History & Historical Fiction Books - Page 3

Chains

Laurie Halse Anderson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Johnny Tremain for the 21st Century? 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

When I was growing up Esther Forbes' JOHNNY TREMAIN was the gold standard in historical fiction for the upper elementary/ middle school set (even THE SIMPSONS has referenced Johnny and his burnt hand). I remember loving the book back then but a couple of years ago my son had to read it for school and found it pretty rough going and I reread the novel myself and basically had to agree as it seemed dry and filled with historical figures no one remembers much anymore not to mention way too much information about the art of silver smithing. CHAINS has the same time setting ( the American Revolution) as JOHNNY but this time instead of a young male apprentice from Boston we have Isabel a young enslaved African American girl in New York City who aids the Patriot cause by spying on her cruel Tory owners and finds the Yankee rebels she encounters are not all sympathetic characters either. CHAINS is well written with memorable realistic characters and seemingly accurately researched. The appendix Anderson includes helpfully answers many questions I had while reading the book. The author skillfully inserts quite a lot of information about the time period, the realities of slavery and the Revolutionary War without the novel ever becoming "preachy" or too much like a textbook. Each chapter is prefaced with an appropriate quote from a person (often a newspaper writer) who lived during the described events and though I imagine many middle schoolers will skip these quotes they do add a feeling of historical accuracy and are a good starting point for anyone who wants to find out more about the subject. I'm sure CHAINS will be a popular new choice for teachers looking for examples of historical fiction to use in their classrooms especially in units concerning African American history and/or the Revolutionary War.

Editorial Review:

As the Revolutionary War begins, thirteen-year-old Isabel wages her own fight...for freedom. Promised freedom upon the death of their owner, she and her sister, Ruth, in a cruel twist of fate become the property of a malicious New York City couple, the Locktons, who have no sympathy for the American Revolution and even less for Ruth and Isabel. When Isabel meets Curzon, a slave with ties to the Patriots, he encourages her to spy on her owners, who know details of British plans for invasion. She is reluctant at first, but when the unthinkable happens to Ruth, Isabel realizes her loyalty is available to the bidder who can provide her with freedom.

From acclaimed author Laurie Halse Anderson comes this compelling, impeccably researched novel that shows the lengths we can go to cast off our chains, both physical and spiritual.

Stardust

Neil Gaiman

Amazon Price: $6.99 List Price: $6.99 Not yet published By: HarperTeen

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 347 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

entertaining, but easily forgettable 2 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

i finished this book in only 3 hours, and will probably forget it just as quickly as i read it. it was entertaining enough, and was a breeze to read through. the imagery was very vivid and the author has a great talent for descriptive prose that brings much needed color and richness to the story, or what little there is of one.

unfortunately everything else in this book is bland and uninspired. what could have been a fantastically imaginative and interesting storyline turns out to feel like an outline of events, heavily padded with pretty imagery, and nothing more. there is no suspense, no mystery, and no real intrigue in this book. the characters are flat and do not engage in meaningful, believable interactions with each other. there is very little dialogue between even the main characters, and their personalities and motives are far too transparent, and embarrasingly simplistic. other more interesting characters appear out of nowhere and disappear just as quickly. in the end i didn't care what happened to any of them, which is probably a good thing, since the ending was extremely weak. i would call it an anti-climax if there had been any suspense at all and i actually cared about what was going to happen. there wasn't, and i didn't.

i would expect this from a young adult's novel, and think maybe it could succeed as one, minus a few more adult scenes in the book, but as an adult novel, it really didn't do it for me. i didn't expect deep, thought-provoking literature. it was okay as light, mindless entertainment, but i could very well have watched the movie again and found just as much entertainment, if not more, in half the time. the movie, which actually adds a lot more action, humor, and interest to the story, was so much better.

Editorial Review:

Catch a fallen star . . .

Tristran thorn promised to bring back a fallen star. So he sets out on a journey to fulfill the request of his beloved, the hauntingly beautiful Victoria Forester—and stumbles into the enchanted realm that lies beyond the wall of his English country town. Rich with adventure and magic, Stardust is one of master storyteller Neil Gaiman's most beloved tales, and the inspiration for the hit movie.

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village

Laura Amy Schlitz

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Features:

• CHILDRENS BOOKS & MUSIC
• Childrens Books
• Language Arts

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Step back to an English village in 1255, where life plays out in dramatic vignettes illuminating twenty-two unforgettable characters.

Maidens, monks, and millers’ sons — in these pages, readers will meet them all. There’s Hugo, the lord’s nephew, forced to prove his manhood by hunting a wild boar; sharp-tongued Nelly, who supports her family by selling live eels; and the peasant’s daughter, Mogg, who gets a clever lesson in how to save a cow from a greedy landlord. There’s also mud-slinging Barbary (and her noble victim); Jack, the compassionate half-wit; Alice, the singing shepherdess; and many more. With a deep appreciation for the period and a grand affection for both characters and audience, Laura Amy Schlitz creates twenty-two riveting portraits and linguistic gems equally suited to silent reading or performance. Illustrated with pen-and-ink drawings by Robert Byrd — inspired by the Munich-Nuremberg manuscript, an illuminated poem from thirteenth-century Germany — this witty, historically accurate, and utterly human collection forms an exquisite bridge to the people and places of medieval England.

Rebel Angels (The Gemma Doyle Trilogy)

Libba Bray

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 118 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Gemma Doyle is looking forward to a holiday from Spence Academy—spending time with her friends in the city, attending balls in fancy gowns with plunging necklines, and dallying with the handsome Lord Denby. Yet amid these distractions, her visions intensify—visions of three girls dressed in white, to whom something horrific has happened that only the realms can explain.

The lure is strong, and soon Gemma, Felicity, and Ann are turning flowers into butterflies in the enchanted world that Gemma takes them to. To the girls' great joy, their beloved Pippa is there as well, eager to complete their circle of friendship.

But all is not well in the realms—or out. Kartik is back, desperately insisting to Gemma that she must bind the magic, lest colossal disaster befall her. Gemma is willing to comply, for this would bring her face-to-face with her late mother's greatest friend, now Gemma's foe—Circe. Until Circe is destroyed, Gemma cannot live out her destiny. But finding Circe proves a most perilous task. . . .

This sumptuous companion to A Great and Terrible Beauty teems with Victorian thrills and chills that play out against the rich backdrop of 1895 London, a place of shadows and light . . . where inside great beauty can lie a rebel angel.

All the King's Men

Robert Penn Warren

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 176 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

One of the great classics of American fiction reissued as it was originally written.

Winner of the 1947 Pulitzer Prize, All the King's Men is one of the most famous and widely read works in American fiction. Its original publication by Harcourt catapulted author Robert Penn Warren to fame and made the novel a bestseller for many seasons. Set in the 1930s, it traces the rise and fall of demagogue Willie Talos, a fictional Southern politician who resembles the real-life Huey "Kingfish" Long of Louisiana. Talos begins his career as an idealistic man of the people, but he soon becomes corrupted by success, caught between dreams of service and a lust for power. All the King's Men is as relevant today as it was fifty years ago.

In a momentous publishing event, Robert Penn Warren's masterpiece has been restored and reintroduced by literary scholar Noel Polk, whose work on the texts of William Faulkner has proved so important to American literature. Polk presents the novel as it was originally written, and without the deletions required by its original editors. The result restores Warren's complexity and subtlety to an already near-perfect work, charging the characters with an energy and a more tangled web of relationships than previously was available. All the King's Men is a landmark in letters. This new edition brings it fully to life.

"The publication of a new, corrected edition of All the King's Men is welcome
news for all who care about American literature. Robert Penn Warren's
prize-winning novel has remained a classic since its publication more than half
a century ago. Editor Noel Polk has studied the manuscript and all other
available versions of Warren's finest novels, eliminating errors and retrieving deleted material. The result has been to enrich the character of narrator
Jack Burden and his protagonist, Willie Talos, in this story of tumultuous Louisiana politics which also has implications for morals and manners in the modern world." -Joseph Blotner, author of Robert Penn Warren: A Biography

The Sign of the Beaver

Elizabeth George Speare

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 192 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Perpetuates Stereotypes 1 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

As a fourth grade educator, I would never introduce this book to my students as anything else other than an example of popular culture that perpetuates stereotypes of Native Americans. Attean and other Native American characters speak in broken English, giving the reader the impression that these characters are inferior to their White counterparts. The terminology used is highly offensive (squaw)for both Native people and for women. The relationship that Attean has with girls in his tribe as well as with animals is unrealistic and down right inaccurate. Joseph Bruchac and Michael Dorris are two authors which do an excellent job of writing from the Native American perspective.

Great read aloud! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I have used Sign of the Beaver as a read aloud just about every year I have taught! I teach 4th grade, and have always had great reviews from my students. The text and vocabulary are advanced for some fourth graders, so it is a terrific way to expand their vocabulary and knowledge without having frustrated readers. I have collected a class set over the years, allowing every child to read along. I highly recommend this book!

Editorial Review:

Left alone to guard the family's wilderness home in eighteenth-century Maine, a boy is hard-pressed to survive until local Indians teach him their skills.

The Wall

Eve Bunting

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The Wall by Tanashia C. 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

The Wall
by Eve Bunting
Illustrated by Ronald Himler

You should read this book because it's great and it's about someone you will remember and someone you love! The main Characters are the Dad, son, and an old man from war, and grandpa. Dad and his son are trying to find grandpa's name on the wall. The wall is in Washington D.C. They can't find their grandpa's name even though they keep looking up and down.
Dad and his son find grandpa's name! what do you think his name is? The book tells you a note and tells you where the wall is and it is in Washington D.C. it also tells you why the wall was made.
By reading this book you can learn to Keep doing your best, keep looking for what you want, and don't give up. Keep looking for what you love too! What do you love to find that you love so much? What I love to find is my family and my things I love. So if you love to find your family then read this book!!!!!!!!!!


By Tanashia C

Editorial Review:

A young boy and his father visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing Traitor to the Nation (The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation)

M. T. Anderson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 39 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

A gothic tale becomes all too shockingly real in this mesmerizing magnum opus by the acclaimed author of FEED.

It sounds like a fairy tale. He is a boy dressed in silks and white wigs and given the finest of classical educations. Raised by a group of rational philosophers known only by numbers, the boy and his mother — a princess in exile from a faraway land — are the only persons in their household assigned names. As the boy's regal mother, Cassiopeia, entertains the house scholars with her beauty and wit, young Octavian begins to question the purpose behind his guardians' fanatical studies. Only after he dares to open a forbidden door does he learn the hideous nature of their experiments — and his own chilling role in them. Set against the disquiet of Revolutionary Boston, M. T. Anderson's extraordinary novel takes place at a time when American Patriots rioted and battled to win liberty while African slaves were entreated to risk their lives for a freedom they would never claim. The first of two parts, this deeply provocative novel reimagines the past as an eerie place that has startling resonance for readers today.

Fever 1793

Laurie Halse Anderson

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Total reviews: 299 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

From Fever 1793

"Where's Polly?" I asked as I dropped the bucket down the well. "Did you pass by the blacksmith's?

"I spoke with her mother, with Mistress Logan," Mother answered softly, looking at her neat rows of carrots.

"And?" I waved a mosquito away from my face.

"It happened quickly. Polly sewed by candlelight after dinner. Her mother repeated that over and over, 'she sewed by candlelight after dinner.' And then she collapsed."

I released the handle and the bucket splashed, a distant sound.

"Matilda, Polly's dead."

August 1793. Fourteen-year-old Mattie Cook is ambitious, adventurous, and sick to death of listening to her mother. Mattie has plans of her own. She wants to turn the Cook Coffeehouse into the finest business in Philadelphia, the capital of the new United States.

But the waterfront is abuzz with reports of disease. "Fever" spreads from the docks and creeps toward Mattie's home, threatening everything she holds dear.

As the cemeteries fill with fever victims, fear turns to panic, and thousands flee the city. Then tragedy strikes the coffeehouse, and Mattie is trapped in a living nightmare. Suddenly, her struggle to build a better life must give way to something even more important -- the fight to stay alive.

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Mildred D. Taylor

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 461 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

My Favorite Book 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This was my favorite book in the world as a child. I read it over and over, beginning I think in the 3rd grade. It was deeply moving and probably shaped who I am today.

Excellent source to learn African American history in the 1930s 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is a great book! It is well written and the story line is very easy to follow. This book was one of three books that was required summer reading for my daughter's 6th grade class and she loved it as well. It gave her a different perspective on the different and most often times unfair treatment African American received during the 1930s. I strongly recommend this book to every young person to learn a few of life's lessons.

Editorial Review:

Winner of the 1977 Newbery Medal, this is a remarkably moving novel-one that has impressed the hearts and minds of millions of readers. Set in Mississippi at the height of the Depression, it is the story of one family's struggle to maintain their integrity, pride, and independence in the face of racism and social injustice. And, too, it is Cassie's story-Cassie Logan, an independent girl who discovers over the course of an important year why having land of their own is so crucial to the Logan family, even as she learns to draw strength from her own sense of dignity and self-respect.