Historical Fiction

WEEK 8

Green Glass Sea!

By Ellen Klages

Daybook Activities:
1. Do some research about any of the elements of the book that interest you. Make notes in your daybook . Write about how additional knowledge shifts your understanding or comprehension of the novel. 2. Consider the opposition between instruction and delight in childrens literature (we talked about it the first week of class). Write about how this novel negotiates between these two goals. What strategies are used to instruct and delight simultaneously? Which of these two goals does the work seem to favor? 3. Discuss what this book accomplishes that a conventional history book about this same topic does not. 4. Go to Milner or a public library and do a search for topics you find in this novel: nuclear weapons, WWII, historical figures like Einstein etc. Collect a list of 10-15 (including books for adults if necessary) then draw a map of where these items are found in the library. What does your map tell you about the kinds of fields/disciplines or groups that have interests in the topic you chose. What does this say about the book? 5. Take a scene from this novel and rewrite it in a different historical setting. What things have to be changed? What things can stay the same?

Historical fiction is a thriving genre of childrens literature. Its popularity can be linked to the history of didacticism in writing for youth and the continuing sense that works for children and young adults should be educational. Historical fiction often requires a basic familiarity with and an interest in the period in depicted so it makes sense that historical fiction often turns to major historical events or time periods. In Green Glass Sea, you will find that while you may be generally familiar with some historical aspects of World War II (such as the Holocaust) other aspects are only vaguely familiar.

As you read any historical fiction, it is important to think about the way that the book is framing the narrative (even non-fiction is a narrative and is framed in order to highlight or hide particular ideological beliefs). What explicit ideologies do you find in the book? In Green Glass Sea, you might think about ideologies about war, women, children, science and technology, life and death, etc. Think also about the implicit ideologies of the book. How are they the same or different than the explicit ideologies? What is the book teaching? What does it imply that you (as a reader) should already know?

Reading Critically
Since this book is set during World War II, it is interesting to pay attention to the ways it uses both nationalism and nostalgia. World War II was a time of certain national pride and loyalty. It is also a time-period that we often imagine as the end of innocence largely due to the invention of nuclear weapons and the Cold War that follows. As you are reading, pay attention to moments where the actual reality of the historical setting may be overshadowed by a desire to either represent (author) or read (reader) innocence, wholesomeness, safety, national pride, or other nostalgic or nationalistic ideologies. Also pay attention to the places where the characters (particularly the adult characters) are using similar strategies on one another. What ideologies are present about national identity and the past?

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