Archive for the ‘Historical Fiction’ Category
Dragons of Silk





HarperCollins, 2011
Fiction
ISBN: 0060275189
352 pages
Synopsis
The Weaving Maid wove robes of silk for Heaven, but when she met the Cowboy, she abandoned her loom to be with him. But Heaven would not allow this, and put the Milky Way in between them.
Silk binds the lives of four girls from different generations with the fate of the Weaving Maid. Across a span of seventy-five years both in China and America, each girl shows the strength and courage of a dragon as she fights and sacrifices for the survival of her family and the pursuit of passion. …
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A Thousand Never Evers – Update





Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 2008
Historical Fiction
ISBN-10: 0385734700
320 pages
Synopsis
I was recently able to connect with Shana Burg, and she mentioned that she has just updated her website with more tools for educators. I thought I would post an update in case any teachers or librarians are looking for tools. Enjoy! http://www.shanaburg.com/educators.php. …
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A Brief History of Montmaray





Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2009
Historical Fiction
ISBN: 0375858644
304 pages
Synopsis
“There’s a fine line between gossip and history, when one is talking about kings.”
Sophie Fitzosborne lives in a crumbling castle in the tiny island kingdom of Montmaray with her eccentric and impoverished royal family. When she receives a journal for her sixteenth birthday, Sophie decides to chronicle day-to-day life on the island. But this is 1936, and the news that trickles in from the mainland reveals a world on the brink of war. The politics of Europe seem far away from their remote island—until two German officers land a boat on Montmaray. And then suddenly politics become very personal indeed. …
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The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate





Henry Holt & Co, 2009
Historical Fiction
ISBN: 0805088415
352 pages
Synopsis
Calpurnia Virginia Tate is eleven years old in 1899 when she wonders why the yellow grasshoppers in her Texas backyard are so much bigger than the green ones. With a little help from her notoriously cantankerous grandfather, an avid naturalist, she figures out that the green grasshoppers are easier to see against the yellow grass, so they are eaten before they can get any larger. As Callie explores the natural world around her, she develops a close relationship with her grandfather, navigates the dangers of living with six brothers, and comes up against just what it means to be a girl at the turn of the century. …
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The Giant Slayer





Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 2009
Historical Fiction/Fantasy
ISBN: 0385733763
304 pages
Synopsis
A girl’s imagination transports polio-afflicted kids into a fantastic world.
The spring of 1955 tests Laurie Valentine’s gifts as a storyteller. After her friend Dickie contracts polio and finds himself confined to an iron lung, Laurie visits him in the hospital. There she meets Carolyn and Chip, two other kids trapped inside the breathing machines. Laurie’s first impulse is to flee, but Dickie begs her to tell them a story. And so Laurie begins her tale of Collosso, a rampaging giant, and Jimmy, a tiny boy whose destiny is to become a slayer of giants. …
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Bog Child





David Fickling Books, 2008
Historical Fiction
ISBN: 0385751699
336 pages
Carnegie Medal
Synopsis
Fergus is recently 18, and on what should be a normal run to get peat to sell to the locals, he discovers a child in the bog—the child that time forgot. Unbelievably well preserved, she becomes the focal point of many theories about who she was, where she came from, and why she ended up there. Riddled with dreams about the child he’s found, Fergus must negotiate the complex world around him as Northern Ireland fights for its independence from England. …
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Lavinia





Harcourt, 2008
Historical Fantasy
ISBN: 0151014248
288 pages
Synopsis
It’s been over ten years since the Trojan War was fought by the heroes Achilles, Hector, and Agamemnon. Aeneas has been sailing around the world looking for home, which he eventually finds in what is now Italy. However, the bulk of this story is not about the Trojan War or the escapades of Aeneas. It’s about Lavinia, the daughter of King Latinus and Queen Amata, the last wife of Aeneas to whom Virgil only dedicates a few lines in his epic poem The Aeneid. Le Guin seeks to expand the role and life of Lavinia by giving her a longer story, and weaving Aeneas into it rather than the other way around. …
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