Communicating History to Young Audiences: Historians Reflect on Writing Children’s Books

AHA Session 114
Friday, January 5, 2024: 1:30 PM-3:00 PM
Market Street (Parc 55, Third)
Chair:
Laura Atkins, Manzanita Children’s Book Community
Papers:
Hear Whose Voices? Commercial Publishing and the Pressure to Conform to the DEI Frame
Radhika Natarajan, Reed College
“The Kind of People That We Are”: Working in the World of Children’s Literature
Katrina Phillips, Macalester College
Teaching College Students to Write History for Children: A Course Model
Ellen R. Boucher, Amherst College
Comment:
The Audience

Session Abstract

Fights over teaching the past to children - usually centering on whether curricula should include “diverse” perspectives, or whether such emphases are “unpatriotic” and “divisive” - have a long history in this country, dating back almost to the founding of public education itself.[1] In recent years, however, the political drive to control the kind of history that children can access in schools has reached fever pitch. In its final days, the Trump administration created the “1776 Commission” as a response to the incorporation of the “1619 Project” into numerous school curricula. Its stated aim was to ensure that schools and families were fostering “morally responsible citizens who love America.”[2] At the local level, 49 states (all but Delaware) have proposed or enacted restrictions on the teaching of systemic racism and “Critical Race Theory.”[3] Most prominently, Florida recently banned the College Board’s new AP African American history curriculum (which led the College Board to make substantial revisions), and the state legislature passed HB1557, which prohibits classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in certain grade levels.

This panel explores the role and responsibility of professional historians in communicating informed, accurate, and nuanced historical narratives to children, as well as the importance of this work for our current political moment. Historians have long sought ways to engage the public, aiming to bring the most up-to-date historiographical moves, concepts, and insights to audiences beyond the academy. The writing of trade books and op-eds, the work of producing and commenting in documentaries and film, and the creation of websites, blogs, and podcasts have all been part of this effort, although these venues have primarily reached adult audiences. In contrast, children have received less focused attention from academic historians, although there have been some important collaborations between higher education and K-12 educators.

This panel brings together three professional historians who have each engaged in translating the insights of their research and teaching to young audiences through children’s literature. Radhika Natarajan will discuss her middle-grade history of the British Empire, narrated through twenty biographical profiles. She will focus on the challenges of translating postcolonial intellectual and ethical commitments for the market-driven expectations of editors. Katrina Phillips will examine the growing body of children’s literature by Native authors and illustrators. As a historical and cultural consultant -- and as the author of several children’s books -- Phillips will underscore the historical and contemporary contexts of this important subfield. Ellen Boucher will describe a course she co-taught at Amherst College that required college students to research and write books aimed at 4th graders on topics of Indigenous history. Together, these papers demonstrate the stakes of writing history for young audiences. They also underscore the unique skill set that professional historians hold that prepare them well for taking on this vital form of public engagement.

[1] Adam Laats, The Other School Reformers: Conservative Activism in American Education (Harvard, 2015).

[2] The 1776 Report (January 2021), 17.

[3] CRT Forward.

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