If you haven’t heard of Mort, the children’s fiction series written by Martin Chatterton, you’re really missing out. The series is so intwined with history and offers so many opportunities for inquiry that, for primary teachers and teacher librarians, these books are gems. And let’s not forget kids, who I’m sure will be just as taken by the 10,000-year-old time-travelling mad-scientist, Mort.
The first book in the series, Mort: The 10,000 Year-Old Boy, was published in 2012. In the same year came Mortal Combat: Time’s Running Out! The third book, Mortified: Lost in the Sands of Time, was published this year. With three books out already, obviously the series has taken off.
This week, rather than review the books, I thought I would write about why I think the Mort books are so special and why I think teachers and teacher librarians will love them too.
Mort is 10,000 years-old so he’s seen a lot of stuff and met a lot of people. Some of the more famous characters Mort’s met include Leonardo da Vinci, Genghis Khan, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Elvis Presley, Gandhi, Adolph Hitler, and Tutankhamun, just to name a few. Mort’s sidekick sister, Agnetha, has also been around a while and she’s got a love of literary greats like Charles Dickens, H.G Wells, Dr Seuss, Enid Blyton, Lewis Carroll and William Shakespeare. All the characters combined make for great reading but they also make for great inquiry.
Books that inspire further reading (and a cross over between fiction and non-fiction at that!) are a teacher librarian’s dream. Well, I can’t really speak for every teacher librarian but they sure are this teacher librarian’s dream. The endless opportunities for further inquiry that the Mort series provides can not be stressed enough. Not only are there historical figures to inquire about, there’s World War II to look back on, the ethics of cloning, and the possible consequences of time travel to explore. Once again, these are just to name a few.
So, to cut to the chase (and cut a long story short), if you’re a teacher librarian and you haven’t checked out the Mort series, I really recommend you do so. I guarantee you and your students won’t be disappointed!
Pop Tarts 