Historical Fiction – Page 5

Luxury

One of the best things about taking a road-trip is all the reading I can get down as my husband tools along. This trip we were with out any children riding, talking, or fighting in the backseat. I was enthralled in Anna Godbersen’s The Luxe and kept stopping to exclaim about all the unusual plot twists!! I couldn’t help telling him about each unique character and about the lavish balls and of course all the mixed-up love stories had to come out; so at some point, I just began to read aloud to him. It kept him awake…what can I say, it was a blast. I read all the way up and all the way back and that is how I was able to finish The Luxe in just two days, well, that and the story is absolutely riveting!! What great research Anna Godberson had to have done in order to make this story so believable and charming. I like historical fiction but have not read anything quite like this before. I loved the variety of voices the story is told in and the snippets of turn of the century advice given to begin certain chapters. It’s like 19th Century People Magazine, dishing into the rich, old and new money and famous, with their secrets and pampered lives. It is so very romantic, yet not “romance-y”(if that makes sense) and wonderfully-twisted!
I just recieved Catching Fire by S. Collins from Amazon, and want to begin that but when I finish I will have to pick up the second Luxe novel, Rumors!

Quick Synopsis (find more at the great HarperTeen site or Godbersen’s site.

In a world of luxury and deception, where appearance matters above everything and breaking the social code means running the risk of being ostracized forever, five teenagers lead dangerously scandalous lives. This thrilling trip to the age of innocence is anything but innocent. from HT website.

Click here for HarperTeen Luxe site.
ps. The Luxe has been on my tbr list because I read about it over at Janssen’s@Everyday reading! Thank you for such a great recommendation-and she’s right, the book is worth it for the cover alone. Now, if I could find a dress like that-hmmmmm-just one day I would love to wear it!

Browsing

Last night I planned on posting something (didn’t have a plan for what as I am still reading Once a witch) but I got so wrapped up in reading down my list of other bloggers-I never made it back to post. I was too sleepy to write but not too sleepy to keep reading all the other great posts out there.
I loved seeing the pictures of Jannsen’s new Boston apartment as she gets ready for her next adventure-you can check out the pictures over at her blog, Everyday Reading.
I scrolled way down to an Aug. 14th post at Reading Rumpus and found some fabulous back-to-school lists of picture book choices!! I made notes ‘cuz there were quite a few I don’t have in my school library and I think they would be worth purchasing. Even though we are officially past the first days of school most teachers are always looking for great read-alouds. Go check out the lists at Reading Rumpus!
Kaye at Pudgy Penguin Perusals had a whole slew of historical books I’ll be searching out to add to my tbr bookshelves. I found The Confidential life of Eugenia Cooper by Kathleen Y’Barbe, A hint of wicked by Jennifer Haymore– then I clicked over to Jennifer’s blog and website and spent a fair amount of time reading her posts. The front cover of A hint of wicked is so well, wicked…check it out on Jennifer’s website and I loved how she had a nice long excerpt of the book there for me to read. I’m not a fan of romance novels but I love historical fiction and this one read very well!! Glad I could sample a little.
Seriously, one thing leads to another great thing out here on the web and my Friday night was gone but well-spent, “visiting friends”.

Historical fiction perfect for today!

I finished Patricia McKissack’s A friendship for today…today. I picked this one from our Scholastic Book Fair last year because it looked like an interesting historical fiction choice for 4-5th graders. McKissack’s main character, Rosemary is smart yet struggles with the issues of the day like is it okay for her to let her best friend, J.J. (a boy!) beat her in a race just because the other boys are watching. Her parents are not much help as they argue about a woman’s independence over dinner. Both her parents want Rosemary to remember that she’s as good as anybody but also not better. Brown vs. Board of Education has just passed and Rosemary’s colored school is closing and she will be transferred to Robertson Elementary, integrated into a previously white school. Right before the beginning of school, J.J. contracts polio and is hospitalized. Now Rosemary will be the only integrated student in her 6th grade classroom. It’s very difficult being the only one but with the help of some hard-earned friends, a progressive principal and a very positive teacher Rosemary makes it through the year. This is an easy read and one that will really help 3-5th graders understand this very important era of change in our history. Reading the author’s note at the end it is made clear why this story is such a believable one as Ms. McKissack experience this same 6th grade year right outside St. Louis, MO!

Find a great article about Patricia McKissack here at the Brown Bookshelf.

Home again, home again, skippity skip!

Love being home after being away. Upon entering my beloved home though I noticed a pet smell that has permeated our home from this new puppy we love! Hmmm-any solutions?? Light more candles, you say-I can do that.

I had a huge stack of mail waiting for me, including several packages! Love packages! One was my new calling cards from Laura Beth @ Happy Girl Greetings!!! Yeahhhh-birthday gift to myself! They are lovely and make me think of Beatrix Potter for some reason, even though there are no small woodland creatures on the card. What they do have on it is my pertinent school and blog information as well as a beautiful antique engraving of two girls-well, ta da- easier to show the card then try to explain it!!!! Isn’t it lovely??

Back to my packages: two more packages contained books:
1. Umbrella Summer
2. Jantzen’s Gift (free, but not an ARC)
3. A script book for my husband even though addressed to me-yes, I was a little let down!

The third package was a birthday greeting from my step-mother, even though she already bought me a dress and sandals. Love her too! Maybe more than my new business cards.

Now to my reading. I finished two more books in Ely after I finished Hungry by Michael Grant.
I read an easy one first: Nory Ryan’s Song by Patricia Reilly Giff. She is a great author who has quite a variety of books. My book club partner at school and I decided to feature Giff in one of student clubs this year. This is the second time I’ve read this book and I liked it even more this time. Nory’s story covers the time in Ireland’s history leading up to the potato famine. I loved how her family tried to stick together and how horrible it is to watch the community crumble around them as food becomes more and more scarce. The language is wonderful and the story is a fast read-perfect combination for a fifth-grade book club offering. I still have eleven by Giff to read as well. If you have not read any Patricia Reilly Giff, give her a try.
Click here for a list of other PRG titles.

The second book I finished was purely for fun. I’ve been reading post after post from other bloggers about Sarah Dessen’s books. I knew I had purchased some of her books for my step-daughter, Kaylee so I asked her if I could (pretty please) borrow them back from her book shelf for awhile. I started with Someone like me and I loved it! What great characters and unique twisting story line Dessen created.
The book describes the friendship between Halley and Scarlett, best friends since forever. Now they are teens and life for them is about boys. We come into the story after Scarlett has dated Michael, a sweet rambling young man. The romance ends when Michael is killed on his motorcycle and Halley is summoned home from some leadership camp she didn’t want to be at anyway. In every conversation these two characters have you are made of aware of their close connection, which makes it really endearing. I loved the likeable scumbag character, Macon; the boy Halley begins to date. The interactions between Halley, Macon and Scarlett are well-written as well as minor typical high school characters like Ginny Tabor. We’ve all known our own version of Ginny, know-it-all, always-causing-trouble, busy-body .
This book made me think of the few fabulous women I’ve been “best” friends with over the years as well as some of my endearing but troubled young boyfriends. Read this book as the book tag says “anyone who’s had a best friend-or a first love-will understand” and I did on both accounts. Sarah Dessen has a great website/blog!

Author Joseph Bruchac

I like Joseph Bruchac…well, I like the three books of his I’ve read; Skeleton Man, Heart of a chief and his newest book, March toward the thunder (2008), a historical fiction novel set during the summer of 1864. The main character is Louis Nolette, an Abenaki Indian from Canada. He is 15-years-old and is recruited to join the Fighting 69th, Irish Brigade. He joins because he knows it is wrong to own another human, he likes the idea of a paycheck and perhaps also he is looking for a bit of adventure. What follows is a fictional account of the battles taking place from April to August.

What I loved about this book were the descriptions of what soldiers experienced in the Civil War. I’d always heard stories of brothers fighting brothers in battle but this book brings to life what it must have felt like to feel so close to the enemy. There is a two-page description (p. 34-35) of what it was like to load their issued rifle…one ball at a time, so each time they fired they had to reload. The description of the doctor’s tent is vividly real. I’ve read other fictional accounts of this time period; this one really helped me grasp exactly how those battles would feel. Louis tells us all about how each battle was won or lost in a remembering back sequence, which makes it easy to understand and feel how awful the battle really was. This is a great book to show what is truly lost during war.

Bruchac does a wonderful job of telling the story through Louis’ eyes in this first person narrative. Louis, a quiet soldier, easily makes friends and through his relationships we see what kind of person he is and how it is that through it all he survives. He experiences racism in the midst of putting his life on the line for a country that doesn’t even see him as a full citizen. I learned a great deal reading this book and now want to read Codetalker, Bruchac’s book about Native Americans in WWII. Anybody interested in the Civil War, Native life or great characters will enjoy this story.
Check out Joseph Bruchac’s website here.
American Indians in Children’s Lit. website reviews it here.
and a great review by Brian Griggs here.

What is your favorite historical fiction book?

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Happy May! Come on Spring!

My friend Tina nudged me several times to read this book and I happened to find it in the library’s 7-day loan right before we were leaving for Indianapolis! Road-trip and a highly-recommended book-I was set! I read it there, I read it back and many times in between during our trip. Thank heavens for husbands who are willing to drive the whole way! Tina was right-this book is so good! I rarely pick up adult books because kid lit satisfies my need for really good fiction but I am so glad I did not pass this one by.
This story, set in Jackson, MS in 1962 is about three brave women, and all women at the same time. Aibileen, Minny and Miss Skeeter trade sections of the book back and forth so we hear their stories of tension, trouble and joy between black and white during this extremely turbulent time in our history. Ms Stockett weaves the brutal news stories of the time (James Meridith, Medgar Evers) into her story so eloquently I had a difficult time remembering that Minny and Aibileen were not real.
The story is so interwoven and complicated in a good way that I’m not going to begin to retell it. I’m just not that kinda reviewer but I will say the power of the women’s stories was so uplifting and heart-wrenching at the same time. Many of the characters made me grit my teeth with anger at their outlook on their world (Miss Hilly, Miss Elizabeth) and cheer for others (Miss Skeeter and all of the maids). The truth of the story is it is hard to follow your own path, lose your friends for a higher good, against the rest of the world and they did it in the midst of real tragedies. I want all my friends to read this!!

The Help
Kathryn Stockett
Amy Einhorn Books/
Putnam
Hardcover, 464 pages
$24.95
ISBN 978-0399155345

What I have read this week…

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is two fabulous historical fiction books for middle grade and YA. I read first A thousand Never Evers by Shana Burg, which was great, great, great and I am thinking of ordering it for my elementary library because it is very readable and has such a strong female main character. I think I have a few higher level readers that would enjoy it as well as a great read-aloud for teachers. The story is set in the South and the author uses Medgar Evers’ and Emmitt Till’s death as well as the Birmingham church bombing, killing 4 young Sunday School attendee’s as a backdrop. I have been fascinated with this part of our American history for years and love Mildred D. Taylor’s books for their honest portrayal and great characters. Addie Ann reminded me a great deal of Cassie, thoughful, wanting to make the right choices but not always knowing which path to take. I highly recommend this book to anyone who would like to get caught up in an era when we, as a country, were not at our best, but that many used as a time to stand up and demand justice everywhere including their own backyards as this story proves.
Chains by Laurie Halse Andersen is the second historical fiction (I have about 3 chapters left) and I am riveted to the tale of Isabel and her sister, Ruth. My husband can attest that as I read this story I am disgusted with how this slave at this time in history (backdrop is the American Revolution) is treated. You really get, as a reader, that deep understanding of slaves mattering no more than furniture that works…like a vacuum cleaner, (well could be furniture it some homes?otherwise known as an appliance:)). There is such intensity to this book. I continue to be shocked along Isabel’s journey at what befalls this brave young heroine. It always makes me incredibly sad, even when I read in a historical picture book to students nonetheless, when I read about families ripped apart and sold away from each other. Teary-eyes during story time is not always a bad thing for students to witness. As a mama I can’t imagine anything worse than having my sweet children sold from me!!! Henry’s Freedom Box describes this heart-wrenching practice by slave owners to further keep slaves feeling less than human. In Chains Isabel’s sister Ruth suffers from perhaps epilepsy, which of course causes trauma in the household and Isabel discovers she cannot, no matter how hard she tries, protect her sister. Isabel is a great character, with tough choices to make, constantly thinking of how to get out of her place in life. She expects to work hard but it is her ability to see herself as human and thus unable to make her own choices that drive this character forward to the hope of freedom. It seems so much has been taken away from Isabel yet her soul stays strong.

These is my words…

I must be on some kind of history kick this summer. After reading Hattie Big Sky my mother-in-law (another book lover) recommended These is my words by Nancy E. Turner. It is done in a journal format and really explored what it must have been like for a woman in the Arizona/New Mexico Territories when Tucson was just becoming a town. I loved the book but hated all the anti-Apache sentiment that goes with this time period. Like trying to read Little House on the Prairie to your children and all the horrible “red-faced Indian” conversations that take place between Laura and her family. In These is my words though I really loved how the main character, Sarah Prine grows as a character. After many run-ins early in her territory history with angry Natives (and we know they are angry for good reason!!!) she grows to trust a particular Indian that has helped her husband. Even when she is the recipient of prejudice because of this friendship she sticks by it and welcomes the man into her home and misses his help when he is gone.