Historical Fiction

Historical Fiction

Historical Fiction books are stories that could have happened in the past but with a fictional character. Historical Fiction could use true historical figures but create a story or narrative that did not necessarily happen. Historical Fiction allows the reader to be experience and live that time period that the story is set. When writing historical fiction, the authors must be careful to stay true to the period of time. It happened in the past but it varies from within our lifetime and before. Series books within historical fiction that are popular with students are “I survived” and “Dear Diary”.

The criteria for evaluating historical fiction for children.
a. Does the book tell a good story that effortlessly blends the history in the story itself?

Example – Sarah, Plain and Tall

b. Are the facts of the historical period accurate? 

Resources to help educators - Council on Books for Children and National Council on Social Studies which produces an annual list of Notable Trade Books in the Social Sciences.  

c. How are the values of the time brought to life? 

Values of historical fiction are sometimes different from the values of today, culture was different as well and not necessarily appropriate.
d. Is everything consistent with the social milieu?

Are the details of the story historically accurate including the setting, fashion and the accessory details of the story?

 e. Does the theme of the story relate to contemporary readers?

The book though set in historical times provides a theme that is universal in nature and understandable to contemporary audiences.

We should research to see if the author's facts are historically accurate. Students’ ideas of history could be different from ours.  While 9/11 is something most teachers experienced and contemporary in our lifetime many of our students were not born or do not remember those events.  They view it as history beyond their lifetime.

I will use what I learned in the textbook to complete these steps:

Develop lesson plans for my classes that will teach writing from a historical fiction narrative.
Share with the teachers on my campus the historical fiction books in our library.
Share during the library classes, historical fiction books using them during read aloud times.
Pull historical fiction books in my campus library and highlighting them so that students can see the titles and the variety.