Historical Fiction

How Do You Know It’s Historical Fiction?

Characters may be fictional, or some may be real and some fictional, but all of them behave in realistic ways, acting as that type of person could have acted at that point in history.

Setting  takes place in a definite period of time in history, and in a  particular place that is real in history.

Conflict:  The main characters are involved in a conflict or problem that his real for that period of time.

Plot:  The plot may be a mixture of real and fictional events, and any fictional events could have really happened in that time and place in history.

Description of the characters, events, and places are true to how those things could have been in that time and place in history.   The writer will usually provide an explanation of those things  which would be unfamiliar to the modern reader.

Dialogue: Words spoken by the characters show their personalities,  help the plot move along, and reflect the knowledge and thoughts of the people in that historical time and place.

Some popular titles found in our media center:
Between Shades of Gray (Stalin)  http://www.betweenshadesofgray.com/

Fever, 1793  (yellow fever epidemic

Charlotte’s Rose (Mormon handcart pioneers)

Jason’s Gold (Gold Rush)

Dear America books  (many subjects)

Number the Stars (World War II/Treatment of the Jews)

Sacajawea by Joseph Bruchac (Lewis and Clark Expedition) L840

Al Capone Does My Shirts  (Alcatraz/Great Depression)

The Devil’s Arithmetic  (World War II/Treatment of the Jews)

Milkweed  (World War II/Treatment of the Jews)

The Shakespeare Stealer (Yes, Shakespeare’s times)

A Boy at War (Pearl Harbor)

Daniel’s Walk (Pioneers/Mountain Men)

I Am David (Refugees/Concentration Camps/Escape)

The Legend of Jimmy Spoon (living with Native Americans/Utah history)

Red Moon at Sharpsburg (Civil War)

My Brother Sam is Dead (Revolutionary War)

Any of the Vietnam series by Chris Lynch (Vietnamese War)

Moon Over Manifest  (Great Depression, WWI)

Numbering All the Bones (Civil War)

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A Sampling of Other Historical Fiction

Anderson -- Chains, Forge

Avi – The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle L740; Crispin

Boyne – The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

Chibbaro -- Deadly

Collier – My Brother Sam is Dead    L770

Cooney, Caroline B. -- The Ransom of Mercy Carter

Cooper – Ghost Hawk (Native Americans, Plymouth)

Cushman, Karen –  Catherine Called Birdy L1170,

Midwife’s Apprentice L1240 (might be used as a class book -- ask your teacher)

Edmunds and Lanz – The Matchlock Gun  (80 pages)

Fox - The Slave Dancer L970

Greene  – Summer of My German Soldier  L800

Hesse – Out of the Dust

Kelly, Jacqueline --  The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

Lowry, Lois  – Number the Stars L670,

Morpurgo, Michael -- War Horse  1090L

O'Dell – The King’s Fifth (exploration)

Paterson – Lyddie L860  

Paulson, Gary -- Nightjohn  770L;  Woods Runner 870L

Peck – The River Between Us (Civil War)

Philbrick, Rodman  -- The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg (950L)

Rees – Pirate (girl pirates!)
Remarque -- All Quiet on the Western Front  (World War I)  (830L)

Schmidt - Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy   1000L pages 217

Selden, Bernice – The Mill Girls: Lucy Larcom, Harriet Hanson Robinson, Sarah G. Bagley

Smith -- Flygirl  L680

Spinelli, Honus and Me  L690

Uchida– Journey to Topaz  L970 (Reading Class Book)

Houston – Farewell to Manzanar  L1040

Vanderpool, Clare -- Moon Over Manifest

Walters – War of the Eagles, Caged Eagles L650,690   

 More:
1.  The Legend of Jimmy Spoon 790L -- Pioneer life,  white boy from Salt Lake City who goes to live with the Shoshoni Tribe
2. Jimmy Spoon and the Pony Express 820L --
3.  Sacajawea 840L -- The story of the Lewis and Clark Expedition is told to Sacajawea's son by herself and William Clark
4.  Anpao: An American Indian Odyssy 880L -- A story of a young warrior's mystical search for his own destiny.
5. Tucket's Travels: Francis Tucket's Adventures in the West, 1847-1849 -- Mr. Tucket   830L --
6.  Charlotte's Rose  680L - Handcart pioneers
7.  Numbering All the  Bones  600L -- The Civil War is nearing its end and 13-year-old Eulinda  (a slave whose brother is fighting in the Union army) faces an uncertain world. civil war, prisoners of war, Clara Barton
8.  Sounder 900L -- African-American sharecroppers in the South
9.  Steal Away . . . to freedom  690L   -- A TEENAGE ORPHAN TRANSPLANTED FROM VERMONT TO VIRGINIA AND HER SLAVE DECIDE TO ESCAPE THEIR INDIVIDUAL CAPTIVITIES.
10.  Elijah of Buxton  1070L  -- The first child born in a community established for escaped slaves in Canada.
11.  The Bronze Bow 760L -- THE TORMENTED JOURNEY OF AN ISRAELI BOY'S ALL-CONSUMING HATRED FOR THE ROMANS TO HIS ACCEPTANCE AND..
12.  The Breadwinner    630L  -- Story of a girl struggling to survive in war torn Afghanistan
 Woods Runner 870L by Gary Paulson
A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park --  multicultural
Before We Were Free by Julia Alvarez -- multicultural
 Storm Testament series -- Lee Nelson 

Lyons and Brancil --Dear Ellen Bee: A Civil War Scrapbook of Two Union Spies 


More:
Molloy, Michael, Peter Raven Under Fire (Napoleonic Wars, British Navy)

It is the time of the Napoleonic Wars. Peter Raven is a bright, young midshipman in the Royal Navy of Great Britain. Raven, along with the swashbuckling secret agent Commodore Beaumont, uncovers a reckless scheme devised by none ofther than Napoleon Bonaparte. Eager to add America to his empire, Napoleon has made a wicked pact with a murderous pirate known as Count Vallon: In exchange for the pirate's gold, Napoleon will name Vallon "King of America"! Raven, Beaumont, and a beautiful young American heiress named Lucy must do whatever it takes to put a stop to one of history's most audacious plots.
                                                                       http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/book/peter-raven-under-fire#cart/cleanup