characters that could really exist in our world
settings that could really exist in our world
events that could really happen in our world
Realistic fiction will NOT have --
magic
talking animals
imaginary creatures presented as real
things that haven't yet been invented
events that haven't yet happened
I was just reading from Avi's novel Windcatcher, checking it out to see whether I could recommend it. I can. I had to look at it twice because it starts out with a scene from the 1700s. However, the story takes place in our time, and the main character is the age of many of our seventh graders at the beginning the school year. Well, I've only been sailing one time, but I loved it, and early on in the book this boy wants to buy a sailboat. I'm on his side! It won't spoil the story if I tell you that he does get the sailboat. You might want to read the story more if I tell you that later on he has adventures in that sailboat, including danger from some ruthless treasure hunters.
The subject of boats reminds me of a book I recently read titled Navigating Early. It is about a boy named Jack from Kansas who ends up at a private school on the East Coast. At this school rowing is BIG sport, and our boy from Kansas hasn't rowed, much less had much of anything to do with bodies of water.
He ends up rowing and navigating. The "Early" of the title turns out to be another boy at the school -- one who is very different from the other boys. Jack and Early go on an adventure, rowing up the river, and finding much more that what they are looking for.
Traveling and finding more than you expected reminds me of the book Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech. Salamanca Hiddle is on a long road trip from Ohio to Idaho (my home state!) with her eccentric (in this case that means very crazy and fun!) grandparents. To pass the time, she tells them the story of her friend Phoebe Winterbottom, whose mother disappeared. As she tells about Phoebe, the reader finds out that Sal also just wants to find her missing mother.
The book Hope Was Here, by Joan Bauer, is about a girl whose mother named her Tulip, then left her as a tiny baby with her aunt. Tulip was too much as a name, so she goes by Hope. Her aunt is a cook in restaurants, and as Hope gets old enough, she becomes a waitress. Each time they move on to a different place to work, Hope leaves a note somewhere in the old workplace declaring "Hope was here."
That reminded me of an historical fiction book in which the mother, who hasn't had much education, is trying to be encouraging in a hard situation, and writes in a letter to her daughter, "We can always hop." But, historical fiction will be for another time. It is realistic, but not contemporary.
Whirligig by Paul Fleishman is about a teenage boy whose choices lead to the death of a girl in a car accident. His "punishment" is to travel around the country building whirligigs as memorials to her. He meets many people and learns about life and about himself.
In Deathwatch by Robb White, teenager Ben is a hunting guide in the Southwest. On this expedition, he ends up being hunted himself! This is a must-read for those who like intense adventure.
Another book you might like is Hero, about a boy who lives by a river in Idaho. He and a friend are building a raft to take on the river, but his dad asks him to let an unpopular boy from their community join them. They are not supposed to take the raft out unsupervised, but the three boys do. They end up losing the oars and are headed toward two dams! Who will end up being a hero?
