Texas History Books Take Students Back in Time

The books, written by Melodie Cuate and published by Texas Tech University Press, focus on Hannah, her brother Nick and her friend Jackie. Hannah and Jackie are bright but average students, just entering seventh grade in a fictitious Austin middle school. Nick is president of the eighth grade and star receiver on the football team.

The adventure starts in “Journey to the Alamo” when Hannah and Jackie enter their Texas history class and meet the new teacher, Mr. Barrington. He brings a strange old trunk into class and assigns the students an unusual project: to become part of history. While searching for inspiration among the books, magazines and other things in the trunk, Hannah, Nick and Jackie are thrown back in time to the Alamo.

Portal to the Imagination

For Cuate, a teacher, the books grew out of her frustration at a lack of children’s literature on the Texas Revolution.

“Our history books are brief and a little dry,” she said. “Many of the important historic characters have only a sentence or two written about them or are left out completely. I hoped to balance things out.”

But why choose a trunk and time travel? “Kids have wonderful imaginations and an old mysterious trunk seemed to be the perfect device to begin a journey to the past. Anything could be stored in a dusty old trunk, right?”

Using time travel, Cuate was able to create present-day characters with whom her young audience would be better able to relate.

“I want the readers to, in a way, live vicariously through these children,” said Cuate. “If I had chosen characters who lived in 1836, the readers wouldn’t experience or be surprised by the difficulties Hannah, Nick and Jackie face. As a writer, I find it challenging and fun to imagine how my characters would react to the events happening around them.”

The Journey Continues

The second book in the Mr. Barrington’s Mysterious Trunk Series, “Journey to San Jacinto,” opens with the disappearance of the teacher. The students join forces with Mr. Barrington’s niece to discover where he has gone. Miss Barrington, Hannah and Jackie find themselves transported back in time to 1836, traveling with a soldier carrying ammunition for Gen. Sam Houston only days before the Battle of San Jacinto. Nick, too, goes back in time but finds himself separated from the girls as he marches with the Mexican army.

Book three of the series, “Journey to Gonzales,” is due out in April. This book lands the three students in the middle of events leading up to the Battle of Gonzales.

“There are some fascinating and heartbreaking firsthand accounts to draw on from both sides of the Texas Revolution,” Cuate said. “I try my best to present different perspectives on the battles, in a way, to put a new spin on the past for kids. Not much is written about the Mexican soldiers. Families’ loyalties were sometimes split, brothers fought against brothers, neighbors against neighbors.”

Hannah, Nick and Jackie’s journey won’t end at Gonzales. Cuate is already at work on a forth book, “Journey to Goliad.”

“I’ve had great input from my students suggesting other topics they want to know about,” said Cuate. “The stories about Hannah, Nick and Jackie don’t feel like mine anymore; they belong to the kids.”

The books are winning over more than young students of history. In 2007, Cuate was the winner of the Linden Heck Howell Outstanding Teaching of Texas History Award from Humanities Texas. The award recognized her teaching and writing. Cuate, who teaches fourth grade gifted and talented students, lives with her husband, Tony and daughter Erica, in McAllen.

Cuate also has created materials for teachers to use in the classroom for both “Journey to the Alamo” and “Journey to San Jacinto” as well as instructions and a pattern to make a Texas History Trunk.

 

Story produced by the Office of Communications and Marketing, (806) 742-2136.