TOLEDO — A professor's novel idea may just end those history lessons filled with unconnected facts and dates.

        Mary Stockwell, a history professor at Lourdes College in nearby Sylvania since 1987, has written The Ohio Adventure, a textbook for fourth-graders that uses stories to teach Ohio history.

        “You have to read what people actually said and thought and felt,” she said. “Otherwise, it becomes dead facts. You have to get them to see there's a real person behind that.”

        One lesson focuses on a cocker spaniel named Natty who makes a visit to a veterinary hospital at Ohio State University in Columbus. The dog's story is part of a lesson on land-grant universities.

        The textbook, Ms. Stockwell's first, covers the state's history from the Ice Age to the millennium. Included are a range of topics, from the state's presidential heritage to Tony Packo's, a famed Toledo hot dog restaurant.

        The book uses first-hand accounts to tell stories about important people and places.

        “Ohio was not this boring place people think it is,” said Ms. Stockwell, whose office is filled with maps, buttons for presidential candidates and portraits of historical figures.

        School districts across Ohio began using the book this fall, the first time it was made available, publisher Gibbs Smith said.

        Susan Myers, textbook director for the Utah-based publisher, said Ms. Stockwell's textbook is effective because the author has an easy writing style.

        “She is probably so far in the last couple of years the best textbook author I've had,” Ms. Myers said. “Usually, we have to rewrite everything an author does.”

        Ms. Stockwell said she spent about a year on the book and thought it was essential not to write in an academic style.

        “History's a story and should be written with that in mind.”

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