Historical Fiction

What is Historical Fiction?

Historical c,on is
c,on set in the
past. It contains a
rich mixture of
fact and c,on.

What is Historical Fiction?

Through novels and

short stories, an author
may combine factual
informa,on about ,me,
place, events, and real
people of the period
with c,onal
characters, dialogue,
and details.

What is Historical Fiction?

All of these help
you experience
what it was like to
live during the era
when the story
takes place.

Characteristics of Historical Fiction

Presents a well-told
story that doesnt
conict with
historical records
Portrays characters
realis,cally
ArEully folds in
historical facts
Avoids stereotypes
and myths

More Characteristics . . .
Believable seGng
and characters
Plot supported by
historical evidence
Tells a compelling
story rst and relates
historical informa,on
second

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

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.

Story of an AfricanAmerican family

living in Mississippi
during the
Depression of the
1930s, whose
children do not
understand the
prejudice and
discrimination
aimed at them.

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

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.

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

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.

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.