Historical Fiction

Time Travel Made Easy

Historical Fiction:Time travel made easy

“Anybody can make history; only a great man can write it.” ― Oscar Wilde

“Historical novels are, without question, the best way of teaching history, for they offer the human stories behind the events and leave the reader with a desire to know more.” ― Louis L'Amour, Education of a Wandering Man

Why do authors write Historical Fiction?

“Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We would not dare to conceive the things which are really merely commonplaces of existence.” – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Writers use historical fiction not just to tell about a time, place,

or pivotal event, but to transport us there.

Setting

• In historical fiction, setting is the most important literary element.

• The genre of historical fiction includes stories that are written to portray a time period or an historical event.

• The historical setting can be used as a background for the story instead of the focus.

Historical Event

Triangle Shirtwaist Company Fire-1911Led to labor reforms for factory workers

In 1911 New York, sixteen-year-old Essie Rosenfeld must stop taking care of her irrepressible six-year-old sister when she goes to work at the Triangle Waist Company, where she befriends a missing heiress who is in hiding from her family and who seems to understand the feelings of heartache and grief that Essie is trying desperately to escape.

Nonfiction book about this event

Historical Backdrop

Samurai Shortstop by Alan Gratz. While obtaining a Western education at a prestigious Japanese boarding school in 1890, sixteen-year-old Toyo also receives traditional samurai training which has profound effects on both his baseball game and his relationship with his father. Toyo searches desperately for a way to prove there is a place for his family’s samurai values in modern Japan. Baseball might just be the answer, but will his father ever accept a “Western” game that stands for everything he despises?

Heart of a samurai by Margi PreusA Japanese teenager living in the mid-19th century bridges two worlds in this stunning debut novel based on true events.

Requires Research

• Because the author is writing about a particular time in history, the information about the time period must be accurate, authentic, or both.

• To create accurate and authentic settings in their books, authors must research the time period thoroughly. They must know how people lived, what they ate, what kinds of homes they had, and what artifacts were a common part of their lives.

What was life like in ancient Greece when people believed in gods and goddesses?

Goddess of YesterdayTaken from her home on an Aegean island as a six-year-old girl, Anaxndra calls on the protection of her goddess while she poses as two different princesses over the next six years, before ending up as a servant in the company of Helen and Paris as they make their way to Troy.

Nonfiction book about the Trojan War.

Historical Fiction

Characters

• Historical fiction often presents actual events from the point of view of fictional people living in that time period.

• Historical figures are also often shown dealing with these events while depicting them in a way that has not been previously recorded.

A New Point of View

AnnexedA fictional account of life

with Anne Frank hidden in the secret annex from Peter's point-of-view, following as he becomes closer with Anne, begins to question his own religion, and is forced to suppress his own desires to join the fight.

Historical Events and People

Assassin by Anna MyersIn alternating passages, a young White House seamstress named Bella and the actor John Wilkes Booth describe the events that lead to the latter's assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

Real Events, Fictional Characters

Dark Water Rising by Marion HaleWhile salvaging and rebuilding in the aftermath of the Galveston flood of 1900, sixteen-year-old Seth proves himself in a way that his previous efforts never could, but he still must face his father man-to-man.

Love, Adventure & and Explorers

Daughter of Xanadu by Dori Jones Yang.

Emmajin, the sixteen-year-old eldest granddaughter of Khublai Khan, becomes a warrior and falls in love with explorer Marco Polo in thirteenth-century China.

Explorers

• The Crimson Cap by Ellen Howard

• In 1684, wearing his father's faded cap, eleven-year-old Pierre Talon joins explorer Rene-Robert Cavelier on an ill-fated expedition to seek the Mississippi River, but after the expedition falls apart Pierre, deathly ill, is taken in by Hasinai Indians. Includes historical facts.

Natural Disasters

Blizzard’s Wake by Phyllis Reynolds NaylorIn March of 1941, when a severe blizzard suddenly hits Bismarck, North Dakota, a girl trying to save her stranded father and brother inadvertently helps the man who killed her mother four years before.

War

The Gadget by Paul Zindel

In 1945, having joined his father at Los Alamos, where he and other scientists are working on a secret project to end World War II, thirteen-year-old Stephen becomes caught in a web of secrecy and intrigue.

Travel through time periods

They are as vastly different as history itself, but they carry common threads of personal stories: struggle, adventure, overcoming odds, murder, romance, relationships, and sometimes just a rollicking good time.

Medieval Times

In the days of the real King Arthur…

Sword of the Rightful King : a novel of King Arthur by Jane Yolen.

Renaissance Italy 1400s

Silvano and Chiara, teens sent to live in a friary and a nunnery in Renaissance Italy, are drawn to one another and dream of a future together, but when murders are committed in the friary, they must discover who is behind the crimes before they can realize their love.

The Falconer's Knot : A Story of Friars, Flirtation and Foul Play by Mary Hoffman.

1700s

The Musician’s Daughter by Susanne Dunlap

In eighteenth-century Vienna, Austria, fifteen-year-old Theresa seeks a way to help her mother and brother financially while investigating the murder of her father, a renowned violinist in Haydn's orchestra at the court of Prince Esterhazy, after his body is found near a gypsy camp.

The Wild West - 1800s

Tucket's travels : Francis Tucket's adventures in the West, 1847-1849 by Gary PaulsenA collection of five of Gary Paulsen's novels about Francis Tucket and his adventures in the West.

Murder Mystery1920s

Dovey Coe by Francis O’Roark DowellAccused of murder in her North Carolina mountain town in 1928, Dovey Coe, a stronged-willed twelve-year-old girl, comes to a new understanding of others, including her deaf brother, as she attempts to clear her name.

Heartfelt with Rich Characters1960s

The Private Thoughts of Amelia E. Rye by Bonnie Shimko. Growing up in a small town in upstate New York during the 1960s, a young girl, unwanted by her mother, searches for love and acceptance.

Laugh-Out-Loud Funny1950s

The Rising Star of Rusty Nail by Leslie M. Blume

Franny Hansen is a 10-year-old piano prodigy living in Rusty Nail, Minnesota. Once the Coot Capitol of the world, in 1953 it's just a run-of-the-mill town with one traffic light and a bizarre cast of characters. She's long exhausted the talents of the town's only piano teacher and seems destined to perform at church events and school assemblies, until a mysterious Russian woman arrives in Rusty Nail. Franny's neighbors are convinced the "Commie" is a threat to their American way of life, but Franny's not so sure. Could this stranger be her ticket out of Rusty Nail?

Lesley M. M. Blume returns with the poignant and laugh-out-loud funny story of one girl's attempt to pursue the American dream in small town America.

Format

Sometimes authors use a twist in the narrative format to present a historical story. Why do you think they would make that choice?

• Journals, Letters & Scrapbooks• Play• Novel in Verse• Illustration• Graphic Novel

Letters

Letters From the Corrugated Castle : a novel of Gold Rush California, 1850-1852 by Joan W. Blos.

Told through a series of letters and newspaper dispatches, Newbery Medalist Blos's (A Gathering of Days) latest novel recounts the excitement and dangers of San Francisco during the Gold Rush.

Scrapbook

Dear Ellen Bee : a Civil War Scrapbook of Two Union Spies by Mary E. Lyons & Muriel M. Branch.

A scrapbook kept by a young black girl details her experiences and those of the older white woman, "Miss Bet," who had freed her and her family, sent her north from Richmond to get an education, and then worked to bring an end to slavery. Based on the life of Elizabeth Van Lew.

Screenplay

Riot by Walter Dean MyersThe Civil War is raging and in a desperate effort to find more recruits, the Union begins a draft - a draft with a difference. The wealthy can pay $300 to be released from their obligation, but the poor must go and fight and die. In New York City, the recently arrived Irish are the hardest hit by the draft and during the long hot days of July the city explodes in a rash of arson, marches, attacks, and lynchings, with the immigrant Irish taking out their anger on the black inhabitants of the city. Myers's use of the screenplay format allows his readers a birds-eye view of the four hot days in July when New York City burned, using multiple points of view from both sides of the conflict.

Novel in Verse

All the Broken Pieces by Ann Burg

Two years after being airlifted out of Vietnam in 1975, Matt Pin is haunted by the terrible secret he left behind and, now, in a loving adoptive home in the United States, a series of profound events forces him to confront his past.

Short Stories

• Sherwood : original stories from the world of Robin Hood

• edited by Jane Yolen ; paintings by Dennis Nolan.

• "Each story is introduced with a verse from a traditional ballad about Robin Hood, and each has its own unique take, whether modern or traditional, on the hero. Dennis Nolan’s brooding full-page color paintings have a forest-primeval tone that suits the shadowy vales of Sherwood. Not only will this be fun for Robin Hood fans, but those looking for a jumping off point for creative writing assignments can start here." –Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

Short Stories

The Way Home by Leigh Sauerwein

Spanning 150 years of United A collection of six stories that aim to catch the spirit of contradictions of America, past and present. They include "The Train", in which a brain-damaged boy awaits a thrilling meeting with the great Geronimo, and "Storm Warning", in which Joe faces himself when a tornado tears his world apart.

Try historical fiction.

You might be surprised at the variety of stories you will find.

Works Cited

“Historical Fiction.” Read Write Think. Accessed 5 Dec 2012.

<http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson404/HistoricalFictionDefn.pdf>