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[CCBC-Net] Fact vs. Fiction
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From: Cinco Puntos Press <cinco>
Date: Mon, 6 Nov 2000 10:13:36 -0700
The problem, I think, with many of the issues that Maia and others raised about historical texts is not necessarily the texts themselves but the way that they are introduced to children in the classroom. If a teacher or a librarian or a parent doesn't introduce this very conversation that we are having to children-that a story always will change depending on who tells it-then I think the tendency is to swallow a story whole. I think children can be taught to be critical about historical perspective. Unfortunately, I don't think that many teachers do this. I know I certainly was never taught to do this and as a consequence I think history always seemed fairly boring to me, there wasn't the same kind of tension of plot that you can find in good fiction.
This conversation can be introduced in all sorts of ways: by introducing many different texts from different perspectives and discussing the differences and the reasons for the differences; by asking children to all write about a significant classroom or community experience and then comparing how the stories vary depending on who tells it; by asking children to collect family stories from different family members and trying to figure out why one aunt would tell a story this way when the grandfather tells it another way... We just published a book (not a children's book although the author put it together because her kids kept asking her "Mom, what was it like to be a hippie?") about the hippie commune movement in the 60s and 70s in Taos. The way the author presented those times was by presenting it as a scrapbook-she included personal essays, oral histories, letters, newspaper articles, photos, fliers. She was a hippie herself and is very nostalgic about those times, but because she used this approach the reader is left with a much fuller sense of those times, not only the hippie's idealism, but also their incredible naivet? and their obliviousness to the negative impact they were having on this very small town and on the children they were raising. I wonder if there are any children's nonfiction and biographical texts that are like this.
Susie Byrd
* * *
New Books from Cinco Puntos Press at www.cincopuntos.com
ELEGY ON THE DEATH OF C?SAR CH?VEZ by Rudolfo Anaya and illustrated by Gaspar Enriquez
VATOS a collaboration with photographs by Jos? Galvez and a poem by Luis Alberto Urrea
A SCRAPBOOK OF A TAOS HIPPIE Tribal Tales from the Heart of a Cultural Revolution by Iris Keltz
Message----From: Connie Rockman [mailto:connie.rock at snet.net] Sent: Saturday, November 04, 2000 5:47 PM To: Subscribers of ccbc-net Subject: Re: [CCBC-Net] Fact vs. Fiction
Re: the difficulty of discerning what is actually factual in nonfiction, including biography . . .
I like to quote from an article by Russell Freedman
- based on a speech given at Ohio State University in 1989 when I teach classes in nonfiction and biography to my children's literature students. Freedman says that
"facts can be unreliable, misleading, ambiguous, or slippery." When researching his book CHILDREN OF THE WILD WEST he discovered that in source material, you find different "truths." The diaries and journals written by male pioneers traveling West in the 19th century emphasized the dangers and hostility of native Americans. Women's diaries, however, tell a very different story. The women generally started their journeys afraid of the native tribes, but they usually ended up describing the natives they encountered as "friendly in manner and helpful in deed." Therefore, Freedman goes on to say, "Just because a book is allegedly based on fact doesn't mean that it tells the truth."
I think all we can hope for in biography and other so?lled "nonfiction" is a writer with the skill to create a narrative flow based on the best information available . . . but it will never be perfectly factual. Every memory, whether remembered or researched, is filtered through that particular writer's perception.
Connie Rockman
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Received on Mon 06 Nov 2000 11:13:36 AM CST
Date: Mon, 6 Nov 2000 10:13:36 -0700
The problem, I think, with many of the issues that Maia and others raised about historical texts is not necessarily the texts themselves but the way that they are introduced to children in the classroom. If a teacher or a librarian or a parent doesn't introduce this very conversation that we are having to children-that a story always will change depending on who tells it-then I think the tendency is to swallow a story whole. I think children can be taught to be critical about historical perspective. Unfortunately, I don't think that many teachers do this. I know I certainly was never taught to do this and as a consequence I think history always seemed fairly boring to me, there wasn't the same kind of tension of plot that you can find in good fiction.
This conversation can be introduced in all sorts of ways: by introducing many different texts from different perspectives and discussing the differences and the reasons for the differences; by asking children to all write about a significant classroom or community experience and then comparing how the stories vary depending on who tells it; by asking children to collect family stories from different family members and trying to figure out why one aunt would tell a story this way when the grandfather tells it another way... We just published a book (not a children's book although the author put it together because her kids kept asking her "Mom, what was it like to be a hippie?") about the hippie commune movement in the 60s and 70s in Taos. The way the author presented those times was by presenting it as a scrapbook-she included personal essays, oral histories, letters, newspaper articles, photos, fliers. She was a hippie herself and is very nostalgic about those times, but because she used this approach the reader is left with a much fuller sense of those times, not only the hippie's idealism, but also their incredible naivet? and their obliviousness to the negative impact they were having on this very small town and on the children they were raising. I wonder if there are any children's nonfiction and biographical texts that are like this.
Susie Byrd
* * *
New Books from Cinco Puntos Press at www.cincopuntos.com
ELEGY ON THE DEATH OF C?SAR CH?VEZ by Rudolfo Anaya and illustrated by Gaspar Enriquez
VATOS a collaboration with photographs by Jos? Galvez and a poem by Luis Alberto Urrea
A SCRAPBOOK OF A TAOS HIPPIE Tribal Tales from the Heart of a Cultural Revolution by Iris Keltz
Message----From: Connie Rockman [mailto:connie.rock at snet.net] Sent: Saturday, November 04, 2000 5:47 PM To: Subscribers of ccbc-net Subject: Re: [CCBC-Net] Fact vs. Fiction
Re: the difficulty of discerning what is actually factual in nonfiction, including biography . . .
I like to quote from an article by Russell Freedman
- based on a speech given at Ohio State University in 1989 when I teach classes in nonfiction and biography to my children's literature students. Freedman says that
"facts can be unreliable, misleading, ambiguous, or slippery." When researching his book CHILDREN OF THE WILD WEST he discovered that in source material, you find different "truths." The diaries and journals written by male pioneers traveling West in the 19th century emphasized the dangers and hostility of native Americans. Women's diaries, however, tell a very different story. The women generally started their journeys afraid of the native tribes, but they usually ended up describing the natives they encountered as "friendly in manner and helpful in deed." Therefore, Freedman goes on to say, "Just because a book is allegedly based on fact doesn't mean that it tells the truth."
I think all we can hope for in biography and other so?lled "nonfiction" is a writer with the skill to create a narrative flow based on the best information available . . . but it will never be perfectly factual. Every memory, whether remembered or researched, is filtered through that particular writer's perception.
Connie Rockman
To remove your address from the mailing list, send a message with the header...
To: listserv at ccbc.education.wisc.edu
Subject: signoff ccbc-net
Received on Mon 06 Nov 2000 11:13:36 AM CST
