Tag: historical fiction
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More Like Him: Remembering Richard Peck
Six weeks ago, one of my favorite historical fiction authors for kids and teens passed away at 84. He died in the middle of a pack of famous writer deaths, but his death made me far sadder than those “Great American Authors.” I haven’t read all of Richard Peck’s novels, but the ones I have…
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My Feminist Winter, Part 2
Strong female character: check. World War I setting: check. A little bit of romance: check. Suffrage movement: check. Honestly, for historical fiction, this is usually about all I need for a book to be a winner. It’s why I put Crossing Stones by Helen Frost on my to-read list so many years ago. But I deeply…
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My Year in Books
Since 2001 (holy crap–that’s 15 years!), I’ve kept a reading journal. 2001 was the year I graduated college, so it flows through that last year at Hendrix, into grad school, early working years, furlough years and now the executive director years. Most likely, I’ll never again hit the highs of 2001 (116 books), aided in…
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Making the hidden visible: World War II Fiction
There are certain periods in history that seem to get all the attention. The pioneer experience. The Civil War. World War II. I’ve always enjoyed the less exposed parts of history more. My “preferred” war is World War 1, and the quantity of material centered around it pales in comparison to WWII. Though I know…
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Filling a gap on the timeline
In anticipation of a solitary road trip, I headed to the library for an audio book. Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos caught my eye, in part due to these lines in the description: “melding the entirely true and the wildly fictional.” Now, this was something that would make the miles pass faster. As…
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Small books about big wars
In the fall of 2011, my family and I made our first trip to Hawaii. In what should be no surprise, we made sure to make time for a visit to Pearl Harbor. My knowledge of World War II is probably deeper that the average bear, but I’m not even close to being an expert.…
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A Texas Twist
A gazillion years ago, I spent most of a semester reading the Dear America books. Officially, it was for a grad school paper, but I was also kinda curious. (I’ve now just spent 10 minutes looking for said paper, because I’m totally the kind of person to keep such things. But I can’t find it…