Author Janet Hickman's gentle, quiet demeanor belies a sharp intellect and quick wit. Janet has brought these qualities to the many books she has written. Although she has published novels for older readers in the genres of realistic fiction and fantasy, her true passion seems to be for writing historical fiction.
Janet was born and grew up in Kilbourne, Ohio, and has lived in the same house in Columbus, Ohio for more than thirty-five years. Perhaps it is these deep and stable family roots that have inspired her love of history. How her interest in history came about was not a result of the school curriculum. She explains, "Some children say they don't like history because it's boring. I was one of those children. Looking back on it now, I realize it was mastering and spitting back the textbook that I didn't like. I did like history but the parts I liked I thought of as play not work."[11]
The works of historical fiction she read as a child, including Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" books seem to have fueled her passion. Even more important than her love of history were her grandparents' stories. Janet remembers her grandmother's tales about the one-room schoolhouse she attended as a girl and the sacrifices the family was forced to make during the Great Depression. Janet also remembers tales about her great-grandfather's experiences in the Civil War. When she visited the Ohio State Historical Society's museum as a ten-year-old Janet found herself fascinated by the family of mannequins who posed in the replica of a late 18th century cabin. She reveals, "I secretly longed to move the figures from fireplace to table, from bench to bed, to take them through their daily chores or to play out what would happen if the baby had a fever or a wild animal clawed at the door."[12]
Her love of creating fictional stories grounded in real times and places has stayed with Janet throughout her life just as she has stayed rooted in Ohio. She attended The Ohio State University to obtain a Bachelor of Science degree, graduating in 1960. Soon after she married John Hickman, whom she had met at the University. While she and John raised their two children, Janet returned to Ohio State University two more times. In 1964 she earned a MA. Ed and in 1979 she earned a PhD in Language Literature and Reading. Early in her career she taught junior high school and later was an instructor at Ohio State University before being hired as a full time professor of children's literature in 1985.
During these years of parenting, teaching, and studying Janet was also writing. Janet recalls that the idea she could write books for children did not occur to her until she gave her eighth graders an assignment to write a short story based on the information in the chapter they'd been assigned to read. She remembers the students complained so much that she promised she would do the assignment as well, "just to prove it wasn't so bad." [13](p. 77). Her students loved her story and it became her first published work when it was sold to a classroom magazine. Her first full-length novel, The Valley of the Shadow, was published in 1974. The book is centered around a real incident, the massacre of Christianized Indians in Ohio caught between the British and Colonial conflict territory in 1781. Her story was grounded in meticulous research that included diaries of early Moravian missionaries and even weather reports of the time. Other works of historical fiction followed. Although Ohio remained the setting in the other books, the time periods ranged from the Civil War in Zoar Blue, to an early nineteenth century Shaker community in Susannah, to World War II in The Stones. Although her book Ravine is not strictly historical fiction, it is a time travel fantasy and the main character's mother happens to be a college professor who is performing historical research. Janet's most recent work of contemporary fiction, Jericho, is also deeply rooted in the stories of several generations of a family living in Ohio.
About her fascination for history she declares, "For me, historical research is absolutely seductive. It usually begins when my imagination catches on some simple piece of information that I've discovered by chance at an historical site (which I love to visit) or in a book or magazine article about the past. It might be a passing reference to a young person or to someone's children, but without any names provided because history doesn't keep very good records of the young. Then I start wondering about all the particulars that lie behind this simple information--Who were these children? What were their lives like? How were they connected to the events and circumstances of their time? I start trying to track down those answers by reading everything I can, and the more sources dating back to that historical period, the better. On-site explorations are especially good, not just for the experience of the place, but because local libraries or museums often provide unique resources and fascinating people to talk to. Although I'm not an artist, I often take along a pad for making sketches as well as taking notes. It's easy for me to get so totally engaged in this treasure hunt for information that I put off the very different work of beginning the story." [14]
It seems obvious that Janet Hickman's many books grow out of her deep attachment to the story in history. This attachment to the story, she believes, can be nourished by teachers. Emphasizing the story in history is "one good way to make it seem close, immediate, and real enough to interest children in the larger issues that we know they need to consider. "[15] Certainly, Janet Hickman's books and the story of her research can be a good way to inspire children to read and to write about history.
[11] Janet Hickman. Put the Story in History. Instructor Magazine, November/December 1990. pp 22-24 [12] ibid [13] Something About the Author V 127 p 76-77 [14] personal communication, April 16, 2003 [15] Op cit Hickman, p24
