well. The narratives' exciting nature and their resilient young protagonists make for very educational and entertaining children's novels that have for goal to convey the "American characteristics of resourcefulness, hopefulness, pluck and purity". Elizabeth George Speare published Calico Captive (1957), a historical fiction children's novel inspired by the captivity narrative of Susannah Willard Johnson. In Rewriting the Captivity Narrative for Contemporary Children: Speare, Bruchac, and the French and Indian War (2011), Sara L. Schwebel writes: Johnson's Narrative vividly describes Susanna Johnson's forty-eight-month ordeal – the terror of being taken captive, childbirth during the forced march, prolonged separation from her three young children, degradation and neglect in a French prison, the loss of a newborn, a battle with smallpox, separation from her husband, and finally, widowhood as her spouse fell in yet another battle in the years-long French and Indian war. Spear borrowed heavily from Johnson's text, lifting both details and dialogue to construct her story. In pitching her tale to young readers, however, she focused not on the Narrative's tale of misfortune but on the youthful optimism of Susanna Johnson's largely imagined younger sister, Miriam. Conclusions This article references captivity narratives drawn from literature, history, sociology, religious studies, and modern media. Scholars point to certain unifying factors. Of early Puritan captivity narratives, David L. Minter writes: First they became instruments of propaganda against Indian "devils" and French "Papists." Later, ... the narratives played an important role in encouraging government protection of frontier settlements. Still later they became pulp thrillers, always gory and sensational, frequently plagiaristic and preposterous. In its "Terms & Themes" summary of captivity narratives, the University of Houston at Clear Lake suggests that: The Oxford Companion to United States History indicates that the wave of Catholic immigration after 1820: provided a large, visible enemy and intensified fears for American institutions and values. These anxieties inspired vicious anti-Catholic propaganda with pornographic overtones, such as Maria Monk's Awful Disclosures[.] Alexandra Heller-Nicholas (quoted earlier) points to the presence of a "helpless" maiden, and a "hero" who rescues her. Together, these analyses suggest that some of the common elements we may encounter in different types of captivity narratives include: A captor portrayed as quintessentially evil A suffering victim, often female A romantic or sexual encounter occurring in an "alien" culture An heroic rescue, often by a male hero An element of propaganda Notable captivity narratives 15th–16th centuries Johann Schiltberger (1460), Reisebuch Álvar