Joy Hakim:
History textbooks that read like novels

History author Joy Hakim says textbooks should be page turners like all good books: "They should stimulate the mind. They should leave you with something to think about." That's the reason she wrote her first textbook series, a 10-volume history of the United States, A History of US. The ten books read like novels, which was her intent. "Truth really is stranger than fiction," she says.

"Today's standard textbooks usually just state the facts," Hakim says. But it's the story that is interesting. History should be every child's favorite subject. That it is often seen as "boring" is a powerful indictment of many texts. Hakim has more than 200 letters from kids saying how much they like learning about history from her books. One student wrote: "I would rather read your books than play Nintendo."

Hakim is a graduate of Smith College and Goucher College, where she received a Master of Education degree and an honorary PHD. She has taught school in Maryland, Nebraska, New York and Virginia. She worked as a newspaper reporter and associate editor at the Virginian Pilot in Norfolk, Virginia, and as an assistant editor at McGraw-Hill. Hakim says, "I've always written. I was on the school newspaper way back in grammar school. Teaching and writing seem to me to be two sides of the same coin -- that desire to communicate."

After reading a study done at the University of Minnesota--that compared kids' comprehension of journalistic writing vs. textbook writing, and found that comprehension of journalistic writing was 40 percent higher than textbook writing--she decided to see if she could write for school children. "Before I got started, I did a lot of research on what was out there in history books. I went back to books that were written in the 1920s. I was amazed. We were doing good books for children 80 years ago. They were compelling, they were well-written and they were story-based. Children knew and loved history then; somehow we threw away that successful model." The growth of the textbook industry, Hakim says, is paralleled by the decline of test scores: "We have a reading crisis in our land. TV is better than what we give children in our schools. Have you ever heard a child ask, 'Can I stay up tonight and read my textbook?' It's not a question meant to be funny. I find kids are absolutely starved for information. I can't believe I don't have dozens of competitors."

Hakim's social studies series, published by Oxford University Press, and first marketed to retail booksellers, has sold more than five million copies. A team at Johns Hopkins has done coordinated teaching materials. (No questions within the text to interrupt the reading. Children understand the concept: this is a reading book, this is a workbook.)

A Johns Hopkins team is also doing teaching materials to go with Hakim's new series, The Story of Science, published by Smithsonian Books (and distributed by Harper Collins). This one really breaks the mold. Her idea is to teach the ideas behind science, by presenting the story of the quest to understand the universe. It's a physics first series, which means it attempts to teach contemporary physics—quantum theory and relativity—to middle school readers. "That shouldn't compete with the hands-on books and practice; we need both," she says. "I write about ideas."

When she was starting out, she went to her local Virginia Beach school district, told them what she was doing, and asked if a class could pilot. "They gave me a 5th grade for seven weeks," she says. "I xeroxed a manuscript, right off my dot-matrix printer, no graphics, no maps, nothing. A teacher who had two social studies classes used my manuscript in one; in the other she had a brand new history textbook. At a PTA meeting, parents of students who received my manuscript complained because their kids weren't getting the glitzy new textbook. By the end of the trial the second class asked to use my manuscript. The teacher said if she assigned three pages of the textbook the kids groaned. If she assigned 10 pages of the story-centered A History of US, they wanted to read more. That's when I knew I had something. Kids will read it if you give them something compelling."

But when she sent the manuscript off to publishers, it was rejected—by everyone who saw it. "I was getting really nice rejection letters!" laughs Hakim. "I think only writers can get pleasure in their rejection letters. I got letters from the presidents of several publishing houses. Most said 'This is a really good book. It should be published. There's a need for it, but it doesn't fit our editorial projections.'" Hakim learned that it takes more than a good book to get published. Publishers today publish textbooks with dozens of writers and consultants, and invest millions of dollars in books that won't offend anyone. "There was really no place in the textbook publishing houses for a book written by one author," she says. "If you really believe in what you're doing, somehow you find yourself compelled to stick with it."

She was lucky in being introduced to Byron Hollinshead, who had been president of Oxford University Press and who got her a contract with that publisher. Then he produced the books for OUP.

Hakim was awarded the first ever James A. Michener Prize in Writing from the National Council of Social Studies. Princeton historian James McPherson said: "Joy Hakim seems to have accomplished a miracle--interesting kids in history." Historian Bernard Weisberger called the history series "a fine piece of work...It really respects children, as the best children's literature does." David McCullough has called the books, "superb."

The best compliment, she says, came from a teacher who wrote that her students "read your book and laugh out loud." "For heavens sake, why can't school books be fun!" says Hakim. "And why aren't we making the transition from industrial age schools to information age schools with more grace? The reading form of the information age is nonfiction. It's also the literary form of our time. Most schools haven't caught up."

As to the science books, Hakim says, "I'm having a great time writing and learning science and have had wonderful help from some very generous physicists, especially an MIT physicist who has now become a good friend. Writing these books has been a revelation. We live in what is the most astonishing scientific era ever. To produce college graduates who are scientifically illiterate is irresponsible of us."

Hakim lives in Virginia and Colorado. She is married to Sam Hakim. They have three children, Ellen, Jeffrey and Daniel, and four grandchildren, Natalie and Sam Johnson, and Casey and Eli Hakim.