11/22/63

What will you learn about history?

You might be surprised to see a history teacher recommending a book by an author that usually writes supernatural horror stories.  When I choose this book to read I did it because King is one of my favorite authors.  I did not expect to learn about history even though this is a tale about a time traveler who sets out to stop the Kennedy assassination.  What King does with his fictional tale is bring to life actual characters found in your history book.  He questions their motives and whether or not the conspiracies have any validity.  It is fiction.  King chooses to dismiss conspiracy theories and focus on Oswald as a lone assassin.  He has done enough research to justify his choice.  But there is also an inspiration to readers to decide if they agree with King's choice.  This would inspire students to do their own research and reach their own conclusions.  But of course the main reason that I would recommend this book to students of history is because King allows us to see the past through the eyes of someone from the twenty-first century.  The author brings the late 50s and 60s to life including all of the cultural norms and expectations of society.  The details about what the main character encounters provide more insight into this era than any history book can.


Why should you read it?
Like many of Stephen King's novels, this is a long one.  The paperback has 880 pages.  It is a commitment for any reader.  But King quickly presents his plot and readers become invested in Jake Epping's mission.  Ironically the theme does not focus on assassinations or the paradoxes of time travel.  The author creates a story that provokes the reader to question the impact that one person can have on the world and the value of an ordinary life.

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

What will you learn about history?
During the 1920's the United States was experiencing the final wave of immigration from Europe.  Most of the immigrants came from Southern or Eastern Europe to look for industrial jobs.  But the Irish also came to escape the rebellion from British rule.  One of the main characters of Orphan Train is an Irish immigrant who becomes an orphan and is put on a train with other orphans to be adopted by families in Minnesota.  Her fictional experience is similar to those of the two hundred thousand real children who made the journey from 1854 to 1929.  Very few of these children became members of the families that adopted them.  Most were used as labor.  Some were abused.  This book summarizes their experiences and explores how they dealt with them.


Why should you read it?
This was an easy story to read and once I became invested in the characters I was unable to stop reading.  Kline makes the story relative by intertwining the story of an orphan train rider with one of a modern ward of the foster system.  The author does a great job of drawing the two characters together and creating a bond between them with a school assignment about transition and what we take with us with we move from one situation to another.  One complaint is that the modern side of the story is filled with stereotypes (the foster child who dresses like a goth to keep people from trying to get close to her) while stereotypes that existed during Vivian's youth are brushed aside and their impact on immigrants, especially in the Midwest, is trivialized.