Historical Fiction

Historical fiction tells a story that is set in the past, but is not necessarily true. 

Elements of the story like historical events and places may be real, but the characters and their stories are not true.

 

 

Coming On Home Soon

Jacqueline Woodson

 Characters: Ada Ruth, Mama, Grandma
Setting: Wartime, Ada Ruth’s cabin
Summary: Ada Ruth’s mama decides to go to Chicago to get a job washing trains. Ada Ruth and Grandma wait everyday to get a letter from Mama telling them that she will be coming home soon. As the days go by, Ada Ruth finds a kitten who she takes in, even though Grandma says they can’t afford it. The postman eventually comes by with a letter enclosed with money that says Mama is coming home soon. The last page is wordless with an image of Mama walking to the house.
Theme: Patience

 

Milly and the Macy's Parade

Shana Corey

 Setting: new York City 1924

Characters: Milly, Mr. Macy, her family, other Macy’s employees

Summary: Milly goes to Macy’s department store almost every day because that is where her Papa works. She loves how big it is, and loves to ride the elevator, try on clothes, and look at the toys. Tons of people are there everyday with her, as it is one of the biggest stores. Occasionally, Milly and her family get homesick for Poland, but they still eat Polish food while trying new American things. Milly sees that many other families are homesick too, especially around the holidays. She runs to Macy’s and goes to the top floor one day, busting in to a meeting Mr. Macy is having, and explains to him that employees and customers would be happier if there was something to end homesickness around Christmas- Mr. Macy loves the idea to the dismay of his co-worker, and decides to have a big parade. The parade is a success, and Milly gets to ride on an elephant from the Central Park Zoo. People feel that this parade is a new, real, American celebration and Mr. Macy decides to hold it every year. In the back there is the true story of the Macy’s Parade and how it has evolved over the years.

Theme: Immigration, Homesickness, You can do anything, Traditons

 

My America: Our Strange New Land, Elizabeth's Jamestown Colony Diary #1

Patricia Hermes

Characters: Elizabeth, her parents, Jessie, John Smith, Pocahontas, among other less-involved characters

Setting: Jamestown, Virginia 1609

Summary: In the first diary entry, 9 year old Elizabeth states that they have finally gotten off their boat after 71 days on the ocean. She has a friend named Jessie and she came with her mom and dad but her twin brother Caleb was left in England because of lung problems. Her mother is having a baby soon. During the trip, 5 of their ships, including food ships, were lost during storms. They live in a fort but will soon build their house. Elizabeth meets Indians on one of her first days there and finds them to be gentle. She explains that they came to America so her father could actually own land instead of renting it expensively, but she wishes they could own some riches as well, instead of sending them back to the Virginia Company in England. As days go by, 2 more ships land, but 3 are still missing, and a few more young girls like Elizabeth arrive from the ships. More days later, Elizabeth and her friends meet Pocahontas, who is only a bit older than they are. She speaks English and is shocked by her yellow hair, and invites them to climb trees with her but they cannot. Pocahontas is friends with John Smith, one of the colonies leaders. She saved him from death by her father Powhatan and now keeps the peace between the Indians and the settlers. The next month, Elizabeth is invited to go with John Smith and a few other men on a trip to the Indian village to make amends and promise more peace. She and the Indians are all thrilled to meet each other and touch her. People start to die by three’s everyday- Jessie’s mother dies and her father falls ill, their friend Claire is ill, and 2 boys that are Elizabeths’s neighbors are also ill. John Smith gets badly injured in fights between the settlers and the Indians and must to back to England, bringing along some settlers who want to leave, including Jessie and her father. Abigail, Elizabeth’s new sister, is born. When the ship leaves, the men take Elizabeth’s journal and promise to visit Caleb and give it to him.

Theme: History, Appreciate what you have/family

 

 My Freedom Trip

Frances Park and Ginger Park

Characters: Soo, her family

Setting: Korea

Summary: This story is a bout a young girls escape from a communist Korea. Soo is a child and is forced to flee North Korea to keep her freedom and her family. Each family member goes just a child when she was forced to flee to South Korea in order to keep her freedom. Each family member had to leave one at a time with guides. Soo’s father left first, and then she had to leave without her mother and was taken by a guide named Mr. Han. The escape was at night and was filled with fear as the soldiers were patrolling in the woods looking for any one trying to escape.  Soo was really scare but her lasts words she heard from her mother were to be brave, so she tries to be. Soo finds freedom and reunites with her father but never finds her mother.

Theme: Immigration, Escape, Freedom

Renior and the Boy with the Long Hair

Wendy Wax

Characters: Painter Renoir and his son

Setting: France in the past

Summary: Jean has very long blonde hair, and is often mistaken for a girl in his father’s paintings – his father is Pierre Auguste Renior. His father won’t let him cut his hair because he loves to paint it and says that he can cut it when he starts school. Kids tease Jean and it upsets him but he looks back on his father’s paintings and appreciates them. Throughout the book are awesome representations of Renoir’s paintings and what they are titled. In the end, Jean is allowed to get his hair cut and he grows up to be famous in his own way as a director.

Theme: Love yourself, Renoir

 

 Rudy Rides the Rails: A Depression Era Story

Dandi Daley Mackall

Characters: Rudy, his family

Setting: Great Depression, on the rails

Summary: Rudy is a thirteen year old boy whose family has become increasingly poor during the Great Depression. He lives in Ohio and his dad and other co-workers lost their jobs and couldn’t find more. His ma waits in relief lines to get old food, and his sisters go to missions and soup kitchens. Rudy feels that he will be less of a financial burden on his family if he leaves to find work elsewhere. He hops on a train going West and becomes a hobo. He wants to get to California and send money back to his family, and during his trips on the rails he is hungry, cold, scared, and tired. Not wanting to be a burden on his struggling family, Rudy decided to take a step similar to other teenagers he had heard about: he hopped a train to go West as a hobo.  Dreams of a better life in California and the chance to send money back home helped to sustain him as he experienced hunger, cold, fear, and fatigue while traveling. During his trip, he meets many kind strangers who help the hobos that pass along, and he starts to doubt his dad’s constant saying of only look out for yourself.

Theme: Great Depression, Family, Unemployment, Poorness, Homelessness

Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt

 Deborah Hopkinson

Characters: Clara, Jack, Rachel

Setting: The south during times of slavery

Summary: Written in southern dialect, this story is  told from Clara’s point of view. When she was 12, she was sent to work on a plantation without her mom. She makes friends with Young Jack who gives her hope that she can make it back home one day. Clara gets changed from field hand to a seamstress because of her amazing sewing skills. She and Aunt Rachel always hear people talking about the Underground Railroad being the only way to escape to Canada and freedom- if only they could get a map, they could go! Rachel tells her more about it which gets Clara thinking about it constantly and learning how to make maps. She starts to sew a quilt with leftover scraps of fabric and sews the thread in a map pattern as she learns about different fields and areas. Young Jack escaped but was caught, and he and Clara piece together more of the map because he had seen more, although it still takes a very long time to complete it because she needs to wait for the right color-coded fabric and information. Clara and Jack leave one day, but keep the quilt with Rachel. They go to get her mom and her newborn sister who agree to follow them to freedom, and she meets people later who say that her quilt helped them to freedom as well.

Theme: Freedom, Slavery

The Last Brother: A Civil War Tale

Trinka Hakes Noble

Characters: Gabe, Davy

Setting: Gettysburg 1863

Summary: Gettysburg has been untouched by the civil war, until one day two boys see that troops are moving into Pennsylvania. In a blue uniform, 11 year old and 16 year old brothers make up part of the army, after lying about their ages to get in because their older brothers had once been in war and never come back and they wanted to honor them. This was the first time the brothers were in actual war, and Davy volunteered to step into the frontlines right away, while younger Gabe goes away to practice battle calls. He meets another boy his age from the south and he becomes friends with Orlee. Orlee warns Gabe about his troops moving in, and Gabe gets away and finds Davy at night. Gabe worries about Davy and Orlee and cannot sleep that night through the fighting. As a bugler, he wakes up his soldiers to a day of intense Confederate troop movement and fighting. He sounds charge as his major commands him to, and right after blew retreat. His brother gets back to camp with only wounds, and Gabe etches a memorial into his bugle for all the lives lost at Pickett’s Charge on July 4, 1863

Theme: Civil War, Family, Fighting for what you believe in, Friendship

The Memory Coat

Elvira Woodruff

  Characters: Rachel, Grisha, Family

Setting: Jewish town in Russia, Ellis Island

Summary: Rachel and Grisha are cousins with a big family in a small town in Russia. Mass raids start who want to kill anyone Jewish. The family decides they nee to flea to America. Grisha’s jacket from his deceased mother is torn and looks bad but he refuses to get rid of it. They sell all their belongings and take a boat to Ellis Island. Once there, they wait in line and hope to not be seperated. Rachel and Grisha play around while waiting and Grisha falls on a basket which scratches his eye. During inspection, he gets a mark on his jacket for not being healthy enough due to his eye issue. The doctor doesn’t understand the families language so he can’t hear their explaination. Rachel decides to turn his jacket inside out and he moves into the next line undetected, and the second doctor passes him. The family has made it to America

Theme: Family is important, Immigration

 

When Jessie Came Across the Sea

Amy Hest

  Setting: The past

Characters: Jessie, her Grandmother

Summary: Jessie lives in a small house with her Grandmother, because her parents died when she was a baby. Jessie holds onto her mother’s wedding band kept in a laced box. Upon her Grandmother’s insistence, Jessie goes to the rabbi for lessons with all the boys. When she comes home, she teaches her grandmother how to read and write. The Grandmother keeps the rest of her time busy by sewing lace, and she teaches this to Jessie. One evening, the rabbi makes an announcement that his brother in America has died, and that he has a ticket to America that he had given him. The rabbi says he cannot leave his people, so he chooses someone to go for him. After many men begged him, he chooses Jessie. Jessie and her Grandmother are heartbroken, but she knows Jessie must go. During the voyage, she practices her needlework, and when she arrives in America, her skills provide her a job working for the rabbi’s sister-in-law. Jessie saves up enough money after many years and after learning English and falling in love and getting engaged to Lou, her grandmother makes the voyage to America. The book also incorporates letters sent between Jessie and her Grandmother while they are apart.

Theme: Immigration, Skills are useful, Love your family, Hope