Historical+Fiction

Historical Fiction Book Reviews  **// The Book Thief //**** by Markus Zusak ** Awards: [|Printz Honor 2007], [|National Jewish Book Award], [|Book Sense Book of the Year Award for Children's Literature] Genre: Historical Fiction Age Group: 14 and up // The Book Thief // is the beautifully written, wonderfully descriptive tale about a poor orphan girl growing up in Germany during WWII. Liesel Meminger, the story’s protagonist, is a caring soul who has been through unspeakable pain in her short life. She has witnessed the death of her brother (it is at his funeral that she steals her first book), and she is being left by her mother with foster parents in a poor town in Germany when the story opens. Liesel is a resilient girl, however, and she seems to be able to make the best of any circumstance. She soon learns to love her foster parents, especially her foster father, Hans. You see, Hans gives Liesel one of the best gifts you can give a person, the gift of words. He has the patience that it takes to teach Liesel to read and to help her get caught up in school, where she is in a class with much younger students. With Han’s help, the girl is finally able to read the book she stole from the cemetery after her brother’s funeral. From there, she really begins to embrace life in her new home, making a best friend, Rudy, enjoying street soccer games, listening to her foster father play the accordion, and stealing the occasional book. As the story develops, so does WWII, and Liesel’s life is filled with secrets as she is exposed to the power of hate. This is a magnificent work of historical fiction that is hard to put down. The characters are very well developed, and by the last pages of this lengthy young adult novel, the reader will feel a strong connection to them. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in historical fiction taking place during WWII, male or female. It is quite worth the time it takes to read this book. Aurelia by Osterland The title of the book I read was Aurelia. My genre was historical fiction, which is one of my favorite genres. Aurelia is the crowned princess of Tyralt. Hopefully soon to be queen. On thing is blocking that hope. This thing is death. An assassin is trying to kill her! She has been in many situations, but nothing like this. Who could it be who is after her? While this is happening, her royal family is faving disputes. Will she be able to live to be queen or will she die before she gets a chance? I would recommend this book to anyone. It makes you bored at first, but you will be on the edge of your seat by the end! It keeps you wanting more. That is what I like and islike about the book. Check out this book and right away you will be hooked!

Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan Age Level: 10-13 Genre: Historical Fiction Awards: ALA Best Book for Young Adults, Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist, New York Public Library 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing. Esperanza Rising is the heartbreaking tale of a thirteen year-old girl growing up in Mexico in during the 1930’s. She is the daughter of a wealthy ranch owner living in Aguascalientes, Mexico. The story begins tragically when Esperanza’s papa is killed by bandits on the eve of her thirteenth birthday. Shortly afterwards, her corrupt uncle, Tio Luis, burns down the ranch where she lives after Esperanza’s mother refuses his marriage proposal. Esperanza and her mother have no option: they will flee Mexico to go work the fields in the United States with their servants, Alfonso, Horstensia, and Miguel, their sixteen year-old son. They must leave behind her grandmother, Abuelita, because she has injured her ankle in the fire and is in no condition to travel. It is a long journey, but the family makes it to the United States. Esperanza has a lot of change to get used to. She is no longer a rich little girl, and she must work and contribute to the family. They live in a worker's camp with Alfonso, Horstensia, Miguel, and their relatives, Juan, Josephina, Isabel, their younger daughter, and twin babies Pepe and Lupe. At first, it is Esperanza’s responsibility to watch the babies while the adults work in the field and Isabel is at school. It takes awhile, but she eventually catches on. Shortly after their arrival in the US, however, Esperanza’s mother falls ill and must enter the hospital. It is now Esperanza’s responsibility to work in the field and earn enough money to cover her mother’s hospital bills and save up to bring Abuelita there. The story ends happily, with Esperanza’s mother getting better and Abuelita being reunited with the family. This tale really chronicles Esperanza’s maturation from a spoiled child to a selfless, hard-working adult. Its major theme is that life is full of hills and valleys, but you must not be afraid of change. I would highly recommend this book as it is a wonderful historical fiction account of what it was like for Mexican immigrants in the 1930’s, and it might even give students insight into what it is like to be a Mexican immigrant, legal or illegal, working in the south today.

Lily’s Crossing by Patricia Reilly Giff

Age Level: 8-12

Genre: Historical Fiction

Awards: Newbery Honor Book

In Lily’s Crossing, the protagonist, Lily Mollahan is a spirited fifth grader who struggles with telling white lies and making friends. Every year Lily’s family, consisting of Lily’s father, Poppy, and grandmother, Gram, and herself, take a trip to Rockaway, where the family has a beach house. This summer, however, it is 1944 and WWII is in full swing, bringing about changes that hit Lily close to home. Lily’s father, an engineer, has been called overseas to help rebuild a shattered Europe, so this summer it will just be Lily and Gram in Rockaway. To make matters worse, Lily’s best friend in Rockaway, Margaret, has moved to Detroit, and it looks like Lily will be spending her summer reading by herself. Lily prepares herself for what she imagines to be a pretty dull summer, but things take a twist when Lily meets a new boy in town, Albert, a Hungarian boy her age who is staying with her neighbors during the wartime. Albert has been through a lot of personal tragedy. His parents were killed for producing an anti-Nazi newspaper, and he has been separated from his grandmother and younger sister, Ruth, who is sick and in a convent in France. Albert and Lily are not instant friends, but they are brought together by a stray cat that they rescue from near-drowning and help raise. Lily’s personal character development parallels the development of her friendship with Albert. One day, Lily’s fibbing problem endangers her life as well as Albert’s when she tells him that they can catch a ship to Europe by swimming out to meet it in the bay. They end up being fine, however, and Lily learns just how much trouble lying can get her into. The story ends happily when Lily’s Poppy returns home and they travel back to Rockaway for the summer to find Albert and his sister waiting to greet them. The theme of this story was one of finding friends in unexpected places. Also, Lily’s maturation demonstrated that it is wrong to lie. This book was a pleasant read, and I would recommend it to young girls in particular, as they will likely be able to identify with Lily.

Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli Age Level: 10+ Genre: Historical Fiction <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Awards: Golden Kite Award <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">The setting of this story is WWII Poland. This interesting piece opens up with our main character, who is nameless in the beginning of the story. When asked his name, he replies, “Stopthief,” because people are always calling that after him because he is a poor orphan boy with no family and no means of eating except stealing. He is a slow boy, who is often called “stupid” and “silly” by his peers. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">While stealing a loaf of bread one day, our main character meets an older orphan boy named Uri. Uri takes him under his wing and names him Misha Pilsudski. Uri also gives him a fake life story about his life as a gypsy, and he introduces him to a group of other orphan boys that are all around the same age. One day while Misha is stealing a tomato from a garden, he meets a little girl named Janina. They become friends, and she even invites him to her birthday party. When the Jews are being marched into the Warsaw ghetto, Misha spots Janina and her family among those headed to their new homes. Soon the effects of WWII start to be felt by the orphans. Where food was once so plentiful that they’d wrestle in piles of it, it is now scarce. Eventually, the boys are forced to enter the ghetto in Warsaw, where they are even worse off. They have nowhere to live, and there is no longer food to steal. Luckily for Misha, Janina’s family takes him in. He leaves the ghetto each night through a tiny whole in the wall and steals food for his new family from homes in Warsaw. Misha describes life in the ghetto in one word: gray. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Things begin to look increasingly hopeless when Janina’s mother dies. Towards the end of the story, Janina, her father, and her uncle Shepsel are all forced onto trains that take them to concentration camps, and Misha never sees them again. The story concludes with a description of the rest of Misha’s life after he survives the war. He lives out his days telling his tale on street corners in America. He is married briefly, but he then finds himself divorced and winds up getting a job bagging groceries. Some years later, his daughter finds him and takes him to live with her and her daughter, where he happily spends the rest of his life.

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">This story is a compelling page-turner that will definitely keep students wanting more. Jerry Spinelli did an excellent job of telling a memorable historical fiction holocaust account through the eyes of a very special character. It contains a haunting theme of survival through the harshest of conditions. I would highly recommend this book to tweens and teens, and it would be an excellent book to use in collaboration with a history teacher during a unit on the holocaust.

<span style="color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Number the Stars by Lois Lowry <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Age Level: 9-12 <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Genre: Historical Fiction <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Awards: Newbery Medal Winner, ALA Notable Book for Children, Boston Globe-Horn Book Award. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Number the Stars takes place in Copenhagen, Denmark during WWII. The main character is a ten-year-old girl named Annemarie Johansen, who lives a pleasant life with her mother, father, and little sister, Kirsti. Copenhagen has been occupied by the Germans for three years, and the Nazis are just beginning to relocate the Jews to ghettos. This affects Annemarie because her best friend, Ellen Rosen, is Jewish. Annemarie’s family, along with her deceased sister’s fiancé, Peter, makes a plan to help get the Rosens safely to Switzerland. They take Ellen into their home and give her the identity of Lise, Annemarie’s sister who died a few years before in an automobile accident. Then Annemarie, Kirsti, and their mother take a trip to the sea to visit their Uncle Henrik, who is a fisherman. Uncle Henrik uses his fishing boat to take Jews to safety in Switzerland. In the middle of the night, the Rosens, along with four other Jews, arrive at Henrik’s house, but they must pretend to be having a wake for their dear Aunt Birtie in order to avoid suspicion from the SS. Eventually, Ellen and her family, along with the four other Jews, are safely transported to Switzerland by Uncle Henrik. This book has a theme of how courage and bravery means having the strength to do what needs to be done no matter how scared you are. It also contains a theme of the importance of doing the right thing and standing up for what you believe in no matter how dangerous it may be. I would highly recommend this book for tweens as a captivating historical fiction account of WWII and what it meant to be Jewish during that time period in Europe.

<span style="color: #ff9900; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Yellow Star by Jennifer Roy <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Age Level: 10+ <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Genre: Historical Fiction <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Awards: A School Library Journal Best Book for 2006, ALA Notable Children’s Book 2007. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Yellow Star is a historical fiction account that is based on the true story of Syvia Perlmutter’s experience living through the Holocaust in the Lodz ghetto in Poland during WWII. When WWII began, Syvia was just four and a half years old. By the time the war is over, Syvia is ten. The story is written in free verse, which makes for a unique reading experience. This story chronicles Syvia and her family’s struggles throughout the entirety of WWII, and it shows what it was like to be a Jew in Poland at that time. At first, Syvia and her family are forced to move from their home to the Lodz ghetto, to an apartment with no bathroom. At one point, all children are ordered to leave the ghetto and board trains, but Syvia’s father knows this is not a good idea, and she must hide for weeks in a graveyard at night in order to avoid being discovered. Syvia’s mother, father, and sister, Dora, all have jobs, but Syvia is too young for that, so she must stay at home by herself all day, making sure to keep quiet so as not to be discovered. Eventually, her family is forced to live in communal work houses, and Syvia must hide in the basement with eleven other children, one being her little baby cousin Isaac. Miraculously, Syvia’s entire immediate family survives, along with about 800 Jews, when Poland is finally liberated from Nazi rule. This story has an underlying theme of the human will to survive unimaginable conditions. I would highly recommend it as a powerful example of a first-person account of one child’s holocaust experience. It is truly an account that tweens should be able to relate to.

<span style="color: #c91818; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Soldier Boys by Dean Hughes <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Soldier Boys is a historical fiction book ,and is great. This book is one of the best books I had ever read. The book is about two soldiers too young for war. The story takes place in 1944 in Europe. One of the soldiers are from an America ,and is in an airbone division.The other soilder is fights for Germany ,and is in hitler youth. Both of the two soldiers are trying to prove themselves as good soldiers. You will love this World War II historical fiction book. <span style="color: #003366; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">The Giver by Lois Lowry

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">This piece of authentic American literature was written by a talented man named Lois Lowry. She has written other books but I haven’t read them. This one is a fiction about a boy named Jonas living in a so called utopian society, but the government controls most of the aspects of these people’s lives. They somehow managed to manipulate people’s vision, the weather, and the color of the surroundings. My thoughts of the book were that the author put in to much time describing boring things like the way he opened the door, or how the law connects to the people. I wouldn’t recommend this book to others because I personally didn’t like the book, and if I didn’t like it I don’t think anyone else would. I give the book 3 out of 10 for its overall satisfactory. I only read it because we had to for a class novel.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">By Hunter L.

Home