblestone Magazine: One Path to Learning History by Mary Louise Sanchez

For the past thirty or so years, each month I experience the same thrill I had as a child, when a magazine, addressed to my sister and me, came in the mail. The thrill is even more compounded now because Cobblestone Magazine fuels my passion for learning American history. 

The award winning Cobblestone Magazine has been making American history come alive for students, primarily ages 9-14, for thirty six years.

Through the featured short articles, readers learn about civics, economics, geography, and history, while using primary and secondary sources. Even though the magazine is geared towards children, I find it enlightening and entertaining as an adult. I learn so much in every issue and have saved each one for my family's own personal history library. The magazine even has indexes which I use to find the issues I want to use for lessons with students. 

As a teacher/librarian, I also purchased the magazine for the school library and purchased class sets of various themes and topics that fit our curriculum. Teachers used plastic overlays for students to highlight main ideas, for close reading purposes, and to study text features. 

In forty eight pages each issue provides various articles that address the chosen American history theme from various decades of our country's history. For instance, the March 2016 issue is entitled, REVOLUTIONARY WOMEN-Our Founding Mothers. There are articles about Abigail Adams; the spectacular ride of sixteen-year-old Sybil Ludington on April 16, 1777 who warned the colonists about the impending British; how Martha Washington and other officers' wives brought cheer to their husbands at Valley Forge; women of color during the Revolutionary War; the legend of Molly Pitcher; secret soldiers; a young poet, Phyllis Wheatley; and others.

 Various consulting editors are chosen for each issue because of their expertise with the topic and theme. Each issue always has the "child's interests, questions, and knowledge in mind."

There are true stories, taken from the rich diversity of our people, who have influenced our country's history.

Fun puzzles and Did You Know facts are in each issue, as are multiple sources of information in the form of maps, captions, highlighted vocabulary, and cartoons. The magazines also include recommended websites for additional resources. Older issues had a feature called "Digging Deeper" which suggested books to read and places to visit. 

The magazine is in print and/or digital format for nine issues each year, coinciding with the school year. Themes are selected by first studying recommended national standards and state curricula, major anniversaries of historical events or people. The scope and depth of each issue truly adds to a unique history experience for young and old.

Have you read this magazine? I hope I've motivated you to take a look at Cobblestone.