This is where the aspect of the power of a work of fiction is said to take us out of ourselves . He feels strongly that in helping children to begin writing, a teacher s aim should be to, in his words, derive the stimulating and strengthening of the speculative imagination and therefore of the individual s capacity for human sympathy . Virginia Hamilton, an award winning author of children s books does this well in her stor y, The House of Dies Drear . Her hero, Thomas, is a thirteen year old black boy moving from the South to a town in Ohio, to a house which had ties in the past to the Underground Railroad for fugitive slaves. This is a book many black children could relate to and, in reading, discover many historical facts and insights into slavery written in an understanding and enlightening way.
Mystery writing lends itself well to the short story.
Starting with the premise that even a child can be a detective, as shown in the Encyclopedia Brown, Nancy Drew, or Hardy Boys stories, a child can then write about such familiar events as a lost notebook, a stolen article, or a missing child. Linking reading and writing is an important aspect of this unit. With the writing of a story will come an awareness of the need to use the thinking process skills used in reading and solving the mystery along with the author. Their writing then becomes one method by which these reading skills improve. Stern, p. 137. 4.