Q&A with Annette Laing and Giveaway!

[Tricia]

Annette is a new member of Book Blogs and published her first book in August. Check out her amazing accomplishments:

From Amazon: Annette Laing was born in Scotland, raised in England, and spent many years in California, where she earned a Ph.D. in American and British history. Since 1996, she has taught and written history at a university in Georgia. Annette is a published scholar of early America and the Atlantic World, and is the creator of TimeShop, a nationally-recognized time travel experience for kids. Don't Know Where, Don't Know When is her first novel.

Please use this space to pick her brain and ask questions! Anyone who comments will be entered into a drawing on July 19th to receive a copy of her book (thank you Annette!).

OK, first question from me: Is TimeShop part of your research interests as a professor? What made you decide to start the program? (I wish I lived close enough for my kids to be involved!)

[Annette Laing]

Let me start by letting everyone know that TimeShop was a day of imaginative play on a historical theme, in which my university students and I worked with kids ages 8-12. Our first program, Wartime England, took kids on an imaginary journey to the town of Letchworth, England, on September 11,1940. In small groups, kids pretended to be wartime English evacuees, and travelled among rooms (half hour each room) in a building we took over: The Home room, for example, brought them into contact with Mrs. Hampson, who was supposed to look after them. She made them do chores, like making toilet paper from newspaper and sweeping the floor, while she chatted with friends (other costumed characters), read the newspaper, or listened to the radio. The kids both enjoyed and resented the character, but became more sympathetic when they learned that she was only 19, and that her husband had just gone to war... There were about eight different experiences during the day, including an air raid(!), and it was lots of fun.
In answer to your first question...Depends who you ask. I would say emphatically YES, because only a professional historian would have the chutzpah and expertise to produce a program that never overtly teaches anything, and yet teaches so much. Kids and parents were always astonished by how much their kids learned to think from one day at TimeShop. That said, there's a bit of a battle going on in academe over whether to recognize "applied scholarship" as well as the traditional publications.
Honestly, I started TimeShop without really worrying about how it would "count", since I think "counting" is modern education's worst enemy, the foe of passion, commitment, and goodwill. However, TimeShop ended up becoming a full-time job in itself! I received a very nice honor (faculty service award) and decent-size check from a committee of faculty in other disciplines (NOT administrators), lots of accolades from historians outside my department and friendly colleagues within, and...stony silence from the powers-that-be.
I would gladly have traded the check and the award for recognition that, yes, working with kids is incredibly important, and not a hobby (as one of the snippy types reportedly described it.). Upshot? I'm quitting my job as a professor, and going full time to my work for kids: Writing my books, puttering along with my blog (http://snipesville.blogspot.com), giving papers at conferences on history for kids, and visiting schools. Pay cut? Enormous. Satisfaction? Enormous.
Okay, sorry to be long-winded, it's an occupational hazard...
QUESTION TWO!
I watched too many of those reality shows on PBS, you know, 1900 House and all that. And I started to think how cool it would be to recreate those experiences with kids. The program evolved also into an outreach to my college student volunteers, very few of whom were history or education majors. It was wonderful to see their enthusiasm for history grow as they prepared to spend a day as characters and counselors, pretending to be in England in 1940 or France in the 14th century.
Tricia, I'd love it if your kids could attend too. I'm sad to say that TimeShop became a casualty of the bureaucracy, too. However, I plan to speak and write about what we did, because it was unique, and a wonderful experience for us all. I also hope one day to resurrect TimeShop. I still have parents tell me how inspiring the kids found it, which thrills me to bits.

[Debbie Carter]

My daughter who is in 7th grade does virtual school in Florida. I like the program because the kids are required to do what I consider to be really interesting projects. So, my question is this: Do you think that a TimeShop type experience or even certain kinds of TimeShop experiences would work in a virtual school environment or do you feel that it is dependent on having a group of people together to experience something similar at the same time?

[Annette Laing]

Hi, Debbie:
What an interesting question!
I think something TimeShop-like could be done online to good effect: In fact, I borrowed the idea of the shopping experience from the BBC Schools' website about children in World War II, where it features as an online activity. BBC Scotland also has a great site on life in WW2, by the way. HOWEVER...It isn't the same thing. TimeShop was first and foremost play. Kids laughed, joked, and sometimes got very silly. We tried to minimize the chaos while allowing them a day off the leash. They so enjoyed the interaction with the college students (some of whom were older than the typical 18-21 ) and the chance to be on equal terms with adults. It was an emotional experience. After sitting through the sounds of an air raid in a darkened "shelter," the kids were very subdued. They were shocked by the sight of people smoking (fake ciggies, I rush to add), and startled to learn that people in 1940 simply didn't know that cigarettes killed. There was no enforced "teamwork" but each group of kids built cameraderie, and friendships were made. I think it was the imagination and emotion above all that made the program so inspiring: When we were done for the day, the college students and I agreed that it was like returning to another world when we left the building. While I'm impressed with the BBC's work, and it's the best on the web, I still don't think it holds a candle to the human connection we made with a few period props, a few costumes, and a lot of enthusiasm.
I do think fiction, while an imperfect format, can do a lot to lure kids into a love of history, and while I don't stress this bit too much for fear of sounding boring, I always intended my books to be a sort of TimeShop in widely-accessible form. Reading Don't Know Where, Don't Know When is still a vicarious experience, but my readers assure me that it captures a sense of being on the spot in wartime England, emotionally as well as physically.
By the way, I just started homeschooling my son, largely because I refuse to let him become a casualty of No Child Left Behind. I have to say, it's a learning curve for me too!

[Annette Laing]

Hi, Alessandra (and thanks for the question--I know it's hard to ask questions of a new author!):
Yes, it is definitely popular with adults. I know this because they've been kind enough to tell me so. One grown-up book club not only invited me to join in their discussion of my book, but also made the foods that I described as being served at a wartime picnic. This made me a bit nervous, because I'd never actually tested the recipes...Ahem.
I didn't set out to write a moralizing, teachy-preachy book for kids (as a rule, I hate those, and the sort of people who write them...), and I wrote a book I would want to read myself. I'm a fan of writing that is long on characters and plot, but short on pretence, and it turns out that I'm not alone in my preferences. Hope that answers your question--If you do decide to read my book, I'd love to hear what you think!

[Corinne]

Annette, I think this is SUCH a great idea!!!! I love exposing my kids to history (we just took a "summer adventure" to Fort McHenry this morning...) and your book sounds like something I'd love to share with them. I saw from the amazon ad that is says "book one" - are you planning on a series?

[Annette Laing]

Hi, Corinne! Yes, I am planning a series, and I'm currently having a lot of fun writing the first draft of Chapter 7 of the (untitled) second book, which is set in 1851. All the books will take place in British and American history, and an underlying theme is connections between the two. No idea how long the series will be, mind you, because I've decided I'll only write them until I get fed up of them. As things stand now, I have definite ideas for three more, all of them involving dropping these three oh-so-modern kids into the alien cultures of the past!

[Corinne]

I love the idea of helping kids make connections between the two histories - there are so many!! My son (age 5) is a HUGE revolutionary war fan (what do they call that war on your side of the pond, anyway?). He wanted to name his soccer team (with red shirts) the "red coats." He was out-voted :)

[Annette Laing]

Maybe next time he should suggest the team be called the Lobsterbacks, one of the more colorful (and printable) nicknames that colonists gave the British troops. :-)
Glad you asked about what the Brits call the Revolutionary War. I learned about it at school as the War for American Independence, which is more or less what colonial historians here call it (that or, well, Revolutionary War) when trying to describe the conflict, not the cultural change that followed. Most of my American students over the years have assumed the Brits call it the American Rebellion, or the Yankee Unpleasantness, or some such. It's interesting, because my history teacher, at least, presented it as a tale of bizarre screw-ups by the Brits. Which, in many ways, it was. :-)

[Annette Laing]

Tricia decreed that I should pick the winner of the drawing for my book. I'm a total weenie, so I assigned numbers to each of you, and asked my husband to pick one of those as a winner. And so...The winner of DKW/DKW is CORINNE! Congrats, Corinne. Please message me with an address. And thanks to everyone for their participation. I hope you'll check out DKW/DKW, and I look forward to hearing your take on it. Cheers, Annette

[Corinne]

Oh YAY :) I'm THRILLED!! I will email you with my address. I've really loved getting your perspective on things. I like term "the Yankee Unpleasantness." HA!

[Annette Laing]

You're welcome! :-)