Genre 5: Historical Fiction

Catherine, Called Birdy

by Karen Cushman

Bibliography

Cushman, Karen. 1994. Catherine, Called Birdy. New York, NY: Harper Collins. ISBN 0064405842

Plot Summary

This book documents a year in the life of a fourteen year old girl, Catherine, called Birdy, in the year 1290. Birdy is a mischievous and clever young girl who is trying to escape her fate—marriage to the richest bidder. As we follow her tale through individual diary entries, we learn a lot about the day-to-day goings on in a medieval manor house. Birdy has a relatively privileged life, but finds the injustice in the expectation that she look and act like a lady, and especially the expectation that she gratefully marry whatever suitor her father deems appropriate.

Critical Analysis

Cushman’s storytelling, in the form of diary entries, is clever, and often laugh-out-loud funny. Her descriptions of life around the manor and of the less than desirable suitors that try their luck with Birdy (and her father) are hilarious. Cushman somehow manages to find similarities between life in both the medieval and modern world for a young teenage girl, and these similarities make the book that much more compelling, as readers imagine their young adulthood as  Birdy’s is.

Tales of yarn spinning, embroidery, minstrels, and privies provide authenticity. At the same time, Birdy’s short, curt entries of dismay and disgust, many teetering on sarcasm, will resonate with young readers’ own parental frustrations.

An extensive author’s note offers information about life in medieval England. Brief descriptions of feudalism, daily life, and thinking might just whet the appetite for further research of this period.

Review Excerpt(s)

• ALA Notable Children’s Book 1995
• Newbery Honor Book 1995
• KIRKUS REVIEWS starred review: “The period has rarely been presented for young people with such authenticity; the exotic details will intrigue readers…”
• PUBLISHERS WEEKLY review: “…witty and wise…”
• BOOKLIST review: “…diary format helps portray the tedium of life in the Middle Ages…”

Connections

• Use in discussions of medieval history, and the organization of the feudal system in medieval Europe.
• Use as part of a comparison of the role of young girls in society through different eras.
• Other Cushman novels: The Midwife’s Apprentice ISBN 0547722176; The Ballad of Lucy Whipple ISBN 0064406849

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

by Jacqueline Kelly

Bibliography

Kelly, Jacqueline. 2009. The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate. New York, NY: Henry Holt. ISBN 9780312659301

Plot Summary

Calpurnia Tate, or “Callie Vee,” is an eleven year old girl growing up in a small Texas town at the turn of the 20th century. The story follows Callie Vee through her many adventures as a young naturalist, exploring and cataloguing her finds with her grandfather during the summer of 1899. While documenting her adventures, the story also brings to light the issues young Callie Vee faces as a girl in the late nineteenth century, including the expectations her parents have for her, as well as how she handles being the only girl, with seven brothers.

Critical Analysis

Kelly’s story-telling is incredible. This book is a fun read from the start, and the historical aspects of the book are so well blended with the story-telling, you hardly notice you are reading about history. For Central Texans who might or might not be familiar with some of the local history, it is an especially interesting read.

In this coming-of-age story Callie Vee’s character is extremely well developed. We witness her struggles against what her family and societal norms have planned for her. The ever clever Callie Vee, though, outsmarts on nearly every page. When told she cannot cut her hair she devises a plan. “Every week I would cut off an inch of hair—just one stealthy inch—so that Mother wouldn’t notice.” Callie Vee’s determination commands attention with readers. They feel connected with her, and are compelled to follow her through her trials and tribulations. In fact, with a somewhat abrupt ending, readers might be left wondering what becomes of her. 

With a fresh approach to the coming-of-age story, Kelly creates a novel and character readers will cheer for.

Review Excerpt(s)

• Newbery Honor Book 2010
• ALA Notable Children’s Books 2010
• HORN BOOK starred review: “Without anachronism, Kelly has created a spirited young woman who's refreshingly ahead of her time.”
• KIRKUS REVIEWS starred review: “Readers will finish this witty, deftly crafted debut novel rooting for "Callie Vee" and wishing they knew what kind of adult she would become.”

 Connections

• Use to discuss Texas History and discuss change over time, comparing the lives of young girls at the turn of the twentieth century to those of young girls at the twenty first century.
• Use during a discussion of societal female roles.
• Use during a unit on evolution, species adaptations, and/or Charles Darwin or other naturalists.

Dead End in Norvelt

by Jack Gatnos

Bibliography

Gantos, Jack. 2011. Dead End in Norvelt. New York, NY: Farrar Straus Giroux. ISBN 9780374379933

Plot Summary

Avid reader of adventure books and history lover, almost twelve year old Jack spends the summer of 1962 grounded. Seeking refuge from his "prison" bedroom, he agrees to assist his elderly neighbor type obituaries for the town newspaper. Jack is soon taken on adventures through the town, its history, and possibly even murder.

Critical Analysis

Gantos manages to write a story filled with obituaries, local and global history, arthritis, and murder blending them seamlessly. Taking place in Norvelt, Pennsylvania during the summer of 1962, Gantos intertwines events and attitudes of the day with the storyline. “Yep, we need a bomb shelter. The Russian Commies say they are planning to bury us, but I’ve got news for them—we are going to survive whatever atom bomb attack they throw our way.”

Layered with historical facts and anecdotes, Gantos weaves the local history Jack is learning (and experiencing) with that of the U.S. and world. Not only giving authenticity and intrigue to the novel’s setting, but creating compelling comparisons. And history prevails as a theme of the novel, urging characters and readers alike to learn from it. Jack’s colorfully sassy neighbor and employer, Miss Volker, expresses this well. “The reason you remind yourself of the stupid stuff you've done in the past is so you don't do it again.”

With its laugh-out-loud humor, down-to-earth characters, and tales of small town life, youths and adults alike will find this book difficult to put down.

Review Excerpt(s)

• ALA Notable Children’s Books 2012
• Newbery Medal 2012
• Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction 2012
• LIBRARY MEDIA CONNECTION review: “Gantos fans will find this one of his best works.”
• SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL review: “A fast-paced and witty read.”
• HORN BOOK starred review: “There's more than laugh-out-loud gothic comedy here. This is a richly layered semi-autobiographical tale, an ode to a time and place, to history and the power of reading.”

 Connections

• Use to help discuss contributions made by Eleanor Roosevelt.
• Use in discussions about Cuban Missile Crisis
• Use to discuss how past historical events relate and connect to events in the future.
• Use to discuss characterization.

 

Genre 4: Nonfiction & Biography

Drawing From Memory

by Allen Say

Bibliography

Say, Allen. 2011. Drawing From Memory. New York, NY: Scholastic Press. ISBN 9780545176866

Plot Summary

This book tells the story of author and illustrator Allen Say’s childhood in Japan. Even as a young boy, and without familial encouragement, all Say wanted to do was draw. He found a surrogate family in his Sensei, the cartoonist Noro Shinpei, and several of Shinpei’s apprentices. The story tells of the role his Sensei played in Say’s development as an artist, and the encounters he had, with both historical events and people, such as his father, mother, and grandmother.

Critical Analysis

Say tells the story of his childhood in scrapbook style through conventional text, photographs, and some of his own early sketches. Graphic novel elements are used as well. The pictures help bring to life Say’s telling of his early childhood, and help the reader better envision the important events that helped shape this man’s life.

Say expertly blends the elements of text, photographs, and different types of drawings. Readers drawn to different writing—memoir, historical narrative, graphic novels—will find something interesting to pull them to the book and keep reading once they get there. An extensive author’s note provides further knowledge about the life of this talented writer and artist.

Review Excerpt(s)

• ALA Notable Children’s Books 2012
• BOOKLIST starred review: “…a powerful title that is both culturally and personally resonant.”
• PUBLISHERS WEEKLY: “Say's account is complex, poignant, and unfailingly honest.

Connections

• Use when comparing cultures from different countries.
• Have students illustrate their own autobiography, including what they want to do when they grow up.

Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy’s Parade

by Melissa Sweet

Bibliography

Sweet, Melissa. 2011. Balloons Over Broadway; The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy’s Parade. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 9780547199450

Plot Summary

This book tells the story of Tony Sarg, the creator of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. It begins by recounting Sarg’s first experiment with making things move with strings, when he rigged a string from his bed to the chicken coop to open the coop door to feed the chickens in the morning. As Tony’s marionette skills progress, the story follows Tony from London to New York City, where the Tony Sarg Marionettes performed on Broadway. Following his run on Broadway, Sarg began designing window puppet shows in the famous Macy’s department store in Herald Square, and eventually planned and executed what we now know as the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Critical Analysis

Sweet’s tale of Tony Sarg, and his love of puppets, and making children happy, is interesting and thoughtful. Sweet details the progression of Sarg, from a puppeteer in a marionette show in London, to the creator of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Readers will be able to relate to the trials and errors Sweet describes in detailing the difficulties Sarg had throughout this process. Careful text selection provides a window into Sarg’s planning and his trying to figure out just how to make the puppets in the parade visible from the ground.

Sweet’s illustrations are breathtaking. She uses a combination of collage using found objects such as spools of thread, fabric, and a variety of paper, as well as beautiful watercolor paintings to depict the wonderful world of Tony Sarg and his puppets. Clever use of space is evident in the endpapers where excerpts from a 1929 book about Sarg's marionettes as well as an original parade advertisement the New York Times in 1933.

A detailed author’s note provides further insight into Sarg’s world as well as information about Sweet’s illustration.

Review Excerpt(s)

• ALA Notable Children’s Books 2012
• Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal 2012
• KIRKUS REVIEWS starred review: “This clever marriage of information and illustration soars high.”
• BOOKLIST starred review: “…as exciting as the parade itself…”

Connections

• Use in an introductory unit on collage to help describe the artistic process.
• Use in a fun way to introduce the scientific process and how it can be used outside the science classroom.

Years of Dust: The Story of the Dust Bowl

by Albert Marrin

Bibliography

Marrin, Albert. 2009. Years of Dust: The Story of the Dust Bowl. New York, NY: Penguin. ISBN 9780525420774

Plot Summary

This book tells the unique and often heartbreaking story of the families living in the Great Plains region of the United States, beginning with early explorers such as Daniel Boone, and continuing through the Great Depression and World War II. In addition to the personal stories of the families, the book also recounts the environmental history of the region, explaining the role different plants and animals have played in the ecology of the region over time, as well as the impact humans have had on the environment. Finally, the book finishes with a chapter discussing the potential future of other “dust bowl” regions throughout the globe.

Critical Analysis

Beginning with a captivating cover, Marrin creates a highly readable book made up of a combination of text, photographs, maps, and publications from various eras. The book is subdivided into chronological chapters covering the history of the region, although it doesn’t read like a history textbook. It’s more an engrossing visual landscape.

The stories of the families, and especially the quotes from people who lived in the region, bring the Great Plains to life as no history textbook could ever do. The author inserts interesting and unusual facts about the daily adaptations people made in response to living in such a harsh environment, such as their homemade medicines and superstitious rituals meant to bring on rain.

Although some of the vocabulary is difficult, the author is diligent in explaining uncommon or possibly unfamiliar words and phrases, and also includes a glossary in the back for reference. Readers will find themselves mesmerized by all the photography, but especially those of Dorothea Lange.

Review Excerpt(s)

• ALA Notable Children’s Books 2010
• PUBLISHERS WEEKLY: “Easily comprehensible, the lengthy narrative leaves nothing undefined.”
• BOOKLIST starred review: “…this exceptional overview brings close the terrifying, bleak realities of the Dust Bowl.”

Connections

• Use as an example of Human-Environment-Interaction. Have students conjecture what might have happened if the population of the Great Plains region hadn’t brought in foreign plant and animal species, such as wheat and cattle.
• Use as an example of an ecosystem, or ecological region. Discuss and describe the unique and unifying characteristics of the region, and compare and contrast these characteristics to other unique regions.

Genre 3: Poetry

The Braid

by Helen Frost

Bibliography

Frost, Helen. 2006. The Braid. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN-13: 9780374309626 ISBN-10: 0374309620

Plot Summary

During the Highland Clearances in 1850, sisters Jeannie and Sarah share their interwoven tale. While Jeannie crosses the Atlantic for Canada and Sarah remains in Scotland, the two sisters remain tightly connected by each carrying a braided length of her sister's hair.

Critical Analysis

Based on her “admiration of Celtic knots,” Frost invents complex poetic forms to create a novel-in-verse masterpiece. In Celtic knot fashion, The Braid is composed of interwoven, as well as alternating, narrative and praise poems.

Frost allows each sister’s voice to be heard in their respective narrative poems. Jeannie’s determination rings out when all seems lost. “Yet I have my life…No one will take that away. Somehow, somewhere, I will make of it what I can.” Likewise, readers understand Sarah’s strength when she becomes a mother. “I’ll keep you safe…If my heart breaks once again, I will try to protect yours.”

Between each narrative poem Frost gives the reader an eight-line praise poem praising something—seals, feathers, food, letters, etc.—found within the previous narrative poem. Through these poems, Frost honors even the humblest of objects and ideas giving the reader an insight to the lives of the characters and how they lived their lives.

Much like a Celtic maze, The Braid draws the reader in, takes them round several turns, and then leads them out. Readers will find this novel set in the 1850’s relevant to today. Teen and adult issues abound in its pages. Romance, adventure, death, poverty, Frost gives it all.

Review Excerpt(s)

• YALSA Best Books for Young Adults 2007
• TAYSHAS Reading List
• LEE BENNETT HOPKINS POETRY AWARD HONOR 2007
• VOYA: "Poetry, adventure, romance, historical fiction--this book has something for every reader." 
• BOOKLIST starred review: “…the book will inspire both students and teachers to go back and study how the taut poetic lines manage to contain the powerful feelings.”
• SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL starred review: “While the inventive form is accomplished and impressive, it's the easy flow of the verse and its emotional impact that will carry even reluctant readers into the windswept landscape and the hardships and dreams of these two girls.”

Connections

• Write and share personal family stories
• Research the Highland Clearances and other similar historical events
• Write personal and/or family related narrative and praise poems
• Other novels-in-verse by Frost:  Keesha’s House ISBN-13: 978-0374400125; Diamond Willow ISBN-13: 978-0312603830; Crossing Stones ISBN-13: 978-0374316532 

Bookspeak!: Poems About Books

by Laura Purdie Salas

Illustrated by Josée Bisaillon

Bibliography

Salas, Laura Purdie. 2011. Bookspeak!: Poems About Books. Ill. by Josée Bisaillon. New York, NY: Clarion Books. ISBN 9780547223001

Plot Summary

Salas’ beautiful book honors all aspects of books. Silly and sweet poems reveal the thoughts of characters, book shelves, book covers, cliff hangers, and bookstores, just to name a few.

Critical Analysis

Salas’ clever poems provide readers with lines that make what all book lovers feel; books are really alive! Book shelves speak aloud. “Down here dust bunnies snuggle with me under the bed.” And indexes try to be bossy. “I always say, if you really want to know what’s in a book, go to the back.” Salas keeps each poem fresh by not following a set pattern, but allowing each poem its unique voice and rhythm.

Complementing the poems are Bisaillon’s beautifully colored mixed media illustrations. Just as each poem declares its individuality, Bisaillon’s illustrations morph and change dependent on the voice heard in the lines of the poem. Brightly colored butterflies stream out of a diary in “Top Secret,” a life-sized image of a sleeping girl’s head lies next to “The Sky is Falling,” and inky black and splotchy birds line up along suggested power lines in “Skywriting.”

Together, poem and illustration remind readers of all ages of the glories of reading while offering new perspectives and dreamy visuals.

Review Excerpt(s)

• PUBLISHERS WEEKLY: “Bisaillon's mixed media illustrations are dizzyingly inventive, their bright colors, sampling of typography, and whimsical details underscoring the idea of the potential that awaits between the covers.”
• BOOKLIST: “…a natural choice for sharing in classrooms and young writers’ workshops.”

Connections

• Write original poems about a favorite book and use book illustrations as inspiration to create a companion collage/mixed media illustration
• Other books by Salas: A Leaf Can Be ISBN-13: 978-0761362036; Lettuce Introduce You: Poems About Food ISBN-13: 978-1429617031