1. Historical Fiction

2. Historical Fiction…. Some characters may be real and others may be fictional. The story takes place during a period in history. Real events from history are mixed with fictional events. Characters may speak in a way that represents the time period.

3. Falsely accused of theft and murder, an orphaned peasant boy in fourteenth-century England flees his village and meets a larger-than-life juggler who holds a dangerous secret.

4. In a series of poems, fifteen-year-old Billie Jo relates the hardships of living on her family's wheat farm in Oklahoma during the dust bowl years of the Depression.

5. History Trivia… When did the “Great Depression” take place – the 1930’s, the 1860’s, the 1890’s or the 1960’s? The 1930’s

6. Kidnapped by the crew of an Africa bound ship, a thirteen- year-old boy discovers to his horror that he is on a slaver and his job is to play music for the exercise periods of the human cargo.

7. Tim Meeker's older brother, Sam, comes home from college to announce he has joined the Patriots to fight the British. Their father is loyal to the king, along with most of the community. Sam leaves then for the war, even though his father is against it. Tim continues his work, through the years of war, at the family's tavern but struggles with deciding what people are on what side and which side is right. Tim's hardest struggles come when war affects his life, and he sees both sides take the life of many.

8. History Trivia… Who is traditionally known as the “Father of the United States Constitution” – Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison or John Hancock? James Madison

9. This is a story of an African-American family living in Mississippi during the Depression of the 1930s, whose children do not understand the prejudice and discrimination aimed at them.

10. In 1943, during the German occupation of Denmark, ten-year-old Annemarie learns how to be brave and courageous when she helps shelter her Jewish friend from the Nazis.

11. Philip, an adolescent white boy who is blinded in a torpedo attack at sea during World War II, acquires a new type of vision and courage when he is stranded on a tiny Caribbean island with Timothy, a kind, elderly black man.

12. History Trivia… The “Battle of Normandy” took place during what war – Vietnam War, Korean War, World War I or World War II? World War II – Started June 6, 1944 and continued for the next two months – over 400,000 soldiers were killed or wounded.

14. The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watsons, an African-American family living in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963.

15. History Trivia… Who gave the “I have a Dream” speech? Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963

16. In 1687 in Connecticut, Kit Tyler, feeling out of place in the Puritan household of her aunt, befriends an old woman considered a witch by the community and suddenly finds herself standing trial for witchcraft.

17. Ten-year-old Bud, a motherless boy living in Flint, Michigan, during the Great Depression, escapes a bad foster home and sets out in search of the man he believes to be his father--the renowned bandleader, H.E. Calloway of Grand Rapids.

18. History Trivia… Which U.S. President said “the only thing we have to fear is, fear itself” – John Kennedy, Franklin Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln or Ronald Reagan? Franklin Roosevelt

19. Left alone to guard the family's wilderness home in eighteenth-century Maine, a boy is hard- pressed to survive until local Indians teach him their skills.

20. Thirteen-year-old Rosie and members of her family travel from their Illinois farm to Chicago in 1893 to visit their aunt and attend the World's Columbian Exposition which, along with an encounter with Buffalo Bill and Lillian Russell, turns out to be a life- changing experience for everyone.

21. Told in the voices of eleven characters, about two young girls, one Jewish and the other African- American, who come to the attention of the newly formed Ku Klux Klan in a small Vermont town in 1924.

22. When their father invites a mail-order bride to come live with them in their prairie home, Caleb and Anna are captivated by their new mother and hope that she will stay.

23. Sequel to: Sarah, Plain and Tall. When a drought tests the commitment of a mail-order bride from Maine to her new home on the prairie, her stepchildren hope they will be able to remain a family.

24. Dear America Series… A fictional journal kept by twelve- year-old Augustus Pelletier, the youngest member of Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery.

25. Dear America Series…

26. Refresher Questions… What makes historical fiction different from other types of fiction? True or False – Some characters in historical fiction may be real and other characters may be fictional.

27. For more information… Visit our online library catalog. Visit Literacy Links on our web page.