Taryn Souders is a former middle school teacher and the author of the Edgar Award-nominated Coop Knows the Scoop, among other mysteries for young readers. Here, Souders reflects on her penchant for incorporating lesser-known history in her books, including her forthcoming novel, Secrets of the Broken House.

I love history. Did I get my degree in it? No. My degree was in interdisciplinary studies with a specialization in mathematics, and a certification to teach. However, give me a good historical drama or period piece to watch and I’m as happy as a frog after a gullywasher.

And while I may gain a historical fact or two from a movie, I probably—no, I definitely watch them for all the wrong reasons. I don’t watch them to increase any knowledge or dive deeper into a particular moment in time.

I watch them for the pretty dresses.

There. I’ve admitted it. I’m a sucker for great costume design. But we all know Hollywood takes liberties when it comes to historical accuracy. (See, or rather don’t see Elizabeth, starring Cate Blanchett and Joseph Fiennes. Some say the only historical fact they got right was that Elizabeth was a redhead.) And don’t even get me started on Bridgerton. Hollywood elevates an exciting story over historical accuracies, and for some reason, we forgive them for it—probably because of the pretty dresses.

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I think the lesser-known bits of history are some of the most fascinating.
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But as a middle grade author I don’t have the luxury of “taking liberties.” I need both an engaging story and accurate research. When a reader picks up a work of historical fiction, they know what they’re getting. Like it or not, there’s going to be history. Students who don’t enjoy digging into the past may skip over an entire subgenre because the past isn’t an engaging topic.

Oh, to think of all the cool stuff they’re missing!

My solution—Operation: Sneak It In.

Mysteries are the perfect genre for said “secret operation” because there are so many unknowns, and research is a necessity for detectives! And since my characters must often dive into a pool of history to solve whatever puzzle or crime they’ve been dealt, the reader dives in right alongside them.

In books of mine such as The Mystery of the Radcliffe Riddle, Coop Knows the Scoop, and Secrets of the Broken House, my young detectives work to solve the crime, revealing tidbits of history they uncover along the way, subversively sneaking the past into my reader’s head. While my main goal is not to write a textbook, I want readers to finish my novels with more historical knowledge than they started with. It doesn’t have to be anything groundbreaking or even well-known. In fact, I think the lesser-known bits of history are some of the most fascinating.

Once a teacher, always a teacher. And even though history was not my subject area, I never want to pass up the chance to impart my readers with something new—or old—and hopefully fun.

Here are some of the more unusual historical facts I came across in my research when writing Secrets of the Broken House:

  • Furniture-makers often started their carpentry training by making coffins for the local parish. Kind of depressing start to a career, right?

  • The Badminton Cabinet housed in the Liechtenstein Museum is the most expensive piece of antique furniture ever sold at auction, bringing in $36.7 million. And no, you don’t store badminton equipment in it. The cabinet once belonged to the 3rd Duke of Beaufort, and it is named for Badminton House, the Duke’s seat in Gloucestershire.

  • A surprising number of animals have run for public office and won:

  • Lincoln the Goat was elected honorary mayor in Fair Haven, Vt., in 2019.

  • In 2012, April the Cow was elected mayor of Eastsound, Wash., raising a significant amount of money for a community preschool in the process.

  • And perhaps my favorite: Boston Curtis the Mule served as a committeeman in Milton, Wash., in 1938. When the mayor asked for nominations, Boston Curtis was the only nominee—he also happened to be owned by the mayor, a Democrat. Fifty-one Republicans, in a unanimous decision, voted for Mr. Curtis, unaware they were voting for an animal (and a Democrat, apparently). The mayor said he did it to prove the inefficiency of the primary system.

See what I did there? You just learned some history. Pretty sneaky, right?

Secrets of the Broken House by Taryn Souders. Sourcebooks, $16.99 hardcover, Jan. 6 ISBN 978-1-4642-4497-1; $7.99 paper, ISBN 978-1-72827-144-6