Just as people focused on education in the United States call for more content-rich curriculums, elementary schools in many areas have squeezed history and social studies out of their school day. When social studies is taught, it's often characterized by overreliance on a textbook and "covering" isolated facts; extended, engaged reading is not made integral to this teaching. Students, the authors argue, aren't doing the kind of reading that engages them in the fascinating questions of history--or shown the personal stories, questions, and controversies that are part of the past and that yield meaningful knowledge for being a U.S. citizen today. They argue for teaching for "historical literacy." Teachers are encouraged to adapt four practices in their approach to both teaching history and choosing accompanying texts: (1) interact with many texts; (2) ask questions for different purposes; (3) evaluate authors' purposes and perspectives; and (4) interpret historical fiction picture books. (Contains 2 figures.)