Historical Fiction

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Historical Fiction

• Characteristics
• Good story
• Accurate historical setting
• Re-creation of the past events occurred or could
  have possibly occurred
• Plot deals with themes loyalty, revenge, love,
  hate, good, evil, life, death, honorable causes
• Characters portray the impact of the time period
  on their lives
• Often main character is a young person involved
  in a cause related to that time period and faces
  challenges similar to those faced by young people
  today

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What to look for!

• Excellent research
• Genuine historical information
• An interesting story with an accurate description
  of what it was like to live during that time
  period
• Authentic descriptions of clothing, food,
  transportation, customs, language, manners
• Reader should develop a sense of history

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Henrys Freedom Box

• Caldecott Honor Book
• Ellen Levine(author)
• Kadir Nelson(Illustrator)
• Daring Escape from slavery
• Based on the story of Henry Box Brown

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Bud Not Buddy

• Newbery Award winning historical fiction
• Christopher Paul Curtis-also wrote The Watsons go
  to Birmingham
• Set at the height of the Great Depression
• 1930s
• Orphan searching for his father
• Rules for survival

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• Johnny Tremain -Esther Forbes
• Setting Boston 1773-1775
• Apprentice to silversmith-seriously injured
• Becomes a heroic revolutionary
• Paul Revere, John Adams, John Hancock

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The Challenges of Historical Fiction

• Reading Rockets
• http//www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/avi
  /

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Titles/Authors

• Number the Stars Lois Lowry (Holocaust, WWII
• Little House in the Big Woods- Laura Ingalls
  Wilder (Pioneer Life)
• A Family Apart -Joan Lowery Nixon (Orphan
  Trains-Late 1800s)
• Crispin The Cross of Lead- Avi (Middle Ages)