The Starving Time

Jamestown, Virginia. 1609.

The My America book The Starving Time incorporates the journal of a girl named Elizabeth, or Lizzie, as she faces the struggles of the colonial time period. Her friend, Jessie, and captain John Smith have just departed to return to England, and she is now facing life without them.

Elizabeth’s journals detail the struggles the settlers went through.
“November 7, 1609

I am very hungry today. All we have eaten for two days is a bit of hardtack and some cornmeal. This morning, the cornmeal was crunchy with bugs. I tried not to notice. But it was hard not to gag.”

Elizabeth’s journals not only detail the starvation that occurred, but the disease that ran rampant through the settlement.

“December 17, 1609

Everyone is sick! And sicker. It is sweeping over the whole fort. Papa brought word from the Dobsons. Mary is as sick as she can be. I wish I could go see her. But I cannot. I cannot even stand.”

The use of journals to tell a story is unique. It provides an opportunity for the author to teach about the history of the Jamestown colony from a first person perspective, and does so while incorporating well-known historical figures like Pocahontas and John Smith.

This form of historical fiction is almost written in autobiographical form. Although it is fictional, it is giving a potentially realistic account from somebody who lived in the era. I particularly like this type of fiction because of its multiple uses. It is essentially a reading and history lesson wrapped into one.

I think students will be much more responsive to texts like this than to social studies textbooks. While a history lesson or textbook reading will pass information to the student, a narrative such as the My America book series presents a story and incorporates the necessary information into the story. It is essentially a form of active learning.

This book, like most, if not all, historical fiction books, takes a historical setting and adds a narrative to create a new form of learning for the reader. It is a nice combination of fiction and nonfiction that makes the learning experience unique.

Magic Tree House #17 - Tonight on the Titanic

This was too good of an opportunity to not talk about another Magic Tree House book. This time, we’re taking a trip on the Titanic.

The interesting part about the Magic Tree House books is that they fit into both the nonfiction and fiction genres. They use a realistic, historical setting to draw interest from the student, using fictional characters to create a plot that will interest them. While the interactions and specific plot in the book never happened, the background information and representation of the setting provided to the student is accurate. Naturally, as is true with roughly half of the series, there is a companion book that details the history of the Titanic.

The introduction of the Titanic in Tonight on the Titanic is a bit of unintended sadistic humor on the part of Mary Pope Osborne.

“The title of the book was The Unsinkable Ship.

‘Well, at least that’s good,’ said Jack. ‘The ship won’t sink, even if it is lost.’”

I think we all know what happens next.

The siblings are given a quest by Morgan le Fay to find four gifts, one of which needs to come from a ship lost at sea. That is where the Titanic comes into play. The book mentioned in the quote provides a source of information for the pair as they are whisked back in time to the night of April 14, 1912 – the night the Titanic struck an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean.

As the scene unfolds before them, Jack repeatedly references the book for information about what is happening – first discovering the ship is doomed to sink, then finding out that no ships nearby come to the rescue, and then that there are not enough lifeboats for the passengers. The use of an in-text reference book teaches the reader all about the sinking while continuing to expand upon the story.

The story runs its course, and the book is capped off by a list of facts about the Titanic. This element is a nice addition that wraps up the real story for the reader, clearing up any questions they may have after reading the story of Jack and Annie.