Sister Fidelma goes to school: Crime fiction in the classroom

There are female sleuths and historical sleuths and lots and lots of historical female sleuths, and a group of educators has the novel idea that the latter belong in the curriculum.

The Women in World History Curriculum's Web site will gladden the hearts of crime-fiction readers everywhere with its defense of crime fiction as a teaching tool. It also offers short reviews of more than 90 crime novels with female protagonists. The settings range from ancient Egypt to 1947 Pennsylvania and contemporary Botswana.

© Peter Rozovsky 2007

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Sister Fidelma

Teaching crime fiction in schools?

They do it in France. An article at crimeculure.com on the history of crime fiction in France offers this:

Its cultural value can be judged by the fact that the genre is not only taught in primary schools using guided anthologies with short extracts from a wide variety of French and other authors. But also from November 2003 to the end of February 2004, there was an exhibition targeted specifically at young readers at the specialist crime-fiction library in Paris (Bilipo) ... The accompanying book, co-produced by the Parisian library services and La Joie par les Livres, a Ministry of Culture and Communication organisation, contains interesting articles and suggestions for further reading for both children and adults.