Using Historical Fiction and Informational Books Together

Reading informational books are great.  We must have them to learn about things.  However, if there is not anything to connect the facts to, then we forget them in a short period of time.  That is when the historical fiction books come into play.  Children and adults needs characters and events in stories to connect the facts to in order to remember them for a longer period of time.  It's that text-to-self, text-to-world, and text-to-text connections that they need in order to comprehend for life-long learning.  Learners need to be able to feel like they are a part of the story.  In return, the person learns about history while they are engaging in the experience.