Today Historian and Children’s author (and fellow Georgian, though British by birth) Annette Laing is presenting us with an article about her writing and a giveaway of a set of her two children’s books. Please comment and leave your email address to be entered. Also, visit Annette’s website for more about her life, travels and work!
“I hated history at school,” the woman at the party says to me with an apologetic shrug.
I don’t blame her.
I still remember my first traumatic encounter with a history class at an American high school, as a British exchange student nearly thirty years ago. In England, I had been used to an entertaining team of two enthusiastic and eccentric history teachers who used every audiovisual aid and lame joke at their disposal to keep us fascinated. Now, in California, I was “taught” by Coach Grunt, who seemed, um, in an altered state of consciousness most of the time, and who threw pre-printed worksheets at us each morning.
Fast forward to the early 2lst century: I was a history professor who reveled in the praise of freshmen who suddenly realized in my class that history wasn’t the boring waste of time they had thought. But I was also frustrated: It shouldn’t be like this. Next thing, I started organizing time-travel camps called TimeShop, days of “Let’s pretend” for 8-12 year olds, when we made believe we were traveling into the past. We had music, costumes, role play, and even smells (yes, smells) that transported us all.
It was amazing to watch kids from rural South Georgia imagine themselves as British wartime evacuees in 1940. I couldn’t get it out of my head. And so, perhaps inevitably, it made its way onto paper in my first published novel, Don’t Know Where, Don’t Know When, the first of The Snipesville Chronicles, the story of three modern kids from America’s most boring town, who become reluctant time-travelers to England in World War II.
I don’t write science fiction, and I don’t write historical fiction. I write mysteries, adventure stories, in which modern characters live in the past, with all the misunderstandings and complications that result.
The best thing about being a genuine, qualified historian is that I have nothing to prove in my fiction. I don’t feel a need to say to the reader, ”Look at all my research! Didn’t I work hard!” But the history is woven throughout the story. Often, my readers say, “I loved the book so much, I didn’t realize I was learning anything, until I finished it, and realized what I had learned.”
Now that’s what I want to hear.
The Snipesville Chronicles, Book 1: Don’t Know Where, Don’t Know When
description:
“What a nightmare.
Hannah Dias, California Girl with Attitude, and Alex, her laid-back brother, have moved from exciting San Francisco to boring Snipesville. Life doesn’t improve when they meet Brandon, a dorky kid who is plotting his escape from the Deep South, and the weird Professor.
Suddenly, the kids are catapulted to World War Two England. They fall into a world of dragon ladies, bomb blasts, ugly underwear, stinky sandwiches, painful punishments, and non-absorbing toilet paper.
They learn so much more than they could ever learn in a history class. Not that they want to learn it.
But they can’t go home until they find George Braithwaite… whoever he is, and whatever he has to do with Snipesville.”
The Snipesville Chronicles, Book 2: A Different Day, A Different Destiny
description:
“When you wake up in the year 1851 on a Scottish hillside…or down an English coal mine…or in a field on a Southern plantation, you know you’re in for a lousy day.
No day has been normal for Hannah and Alex Dias since they moved from San Francisco to the little town of Snipesville, Georgia. Bad enough that they and their dorky new friend Brandon Clark became reluctant time-travelers to World War Two England. Now things are about to get worse. Much worse.
From the cotton fields of the slave South, to the poorest slums of Victorian Scotland, to London’s glittering Crystal Palace, the kids chase a twenty-first century gadget through the mid-nineteenth century. But finding it is only the beginning of what they must do to save two beloved places from destruction, and heal a wound in Time.”
This giveaway ends December 27, 2009. Open to everyone!
Hello, my name is Arleigh... welcome to my book review site! Here you will find author guest posts, book news, reviews and various articles on the genre. My favorite author is Jean Plaidy, of whom I have built a 
I think my Sophia would love this!! Arleigh, you know how she’s into history (mind you it’s more of the Royal kind that she likes..where princesses and beheaded queens are involved)- but still, I’m sure she’d get into this. Please enter me. Loved the guest post too! Thanks:) I’ll go check out annette’s website for sure.
This sounds so amazing! I’m a huge fan of stories set in World War Britain (both wars; the Regeneration trilogy was breath-taking) and throwing YA fiction into the mix is an excellent idea!
I think that it is great to get kids interested in history at a young age. If you don’t have good teachers it can be really boring – but her books sound like they they could really get kids into history. I don’t have any children but if I did (or had any friends who did) I would have them read this.
I have a nephew that would love these, maybe inspire him to be a HF reader. Enter me please…Great guest post. The world need people like this or else who would inspire children to love history. Thank you for bringing it to light.
Oooh please include me in your giveaway!
When I was younger I LOATHED history but maybe this will make me take a look back and see what I missed out in the first place .
many thanks in featuring this book, they seem to be very interesting reads
I’d love a chance to win! Thanks for the giveaway.
s.mickelson at gmail dot com
What a fun giveaway. I would love to be entered for my daughter to peruse these books! I would love it if she could enjoy them. It is rewarding for kids to ‘learn’ while also having fun, and I am glad that this author brought that to her students. She sounds like a wonderful teacher.
My daughter-in-law is a middle school principal. I want to share these books with her, and in turn, with the history teachers at her school. Thanks for the giveaway. Turning children onto the joy of histroy is so important.
What a lovely giveaway. I would love to sign-up. I have 5 grandchildren that would love these.
Oh my 7 yr old daughter would *love* this – she loves learning and spends hours researching random questions and reading books. Please enter me in the giveaway. Thank you.
Please enter me in the giveaway! My daughter is a bit old for these, but my friends have young kids and I would love to share my love of reading with them. They sound really cool!
Thanks Arleigh and Annette!
this sounds like a really fun book…please count me in…thanks.
Lovley, i think it’s a great book and i loved to read it.
Nina.happyendings@yahoo.co.uk
International.
I loved history when I was younger, but I had the good fortune that my mother used to tell us fascinating snippets of gossip in art museums, ghost stories at castles and such. Plus, she handed me Ann Rinaldi – who is one of my favorite young adult historical fiction authors.
Please include me in your giveaway, I’d love to share this with some of my nieces/nephews!
Great giveaway!
Do count me in, please.
Hey there!
o_rei_de_havana [at] hotmail [dot] com
In recent years there have been several good ideas in History books for kids.
I have given my younger son several.
I think these would be a great follow upto those.
dr.strangelove.vs.citizen.kane
@
gmail.com
By the photo, I would say the author is a very nice person!
Liked the idea for these books!
catarina dot magoito at gmail dot com
Wonderful giveaway. Please count me in and thank you once again for making it open for overseas readers.
These look like such fun. Please count me in. Thanks for the giveaway.
Please count me in on your giveaway! =)
sounds great, please count me in.
thankyou for posting it as overseas!
wateva_08 at hotmail dot com
It is great that kids get to read something about history already when they are young. I think that it will help them a lot when they are older and really studying history at school etc.
milkavainamo at lyseo dot edu dot ouka dot fi
I’d like to be included! tWarner419@aol.com
This looks like fun. Please enter me for this giveaway
Please, enter me!
contest82[@]gmail[.]com
After high school my appreciation for history increased dramatically. These books like they would be a great way to get my boys to appreciate history a little more.
rsgrandinetti@yahoo(DOT)com
Oh, nice giveaway!
It’s a pitty it won’t arrive in time for Christmas (if I win, of course) because it would make a great gift.
But I will read them to the kids!
39.5susy AT gmail DOT com
Well, I am not of a Real History fan but if you turn it into “ficiton”, I get a kick out of it!
This is my kind of book!
goncalo DOT mil AT gmail DOT com
These would be great to add to my daughter’s homeschool library – I love the “painless” way of teaching history!
We posted about this giveaway at Winning Readings: http://winningreadings.blogspot.com/2009/12/snipesville-chronicles-books.html
janemaritz at yahoo dot com
I love historical fictions !! If it wasn’t a fiction book, I wouldn’t have gone for this.But a mix of history and fiction is totally my type !
On my way to visit Annette’s website !
Please enter me only if its an international contest.
Thanks for the giveaway
These sound wonderful. I have a grandson who might really like to read them. I might just read them before giving them to him, they sound intriguing and I love history.
Please enter me in the give a way.
dlowran1(at)comcast(dot)net
I think my kids would love this
plb8156@aol.com
Please count me in!
carlos_durao AT hotmail DOT com
Nice contest!
educhico(at)gmail(dot)com
I’d love to win this! Please count me in! Thanks!
Very appealing books, even for adults!
tanitalves AT sapo DOT pt
I don’t want to miss this chance!
joanapatriciadias(at)gmail(dot)com
Congratulations to Karen, the winner, and many thanks to all of you for your interest in my books, which I hope you will now check out! Most especially, thank you to Arleigh for hosting me. Happy New Year to one and all!