The Joy of Children's Literature: Chapter 8 Historical Fiction

             Historical fiction allows students to better understand history. Historical fiction books can teach any portion of history. Students are capable of better understanding history when it’s written in a story. Historical fiction creates another world that takes place in their setting, allowing students to understand and relate to the text. Historical fiction also allows students to realize they too will eventually be a part of history. Historical fiction allows for teacher to teach through novels rather than textbooks. Teachers can alter their lessons around the novel and apply the textbook to what they learned from the novel. This allows students to better understand the novel, the textbook, and most important, history.

 The Egypt Game By Zilpha Keatly Snyder

Melanie Ross doesn’t think she’ll fit in with the other sixth graders at school, especially after Melanie meets the crazy April Hill. But Melanie soon finds out she has a lot in common with April. Both really enjoy reading and playing imagination games. But what really gets their relationship going is their shared love for anything and everything that deals with Egypt. Melanie and April discover the storage year behind the A-Z Antiques and Curios shop. Before they know it, there are now six Egyptians playing the game. Everyone enjoys they game, until the Egypt game gets a little out of hand.

The Time Warp Trio: DaWild, DaCrazy, DaVinci By Jon Scieszka


This book explores the inventions of Leonardo da Vinci. We all know he invented the Mona Lisa, but he also invented an early version of a helicopter and a tank, but he actually invented them to execute the Time Warp Trio for spying on his inventions.  Sam, one of the friends from the trio, decides he wants to look for the inventor of the book they use to travel through time.  The boy’s end up traveling to 15th century Italy and they meet Leonardo da Vinci. But the boys are now in a little trouble, and without bright ideas, magic tricks and inventions, the boys might be stuck in 15th century Italy.

We March By Shane W. Evans

This book allows the young reader to experience the march in our nation’s capital in August of 1963. The story begins with a family preparing their day to march the streets of Washington and listen to Martin Luther King Jr. speak about Jobs and Freedom for African Americans. You learn about people coming together to push for the same goals.

The final page of the book provides the reader with facts about the march and what occurred after the march in Washington D.C.