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1600's
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| Rees, Celia |
Witch Child
The diary of a young girl named
Mary, who has just witnessed the death of her beloved grandmother
after she was accused of witchcraft in England. She is sent to
America to live in a community not far from Salem during the
time of the persecution of women accused of witchcraft. It is
not an easy read, reserved for students in grade 8 and up. But
it is a tale with a twist and quite descriptive of the intolerance
that existed during those times. |
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1800's
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| Gratz, Alan |
Samurai Shortstop
I read this book entirely too quickly. Now that I am done, I miss it. It is both sports book (great baseball) and historical fiction and I hope it gets the reading it deserves.
Set in 1890, Samurai Shortstop tells the story of sixteen-year-old Toyo. Before he enters a prestigious boarding school he and his father help his uncle Koji commit seppuku, ritual suicide. Koji and Toyo's father are samurai. The emperor has outlawed the samurai and is bringing the west into Japan. Once at school, Toyo attempts to forget his uncle's death and his father's statement that Toyo will need to assist him when it is his time to commit seppuku. Unfortunately, life at school consists of ritualized hazing and all Toyo wants to do is make the baseball team.
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| Meyer, L.A. |
In the Belly of the Bloodhound: Being an Account of a Particularly Peculiar Adventure in teh Life of Jack Faber (A Bloody Jack Adventure)
While it might be argued that this book is not technically historical fiction; its setting is Boston and the high seas in 1805. This is the fourth book in the Bloody Jack Adventures. They seem to stand alone as I haven’t read the other three and was able to enjoy the book.
Jacky Faber is back in America, having made her way from the Battle of Trafalger over the Atlantic thanks to quick thinking and kind sailors. When she lands, she finds herself wanted by the British for the crime of piracy. She makes her way to Boston, where she reunites with her lawyer. They decide that the only safe place for her is to return to the Lawson Peabody School for Young Girls as it has been rebuilt after Jacky burned it down. Unbelievably, Mistress is willing to have her return.
The adventures begin anew, when all 30 students from the school are abducted while on a class trip. They will be sold into slavery in Africa and it is up to Jacky to find a way to escape.
This 500 + page book flies by as it is filled with humor and suspense. The secondary characters are well drawn. There’s a story-within- a-story device which enables the Jacky’s classmates as well as the reader understand Jacky. She really is a good soul in spite of being a magnet for disaster and being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The last sentence of the book sets the scene for book five, which I will be sure to read.
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1900's
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| Schmidt, Gary |
Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster
Boy
It is 1911 and things are not
going very well for Turner Buckminster III. He is a minister's
son and always needs to be on his best behavior. He is especially
plagued by this now that his father is the new minister of the
First Congregational Church of Phippsburg, Maine. He hates Phippsburg
within hours of arriving. The whole town turns out to greet the
new minister and his family and a friendly invitation to play
baseball turns into humiliation for Turner because they play
"Maine baseball" in Phippsburg and the ball doesn't
do what it supposed to do.
The town is controlled by men in "frock
coats" with Mr. Stonecrop, the wealthy owner of a failing
shipyard, as the self-proclaimed leader. All of the homes are
painted white with green shutters, save one. The house with the
yellow shutters is owned by Mrs. Hurd, who seems to be the only
person in town with a mind of her own and with whom Turner is
friendly.
His only other friend is Lizzie Bright
Griffin, the sassy and spirited grand-daughter of Preacher Griffin
of nearby Malaga Island, a settlement of former slaves and a
perceived "blight" on the community by the town fathers.
They intend to force the squattors off the island so they can
develop it to attract tourists.
This beautiful book won both a Newbery
and Printz honor medal for 2005. It is a quietly powerful coming-of-age
story at once hilariously funny and bitterly sad. Turner and
Lizzie are two characters I won't soon forget.
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World War I
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| Morpurgo, Michael |
Private Peaceful
This haunting novel opens at
five past ten at night sometime during World War I with a seventeen-year-old
soldier telling us that he must remain awake through the night
and remember. He recounts the story of his childhood where his
memories of his older brother, Charlie loom large. He also carries
a secret that he dare not share with a single soul. He feels
responsible for the death of his father.
With each chapter ticking off the hours
of the long night, we learn about Tommo's humble childhood growing
up in the hut of a caretaker of an English estate. While beholden
to "the colonol" who owns and runs the estate, Tommo's
mother manages to hold her family together and live life with
dignity. She fiercely loves and protects all her boys and won't
allow her brain-damaged, eldest son, "Big Joe" to be
removed from the protection of the family. Charlie, too, has
inherited his mother's sense of fairness and dignity and protects
Tommo fiercely while including him in nearly every activity.
So that when Charlie is forced by the colonol to enlist in the
Great War, Tommo, lies about his age to go with Charlie.
Each character in this lovely book is memorable
and as the night and the novel draw to a close and the understanding
of what is about to happen dawns, the reader is left stunned,
breathless and quite possibly, in tears.
December 2, 2007 - It snowed for the first time this season. I took my dog for a long walk by the reservoir and listened to an audio version of Private Peaceful. It remains one of my favorite books and I spent much of the day listening while doing laundry and cleaning my refrigerator. It is a beautifully written book and I cried near the end just like the first time.
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| Spillebeen, Geert |
Kipling's Choice
This book was translated by
Therese Edelstein and is being marketed as a young adult historical
fiction. The author is a journalist who lives in Belgium and
has an interest in the first World War. It is a difficult book
to read both structurally and content-wise. It was beautifully
written but I am not sure who the audience is. The reader must
be sophisticated enough to understand who Rudyard Kipling was,
his books and influence, World War I and follow the narrative
structure.
Rudyard Kipling was a famous and influential
author who was honored everywhere but felt unfulfilled because
his poor eyesight prevented him from serving "god and country"
during the Boer War. His only son John was the apple of his eye,
but frail, sickly and possessed the same poor eyesight as his
father. Rudyard wanted nothing more than to have his son serve
in this nobel war and John, ever wanting to please his father,
wanted it as well. After being rejected by the British Army as
physically unfit, Rudyard persisted and pulled strings until
the Irish Guard agreed to take on not yet eighteen-year-old John
as an officer.
The narrative switches from third person
to first person and flashes backward and forward as John lies
dying from horrific wounds while the Battle of Loos on September
27, 1915.
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World War II - The Holocaust
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| Chotjewitz, David |
Daniel Half Human and the Good Nazi |
| Zusak, Marcus |
The Book Thief
This haunting story is narrated by Death. He relates the story of Liesel Meminger, a young girl in Nazi Germany, who caught his attention three times. The first was when she was nine and Death arrived to catch the soul of her younger brother just after he died while on a train bound for Munich with his sister and mother. Liesel's mother was putting them in foster care after her Communist husband disappeared at the beginning of World War II. Liesel finds a book in the snow near her brother's grave and steals it even though she can't read. The book is called The Gravedigger's Manual.
Although she is devastated at the loss of her brother and mother, she soon forms an attachment to Hans Hooberman, her "Papa." He is gentle with her where Rosa Hooberman is gruff. He responds to her each night as horrible nightmares trouble her sleep. Gradually trust builds and after she reveals The Gravedigger's Manual and the fact that she can't read to him, he begins to teach her to read.
This story is amazing on so many levels and begs to be shared and discussed. It is one of the few I will reread. It won a 2007 Printz Honor.
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Vietnam War
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| Myers, Walter Dean |
Fallen Angels
Seventeen-year-old Richie Perry
enlists in the Army in 1967 never really expecting to be shipped
out to Vietnam. He thought he would be playing basketball for
the Army and was until a knee injury ended his basketball career.
Do not be intimidated by the length of this book. Richie tells
the story of his time in Vietnam and it is riveting but difficult.
The events are gruesome and realistic. This novel portrays the
horrors of war and the language and some of the content are rough. |
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Iraq War
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| Myers, Walter Dean |
Sunrise over Fallujah
Private Robin Perry must deal with knowing that he has deeply disappointed his father by forgoing college and enlisting in the Army instead. He is part of a Civilian Affairs unit and sent to Iraq to attempt to win the hearts of the Iraqi people after the fall of Saddam Hussein. He bonds with his unit, especially Jonesy, earns himself a nickname, Birdy, bestowed on him by a hard-talking, highly attractive soldier named Marla.
Birdy quickly learns that the enemy is rather difficult to identify and that the "Rules of Engagement" change almost daily. There are some very intense battle scenes and graphic descriptions of war wounds as well as some language. The language in this book is far tamer than in Fallen Angels. This is a sort of companion novel to Fallen Angels in that Robin Perry is nephew of Richie Perry.
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