Childrens Information Books

Introduction

One of my personal interests is history, and for this paper I selected two childrens history booksone on Renaissance history and another on Medieval history. The books are written by Rob Shearer and are meant to be companion pieces or continuation pieces to the Famous Men of series. Thus, the Medieval history book is a Famous Men of the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance book is Famous Men of the Renaissance and Reformation. Both books are very interesting because I learned a lot from them about people I had only heard mention. So while these were childrens books, they actually contained a lot of information for an adult who knew nothing about the people described in them. This showed me that a childrens book can be very informational for a novice or amateur historian like me. In this paper, I will discuss what I noticed in exploring these books, what new perspective I gained, what insight I obtained, and what questions I developed. I will make the argument that well-written and researched childrens books are really not just for kids but can also be a great entry point for adults looking to obtain new information on a subject they know little about.

What I Noticed

What I noticed first off on the books by Shearer was that the author came across as very knowledgeable of his subject. The author did not complicate the subject, however; he conveyed interesting details and stories about famous people from these time periods, and connected different people to one another based on geography and time period. For instance, in a chapter on Lorenzo Valla, Shearer writes, About the time Donatello was studying the ruins of ancient Rome, Lorenzo Valla was born there. He was quickly recognized as a prodigy (Shearer 19). This kind of straight-forward but informative approach really got my attention and helped me to appreciate both the time and the subject matter more...

The books were simple without coming across as simplistic.

New Perspective

One new perspective I obtained from this endeavor was a finer appreciation for some of the Reformers and also for the drama of the Middle Ages. What an intense time for many different people! Wars, religious fervor, kings and nobles carving out a path forward for their people, and ideas and men coming into conflictall while artists and thinkers and great statesmen came upon the stage. I had never realized the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and Reformation time periods were so exciting! I am used to studying modern history and immersing myself in the...

…just because a book is written for children it does not mean it cant be for adults as well. Adults can be just as ignorant of a subject as children, and a simple writing style, accompanied by illustrations, can be a welcoming way to attract the mind of an adult. Not every adult reader wants to tackle a new subject by having to contend with weighty sentences, lugubrious thoughts, and theoretical implications of analysisas some historians do. I liked the introductory level approach of these childrens books and they made me want to read more.

This discovery matters because, one, it showed me that there is a lot about the past that I still dont know but that I can explore now that I have an introduction to it all; and, two, that adult learners can benefit from using childrens literature to introduce them to a world that was previously closed to them. In fact, I think it should be a focus of teachers to explore the extent to which well-written childrens books can be used as introductory texts for adults. They are not overwhelming, they are interesting and easy to read, and if the author is well-researched it will come through in the writing. I know that I will be reading more of Shearers…