Many community college students show a lack of interest and engagement in studying history; students' disinterest in history curriculum appears to stem from a teacher centered pedagogy of lecturing and reading unaesthetic history textbooks. Using historical fiction to teach history and develop student interest and engagement is examined in this study. The participants included students at Los Medanos College enrolled in history courses. Research methods were a combination of qualitative methods including the following instruments: surveys, questionnaires, interviews, and student work. The findings reveal historical fiction is effective in encouraging and engaging students in the study of history. Beyond historical fiction, stories were understood to be the means for hooking student engagement in history. The implications of this study are that community college history instructors should consider various ways to include stories in their course. These may include historical fiction and other genres that focus on stories of the past as well as asking students to collect and tell stories, not only read them. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]