Trade Book List Based on Historical Fiction

Trade Book List Based on Historical Fiction

Aubrey Olson

History 2700

Service Learning Project

Leveled Book List

Service learning is a great way to open eyes to all the needs and possibilities of an area as small as Iron County or as wide and broad as the world. I have come to realize this in so many ways. When choosing what I should focus on for my Service Learning Project I couldn’t decide for the life of me, there were so many options all of which needed to be addressed. By gaining advice from my teachers I decided that I wanted to do something that would keep me interested and also be something I could use later on in life. The perfect choice was to make a leveled book list for teachers in the education system. This book list covers grades preschool through eighth. It can be used for not only the English or Reading class but also for History classes.

A person either thinks of history as boring and dull or informative and exciting. But if a child is introduced to history in an enjoyable way they can grow a love for it the rest of their lives. In my eyes there are few better ways to interest young students then to get them developed into a book. A good book provides real characters and conflicts, where historical facts can be turned into something interesting and full of adventure. My interest in history started when I was assigned to read Alicia: My Story an autobiography by Alicia Appleman-Jurman in eighth grade. The book was assigned reading in both my English and history classes. I found it amazing with real life accounts of a Jewish girl who lost her family but found the strength to survive along with helping many others survive during the Holocaust of World War Two. Since then I have loved to learn all that I can about world history World War Two in particular.

I want other kids to gain a passion for reading and history so I put together this leveled book list for teachers to suggest or require reading these books and it is also for the student who loves to read and wants to learn more about historical events on their own.

After reading numerous books, interviewing a lot of teachers, and researching guidelines for a good book I came to these conclusions on historical fiction. Sarah K. Herz states of the Yale-New Haven Teacher’s Institute that:

The writer of good historical fiction recreates the past with immediacy neither expository history nor pure fiction can achieve alone. Good historical fiction must not only be good history, but must also be good literature. The historical novelist presents the reader with characters caught up in a conflict and builds his narrative from historical details. As the reader becomes involved with the characters and story line, he begins to absorb the historical data and begins to recognize the many human qualities of the character. Gradually the characters become real to the reader and the reader begins to “root” for this character if he or she is being treated unjustly. The reader might question in his own mind the need for law or government to protect this character’s individual rights. And, at this moment, the reader is unconsciously using his cognitive ability to sort and group these historical details; he compares them to his own society, and begins to discern the differences in the historical period he is reading about and to compare it to his society today. If the historical novelist accomplishes this kind of reader involvement, he has made some impact on the reader’s conscience. He has made the reader think, consider, discover, and, most important, begin to realize the importance and usefulness of studying history. He has, of course, as his central purpose, also described and explained some significant historical tendency.

As a summary of this article she states that the reader needs to become a part of the character and the conflict. They need to sympathize with the character and plant a seed for wanting to gain more knowledge on the historical event being addressed.

Leveled Book List

Title	Author	Illustrator (if applicable)	Number of Pages	Age Level	Brief Description
P is for Pioneers	Melanie Zabriskie Carmack	Lester B. Lee	26	Preschool-1^st	Alphabet book that has great pictures depicting a letter of the alphabet along with a historical event.
The Wall	Eve Bunting	Ronald Himler	20	1^st	A young boy and his father go looking for the young boy grandfather’s name on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
When Pioneer Wagons Rumbled West	Christine Graham	Sherry Meidell		1^st-2^nd	The trials and accomplishments the pioneers might have gone through.
The Thanksgiving Story	Alice Dalgliesh	Helen Sewell		1^st-2^nd	Caldecott Honor Award Brief depiction with awesome pictures of the Thanksgiving Story.
Mike Fink	Steven Kellogg	Steven Kellogg	40	1^st-2^nd	The life of a boy trying to gain respect on a boat traveling up and down the Mississippi during the time of the invention of the Steam Boat.
The Pilgrims of Plymouth	Marcia Sewall	Marcia Sewall	48	2^nd	She wrote this book in first person giving facts and possible accounts of living in Plymouth.
The First Thanksgiving	Jean Craighead George	Thomas Locker		2^nd	Tells of the first Thanksgiving while staying correct he keeps things interesting.
Daughter of a King	Rachel Ann Nunes	David Lindsley & Ben Sowards		2^nd	Beautiful Pictures about a story about a coming of age princess.
Sarah, Plain and Tall	Patricia MacLachlan		64	3^rd	Newberry Award A woman “replaces” a wife and mother. Caleb and Anna are two children who get a new mother on the prairie. True Story.
…If you lived at the time of the Civil War.	Kay Moore	Anni Matsick	64	3^rd	Lists questions and answers them with facts and accounts of the Civil War. The pictures help with explanations.
The Santa Fe Trail	David Lavender		67	3^rd	Information book on the struggles of coming west with the adventures of a cowboy.
Favorite Medieval Tales	Mary Pope Osborne	Troy Howell	86	4^th	Nine different stories that are set in the medieval time period. Great Illustrations.
Our Only May Amelia	Jennifer L. Holm		253	5^th	May is the only girl living with a bunch of brother on the Nasal River in 1899.
Tree of Freedom	Rebecca Caudill		279	5^th	Newberry Award Thirteen year old Stephanie moved to Carolina from Kentucky so her dad could be a farmer in 1790 right before the Revolution.
Titanic Crossing	Barbara Williams		163	5^th	A young boy is excited to go home to Washington on the “unsinkable” Titanic.
For Home and Country A Civil War Scrapbook	Norman Bolotin &Angela Herb		98	5^th	Great pictures that help tell facts while keeping things interesting. Newspaper articles and personal accounts are detailed.
The Day Pearl Harbor was Bombed A Photo History of World War Two	George Sullivan		92	5^th	Great pictures and interesting facts about the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Newspaper articles and personal accounts are also detailed.
Snowbound The Tragic Story of the Donner Party	David Lavender		82	6^th	An account of the tragic event in the many treks west.
The Sign of the Beaver	Elizabeth George Speare		207	6^th	During the settling of the Maine wilderness in the 18th century, a young boy left alone at the family's claim survives through an emerging friendship with the Indians.
Stones in Water	Donna Jo Napoli		278	6^th	Based on true events. This book tells a different kind of Holocaust story. Roberto is an Italian boy sick of the effects of WWII. When he goes to a movie the German soldiers raid this movie theater for free labor. Roberto has to toil away in a German Work camp.
The Stolen Train	Robert Ashley		149	6^th-8^th	Intense story about how the Union Army tries to take over a train.
Johnny Tremain	Esther Forbes		269	7^th	Newberry Award Johnny is a young apprentice silversmith. Just before the Revolutionary War.
The Ballad of Lucy Whipple	Karen Chushman		218	6^th-7^th	Lucy moves to California with her family during the California Gold Rush. Humorous with adventures that make you wonder what it might have been like for a young girl to live in a rough mining town.
Witness	Karen Hesse		207	7^th	A twelve year old African American girl runs with her father as the Klu Klux Klan invades there small Vermont town. Takes place during the Civil Rights Movements.
Alicia: My Story	Alicia Appleman-Jurman		369	8^th	Autobiography of the author; Alicia who is a Jewish girl who lost her family but survived and helped many other survive during World War Two’s Holocaust.
Daughter of Venice	Donna Jo Napoli		264	8^th	In 1592 Venice, girls, even those of the upper class, aren’t allowed to do a lot of things but in this book Donata acts as if she is a boy to get out and experience the world.