historical fiction (Imaginative stories with fictional characters and events in a historical setting)
Freedom Summer By: Deborah Wiles
John Henry and Joe are best friends, but there is one
problem. John Henry is black and Joe is white. They can’t go to any public
places together because of segregation. Instead of going to the pool, they swim
in the creek. One day Joe hears about a law that’s been passed that allows
blacks and whites to go to the same public places. The boys head to the pool,
but find it to be closed and the pool filled with tar. The boys leave sad, but
go to the store where they can enter together and buy ice pops.
Age Range: 4 - 8 years
Number the Stars By: Lois Lowry
Ellen is a Jewish girl during the time of WWII. Her parents
find out the Nazis are planning to deport the Jews, so her family goes into
hiding. Ellen is separated from her parents and goes to live with the Johansen
family. One night the Nazis come to the Johansen house looking for Ellen and
her parents. They are able to fool the Nazis by showing them baby pictures to
prove Ellen is their daughter. Later the family attends a funeral for
Great-Aunt Birte. However, this is a fake funeral so clothes and supplies can
be distributed to the Jewish families in hiding. Nazis crash the funeral and
demand the casket be opened, but Mrs. Johansen is able to fool them again and
avoid opening the casket. The next day Mrs. Johansen gives her daughter, Annemarie,
a package to hide in a basket of food and take to her uncle. On her way Nazis
stop her, but let her go when they see she is carrying just food. She gives her
uncle the package and he explains that once the dogs sniff the handkerchief in
the package they won’t be able to smell the Jewish people hidden on the boat.
He is able to make it to Sweden and back successfully. Ellen and her family are
now safe.
Age Range: 9 - 12 years
Grade Level: 4 - 7
Sara, Plain and Tall By: Patricia MacLachlan
Caleb and Anna’s mother dies shortly after giving birth to
Caleb. Their father Jacob is lonely and without her and no longer sings. One
day he puts an ad in the paper for a wife. He receives a letter from Sara
stating she is willing to move and attempt to be a wife and mother. When she
arrives the children are nervous if she will want to stay. While she is there
she tells everyone about her life in Maine and about the sea. During the day
while Jacob plows the fields, Sara spends time with the kids and learns about
the farm. Jacob teaches her how to drive a carriage so she can go into town.
The children, especially Caleb, worry that she will go to town alone and leave
them. when she does go to town she comes back in the evening with pencils the
color of the sea. Everyone now knows that Sara is there to stay.
Age Range: 6 - 10 years
Grade Level: 1 - 5
Train to Somewhere By: Eve Bunting
Miss Randoff helps to load the fourteen orphans onto the
train. On the train Mary Ann worries she won’t be adopted because she is not
pretty enough. They stop first in Illinois and some of the children are
adopted, but not Mary Ann. Mary Ann is waiting for her mother to come back and
find her. They stop at a few other places and Mary Ann has still not been
adopted or has seen her mother. The last stop Mary Ann is the only child left.
Her mother isn’t there, but an older couple is. They talk with Mary Ann and she
begins to like them. She goes with them and is happy.
Age Range: 5 - 8 years
White Socks Only By: Evelyn Coleman
A little girl wants to go into town by herself, but her
grandma says she’s too young. Her grandma tells her a story about when she was
a child and snuck into town. She tells about how she put on her Sunday and went
to the court house. There she cracked and egg on the sidewalk, and found out
that it was true; it did get hot enough to fry and egg on the sidewalk. On her
way home she tried to drink out of a white’s only fountain. She thought since
she was only wearing white she could drink there. A white man comes and whips
her and all the other blacks that drank from the fountain. An old black man
comes and takes a long drink. The white man stops whipping and everyone goes
home. Her mother finds out what happens and is proud of her daughter.