Historical Fictionistas discussion

Hi all: I am realizing that part of why I got into writing historical fiction was because I started reading it as a teen. There are so many great YA HF novels out there--and I'd love to suggest them to my daughters (if only to give them a more tangible sense of what I do for a living!). Any thoughts? Ones that come immediately to mind for me:

Calico Captive
The Witch of Blackbird Pond
Johnny Tremain

But I know the list was much, much longer!

My love for Historical Fiction started with THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK. Has I started to discover all the wonderful HF books out there I fell in love with the Tudors, I am just fascinated with anything to do with Henry VIII. My niece found a great series by Carolyn Meyer called THE YOUNG ROYALS, I read them and they are reallly good.

Looking back I now know that my first HF was Alexander Dumas, from The Three Musketeers with all the sequels, all the way to The Count of Monte Cristo.
I was probably 10-11 and oh gods, how I did devour those books, rereading them to dead (of the copies :D)
So they are now my first nomination for YA. Will think about more :-)

Interesting article in the latest issue of The Historian about YA historical fiction, also featuring their Young Quills prize for recently published novels. http://historicalnovelsociety.org/the...

It's strange because I read Queen of Camelot (actually, it was published as two books at the time, the first was The Child Queen: The Tale of Guinevere and King Arthur) when I was 12 and I KNOW I got it from the YA section in the library because that was the only section I was browsing in at the time. It was in the same section as these cheesy historical teen romances: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/15... - and I thought it would be similar, that's the whole reason I picked it out. It's not similar, of course, but I loved it all the more and became obsessed with the Arthurian Legend because of it.

What's weird is that it doesn't seem to be marketed as YA at ALL but I swear to God I got it from the YA section of the library. However, I wouldn't say there is anything inappropriate in it for teens, there's some implied sex I think but NOT graphic at all, so I think it can work as YA, it's just not marketed that way.

As a kid, I adored Robin Klein's Melling Sisters series (beginning with All in the Blue Unclouded Weather). The books revolve around four sisters growing up in an Australian country town in the late 1940s. They're filled with such fun, vivid characters, and the girls' exploits are by turns funny and heartwarming. I'd read them over and over again - each chapter's a complete episode in itself, so whenever I was feeling sick or miserable, I'd flick through to one of my favourite stories.

Philippa Pearce's Tom's Midnight Garden is an old childhood classic and I still think it's beautiful. It's the story of a boy who discovers that, late at night, when the landlady's old grandfather clock on the landing inexplicably strikes thirteen, he can be transported back in time to explore the house as it was around the end of the 19th century.

Playing Beatie Bow, by Ruth Park, is another time-travel story about a fourteen-year-old girl who is drawn back in time to the slums of 19th century Sydney, Australia.

I also loved Catherine Jinks' Pagan Chronicles (beginning with Pagan's Crusade) - they're really lovely books about a snarky, street-smart Arab-Christian orphan who joins the Knights Templar and finds himself squired to Lord Roland Roucy de Bram, a shining paragon of knightly virtue. The two of them come from vastly different worlds, with vastly different life experiences, but as they come to know each other better they begin to develop something like a friendship, and eventually genuine trust and loyalty. The first book is set during the Siege of Jerusalem, the second in France during the anti-Cathar persecutions, and the third in a French monastery.

Jackie French has written quite a bit of YA historical fiction. I haven't read anything of hers in years, but I used to devour everything she wrote when I was a kid.

I think Michelle Moran's Egypt books would be good:
Cleopatra's Daughter
Nefertiti
The Heretic Queen

Wild Cat by Laura Black is an historical adventure story

Nancy Springer's Enola Holmes series, starting with The Case of the Missing Marquess

Between Shades of Gray - awesome book.

Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody books, starting with Crocodile on the Sandbank

A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly

Libba Bray's series, starting with A Great and Terrible Beauty - this is Historical Fantasy, but it's beautiful and will appeal to teens. :)

Push Not the River - one of my favorites, despite being HF/R. LOL

And I haven't read these yet, but by all accounts they are fantastic: Lauren Willig's Pink Carnation series, starting with The Secret History of the Pink Carnation

And lastly, I STILL (shame shame shame!!) haven't read it, but I'll go out on a limb and say that Kate Quinn's Mistress of Rome would be great as well.

Zoe wrote: "Looking back I now know that my first HF was Alexander Dumas, from The Three Musketeers with all the sequels, all the way to The Count of Monte Cristo.
I was probably 10-11 and oh gods, how I did d..."

Hahahaha I was the same. I read the Three Musketeers when I was the same age and loved it. After that I read a lot of Dumas historical novels, from the rest of the Musketeers books, the Count of Montecristo, The Queen Margot... I loved it. He made me fall in love with history and its romance.

NayNay wrote: "My love for Historical Fiction started with THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK. Has I started to discover all the wonderful HF books out there I fell in love with the Tudors, I am just fascinated with anythin..."

That sounds great--thanks for the recs. I also loved Anne Frank (of course!) as well as Dumas growing up; in fact, I was obsessed with Sir Walter Scott for a while as well. What I'm discovering, though, is that my daughter seems to have developed a very different reading "ear" from mine at that age. Archaic/classic language seems to put her off--she doesn't find it accessible, which is interesting because she's super-smart and writes beautifully. But I feel as though her tastes have been largely shaped by the current trend towards and tones of dystopian teen fiction--and that she's not the only one in her age group with that issue. So interesting....

Jess wrote: "As a kid, I adored Robin Klein's Melling Sisters series (beginning with All in the Blue Unclouded Weather). The books revolve around four sisters growing up in an Australian country town in the lat..."


And thanks for these too, Becky! Great list. I'm going to go explore them....

Ti wrote: "Hahahaha I was the same. I read the Three Musketeers when I was the same age and loved it. After that I read a lot of Dumas historical novels, from the rest of the Musketeers books, the Count of Montecristo, The Queen Margot... I loved it. He made me fall in love with history and its romance."

Oh don't remind me, lol. I used to reread them all until my mom tried to forbid me rereading books :D (I really took it to impossible lengths). Luckily every book was huge - MonteCristo, Margo, all the sequels of the Musketeers...
Then, when forced to put those books down, I was going out and trying to make everyone play at musketeers, but no one read this book, they all saw the movie, and it was driving me crazy. They were playing so wrong, lol :D (which now makes me wonder how did I have any friends at all with this attitude :D)

Becky wrote: "I think Michelle Moran's Egypt books would be good:
Cleopatra's Daughter
Nefertiti
The Heretic Queen

Wild Cat by Laura Black is an historical adventure story

Nancy Springer's Enola Holmes serie..."

I wouldn't categorize The Secret History of the Pink Carnation or Mistress of Rome as YA. They fall more under Historical Fiction Romance. Both books include some sexy scenes and the characters are not YA age.

Same goes for the Amelia Peabody series. I really like that series, but it's not YA.

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Jennifer, have you read The Book Thief? That's one of my favorite YA HF books. I also highly recommend The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate. Open Wounds was another good one. In the description it mentions "Evocative of The Book Thief with a dash of Gangs of New York"...while I enjoyed it I didn't think it was on par of The Book Thief. I still recommend it as a good coming age story though.

Ooh, did not know that, Jackie. Thanks. :)

*moves them up my list.* :P

Out of curiosity, do people actually consider The Diary of a Young Girl Historical Fiction? Or, is it that having read this book provoked an interest in history that led to historical fiction?

True that Amelia isn't really YA... I guess I was just thinking of books that would appeal to a YA audience. I like those, they are fun, but I've only read the first two, and I'm not sure how adult they get later on.

There are a lot of good YA historical novels, including some already mentioned (The Book Thief, in particular, is amazing).

I'm showing my age, obviously, but when I was a teen YA didn't exist. In school we read things like The Light in the Forest and Across Five Aprils. For myself, I loved (still love, actually), Mara, Daughter of the Nile, which was definitely written for teens.

But I also read The Scarlet Pimpernel, Forever Amber, Exodus, Ben Hur, The Robe, Mika Waltari's The Egyptian, and pretty much anything I could get my hands on by Georgette Heyer, Jean Plaidy, Victoria Holt, Norah Lofts, Constance Heaven, and Cecilia Holland. I read A Falcon for a Queen and almost the entire Whiteoaks of Jalna series by Mazo de la Roche. And a whole lot more besides. (As you can probably guess from this list, I was seldom seen without my nose in a book.)

I read a lot of Agatha Christie, because my mother loved her and had bookshelves full of them, and Josephine Tey's The Daughter of Time, where I first discovered that history was more than the canned descriptions found in high-school textbooks.

So YA books are fine, as far as they go, especially if your daughters like them. But the range of historical fiction that can appeal to teens goes far, far beyond YA.

Becky wrote: "Ooh, did not know that, Jackie. Thanks. :)

*moves them up my list.* :P"

Haha! They are both good books.

Becky wrote: "True that Amelia isn't really YA... I guess I was just thinking of books that would appeal to a YA audience. I like those, they are fun, but I've only read the first two, and I'm not sure how adult..."

I know a son is introduced around book 2 or 3. He is hilarious. I think his adventures would definitely appeal to a YA audience.

D wrote: "Out of curiosity, do people actually consider The Diary of a Young Girl Historical Fiction? Or, is it that having read this book provoked an interest in history that led to historical fiction?"

For me it's fiction because it's her diary. I can see how it would spark a love of HF though.

Jackie wrote: "Becky wrote: "I think Michelle Moran's Egypt books would be good:
Cleopatra's Daughter
Nefertiti
The Heretic Queen

Wild Cat by Laura Black is an historical adventure story

Nancy Springer's Enol..."

Hi Jackie--

Yes, I loved The Book Thief! For me it was one of those rare novels that transitions seamlessly between teens and so-called "adults" (of which I consider myself a member). I was actually just thinking about that after I started this thread--I'll have to go dig it up for Katie. And C.P.--you so hit it on the head with Hf being "where I first discovered that history was more than the canned descriptions found in high-school textbooks." Precisely why I love it--and why, even though I snored through most history classes in high school (and a few at college/grad school) I ended up writing HF myself. You also really jogged my memory with Mara, Daughter of the Nile-- I know I read that too, but it's been submerged in the depths of my reading memories for years. Thanks!

Oh--another one that just came back to me: Only Earth And Sky Last Forever. I remember reading and re-reading this numerous times when I was in junior high school...

Zoe wrote: "Ti wrote: "Hahahaha I was the same. I read the Three Musketeers when I was the same age and loved it. After that I read a lot of Dumas historical novels, from the rest of the Musketeers books, the ..."
I had the same trouble when playing. Most of my friends talked about Mario Bros and I wanted to play to The Three Musketeers... My favorite character was Athos and in my teenage years I wrote a (really bad) romantic story about him.

C.P. wrote: "There are a lot of good YA historical novels, including some already mentioned (The Book Thief, in particular, is amazing).

I'm showing my age, obviously, but when I was a teen YA didn't exist. In..."

You just listed two of my favorites, I love Mara and Across Five Aprils

My favorite YA author is Katherine Paterson she wrote like , , Rebels of the Heavenly Kingdom, Lyddie just to name a few

As for more recent reads in HF Bright Young Things, The Luxe, A Great and Terrible Beauty. I haven't read the first one yet, but the last two were pretty good

Jackie wrote: "I know a son is introduced around book 2 or 3. He is hilarious. I think his adventures would definitely appeal to a YA audience."

Ramses. Yes, Ramses is great. He appears in book 2, but he is a baby. He really starts to make his mark with book 3. There are other young characters, too: Nefret, David, Sennia, the twins. They fall perfectly into my category of non-YA books that kids would love.

All great suggestions. My list is growing--we may yet balance out all the dystopian teen-reads on our bookshelves!

I'm pretty sure the first HF book I read was Sarah Bishop and it got everything started! i also remember reading Johnny Tremaine in school too. That maimed hand is something I still recall vividly!
I recently read Scarlet and it was entertaining but a little bit Twilight-y at times. It would be a fun read for a teen though, and I think there is a giveaway for it now too.

Ann Rinaldi writes great HF for a young audience. The bulk are centered around the American Revolution and the Civil War.

Another great series on WWII is the Montmaray Journals - A Brief History of Montmaray is the first one.

A couple of off the beaten path selections are Climbing the Stairs - India in the last days of the British occupation - and Forgotten Fire, about the Armenian genocide during WWI.

Oh yes--Johnny Tremaine. I read that one a few times, I believe. And the hand! I'd almost forgotten about it--molten silver, right? I love that these things can stay with you so effectively....Scarlet actually sounds like it might be the perfect intro for her into HF. I'll check it out--thanks for the tip (and all the others!)....

Released late last year and a current finalist in the The San Diego Book Awards

South of Burnt Rocks West of the Moon

Oh boy I have a lot:




Time Travel:



Historical Fantasy/Paranormal:

Wow, Joanne!! I'll have to comb through your list one of these days.

I really liked Dawn Rider when I was a kid. I think it might lean a little more toward Midgrade or the younger end of the spectrum, but it's been a long time since I've read it, so I could be wrong about that.

Some I've read more recently: The Minister's Daughter, A Great and Terrible Beauty (historical with a bit of magical realism!) and OMG I can't get enough of the Anne of Green Gables books, though I'm not sure they'd appeal to a modern YA audience. There's not much real romantic tension in them, but I LOVE them. <3<3<3

I am still in awe of that gorgeous HFYA collage you composed for us!! Thanks, Joanne--I'm going to go through it with my daughter :)

no problem :)