Published on Instagram @HistoryHeroBLAST and at www.historyheroblast.com, these short, fun, inspirational stories of everyday people doing extraordinary things inject regular positive energy into this crazy mixed-up world.
Teachers! Engage your students in creative nonfiction writing workshops with Sarah. Or create your own history books. History Hero BLASTS can be filtered by topic and turned into bespoke books aligned with curricular goals. Or, collate all BLASTs on a topic into chapters, eh volia!, you have a series of uplifting books about figures from around the world and throughout time — many of whom were left out of the traditional textbooks and histories.
A travelogue/exposé, The First Solution traces the arc of a humanitarian disaster orchestrated by a U.S. administration cynically exploiting society’s divisions to support a racist agenda. The antithesis of American Dirt, the story unfolds through the voices and actions of volunteer foot soldiers I met while traveling the Tex/Mex border in January 2020. These accidental heroes are right now fighting a guerrilla war for human dignity, flying the tattered flag of American values as their nation’s leaders right now commit unspeakable human rights violations.
Available HERE or read on Medium
The Nonfiction Minute blog is chock full of compelling original 400-word essays by top nonfiction children's book authors, including Sarah Towle, audio read by the author with illustrated text transcriptions.
Find Sarah’s voiced stories here:
Time-travel to 1793 and the French Revolution with this historical drama narrated by Charlotte Corday, 24-year-old schoolgirl-turned-murderess. Find out whey she abandoned her family to stalk radical leader Jean-Paul Marat. Experience how she was caught up in the chaos that claimed the lives of her king and queen, and rocked her nation — and the world — forever.
Time Traveler Tales harness the fictions writer’s flair for storytelling with the scholar’s pursuit of fact to bring history to life. They are true stories, beautifully told by narrators hand picked from the historical record.
Everyone knows Michelangelo. But did you know he once hid in fear for his life? That’s the mystery at the heart of this interactive story by Sarah Towle and Mary Hoffman. Discover the city that invented western art through the eyes of one of its true geniuses. Unearth the secret that Michelangelo took to his grave.
Time Traveler Tales harness the fictions writer’s flair for storytelling with the scholar’s pursuit of fact to bring history to life. They are true stories, beautifully told by narrators hand picked from the historical record.
Shanin wasn’t born without a voice. And yet, before she hits puberty, it’s gone. Set in 1960s Baltimore as the Civil Rights Movement yields to the voices of Black Power, Anti-War, women’s and gay rights, the story explores how generational forces rob women and girls of their identity, confidence, and — ultimately — power. Though inhabiting a past generation, unfolding to a soundtrack that charts the rise of rock ’n roll, contemporary readers will recognize a family, and country, in denial of systemic racism, sexism, ableism, and classism — forces which continue to drive us apart today.
[work in progress — seeks representation]
This middle grade Woody-and-Buzz-meet-Lassie coming-of-age story for the digital age traces a year in the life of an ambitious, football-crazy boy named Jonah who finds a lost dog, then refuses to confess when he discovers the identity of his foundling’s rightful owner. When the two boys happen to meet, Jonah confronts emotions he’s never felt before. He runs; gets lost; and is forced to learn the power of empathy when the tables turn and he’s the one that needs finding. Told completely through exposition, the story is timeless and modern, encouraging co-collaboration with the reader through purposeful engagement.
[work in progress — seeks representation]