This article presents a lesson plan used to teach about African urbanization using Kenyan novels. Specifically, three urban novels written by Meja Mwangi are used. Based on a qualitative survey of student preference and learning, this lesson plan uses these novels alongside more traditional academic texts to achieve effective student learning. Understanding that students prefer to read novels but learn best from textbooks, this mixture of texts generates emotional discussions that are substantiated with factual research. (Contains 2 tables and 2 notes.)