Maggie's Farm

On the one hand a good way to teach the history of another culture is to make cloddish kids read the novels and poetry of that culture. Neruda, Garcia Marquez, Amado when starting to study South America for example.

But personally I have usually preferred nonfiction because of an Elephant's Child curiousity about people and places out of reach. Of course many nonfiction authors lie. But the truth or the attempt to tell the true story can transform us.

Random quote any novelist wd be proud of:

"Some nights the sky wept stars that quickly floated and disappeared into the darkness before our wishes could meet them. "
--Ishmael Beah"A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier"