Historical Fiction – Page 2

The Wild Girl by Jim Fergus

I read several books while I was on vacation in Colorado and this one was by far my favorite. About a year ago I finished One Thousand White Women by Fergus as well and loved it. My friend, Rocky, lent me the book and then gave me this one to read. It’s always interesting to me how some people hit upon an author they like; it’s like the stars and the moon aligning just right as you search a book store which is how he felt. I appreciate his trusting nature because both books sat on my to-read pile for a few months before I had the chance to read them. He’s been patient with me though because he knew it was worth the wait. Thank you, Rocky!

The Wild Girl; The Notebooks of Ned Giles, 1932 (2005) shares two separate stories that merge into one well-crafted historical fiction gem. From the point-of-view of La Nina Bronca (a Native Apache girl) and Ned Giles we can fully appreciate each angle of the story. La Nina is hunted by the evil Billy Flowers and his pack of mangy dogs through wild Mexican terrain. He is an expert tracker and she is exhausted and starving. Once his dogs tree her he takes her in to the closest town and drops her off with the local authorities. It was all about the hunt for him yet Flowers’ part in the story is not over-he’ll be back! Ned Giles encounters La Nina Bronca weeks later as he comes through town heading to Mexico for an Indian Expedition meant to bring home a young Mexican boy kidnapped by an Apache tribe.

Fergus writes well from a female perspective and it is easy to fall in love and have the most empathy for La Nina Bronca because he’s framed her with such a beautiful yet violent story. Ned also is an easily understood character as he is a young orphan out in the world searching for his way. Fergus adds in a memorable cast of characters that help both Ned and La Nina Bronca along on their journey. Tolley, a gay socialite, is hysterical and balances well against Margaret, the more serious sociology student, sent on the expedition to learn more about the tribe. Billy Flowers and Indio Juan serve as crazy antagonist’s on both sides of the clan.

I hope Fergus continues to write and that my friend Rocky will keep lending them to me. I read this one faster than One Thousand White Women so I’m improving my turn-around time-now I know that inside the pages of a Jim Fergus novel lies a good and enticing story!

Find more about Fergus here at his website.

Top Ten Tuesday; #1

I’ve always wanted to play along with The Broke and the Bookish meme and today I’m avoiding another post I need to write so it seems like the perfect day to play along. Today’s topic is top ten of any genre.

Peaceful Reader’s Top Ten Historical Fiction Novels for YA and elementary

1. The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly

2. Moon over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool

3. The Red Umbrella by Christina Diaz Gonzalez

4. Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson

5. One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

6. Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly

7. A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly

8. The Ransom of Mercy Carter by Caroline B. Cooney

9. Esperanza Rising by Pamela Munoz Ryan

10. The Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen

Honorable Mentions:

Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis

A Thousand Never Evers by Shana Burg

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

So enlightening to browse back through old lists, reminding myself of all these wonderful books. Thanks for the joy. Now back to that other writing I need done for tomorrow!

Anne Ylvisaker and The Book Club

Author Anne Ylvisaker

I was the host of our book club last night and we had a a fantastic time. Through a round of chance encounters (one of our members worked with Anne’s husband in Cedar Rapids a few years back) and after I’d read and loved Little Klein we cooked up a plan to read a few of her books and see if she would skype with us. We’re so happy she agreed.

Ylvisaker grew up in Minnesota; in the St. Paul area, her father was a minister and she spent time in Iowa as an adult as well. All three of her fiction books take place in these Midwest settings. She had a lot of good stories to tell; some about her family and some about her writing process. I particularly loved this one…her writing group at one time gathered words and shared them with each other; using them to write with that week. She could pick them out of Little Klein and demonstrated how they raised the story up. She also shared many of the personal family stories that have became part of her books.

It was one of the best book club experiences we’ve had and it had nothing to do with the delicious food or the wine. It was the lively conversation we had with her and the discussion we had after we hung up the camera.
I’m a huge fan of hers and hope you will take time to read any of her fiction books for fun.

I read Dear Papa recently (2002) a wonderful elementary/middle grade fiction that shares the letters Isabelle writes to her deceased father and other family members as she deals with her grief and her mother’s eventual remarriage. The book is filled with daily joys and disappointments…just like real life. It takes place in Minnesota around the second World War.
Here’s a snippet:

“Dear Papa, Jan. 1, 1944 It’s a brand-new year. I have made some resolutions: Help the first time Mama asks. Hang up my clothes before bed. Go to church with a willing heart. Keep our family together. Your daughter,Isabelle, nine and a half today” (15)

I also read her latest book, The Luck of the Buttons (2011) about a young Iowa girl, Tugs Buttons, who is cursed with an unlucky family. Tugs changes her stars as she wins a three-legged race, an essay contest and a raffle all at the 4th of July celebration. She suffers some hard times but in the end she is able to show her family sometimes you got to make your own luck happen. Tugs is another positive young heroine!
Another snippet to share:

“Tugs shrugged into yesterday’s clothes, which still lay in a heap on the floor, slipped past Granny, who was writing a letter at the kitchen table, and collected five pennies from her mother on her way out the door. Wednesday mornings were Granddaddy Ike’s checkers mornings. and in the summer, Tugs was in charge of walking him from his house to Al and Irene’s Luncheonette…”(60)

We found out she has two more books in the works about this Button family and the next one up is Button Down, featuring Tugs’ cousin, Ned. Read my review of Little Klein here, which features an adorable boy and a dog combo that will make you smile to the heavens.

There was a grand moment for me when Ylvisaker recognized the “Peaceful Reader” name and asked if we were not on twitter together…I was over-the-moon-thrilled!

Thank you to Anne for taking time out of her busy schedule (her children had just returned home for the holidays) to talk with our group and to all authors who make themselves available to us, their adoring readers.
Thank you to my book club friends for willingly taking this leap of faith with me and Kay!
(now I’m thinking why didn’t I ask her for a preview copy of Button Down…silly me)
Enjoy.

War is not the answer; Ellen Feldman's Next to Love

Next to Love; A Novel

Ellen Feldman

2011

289 pages

I read 2 adult fiction books in October-rare for me. Both were outstanding! Next to Love focuses on three young women, all childhood friends, and the men in their lives during World War II and after. Each woman’s story captivated me. Grace, Babe, and Millie experience the beginning of the war through the departure of the men they love and the end of the war with what they are left with and, as a reader, we are privvy to what direction their lives take, and how they get on with the business of living.

Grace, already married with a daughter, is mad at her husband, Charlie:

Talk to me, she wants to throw open the window and shout. Tell me. Are you afraid? Are you secretly thrilled, a little boy with a stick playing at being a soldier, a man going off on a great adventure, leaving us behind, breaking my heart? No, that isn’t fair. He is not enjoying this either. (27)

Babe and Claude are a mismatched pair who meet accidentally at the Carnegie library . Claude checks out books for her in an act of kindness, demonstrating his rebellious nature to her early on:

Three years later, they began going together. By then he was teaching at the high school, and she was selling ribbons at Diamond’s. His mother, sensing a rebellious nature as well as an inferior bloodline, was brokenhearted; his father merely disapproved. The town was full of nice girls from good families. Why did their son have to get mixed up with one whose father worked in the hat factory and who had to work herself? (20)

Millie and Pete are newlyweds, adjusting to life, when he enlists. His last night in town they’ve had cocktails and dinner with their friends all at Grace and Charlie’s home. Later, Pete sleeps while Millie lies awake worrying.

She looks at the clock. It is four-thirty. She gets out of bed and goes down the hall to the bathroom. By the time she comes back, he is awake. And she is bathed and dressed and wearing a big perfectly lipsticked smile. Nobody likes a gloomy Gertie. (37)

Millie, Babe, and Grace have very different journeys to travel throughout the story yet each leads to the same conclusion-war is a miserable way to solve conflict. Feldman’s story takes the reader deep into how WWII affected the lives of these women but on a greater whole how men and women were torn apart. Marriages and families were destroyed. The children of soldiers were forever changed because their father came back and struggled or didn’t come back at all. I don’t know if the author is a peace activist but she makes the point very clear: War is not the answer.

Think of the soldiers of today and what they’ve seen and what they’ve been ordered to do in the name of freedom. Fighting against any enemy causes irreparable damage to a person’s psyche, making it extremely traumatic to re-enter civilian life. I hope many read this book and take it’s message to heart. It is simply an excellent historical fiction. I plan to read more by Ellen Feldman. -click to check out her website.

Other reviews:
Charlotte’s Web of Books
Diane at Bookchickdi
Alyce from At Home with Books

A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly

I’m an even bigger fan of Donnelly’s now that I’ve read this book. I read Revolution (a newer book) first and then heard from many people about the fantastic-ness of A Northern Light, which prompted me to check it out from the library. I finished it last night and sighed and smiled.

It’s 1906 and Mattie Gokey is the oldest daughter in a family of four other girls. Their mother has died recently leaving them all with fresh sadness. Mattie’s been the one in charge of chores, taking care of her siblings while her father runs the farm. Mattie loves words, making her standout as a student when she is able to attend, and she looks up a new word in the dictionary every day. She has two best friends; Weaver, an African American young man who is set on going to Columbia to be a lawyer, and Millie, who left school last year to get married and gives birth to twins.

Mattie has dreams to attend Barnard College and received a scholarship to attend-she just needs money to ride the train, a place to stay and books. When the family mule dies her father needs help financially and agrees to let Mattie work at one of the local hotels. A whole new world opens up to Mattie as she discovers the wealthy lives of the people staying at the hotel and the mystery of a young lady who hands her a stack of letters.

I just can’t tell you any more. You should read all about the mystery yourself. This book has much to say about the beginning of the women’s movement and what it was like for women, like Mattie’s teacher, Miss Wilcox, who chose a life of their own. We take it for granted now; like it’s always been that way, even though it’s only about three generations ago that things began to change. This book blends a love of words with mysteries about her teacher, the young woman at the hotel as well as Mattie’s own dilemma as she sorts out what her own path will be.

Mattie is a wonderful heroine who doesn’t disappoint us in her choices and uses what she comes to understand from her work at the hotel, through her friend, Millie, and her own mother’s decisions as well as her relationship with Royal Loomis and everything he has to offer. This one deserves to be pulled out of the stacks and read.

Awarded in 2004 the ALA’s Michael L. Printz’s Award for Excellence Honor Book-the list. The First Part Last by Angela Johnson took the prize and understandably so.
Jennifer Donnelly’s website

Other thoughts:
Best Books I Have Not Read
Emily at Las Risas
Erin Reads

Jennifer L. Holm did my homework!

Maryland Newsline image-and article

Well, not really but she made it easy. When asked, as part of my UNI Children’s Literature class this summer, to pick an author out of a list of many interesting authors I picked her. Even though she’s been on my radar I haven’t read anything of hers and it was time.

Jennifer had what sounds like an idyllic childhood. Her father was a pediatric doctor and her mother was a nurse. She had four sporty brothers and she did her best to keep up with them. She read voraciously even, as one neighbor noted, she raked the yard. It seems that she easily carried her passions into her desire to write. Each of her young female characters are gutsy and refuse to be pigeon-holed into the idea of women in their time period.

1. Our Only May Amelia (1999) It isn’t easy being a pioneer in the state of Washington in 1899, but it’s particularly hard when you are the only girl ever born in the new settlement. With seven older brothers and a love of adventure, May Amelia Jackson just can’t seem to abide her family’s insistence that she behave like a Proper Young Lady. Not when there’s fishing to be done, sheep to be herded, and real live murderers to be captured! May is sure she could manage better if only there were at least one other girl living along the banks of the Nasel River. An now that Mama’s going to have a baby, maybe there’s hope...(from author website)
This is a quick read filled with fun adventures.Getting to know her brothers, neighbors and relatives was part of the joy of this story. May Amelia is a character I will remember. This book was transformed into a play by the Seattle Children’s Theatre-would love to have seen it.

2. Turtle In Paradise (2010) Life isn’t like the movies, and eleven-year-old Turtle is no Shirley Temple. She’s smart and tough and seen enough of the world not to expect a Hollywood ending. After all, it’s 1935, and jobs and money and sometimes even dreams are scarce. So when Turtle’s mama gets a job housekeeping for a lady who doesn’t like kids, Turtle says goodbye without a tear and heads off to Key West, Florida, to stay with relatives she’s never met.
Florida’s like nothing Turtle has ever seen. It’s hot and strange, full of wild green peeping out between houses, ragtag boy cousins, and secret treasure. Before she knows what’s happened, Turtle finds herself coming out of the shell she has spent her life building, and as she does, her world opens up in the most unexpected ways. (from author website)
While Turtle is another very high-spirited character compared to May Amelia she is very different and world-wise. I loved the beach setting and the very unique Key West culture and language. Her boy cousins and their baby business was hysterical!

3. Middle School is Worse Than Meatloaf (2007) Ginny has ten items on her big to-do list for 7th grade. None of them, however, include turning her hair pink. Or getting sent to detention for throwing frogs in class. Or losing the lead role in the ballet recital to her ex-best friend. Or the thousand other things that can go wrong between September and June. But it looks like it is shaping up to be that kind of a year. (from author’s website)
See this is how you know an author is multi-talented…dropping into a whole new genre and doing it well! This is part realistic fiction, part journal and a great peek at middle school. Ginny is brave and bold and can clearly state that her dad died and she’s looking for a new one. This book is filled with fun notes between Ginny and her mom, movie receipts, drug store necessities, homework assignments and all this great middle grade angst.

Babymouse (2005 and beyond) This is a pink comic book (not just for girls though) about a funny little girl mouse who’s in elementary school. I’d like to read the whole set but haven’t yet; the one I read (Heartbreaker) is about going to the Valentine’s Day dance. Babymouse can’t find anyone to take her even though her best friend is available. I have Groovy Girl hooked on these now. This series, to me, defined Jennifer L. Holm as an above average creative force; the mouse put me over the moon!

Jennifer lives in Northern California with her husband and two children, Millie and Will. She loved Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain series and now I have this on my radar to read.

Babymouse has her own website-must introduce my students to this!

Let Them Eat Cake; Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly

If you were only able to read one YA book this year, let it be this one.

Revolution

Jennifer Donnelly

2010

472 pages

Goodreads Synopsis:

BROOKLYN: Andi Alpers is on the edge. She’s angry at her father for leaving, angry at her mother for not being able to cope, and heartbroken by the loss of her younger brother, Truman. Rage and grief are destroying her. And she’s about to be expelled from Brooklyn Heights’ most prestigious private school when her father intervenes. Now Andi must accompany him to Paris for winter break.

PARIS: Alexandrine Paradis lived over two centuries ago. She dreamed of making her mark on the Paris stage, but a fateful encounter with a doomed prince of France cast her in a tragic role she didn’t want—and couldn’t escape.

Two girls, two centuries apart. One never knowing the other. But when Andi finds Alexandrine’s diary, she recognizes something in her words and is moved to the point of obsession. There’s comfort and distraction for Andi in the journal’s antique pages—until, on a midnight journey through the catacombs of Paris, Alexandrine’s words transcend paper and time, and the past becomes suddenly, terrifyingly present.

My Thoughts:

I gushed about reading the first 5 chapters via Amazon in this previous post and after I picked it up from my library I couldn’t wait to get back to it. It didn’t disappoint me either. Andi is suffering from her little brother Truman’s death and she thinks about suicide more than once. Her pain felt real as she trudges back and forth to school, going through the motions and living for her music. Music played a huge role in this story and it made me curious about the various bands that are mentioned. Modern bands mixed with dead composers make an interesting mix. It should come with a CD.

This would have been a strong story on its own but adding the detail of Alex’s diary, locked in a secret compartment of a guitar case, and the fact that Andi becomes obsessed with it brought such surprising twists. Reading about Alex’s daring adventures to save Louis-Charles, the would-be king of England, help Andi to work through her own grief and frustration. She heals as she is transformed by Alex’s words.

I liked Virgil, Andi’s new love interest, who helps her to talk about her pain and he doesn’t give up-he’s like a positive beacon for her, even when she messes up. There are some creepy parts towards the end that had the hair on the back of my neck bristling away. I was reading it alone, late at night, while my husband was out of town-I scared myself silly. This was solid writing with very memorable characters. I’m pretty sure I know more about the French Revolution than I did before I read this! Thank you, Jennifer Donnelly!

I checked out another Donnelly book, A Northern Light, from the library today.

Jennifer Donnelly’s website

Other reviews of Revolution:

Random Musings
Nancy at Tales from a Ravenous Reader
Swoontini
SIDEBAR: I messed around with the HTML; trying to make a dotted box and I didn’t get a dotted box, I got white! Why can’t I have a brain for HTML…

July Recap

Graceling by Kristin Cashore (Library)
Changing Heart by Jodi Piccoult (my own shelf)
If I Stay by Gayle Forman (Library)
Fire by Kristin Cashore (library)
Babymouse by Jennifer L. Holm (library)
Middle School is Worse Than Meatloaf by Jennifer L. Holm (library)
Only May Amelia by Jennifer L. Holm (library)
Sisters Grimm (4) by Michael Buckley (Library/g.g.)
Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm (library)
Forever (Mercy Falls Book 3) by Maggie Stiefvater
One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus (my own shelf)

I’m happy when I’ve read more than a handful of good books in a month; even during summer when I should have plenty of free time. July’s been a good and joyful month with lots of cooking and friends but with enough leftover spare moments to read.

Groovy Girl’s 45 minute swim lesson have provided me with lots of quiet time to read. The graduate class I complained about gave me the opportunity to read a bunch of Jennifer L. Holm’s books and I have a post planned to share those. I finished off Stiefvater’s Mercy Falls series which I loved and hated to see end. I read two of Cashore’s Seven Kingdoms series and look forward to where she takes these interesting characters.

I can’t pick a favorite. They’ve all provided me with a different experience, even the titles by the same authors. Where did your July reading take you?

I’m off to a good start for August as I finished Where She Went by Gayle Forman last night with a free flow of tears and several tissues. Now I’m working my way through Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly. I have three more weeks before school begins. Bliss.

Upcoming Posts:

The Sisters Grimm by Michael Buckley

Where She Went by Gayle Forman

Forever by Maggie Stiefvater

and a

Jennifer L. Holm discussion

One Thousand White Women; The Journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus

A friend gave me this book and said “You’ve got to read this; it’s the best book I’ve ever read.”

A big build up. It sat for about 6 months on my to-read shelf by my bed and every time I ran into my friend, Rocky, he would say…”Have you read it yet?” and I’d have to say “not yet, but I’m going to get to it soon.” I put a limit on it for myself; I needed to finish it by July.

I finished it last night at 11:57, (July 31). It only took me four days (in between single mother duties as the male half of my family is off on a mission trip to W.Va.) and I liked the book. I don’t think it is the best book I’ve ever ready but I liked it. Mostly it points out human frailty and that it has been with us since the beginning of time.

The book is a bit of historical fiction, according to the author, but not completely. He’s mixed true factual events and real people with a whole lot of fiction. The book begins with a peace meeting between Little Wolf, the Sweet Medicine chief, addressing the President of the United States, Ulysses S. Grant, Little Wolf’s request was that if 1,000 white women joined them, became brides of Native men and had babies this would be a clear path to assimilation between the races. The idea made perfect sense to the Cheyenne but the peace meeting collapsed and all went home. This book interjects to change the outcome…What if 1,000 white women did marry into the Cheyenne tribe? What then?

May Dodd is a fictitious character who reads like a real person so well is she created. She’s a woman of means from Chicago who had the misfortune of falling in love with, Harry, a foreman with her father’s company. They live scandalously, unmarried, and have two beautiful babies together. One night while Harry is off drinking, men come and take May and the babies away. The babies end up with May’s parents and she ends up in a lunatic asylum-her illness is reported as “moral perversity.”

She is approached one day by special permission as she’s not allowed to be near men at all during her “confinement” due to her “condition.” She and several other women are given the opportunity to volunteer for the Brides for Indians Program. May signs on immediately as this, in an odd way, is her ticket to freedom. As these women travel west on the train we get to know them and it is these women and the friendships that make this book worth reading. My favorite character was Phemie, a strong African escaped slave who made her way to Canada and then signed up for the program to become truly a free woman. I understood her motivation and her need to connect with the Cheyenne.

There are many interesting themes in this book but the idea of humanity came to me over and over. I wanted May to grandly discover how beautiful Native culture was-and she does to some extent-but every time she feels that way something negative happens and she is thrown backwards. Toward the end of the book my mind kept thinking about our current situation in Iraq and Afghanistan, in a no-win situation bullying another culture, just as we did with the Native Americans.

Life keeps circling and humans do terrible things to each other in the name of religion and assimilation. The book made me think, question some preconceived notions and, especially, appreciate the strong women this book introduced me to. The image of Phemie on horseback, May writing, Helen painting and the Kelly twins will stay with me for a long time. This would make a wonderful book club choice as there are so many elements to discuss.

Jim Fergus website

Get Your Latest News Here….Newsgirl by Liza Ketchum

I snatched this one up from the new books display shelf at my local library. The cover was appealing and the blurb convinced me to check it and bring it home. I wanted to read it before we left town but Cutting For Stone took a loooong time to finish so I decided to brought it along and finished it in DC.

Amelia, her mother and her mother’s friend, Estelle arrive in San Francisco from Boston by boat. They arrive broke and in need of shelter and food. Estelle and Amelia’s mother plan to open a dress shop and have brought trunks of fabric but have spent too much money on the trip. They’ve taken a chance on this trip to build a new life for themselves; to find a home where women can exist on their own so it comes as no surprise that strong-willed Amelia sets her heart on sellling newspapers even after repeatedly being told it’s not a job for young ladies.

She cuts her hair and begs her mother to sew her boy’s clothes in order to join up with a gang of enterprising young men. Her desire to write the news for the local paper sends her to the flagship flight of a hot air balloon where she assists and takes the ride of her life, making everyone think she and her companion are dead. She brings home money, has adventures and struggles with her identity both as a “boy” and as a fatherless daughter. She breaks ground in a new land and follows her dream, which make her a powerful character, perfect for young readers.

My thoughts:

I think this one will appeal to its intended audience more than adults. Ketchum spells out all the complicated questions Amelia has and a young audience will appreciate this help. Everything under the sun occurs to Amelia and this overwhelmed me as a reader. The fire, kidnapping, looting, a street fight and money stolen seemed a lot for one book. Someone mentions getting shanghai’d on the docks…she gets shanghai’d by two sailors.

Trapped in a runaway hot air balloon and her struggle to get home seemed enough of an added adventure to focus on. After her ballooning experience while she is stuck in the mountains was enjoyable as she learned about panning for gold. The story did push the envelope on women’s rights, racism and pioneer struggles. I enjoyed the idea of the subtle same sex relationship between Estelle and Sophie and that Amelia eventually concluded having Estelle in her life was just about as good as having a father but in general the book left me feeling a little flat.

In a Nutshell:
Author’s website: Liza Ketchum
Genre: Historical Fiction
Time Period: 1851 (Gold Rush, California)
Audience: elementary (4-6)
Pages: 317

Other reviews:
Kiss the Book