ABSTRACT
Given this starting point, however, there is no reason why a varied reading diet should not positively influence children’s understanding of complex ideas across the curriculum. Alun Hicks and Dave Martin (1997) describe a successful crosscurricular project to teach both English and history through historical fiction in a secondary school that involved making significant links in this way while maintaining the essence of each discipline. Similarly, by surveying the range of children’s literature arising from one historical event – the Second World War – and offering examples of ways to work with specific texts in the upper primary (Years 5 and 6) classroom, I hope to illustrate the kinds of connections between literature and history that can enhance both areas of learning.
