Writing Great Historical Fiction for Children, with Chris Eboch

The author at Coba, Mexico

Our goal at this blog is to target teachers, librarians, and readers of historical fiction rather than other writers. But since teachers, librarians, and readers may also be writers – and summer vacation is a great time to pursue your writing – I thought I’d share some insight into writing historical fiction.

What makes good historical fiction?

·         You need to find a way to communicate your passion. Find something interesting about the time, place, and characters you’ve chosen, and let your enthusiasm shine through.

·         Put away your teacher hat and put on your storyteller’s hat. The story comes first. It’s about interesting people doing challenging things in an exciting time and place. The action shouldn’t stop for facts. Details of setting, daily life, attitudes, etc., should be relevant and fit naturally into the story. No matter how interesting a piece of information is, don’t include it unless it moves the action forward. Historical fiction should not be an excuse to lecture within a fictional framework.

·         Be especially careful with technical information, such as how machines work. This can get tedious. You can always include extra facts as supplemental information on your web site or provide teaching guides for use in the classroom.

·         Except with omniscient viewpoint, all information must be from the point of view character’s POV. You can’t point out what they don’t have. Portray life as it was, and trust your readers to note the differences.

·         Make history live by appealing to all five senses. Try to include smells, tastes, and textures, as well as sights and sounds.

Tikal, Guatemala

Methods of historical research

·         Traveling to a site is especially helpful for inspiration and for noting surrounding details. However, buildings, vegetation, animals and even the climate may change over the years. Don’t assume things looked the same “way back when.” Sometimes this is obvious – visiting Mayan ruins, clearly the buildings have fallen into disrepair and the jungle has closed in. But it’s easy to underestimate how much things have changed. What now looks like a small cluster of large buildings in the midst of jungle might once have been a city center surrounded by miles of smaller homes and farm fields. Even the distant jungle might have been more open, with people clearing away undergrowth and vines to forage for fruit and tap trees for rubber. In more modern cities, the historical buildings may have been there, but the stone might have been light, not darkened by centuries of pollution.

·         Children’s books often have a concise overview of a subject, plus colored pictures of clothing, tools, weapons, etc. Pictorial encyclopedias for kids can be the best place to start to give you a quick overview of a culture.

·         Museums, such as natural history museums and local historical societies, often have old photos, historical artifacts and even recreations of buildings or towns from previous eras. You may need to make an appointment in advance to get into back rooms or archives. Fortunately, today many organizations are putting photos and documents on their websites!

·         History, anthropology, and archeology texts can provide specific details of the culture. Again, the Internet is a boon – when researching a recent nonfiction book about battlefield medicine in World War I, I could access Masters degree theses from Britain on subjects such as the British ambulance corps.

Jaguar, Belize Zoo

·         Travel books/websites may discuss the climate, vegetation, animals, and scenery. They may mention which plants and animals are native versus later introductions, but double-check if you’re not sure.

·         Encyclopedias are a good source of further information about birds, animals, etc. You can get specific details of how they look, sound, and behave. Online dictionaries and encyclopedias may even have recordings of animal sounds.

·         “The Library of Congress Online Catalog contains over 18 million catalog records for books, serials, manuscripts, maps, music, recordings, images, and electronic resources in the Library of Congress collections,” according to the site.

Making tamales with friends in Mexico

·         Experts such as college professors, historians, tourist bureaus, and even avid amateurs can provide information and may be willing to fact-check your work. You can find many of them through the Internet, but check their references before you trust their information. If you are writing about another culture, ask people from that culture to review your manuscript for accuracy and sensitivity.

·         To some extent, you can also rely on human nature through the ages. Although the specifics of religious practice, social structure, and politics often differ, people throughout history have been motivated by the same basic emotions: love, fear, greed, insecurity, pride, piety, etc.

To learn more about writing well, grab a copy of You Can Write for Children: How to Write Great Stories, Articles, and Books for Kids and Teenagers:

In this book, you will learn:

How to explore the wide variety of age ranges, genres, and styles in writing stories, articles and books for young people.

How to find ideas.

How to develop an idea into a story, article, or book.

The basics of character development, plot, setting, and theme.

How to use point of view, dialogue, and thoughts.

How to edit your work and get critiques.

Where to learn more on various subjects.

Whether you’re just starting out or have some experience, this book will make you a better writer – and encourage you to have fun! Order for Kindle, in paperback, or in Large Print paperback.

Chris Eboch is the author of over 30 books for young people, including The Well of Sacrifice, an adventure for ages nine and up set in Mayan Guatemala. Kirkus Reviews called The Well of Sacrifice, “[An] engrossing first novel…. The novel shines not only for a faithful recreation of an unfamiliar, ancient world, but also for the introduction of a brave, likable and determined heroine.” Visit www.chriseboch.com for more advice on writing historical fiction, and a list of great books for young people.

Bloody Jack: Review by Elizabeth McLaughlin

Due to a most unfortunate accident, which has necessitated my being off the writing scene for several months, I have had to shelve – temporarily – my MG historical faction on the Second World War in Scotland.

When I was able to begin reading once more, my choice was ‘Bloody Jack’, by the American L.A. Meyer. This is one terrific book for young readers; it was sheer chance I happened on it, and after a reading, I’m surprised it isn’t more widely known. It has certainly piqued my interest in perhaps doing a naval historical fiction blog later on. Not only known as the Senior Service, the Royal Navy has a unique, illustrious, and fascinating history. Of course there were the sadists, the opportunists and the rogues as well as the great adventurers and heroes. I’d say the former were eclipsed by the latter! But to return to our novel:

It begins in 1797, in the modest London apartment home of ten year old Mary Faber, with her schoolteacher father dead from the plague of the time, and his body being dragged unceremoniously down the stone steps to be carted off. Mary overhears one man say they’d be back ‘for the rest of them soon enough’, and indeed the very next day her mother and little sister die. As the men take the corpses off, their leader tells Mary not to worry, ‘Old Muck will get you soon enough.’ – remember, this is the era of the body-snatchers – men like Muck made money from turning bodies – the fresher, the better – to the teaching universities.

Poor Mary, with only the clothes she is wearing, runs from her home through the uncaring streets of the great capital. She runs till she can go no longer, and she curls up in a darkened doorway hoping only to die and be relieved from her misery. Instead, come darkness, the street children come to life and a gang finds Mary. The leading girl strips her of her nice clothes, even her knickers, for the gangster girl is bare arsed, and tosses her dirty shift for Mary to wear. The gang leader, however, named Rooster Charlie, takes a liking to Mary and she becomes his protégé. Until poor cocky Charlie falls foul of Muck, who murders him. Mary, out looking for him, strips Charlie, dons his clothes, chops her hair – and Jacky is born.

Jacky tries her luck as a ship’s boy; despite her young age, the recruiting officer signs her on because she can read. Told in the first person, present tense, the book is a rollicking tale of Jacky’s adventures and misadventures, the friends and enemies she makes aboard ship, and the onset of adolescence. Mr. Meyer treats it all with sensitivity and humour. Without unduly dwelling on the cruelty and cynicism of the city, he also shows death as being ever-present, and does not sugar coat either death on the streets, or aboard ship, whether by accident, judgement, or battle. The dialogue throughout is that of the London streets at the time, it should be quite easy for today’s middle-graders to understand. I found just one jarring note – the use of ‘Brits’ to describe Mary’s fellow countrymen. I’m sure this loathsome abbreviation is of recent origin. There again, I’m prejudiced and open to any necessary correction!

This book paints an excellent historical picture of life in the Royal Navy, the perils, the Barbary pirates, life in London and Boston at the end of the eighteenth century. Sure to appeal to the MG.

– Elizabeth McLaughlin

Genre Shifters - When Contemporary Fiction Becomes Historical

by Suzanne Morgan Williams

Recently I re-read Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck’s classic novel about the Depression. When he wrote it, in 1939, it was contemporary fiction. Grapes of Wrath was the result of interviews and short stories he’d written about California’s migrant families who’d been displaced during the Dust Bowl. But to today’s readers it’s historical.

How do some books hold up to the test of time? Of course, there is the engaging, universal story. In the Grapes of Wrath, we recognize the Joad family’s struggle to stay together in the face of insurmountable odds, to hold onto their dignity as it is stripped away, to stay alive. But what else makes this work as a historical novel when it wasn’t written as one? I’d argue it’s the detail.

Steinbeck gives precise descriptions of the land, the cars, the contents of the Joad’s homes and what they choose to carry with them to California. He lays out the politics and policies that work against them. We know what Rose O’Shar’n wore and what over ripe peaches taste like. Yes, some of the language is old fashioned and his message of workers joining together against big business may seem dated in hind sight (although the problem of greed undermining the value of human beings is certainly current). Through his copious and well-chosen details, Steinbeck offers a fully fleshed out world that we can understand and visualize seventy-five years later. If he had written only for his contemporary audience, if he’d assumed they knew much about the Joad’s world as the took to the road and so omitted what was then common knowledge, modern readers might feel lost or disinterested in a story we can no longer relate to.

What does this mean for today’s middle grade writers? Don’t skimp on detail. Even if everyone knows what the Empire State building looks like, give us a sense of looking up to the spire from street level, of the textures and messages of the bas relief art that lines the interior, of the speed of the elevator. This will engage today’s children and act as a guide to future readers who will have life experiences we can’t yet imagine. What will kids, seventy-five years from now need to know in order to love your books?

My question to you - What books do you love that where contemporary when they were written and are now historical? Why do you think they still speak to us?

Summertime--and the Reading is Easy by Mary Louise Sanchez

Summer is the time teachers reflect on and evaluate the past year's lessons. Teachers also take summer staff development classes; and wouldn't it be beneficial if you received practical lessons which emphasized best practices for teaching history.

Summer is a good time to pique your interest in history by reading or listening to great historical fictional stories for children as you travel the highways. Imagine how much more prepared you'd be to pick those "just right" historical fiction books for your students that correlate with the curriculum and standards. 

In an interview with Teaching History.Org in 2011, Valerie Tripp, best known for her American Girl historical fiction characters, discussed how to make a period of history matter to your students. As you're reading those wonderful historical fiction stories think about how they can make history come alive using her suggestions.

She suggested that you consider where your students are right now and connect them to the past.  How would you celebrate your birthday? What would your chores be? What would your hopes and dreams be?

She also said "it is emotion—making a person-to-person connection, imagining yourself in someone else’s shoes—that sparks, fuels, and maintains a student's interest in a period of history."

There are so many resources which list great books, and here are just two of them which highlight history and social studies for children. One wonderful resource is the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction.

                            

 It is awarded annually to "a meritorious book published in the previous year for children or young adults." To be eligible, "a book must have been published as a book intended for children or young people, it must be set in the New World (Canada, Central or South America, or the United States), it must be published by a publisher in the United States, and it must be written in English by a citizen of the United States."

 SCOTT O’DELL AWARD

By Historical Period

THE NEW WORLD

1993 prize Michael Dorris, Morning Girl, 1492 The Bahamas

THE COLONIAL PERIOD

1984 prize Elizabeth Speare, The Sign of the Beaver

THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR

1985 prize Avi, The Fighting Ground

WESTWARD EXPANSION

1987 prize Scott O’Dell, Streams to the River, River to the Sea

(Sacagawea; Lewis & Clark) Early 19th Century

2006 prize Louise Erdrich, The Game of Silence, Ojibwe Mid 19th Century

1986 prize Patrician MacLachlan, Sarah, Plain and Tall, Late 19th Century

2005 prize A. LaFaye, Worth Orphan Train, Nebraska Late 19th Century

PRE-CIVIL WAR

2003 prize Shelley Pearsall, Trouble Don’t Last, Underground Railroad

1997 prize Katherine Paterson, Jip, His Story, 1855-56 VT

2008 prize Christopher Paul Curtis, Elijah of Buxton, Escaped slaves, Canada

CIVIL WAR

1988 prize Patricia Beatty, Charley Skedaddle

1994 prize Paul Fleischman, Bull Run

2004 prize Richard Peck, The River Between Us

RECONSTRUCTION

1990 prize Carolyn Reeder, Shades of Gray

1999 prize Harriette Gillem Robinet, 40 Acres and Maybe a Mule

2002 prize Mildred D. Taylor, The Land

DEPRESSION – 1930s

1991 prize Pieter van Raven, A Time of Trouble

1998 prize Karen Hesse, Out of the Dust

2010 prize Matt Phelan, The Storm in the Barn

2012 prize Jack Gantos, Dead End in Norvelt

WORLD WAR II

1992 prize Mary Downing Hahn, Stepping on the Cracks

1995 prize Graham Salisbury, Under the Blood-Red Sun

2000 prize Miriam Bat-Ami, Two Suns in the Sky

2001 prize Janet Taylor Lisle, The Art of Keeping Cool

2007 prize Ellen Klages, The Green Glass Sea

POST WORLD WAR II

1996 prize Theodore Taylor, The Bomb

2011 prize Rita Williams-Garcia, One Crazy Summer

SOUTH AMERICA – TWENTIETH CENTURY

1989 prize Lyll Becerra de Jenkins, The Honorable Prison

Another resource for historical fiction books for children is the Notable Books List published by the National Council for the Social Studies (NCCS). A panel of educators and librarians read more than 200 books to select these "notable books." Lists from prior years are free, and you can purchase the newest list or access it for free with a membership in NCCS. The database of lists by the years have general reading levels and applicable NCSS standards are identified. The lists also have an annotation of the book.

                                                 National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) 


My public library has a fun, visual way to track summer reading. Children and adults add a pom-pom to the large container in the library for every book that is read.

Perhaps you could add a coin to a jar for every book you read. If you read historical fiction books aimed at youth, (which are usually shorter) just imagine how much money you'll have by the time school starts again!

Historical Fiction Based on Historical Photographs

As the author of The Iron Horse Chronicles, I find that photographs provide me with a solid source on which to base a scene. I follow a historical timeline in my trilogy about the building of the first transcontinental railroad, and I try not to deviate far from it in order to ensure an accurate depiction of the facts. First, I develop a chronological listing of the significant events that occur; then I weave my plot around each event, placing my fictional characters in juxtaposition with the historical personages who were present at that event.

History books, contemporary newspaper articles, and biographies and autobiographies, provided the bulk of the research material I consulted while developing the timelines for the three books comprising The Iron Horse Chronicles. Photographs contained in these sources, plus photos available in museum collections, have given me the basis for placing Will Braddock and his fictional friends and enemies in realistic situations. I personally walked the ground where many of the inspiring photographs were taken to get a better feel for how to describe the locale.

The above photograph served as the basis for an important scene in Bear Claws, the second book in the trilogy. A confrontational meeting took place at the Fort Sanders Officers’ Club near Laramie, Wyoming, between Doc Durant and General Dodge of the Union Pacific Railroad. General Ulysses S. Grant, the Republican candidate for President, refereed their disagreement, rendering a decision that had  a significant impact on the construction of the transcontinental railroad. All of the people in the photograph have been accurately identified. Grant stands left of center wearing a straw hat. Other well known generals are present, including Sheridan and Sherman. I wove a description of this photo into Chapter 37, from which I quote the following selection. Andrew Jackson Russell, a historical personage, was the official photographer for the Union Pacific. Will Braddock is the protagonist in The Iron Horse Chronicles. Luey (Lieutenant Luigi Moretti) and Will’s uncle (Sean Corcoran) are fictional.

Russell flipped the heavy, black drape over his head, and Will watched the camera bellows move back and forth until the photographer had the focus he desired. Then Russell stepped out from under the cloth hood.

 “All right, folks. We’re ready. I’m going to remove the lens cover and count to three, while I expose the plate to sunlight. After three seconds, I’ll replace the lens cap, and the picture will have been taken. Do not move while the lens cap is off! That’s important.”

 A final shuffling of the group took place. General Grant stood in the center leaning both hands on the picket fence. Dodge remained in the Club’s doorway. Doc Durant slouched against the open gate of the fence, sulking like a three-year-old. To the far left, Will saw Luey twist the ends of his mustache to straighten them, then stick one hand into the front of his uniform coat. Will couldn’t suppress his grin. Luey was imitating the famous pose of Napoleon Bonaparte.

“Here we go,” Russell said. He removed the lens cover and counted. “One. Two. Three!” He replaced the lens cap and slid a wooden holder out of the side of the camera, handing it to Will.

Will ran to the back of the wagon and exchanged the container for the one that he found, just as Russell had told him. He raced back to the photographer, who inserted the new plate into the side of the camera.

“One more shot, please,” Russell said. "Ready now. One. Two. Three!”

Russell stood and held up a hand. “Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. All finished.” He shook Will’s hand. “Thank you, young man. You were a big help. Everything went fine except I couldn’t get those two gentlemen on the far left into the picture. The lens is just not that wide.”

Will chuckled. So much for Luey’s imitation of Napoleon making it into the history books. Unfortunately, his Uncle Sean would be left out, too.

In addition to describing a historical event in which the protagonist participated, this scene gave me the opportunity to explain to today’s young readers the cumbersome photography of 1868.

Above is the second shot Russell took in front of the Fort Sanders Officers’ Club that day. I used the above scene to introduce Will to the Union Pacific’s photographer. Will encounters Russell on other occasions, including scenes in Golden Spike, the final book of the trilogy. Students of history will undoubtedly recognize the following, famous photograph taken by Russel on May 10, 1869.

Sara K Joiner: Take Advantage of Your Libraries

I was fortunate enough to attend two sessions about writing historical fiction at the Texas Library Association's Annual Conference. The second session, from Ann Weissgarber, focused on utilizing libraries for research.

As a librarian, I know the wealth of information libraries contain. As a writer of historical fiction, I know the importance of research.

But I didn't always know the the full power available to me at libraries.

I still remember the first time I ever heard of inter-library loan. I was in tenth grade and had recently watched Coal Miner's Daughter with Sissy Spacek as Loretta Lynn. Naturally, I wanted to read the book, but my high school library didn't have it.

Undeterred, my mother and I went to the public library the next weekend. This was a bigger deal than it sounds as that library -- the Friench-Simpson Memorial Library in Hallettsville, Texas -- was 20 miles from my house.

Unfortunately, the library didn't have the book either. Mom suggested I try to get it through inter-library loan.

"What is that?" I asked.

"When one library doesn't have the book you want, they can get it from another library," she explained.

That sounded too good to be true. The library would simply get it from somewhere else? You couldn't do that at the video store or a department store or Walmart.

Certain this was something only available at big libraries like Houston, where my mother grew up, I walked up to the circulation desk at my little one-building library prepared to be laughed right out onto the street.

"Can you do inter-library loan?" I asked timidly.

"Yes, we can," the librarian said. "You just need to fill out this form."

Imagine my shock!

Coal Miner's Daughter arrived about a month or later, and I read it with delight. A paper inter-library loan band obscured the cover, but that was a small price to pay for the incredible service provided by inter-library loan.

Now that I'm a librarian, I know how much work inter-library loans are for library staff. But it's still worth it. The service is generally free and there is still some minor paperwork, but much of the heavy lifting is done online now. One of the more fascinating aspects of inter-library loan is seeing where the material came from. I once got a book from the United States Department of State Library, which is how I learned there was a State Department Library.

A library's card catalog --
the original search engine

At college, I discovered another library secret. Librarians love to do research! When I had exhausted my own meager research skills as a freshman, I shyly approached the circulation desk once again. Admittedly, the desk at Texas Lutheran University's Blumberg Library was quite a bit larger than the desk at the Friench-Simpson Memorial Library.

I explained my needs. I can no longer remember the specifics -- whatever paper I was writing at the time was not nearly as exciting as reading Coal Miner's Daughter.

Off I was led on a journey through the largest reference collection I had ever seen up to that point -- Statistical Updates for every country, subject dictionaries, resource guides, plus the usual encyclopedias (more than World Book), atlases and almanacs -- all up-to-date. She also showed me how to use the online databases to find even more information.

Most importantly, she empowered me to find information on my own.

Once I started library school at the University of Texas at Austin -- and found an even larger reference collection -- I didn't feel so overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information found there.

As a librarian and historical fiction author, I get to combine the best of both worlds. Researching time periods, events and lives for information that will be useful or interesting in novels for children. What could be better?

Tell your students to ask librarians for help. We won't give you the answers, but we'll give you a ton of resources to find what you need. The tougher the question, the more we enjoy the challenge.

Take advantage of our skills. We paid a lot of money to graduate schools to get them. Remember Google doesn't have all the answers. Your librarian may not have the answer either, but she will go out of her way to find it. Google will never do that.

Sara K Joiner is the author of After the Ashes, coming in October from Holiday House. She is also the children's coordinator for the Brazoria County Library System.

Jennifer Bohnhoff: Beyond Anne Frank: Saving the Children

 Because The Diary of Anne Frank is taught in middle and high schools throughout the United States, just about everyone knows that people in the Netherlands hid Jewish children from the Nazis during World War II. What is less understood is how common or widespread this occurence was. While there are many resources for Middle School teachers and librarians who would like to explore the extent of this issue, this article highlights a few of them.

Hidden Like Anne Frank demonstrates that hiding children was more common than many people imagine. In this book by Netherlanders Marcel Prinz and Peter Henk, translated into English by Laura Watkinson, 14 people share their experiences how, as Jewish children in the Netherlands during World War II, they moved from house to house and city to city. Some were kept by family members and relatives. Others, by complete strangers. They endured boredom and terror, hunger and cramped quarters. Some were just three or four years old. Others were teenagers. But they survived because of a secret network of brave people who were determined to protect them.

Few Americans realize that similar events occured in France. The political situation in France was much more complex than in the Netherlands because France was a divided nation during World War II. After France surrendered to Germans on June 24, 1940, three fifths of its territory, including Northern France and the entire French Atlantic Coast was occupied by the German army. Martial law allowed Germans to round up and deport Jews just as they did in the Netherlands.  Just as in the Netherlands, not all Frenchmen agreed with the anti-semite policies of the Vichy regime or their Nazi allies.

However, the situation was different in the remaining two fifths of French territory, where Henri Philippe Pétain, a World War I General who had become a national hero, helped form a government commonly known as Vichy France. In the hopes of preserving a modicum of French sovereignty, the leaders of the Vichy goverment aided anti-semite parties in the concentration and persecution of Jews, particularly those of foreign citizenship. Vichy France sent 76,000 Jews to death camps. 11,000 of them were children.

The Children of Chabannes is a video that tells the story of Felix Chevrier, who housed Jewish children, many of them German or Polish by birth, in Chateau Chabannes, his school in Chabannes, Creuse. In a series of interviews, these children, now adults, speak about how Chevrier integrated them into classes with the local children. They believe that the rigorous athletic programs he developed were intended to strengthen them for the physical and mental hardships that they would face if ever sent to Drancy, the closest Jewish Concentration Camp, or deported to Germany.

When the Germans occupied the Southern Zone in November 1942, the Chateau began dispersing children to protect them from round-up. When the round-ups came, Chevrier was able to stall and obfuscate records. His deceit and planning saved the lives of hundreds of children.

While the two above resources are nonfiction, fiction can help illuminate this theme.  While researching my novel, Code: Elephants on the Moon, which takes place in German-occupied Normandy during World War II, I found that many Jewish children were sent out to the country and hidden on farms, where they were integrated into farm life. Others were sent to convent schools, where they were given new, Christian identities. Many others were hidden away in attics and basements, much as Anne Frank had been. One of the plot lines in Code is about a network of high-minded individuals who work together to protect the one Jewish family in a small, Norman village.

However, just as not all stories of children hidden in the Netherlands end happily (Anne Frank's, for instance), not all French stories show children saved by brave and defiant action. Steven Schnur's The Shadow Children tells the fictional story of Etienne, an eleven year old boy who visits his grandfather during post WWII in the French village of Mount Brulant.

When Etienne sees the ghosts of hundreds of starving, emaciated, raggedy, forlorn children hiding in the woods, he asks his grandfather and other adults about them. Eventually he learns the sad, tragic, terrible truth: Jewish children who were sent into the country to seek refuge arrived in Mount Brulant, where the people helped them for a time. Yet, when threatened, the townspeople allowed the Nazis to herd the children into trains and ship them to concentration camps.

The true focus of the story is neither Etienne nor the children, but the grief and guilt of the townspeople, who buckled under the threats of the the Nazis. While this story may be fiction, many Frenchmen feel grief and guilt when recounting this dark period in their history.