Thursday, January 28, 2016

Where to Start: YA/MG Historical Fiction

Now I'm going to move onto historical fiction. For the sake of this list, historical fiction means basically any book that takes place in the past. I tend to have the cut off time period be the eighties for historical fiction. FYI, if it was written in a historical time period, I don't count it as historical fiction that much. For example, Sherlock Holmes was not considered historical fiction when it was written. Therefore, I'm not counting it as historical fiction. I am not counting historical fiction that blends over into fantasy-like areas. There will be separate lists for that (which will likely be quite long because I adore historical fantasy).
This list is just going to be young adult and some middle-grade historical fiction. The next where to start will have the adult historical fiction on it.

Some staples of the genre you should probably read first:
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne (note: this and TKAM are usually sold in the adult sections but the main characters are tween age so sorry lit crowd, it counts as MG as well)

Some popular books in the genre:
The Luxe series by Anna Godbersen (she also has a few other historical ones out there)
Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson (also check out Fever 1793)
A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly
Between Shades of Grey by Ruta Sepetys
Bloody Jack series by L. A. Meyer
Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson

Some personal recommendations:
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein (as well as the two companion books)
Princesses of Myth series by Esther Friesner
Logan Family series by Mildred B. Taylor

No comments:

Post a Comment