Historical Fiction of the Modern Time Period

by Andrea Hermitt | More from this Blogger

02 Feb 2007 01:31 PM

Whether you use the Charlotte Mason Method of Homeschooling, or a more relaxed approach of reading your way through history, historical fiction books are wonderful tools. By reading historical fiction, children more closely associate with children or people of the time period they are studying. This will help them to remember facts and dates long after the books are put down.

My children are currently studying the modern time period in their history class, and it has been a struggle for me to find age appropriate historical fiction books for them to read. There is just a whole lot more historical fiction written about the distant past than the recent past. Now that I have amassed a list of great titles for pre-teens and older children to read, I will gladly share them with you!

SOS Titanic tells about the ill-fated Titanic Voyage from the perspective of young Irish immigrants.

Lily's Crossing is a story of a young girl whose widowed father goes to war and she and her grandmother shelter a Jewish Refugee.

Stepping on Cracks and other World War II home front novels help youngsters understand the war from a child's viewpoint.

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, is the story of a young Jewish refugee who fled Germany.

The Friendship helps children to understand the racial hostility of 1933 in Mississippi.

For more modern time period novels for kids, read this article and search for specific historic events in the book section of Amazon.com In addition to these stories, you will also want your child to read stories about modern children in distant countries.

When you are out of books to read, you can always get older relatives to tell your children stories from their memories. Perhaps your child can help them to record them on paper for future generations.

Learn more about Andrea Hermitt

Andrea Hermitt is a native New Yorker currently residing in GA. She has been married for over 16 years and has two teenage children.

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Julie Gentry (5915) 02 Feb 2007 02:04 PM

We love historical fiction! Thanks for the recommendations. Stepping on the Cracks sounds like a wonderful book. Can't wait to read it.

Karen Edmisten (310) 03 Feb 2007 09:50 AM

We love historical fiction, too. We just finished "My Friend, the Enemy" which was a nicely done one that deals indirectly with the Japanese internment camps during WWII.

This year, for WWII, we also loved Hilda Van Stockum's The Winged Watchman, and The Borrowed House. Some other terrific titles were Ian Serraillier's Escape from Warsaw, Marie McSwigan's Snow Treasure, and Margaretha Shemin's The Little Riders. Andrea, we just read When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit a couple months ago, too, and thoroughly enjoyed that one as well.