Information Books and Historical Fiction
Topic:
Information Books and Historical Fiction
Paper details:
This assignment considers two related genres of Young Adult literature: informational books and historical fiction. In class we will be reading and discussing two books focused on the same historical subject: the Ku Klux Klan. However, one, Susan Bartoletti’s They Called Themselves the KKK: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group, approaches the topic from the standpoint of conveying historical information in a more or less straightforward manner, whereas the other, Sharon Draper’s Stella by Starlight, conveys historical information through a fictionalized narrative. This assignment requires you to argue one of three positions: that 1) informational books are superior to historical fiction in conveying historical information to a young adult audience, 2) historical fiction is superior to informational books in conveying historical information to a young adult audience, or 3) the pairing of informational books and historical fiction is the best way to convey historical information to a young adult audience. Whichever position you choose, you will use Susan Bartoletti’s They Called Themselves the KKK: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group and Sharon Draper’s Stella by Starlight to make your argument.
Regarding the format of quotations: Quotations of less than five lines are integrated into the text: “Stella agreed 100 percent, but she wasn’t sure if she was allowed to say that to a white child” (34). Note that the capitalization scheme is preserved, as is all punctuation, and the location of the lines of text is specified by designating the page number in parentheses. Longer quotations are indented on both sides and do not require quotation marks; the designation of page numbers follows on the last line.
