Looking for new and upcoming historical fiction reads? This list has a wide range of historical fiction books for 2024!
From History Hustle
We asked, you answered! You told us about a lot of great historical fiction series you love and we love you for it.
The following is a guest post written by Caroline Starr Rose of Caroline by line and the verse novel May B. What’s the point of historical fiction? Publisher’s Weekly recently ran an interview with Newbery and Newbery-Honor medalist Karen Cushman, one of children’s literature’s most celebrated authors. Here’s what she had to say: “I think …
Which of these books would you recommend?
Looking for new and upcoming historical fiction reads? This list has a wide range of historical fiction books for 2024!
To bring the past to life and make it matter, historical fiction must do more than conjure up an exotic backdrop for a conventional story. These six books challenge our preconceptions and help show how the past shaped the world we live in today.
Don't waste your money on a time machine. Just pick up a book!
To bring the past to life and make it matter, historical fiction must do more than conjure up an exotic backdrop for a conventional story. These six books challenge our preconceptions and help show how the past shaped the world we live in today.
Read more about Deadly Peril: A Georgian Historical Mystery, an Award-Winning Historical Fiction, Mystery book by Lucinda Brant!
Featuring real-life heroines like Queen Elizabeth, Lady Jane Grey, Catherine the Great, and more.
A list of the top ten historical fiction books for kids lists the best of fiction that recounts history in a fiction setting in childrens literature
Currently, we are in our Historical Fiction Book Club Unit and students are applying the skills/strategies they learned in our Social Issues Book Club Unit to this unit. To launch the unit, we have been reading and discussing various historical fiction picture books, such as: Henry's Freedom Box by Ellen Levine and Kadir Nelson, Freedom Summer by Deborah Wiles, Freedom on the Menu:The Greensboro Sit-Ins by Carole Boston Weatherford, The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson, and The Butterfly by Patricia Polacco. While reading these picture books, we have been thinking and talking about the time periods, historical conflicts, and how the characters' actions/choices are impacted by the groups they belong to as well as the time period. As we read these picture books, we created charts as a class like we normally do during every read aloud (see photos of charts below). Students have been applying the skills/strategies they are learning through mini-lessons and read aloud to their historical fiction book club books that their group chose to read. Each book club chose at least three books that either focus on one time period so they can become an "expert" on that time period or are reading books across different time periods and are reading them in sequence. Most book clubs this year chose the latter and have planned out how to read their books in order according to the time periods. Some of the books my book clubs are reading are: Behind the Bedroom Wall by Laura E. Williams, Stones in Water by Donna Jo Napoli , Countdown by Deborah Wiles, Number the Stars by Lois Lowry, Lily's Crossing by Patricia Reilly Giff, Elephant Run by Roland Smith, and many more. Below are photos of some of the charts we created as a class so far during this historical fiction unit: Historical Fiction Unit Chart with some Teaching Points Read Aloud Chart for Freedom on the Menu Read Aloud Chart for Freedom Summer Read Aloud Chart for The Other Side Chart that shows our thinking across Historical Fiction Read Alouds Stay tuned to hear more about our unit and see more photos of student work too! Please share any ideas you have for historical fiction units too - I always love to hear about new titles, charts, and strategies to use during this unit! :)
J. Kenner, M. O’Keefe and other top authors share their recommendations.
Chains By Laurie Halse Anderson Simon & Schuster $16.99 ISBN: 978-1-4169-6949-5 Ages 10 and up On shelves October 21, 2008 My discovery of Laurie Halse Anderson’s Chains came at the best possible time. I had recently read and reviewed Steve Sheinkin’s, King George, What Was His Problem?, a book that looks at the stories behind […]
Historical fiction is a broad genre that can take us across the breadth of human history and culture, and here are the best historical fiction books.
The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara ★★★★☆ Most Americans know at least a little bit about the Civil War. I may know a bit more than some, because when I was 12, my history buff parents took our family on a three-week tour of all the Civil War battlegrounds. Because of that I think I've always been especially fascinated by the Civil War. It was so full of contradictions, brother fighting brother, a nation turned against itself. The Killer Angels is the best book I've read on the subject. It shows how thin the lines were between the two armies. Soldiers frequently knew the people they were fighting against. The Killer Angels deals with the battle at Gettysburg, which is considered the turning point in the war. Shaara delves into the thoughts of the men who orchestrated the battle, specifically General Lee and General Longstreet on the confederate side and Col. Chamberlain on the Union side. Each of the men made decisions they regretted or struggled with and none of them walked away completely unscathed. I can pinpoint the exact moment when the book hooked me. Colonel Chamberlain is presented with 120 men who tried to abandon their posts and head home. He is torn about how to convince them to stay. He's instructed to shoot them if they leave, but instead he stands in front of them and gives a speech about why they are fighting and the beauty and truth of his words inspire all but six of the men to fight with him. It's no surprise this won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. It's brilliantly researched and written. I understand why Shaara chose to make it a fiction book. Even though it's based on fact, making it a "fiction" book gave him the freedom to express the men's feelings and thoughts, which prevents the book from feeling dry. Shaara's main focus is on the leaders' decisions that led to the battle and the motivations behind those decisions. It's not a quick, entertaining read, but it's one that is so important to fully understand what our nation has gone through to get to this point. It's a heartbreaking story, because it's our country, destroying itself. One of the things that stood out to me the most was the confederate soldiers feelings about the war. They didn't believe like they were fighting for slavery, they believed they were fighting for their states freedoms. They were fighting because they loved their state and were loyal to it. Even though there were wonderful things that came about because of it, it was truly a tragic war.
Arcady’s Goal by Eugene Yelchin. Henry Holt, 2014. 234 pages. Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 8-10 Maturity Level: 3 (ages 8-10) and up Bottom Line: Arcady’s Goal exposes the fear and bleakness of Stalinist Russia through the eyes of a 10-year-old soccer prodigy. Arcady is routinely called a “criminal” by his keepers though he has…
A feature of The Thread Collectors by Shaunna J. Edwards and Alyson Richman.
Book Club Guide for German Girl by Armando Lucas Correa
When author William Ryan came across photos of Nazi criminals at a luxury retreat just a few miles from Auschwitz, he was inspired to write his novel The Constant Soldier, about the last days of the war as seen from a holiday hut
Looking for new and upcoming historical fiction reads? This list has a wide range of historical fiction books for 2024!
