Historical Book List

Nostalgia is a powerful thing: a memory evoked, sometimes triggered by a sight, scent or song can transport us back to another place in time: time-travel. And isn’t that what we want a text with strong historical links to do?

As teachers, we know that books that feel nostalgic for us won’t carry the same weight for our children. And - thinking more holistically- just because a book has landed well in the past, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s appropriate to use now. We must look to the authors of texts & the races, cultures and communities represented to assure authenticity and historical accuracy. With historical fiction, we need to be so careful: just because something isn’t purported to be historically accurate, it doesn’t excuse entrenched bias and stereotypes contained within. And this consideration into text choice - particularly those with strong historical links - extends beyond positive representation of race to culture, religion, role in conflict, gender identity, sexual orientation, perception of disability, SEND and neurodivergence, financial status and so much more. Because the books we use can uplift or suppress children. They either reflect realities and truths or perpetuate falsehoods and misconceptions.

One text that we’re delighted to have been able to create a brand-new Writing Root for is Resist by Tom Palmer. Resist tells the true story of Audrey Hepburn who lived in Velp, a village on the edge of Arnhem in The Netherlands during World War 2. From the age of around 13 – 16/17, she worked for the Dutch Resistance. In a video presentation Tom filmed to be shown at our December English Subject Leader sessions, he spoke of understanding the weight of responsibility of ensuring what he wrote was historically accurate, asserting that ‘getting my facts write means I’ve written an authentic representation of Audrey’s experience’.  He carefully researched real events, and also drew upon the experiences of others such as his own daughter’s dance lessons to support character development of Audrey. He read multiple non-fiction books on the history of Arnhem and he also used other sources such as photographic evidence and maps to ensure that the settings are accurate. Added to this were his visits of museums and Arnhem itself. Tom explained that he thinks that’s what is really important with historical fiction’…telling the untold stories. I think historical fiction broadens the canvas. When we are trying to get children to understand World War 2, it's the …diversity involved too… children seeing themselves in the historical stories.’

Of course, choosing the right books to teach history through is only half of our job. Our resourcing around books with strong historical links also needs to be carefully considered as does their intended use. We regularly reflect on existing resources to ensure that we are not suggesting that teachers ask children to engage in tasks that are potentially troubling such as writing in role where we either cannot possibly imagine how a character might have felt or – worse – where we can imagine all too well as a context is really too close to home. Through our writing team, we ensure that new resources have a ‘sensitivity read’: a different pair of eyes to identify and then discuss and change anything that could be problematic. We are thankful to our panels of teachers who we ask for their insight into some of the resources based on historical texts that we develop. And we have also started to add teaching notes to support your use of historical texts so that you feel empowered and enabled.

Acknowledging that we won’t always get something right first time is powerful and we want our teachers to feel comforted by this: we don't want schools and teachers who use our approach to feel afraid of using literature that they feel might be tricky to navigate and broker. 

And in the spirit of this post and of our continued commitment to reflect upon and effect change through the literature we use, we’ve tweaked our Historical Texts booklist. 

Posted in: Book Lists