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Historical Fiction for Young Ladies, Part 2

Aug27

Post Civil War/Immigration/Native American Experience
Turner, Ann. The Girl Who Chased Away Sorrow: The Diary of Sarah Nita, a Navajo Girl, New Mexico, 1864.
Karr, Kathleen. Oh, Those Harper Girls!
Gregory, Kristiana. The Great Railroad Race: The Diary of Libby West, Utah Territory, 1868.
Beatty, Patricia. Wait for Me, Watch for Me, Eula Bee.
Meyer, Carolyn. Where the Broken Heart Still Beats: The Story of Cynthia Ann Parker.
Beatty, Patricia. Bonanza Girl.
Rinaldi, Ann. The Staircase. (1870’s Santa Fe, New Mexico)
Bauer, Marion Dane. Land of the Buffalo Bones: The Diary of Mary Elizabeth Rodgers, An English Girl in Minnesota, New Yeovil, Minnesota, 1873
Rinaldi, Ann. The Coffin Quilt; the Feud Between the Hatfields and the McCoys
Rinaldi, Ann. My Heart is on the Ground: The Diary of Nannie Little Rose, a Sioux Girl, 1880.
Taylor, Mildred. The Land. (1880’s Mississippi)
Beatty, Patricia. By Crumbs, It’s Mine. (1880’s Arizona)
Beatty, Patricia. Red Rock Over the River. (1881 Arizona)
Murphy, Jim. My Face to the Wind: The Diary of Sarah Jane Price, A Prairie Teacher. Broken Bow, Nebraska, 1881.
Murphy, Jim. West to a Land of Plenty: The Diary of Teresa Angelino Viscardi, New York to Idaho Territory, 1883.
Beatty, Patricia. Melinda Takes a Hand. (Colorado 1893)
Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. A Coal Miner’s Bride: The Diary of Anetka Kaminska, Lattimer, Pennsylvania, 1896.

Turn of the Century/Early 20th Century
Jocelyn, Marthe. Mable Riley: A Reliable Record of Humdrum, Peril, and Romance. (1901)
Turner, Nancy. These is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901.
Nixon, Joan Lowery. Land of Promise. (1902)
Lasky, Kathryn. Dreams in the Golden Country: The Diary of Zipporah Feldman, a Jewish Immigrant Girl, New York City, 1903.
Rinaldi, Ann. Brooklyn Rose.
Gregory, Kristiana. Earthquake at Dawn. (San Francisco earthquake, 1906)
Beatty, Patricia. Lacy Makes a Match.
Beatty, Patricia. Hail Columbia!
Beatty, Patricia. That’s One Ornery Orphan.
Beatty, Patricia. Behave Yourself, Bethany Brant.
Hopkinson, Deborah. Hear My Sorrow: The Diary of Angela Denoto, a Shirtwaist Worker, New York City , 1909.
Beatty, Patricia. Sarah and Me and the Lady from the Sea.
Beatty, Patricia. O the Red Rose Tree.
Beatty, Patricia. The Nickel-Plated Beauty.

World War I, 1910-1920’s
White, Elen Emerson. Voyage on the Great Titanic: The Diary of Margaret Ann Brady, R.M.S. Titanic, 1912.
Beatty, Patricia. Eight Mules from Monterrey.
McKissack, Patricia. Color Me Dark: The Diary of Nellie Lee Love, The Great Migration North, Chicago, Illinois, 1919.
Lasky, Kathryn. A Time For Courage: The Suffragette Diary of Kathleen Bowen, Washington D.C., 1917.
Levine, Beth Seidel. When Christmas Comes Again: The World War I Diary of Simone Spencer, New York City to the Western Front, 1917.
Rostkowski, Margaret. After the Dancing Days.
Marshall, Catherine. Christy.
Meyer, Carolyn. White Lilacs. (Dillon, Texas, 1921)

The Great Depression, 1930’s
Lasky, Kathryn. Christmas After All: The Great Depression Diary of Minnie Swift. Indianapolis, IN, 1932.
Denenberg, Barry. Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: The Diary of Bess Brennan, The Perkins School for the Blind, 1932.
Taylor, Mildred. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.
Taylor, Mildred. Let the Circle Be Unbroken.
Janke, Katelan. Survival in the Storm: The Dust Bowl Diary of Grace Edwards, Dalhart, Texas, 1935.
Peck, Richard. Year Down Yonder. (1937)

World War II, 1930’s and 40’s
Denenberg, Barry. One Eye Laughing, The Other Weeping: The Diary of Julie Weiss, Vienna, Austria to New York, 1938.
Rinaldi, Ann. Keep Smiling Through.
Osborne, Mary Pope. My Secret War: The World War II Diary of Madeline Beck, Long Island, New York, 1941.
Denenberg, Barry. Early Sunday Morning: The Pearl Harbor Diary of Amber Billows, Hawaii, 1941.
Greene, Betty. Summer of my German Soldier.

A 1998 article by Joanne Brown about writing YA historical fiction and about teaching historical fiction to young adults from ALAN Review.

As teachers, we can help our students question the interpretations of the past offered by any single historical novel. With our students, we can make connections between past and present issues to weigh the novel’s historical perspective. Together we can discuss how a writer has represented a particular cultural or racial group. We can assess a story’s accuracy by reading more than one novel on the period or researching the history itself. And as we and our students engage with the “problems” of historical fiction, we can come to understand how the genre provides us with a lens not only upon our collective past but also upon a “here and now” that defines our individual lives.

Historical Fiction for Young Ladies, Part 1

Aug26

Patricia Beatty, b. August 26, 1922.
Ann Rinaldi, b. August 27, 1934.

Since these two excellent authors of historical fiction for children and young adults have birthdays so close together, I thought this would be a good time to give you a list of historical fiction, specifically US history, and especially for girls. I haven”t read all of these, but I have included books by many of my favorite authors, including Ann Rinaldi and Patricia Beatty. If you have young ladies in your home between the ages of ten and twenty who are studying or interested in US history, you are welcome to copy my list and share it with your favorite young lady. Or read them yourself. Go here for information, activities, lesson plans and more relating to the Dear America series of historical fiction in diary form from Scholastic.

Colonial Times, 1600’s and 1700’s
Lasky, Kathryn. A Journey to the New World: The Diary of Remember Patience Whipple 1620.
Speare, Elizabeth. The Witch of Blackbird Pond. (1687)
Fraustino, Lisa Rowe. I Walk in Dread: The Diary of Deliverance Trembly, Witness to the Salem Witch Trials Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1691.
Rinaldi, Ann. A Break with Charity: A Story About the Salem Witch Trials. (1692)
Rinaldi, Ann. Hang a Thousand Trees with Ribbons: The Story of Phillis Wheatley.
Lenski, Lois. Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison. (1758)
Osborne, Mary Pope. Standing in the Light: The Captive Diary of Catharine Carey Logan, Delaware Valley, Pennsylvania, 1763.
McKissack, Patricia. Look to the Hills: The Diary of Lozette Maoreau, a French Slave Girl.
Rinaldi, Ann. The Fifth of March: The Story of the Boston Massacre.

American Revolution, 1770-1790
Rinaldi, Ann. Time Enough for Drums.
Turner, Ann. Love Thy Neighbor: The Tory Diary of Prudence Emerson, Green Marsh, Massachusetts, 1774.
Gregory, Kristiana. The Winter of Red Snow: The Revolutionary War Diary of Abigail Jane Stewart, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, 1777
Rinaldi, Ann. Taking Liberty: The Story of Oney Judge, George Washington’s Runaway Slave.
Rinaldi, Ann. Finishing Becca: A Story of Peggy Shippen and Benedict Arnold.
Rinaldi, Ann. A Ride into Morning: The Story of Tempe Wick. New York: Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich, 1991.
Rinaldi, Ann. The Secret of Sarah Revere.
Rinaldi, Ann. Or Give Me Death : A Novel of Patrick Henry’s Family.
Rinaldi, Ann. A Stitch in Time.
Rinaldi, Ann. Cast Two Shadows. (1780 in South Carolina)
O’Dell, Scott. Sarah Bishop.
Anderson, Laurie Halse. Fever 1793.

Westward Expansion/Early America, 1800-1850
Rianldi, Ann. Broken Days. (War of 1812)
Rinaldi, Ann. Wolf by the Ears. (Thomas Jefferson’s slave/daughter; early 1800’s)
Blos, Joan. A Gathering of Days. (1830-1832)
Rinaldi, Ann. The Education of Mary : A Little Miss of Color, 1832.
Garland, Sherry. A Line in the Sand: The Alamo Diary of Lucinda Lawrence Gonzales, Texas, 1836.
Rinaldi, Ann. The Blue Door. (1841)
Garland, Sherry. Valley of the Moon: The Diary of Maria Rosalia de Milagros, Sonoma Valley, Alta California, 1846.
Paterson, Katherine. Lyddie. (Lowell, Massachusets, 1840’s)
Denenberg, Barry. So Far From Home: The Diary of Mary Driscoll, an Irish Mill Girl, Lowell, Massachusetts, 1847.
Gregory, Kristiana. Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie: The Oregon Trail Diary of Hattie Campbell, 1847.
McDonald, Megan. All the Stars in the Sky: The Santa Fe Trail Diary of Florrie Mack Ryder, The Santa Fe Trail, 1848.
Gregory, Kristiana. Seeds of Hope: The Gold Rush Diary of Susanna Fairchild, California Territory, 1849.

Civil War/Slavery, mid 1800’s
McKissack, Patricia. A Picture of Freedom: The Diary of Clotee, a Slave Girl, Belmont Plantation, Virginia, 1859.
Rinaldi, Ann. Mine Eyes Have Seen. (1859– abolitionist John Brown)
Beatty, Patricia. Who Comes With Cannons.
Rinaldi, Ann. In My Father’s House.
Rinaldi, Ann. The Last Silk Dress.
Rinaldi, Ann. Girl in Blue.
Hesse, Karen. A Light in the Storm: The Civil War Diary of Amelia Martin, Fenwick Island, Delaware, 1861.
Rinaldi, Ann. Sarah’s Ground.
Rinaldi, Ann. Amelia’s War.
Denenberg, Barry. When Will This Cruel War Be Over?: The Civil War Diary of Emma Simpson, Gordonsville, Virginia, 1864.
Beatty, Patricia. Turn Homeward, Hannalee.
Beatty, Patricia. Be Ever Hopeful, Hannalee.
Rinaldi, Ann. An Acquaintance with Darkness. (Lincoln’s assassination)
Rinaldi, Ann. Numbering All the Bones. (Andersonville Prison)
Hansen, Joyce. I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly: The Diary of Patsy, a Freed Girl, Mars Bluff, South Carolina, 1865.

I think I’ll save the second half of this post for tomorrow.

Johnstown Flood

May31

On May 31, 1889, the South Fork Dam, which held back Lake Connemaugh on a mountain above Johnstown, Pennsylvania, burst. Twenty million tons of water came crashing down into the valley where the town of 30,000 lay. Over 2200 people died in the flood and in fires that followed that night.

Go here to read three articles from the New York Times about the Johnstown Flood and its aftermath.

We own the children’s book, The Terrible Wave by Marden Dahlstedt, which tells the fictional story of Megan Maxwell, a teenage girl who survives the flood. Mrs. Dahlstedt says in the author’s note in the back of the book: “My interest in the Johnstown Flood stems from the fact that my grandparents survived it. . . I grew up with family stories of the flood, some of which have been incorporated in The Terrible Wave.”

I, too, grew up hearing family stories of a flood–in dry West Texas of all places. On September 17, 1936 my dad’s home near the Concho River in San Angelo, Texas was flooded. My grandmother said she put a baby picture of my dad up in the rafters before she left her house with my dad who was about five years old. That picture is the only surviving photograph of my dad as a baby. My mom, on the other hand, remembers another natural disaster, a 1953 tornado that destroyed much of the Lake View area of San Angelo. According to the San Angelo Standard Times, the tornado killed eleven people.

What natural, or man made, disasters has your family experienced or survived? Do your grandparents or parents tell stories like these? Have you written the stories down for your children to read someday? I wish my parents would write down stories from their childhood and young adult days for my children to have. I’m afraid that even with the simple stories I told in the preceeding paragraph that I may get some of the details wrong. It just seems to me that the way people behave in a crisis tells so much about their character and their ability to cope with everyday life.

Unsinkable Courage

Apr15

Thursday 18 April 1912
(A poem said to have been written on board the RMS Olympic, April 18, 1912, following the disaster to her sister ship)

He slams his door in the face of the world
If he thinks the world too bold:
He will even curse; but he opens his purse
To the poor, and the sick, and the old.

He is slow in giving to woman the vote
And slow to pick up her fan;
But he gives her room in an hour of doom
And dies – like an Englishman!

Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1855-1919)

On this day in 1912 the luxury liner Titanic sank at 2:27 AM after hitting an iceberg just before midnight the night before (the 14th). 2227 persons were on board the Titanic; only 705 were rescued from the icy waters near the site of the sunken vessel. Most of the survivors were women and children.

Some fiction books featuring the Titanic:
Tonight on the Titanic (Magic Treehouse Series, No. 17) by Mary Pope Osborne
Titanic Crossing by Barbara Williams
SOS Titanic by Eve Bunting I read this one while I was sick a few days ago. It’s OK, typical teen romance-type novel with good historical detail. There’s a steward who foresees the disaster because of his supernatural “gift.” And there’s an underlying theme of class war and class distinctions just as there was in the movie, Titanic.

March 18th Birthdays

Mar18

Grover Cleveland, Democrat twice elected President of the United States, b. 1837. Read his obituary in the New York Times. He died when Teddy Roosevelt was president in 1908. The most interesting thing I read in the obituary was that, according to his friends, Cleveland died leaving a wife and four young children with not very much money.

“When Mr. Cleveland left the White House the last time, and for many years thereafter,” said one of his intimates yesterday, “he had, together with his wife, about $10,000 a year. His income often worried him exceedingly, especially as he saw his family growing up about him, and knew their future was not as well provided for as he could wish. He would not accept anything from his friends; he was extremely proud on that score, but those who know him best knew that his circumstances worried him not a little.”

Can you imagine an ex-president in this day and time becoming impoverished–or even “worried about his income”? Apparently, presidential retirement is much more lucrative than it used to be. I’ve read stories of Grant feverishly finishing his memoirs on his deathbed in order to provide for his family or his widow when he was gone.

Wilfred Owen, World War I poet, b. 1893. He was a friend of Siegfried Sassoon. Unfortunately, while Sassoon survived the war, Owen died seven days before the end of WW I in November, 1918.

Columbo or Socrates or Franklin?

Sep21

Dawn Treader calls this the “Columbo method” of apologetics after the TV detective. Ben Franklin got it from Socrates, but he didn’t use the method for Christian apologetics but rather to gain his point in religious and political debates:

“I was charm’d with it, adopted it, dropt my abrupt Contradiction, and positive Argumentation, and put on the humble Enquirer & Doubter. And being then, from reading Shaftsbury & Collins, become a real Doubter in many Points of our Religious Doctrine, I found this Method safest for my self & very embarrassing to those against whom I used it, therefore I took a Delight in it, practis’d it continually & grew very artful & expert in drawing People even of superior Knowledge into Concessions the Consequences of which they did not foresee, entangling them in Difficulties out of which they could not extricate themselves, and so obtaining Victories that neither my self nor my Cause always deserved. I continu’d this Method some few Years, but gradually lef it, retaining only the Habit of expressing my self in Terms of modest Diffidence . . .”

This “humble questioner” approach can be helpful in putting people off their guard, but it does cut both ways. Answer carefully the questions unbelievers ask you. (I’ve been reading Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography for our American Literature class.)

Presbyterian War

Jul2

At his blog, King’s Meadow (see sidebar), George Grant reprints an article by a friend, Ben house, about the Presbyterian underpinnings of the American Revolution. Interesting stuff. (I can’t find a way to link directly to the post. Just go to the blog and scroll down to Celebrating the Presbyterian War for Independence.

Love your Wives

Jun18

I’ve been re-reading Profiles in Courage, and I found this inspiring story about Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri:

“But his family life was clouded by , , , the long physical and mental illness of the wife to whom he was at all times tender and devoted. On one occasion, which revealed the depth of warm devotion which lay beneath that rough conceit, Benton was entertaining a French priest and other distinguished guests when his wife, not fully dressed, rambled into the room and stared adoringly at her husband. Interrupting the embarrassed silence that followed, Senator Benton with dignity and majesty introduced his wife to the prince and others, seated her by his side, and resumed conversation.”

This story reminds me of President McKinley whose wife, Ida, had epilepsy. She attended state dinners in spite of her infirmity, and if she had a seizure, her husband would very calmly place a napkin over her face to conceal the effects of the seizure. He was said to be always solicitous of his wife’s health and concerned on his deathbed that she be taken care of.

My husband could live up to the standard set by these men, I think, but I wonder how many men could. I wonder if George W. Bush (or John Kerry) could even be elected in this day and time if his wife were mentally ill. Of course, there is the example of Nancy taking care of Ronnie. The American people do admire such faithfulness in adversity. However, most of us do prefer that public figures keep their eccentricities or mental illness or even some physical illnesses, private. Presidents and senators and their families are supposed to be picture perfect, and if not, they are to be at least discreet.