Textbook Reflections: Chapter Ten- Historical Fiction

Historical Fiction is a made-up story that is based on a real time and place in history, in other words, fact is mixed with fiction.

This format has an award for it, it is the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction.

Historical Fiction has characters, plot, a setting, conflict, dialogue, and descriptions.

Characters all behave in realistic ways, some are fictional and some are real.

The setting is the most important element in Historical Fiction.

The plot is based-on real events mixed with fictional events that make sense for that time period.

There is a criteria for evaluating Historical Fiction. The five basic questions are the following:

Does the book tell a good story that effortlessly blends the history in the story itself?

Are the facts of the historical period accurate?

How are the values of the time brought to life?

Is everything consistent with the social milieu?

Does the theme of the story relate to contemporary readers?

All those criteria questions are used for probing and when evaluating historical fiction for children.

This format of literature is more popular with young adults and high school students. I teach sophomores and I know they would be interested in something that is relevant, and especially political or historical. They tend to gravitate for this format sometimes because it is more straightforward than others. This chapter is definitely a great tool to have saved, especially because of the criteria questions that will serve as a guide when I have to evaluate stories in this format.