Guest Post - Is History Boring?

 
Author Michelle Isenhoff has several books for children and young adults to her credit. She's stopping by today to share her experience and wisdom in this wonderful guest post.



Michelle says,

"I write for kids.  In my books, you can expect adventure and substance, but I'll always respect the innocence of our children."  

I like that! I remember how challenging it could be to find good books for my kids when they were young. Michelle is currently conducting a blog tour for her latest book, Beneath the Slashings. It is specially priced at .99 for the month of August. (See links below.)

Windows to the Past

“History is boring.”

Oh, those words make me cringe! Especially when I hear kids say them. You see, I’m a teacher at heart. I haven’t taught in an official capacity, outside of homeschooling my own children, for a decade now, but that teacher in me never seems to go away. I’m stuck with it.

Maybe it’s the teacher, maybe it’s the writer, but I love traveling to historical sites. They are hotbeds for imagination. The individuals who once lived in those places call out to me, begging me to set them on paper, and that little story generator in my brain goes crazy. Often I’ll immerse myself completely in a place or an event so I can gather a real sense of what it was like, what people may have experienced or felt. I want kids to experience that sense of wonder!

This is how I came to write my very first novel, The Color of Freedom. My husband and I took a vacation to Boston, Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts. I saw where the American Revolution began—I felt it—and I set that experience down in the story of Meadow MacKenna, a young indentured servant from Ireland who found herself caught in the tensions that tore the colonies apart. Meadow’s story is compelling in itself, but as a teacher and history buff, I love that it gives kids a window into the past. They get to experience history, though they hardly realize they’re learning.

A similar thing happened as I researched a vacation to Gettysburg. I came across a man by the name of Seymour Finney who owned a hotel in Detroit and manned a station on the Underground Railroad. While slave hunters were checked into his hotel, he escorted runaways to freedom. That story fueled my book The Candle Star. But one story began to feel rather narrow, so I expanded it to three, choosing to follow one state though the entire Civil War decade. The Divided Decade Trilogy was born.

I choose Michigan because it is my home state as well as Mr. Finney’s. It turned out to be an ideal setting. Though never the site of a battle, Michigan was an important participant in the events surrounding the war. Strongly pro-abolition, several of her counties were active in the Underground Railroad, with seven documented routes to freedom and two hundred safe houses (The Candle Star, book one). The Michigan home front was also vital to the war effort, supplying food, materials and men for the northern Cause. But unmanned farms created challenges all their own, and unscrupulous characters were ever ready to take advantage (Broken Ladders, book two). And after the war, families were left broken, and America needed to rebuild. The lumber camps of Michigan’s vast wilderness lured many who were looking for a new start (Beneath the Slashings, book three).

By creating three engaging adventures featuring three twelve-year-old girls, I was able to surround this period of history. The setting moves from city to farm to wilderness, viewing the war from different angles, immersing readers in different years, different challenges, different viewpoints. My goal, as always, is to create high-quality literature that provides an entertaining reading experience for children. I want to tell a great story. My hidden hope, however, is that my readers—young and old—might glean a little insight along the way.

I’ve just finished the final book of the trilogy, Beneath the Slashings. Within, young Grace is carted off to a lumber camp as soon as her father returns from the army. It’s frightening enough being the only girl in a camp full of men, but then a series of “accidents” prove intentional. Grace wants only to put the war behind her, but the camp doesn’t seem at all the sort of place where her family can heal.

 

Michelle Isenhoff is an elementary teacher and the author of several middle grade and young adult novels. Ever the teacher, she also likes to make classroom materials available to accompany her novels. They can be found on her blog. 

Stop by and see Michelle at her website, blog, on Facebook, or Twitter. She'd love to see you!

For more info or to purchase Beneath the Slashings, click on the following links:

Paperback

Kindle

Nook

Smashwords

Do you have any questions for Michelle? When you were in school, did you think history was boring? 

Have a great weekend,

 Karen 

P.S. Ann Gabhart's book giveaway ends tomorrow at midnight. Click here for details.

Photo credit: Stock Exchange