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Posts Tagged ‘historical fiction’

Story first, history second

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on January 2, 2012 | 3 Comments »

Perhaps I was a wee bit prejudiced as I started reading.  Friends that I trusted had very mixed reviews, but I didn’t quite believe them.  After all, the book had won the 2011 Newbery award.  And it was set in 1936, flashing back to 1917 and 1918.  Quite possibly one of my favorite time periods.  I should [...]

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What if?

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on September 2, 2011 | 1 Comment »

Many moons ago (11 years ago, to be exact.  Good lord, how time flies!), I was an intern at the Women’s Museum.  Part of my job was to process the many, many loans–it’s a non-collecting institution so every artifact on display had to come from somewhere else.  I have many, many stories about that summer [...]

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A new kind of historical fiction?

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged on June 13, 2011 | 6 Comments »

It’s not often that there’s a great, free, literary event in Dallas.  I still think longingly of my days in Raleigh, when I was just 10 minutes away from one of the best indie bookstores in the US.  I went to author events all the time–Sue Monk Kidd, Linda Sue Park (right after she won [...]

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A few more like her. . .

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on October 12, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Though I have a lot of issues with most modern historical fiction, there are a few authors that I just trust.  Richard Peck.  Christopher Paul Curtis.  Karen Hesse.  I first became familiar with her through Out of the Dust, a book that ultimately won the Newbery.  If I ever taught the 1930s, this book would [...]

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A Politically Incorrect Confession

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on July 7, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

I have never been a fan of Native American history.  It’s not the guilt over how we stole their land and slaughtered them, whether by disease or guns.  No, it’s really just that I am not an outdoorsy person.  And living off the land has never been something that interested me.  I admire that some tribes [...]

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Vacation Reading

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on June 8, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

This post was started in the midst of my recent vacation, but then there were internet connection issues and piles of stuff to go through when I got back to Texas and, well, you know how it is.  Part of my trip was spent at a friend’s house who is also a big kid lit [...]

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Let me count the ways. . . In love with Calpurnia Tate

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on February 2, 2010 | 4 Comments »

As a public historian in Texas, there are certain subjects that you just have to deal with on a regular basis.  The Alamo.  Cowboys.  The frontier.  I have attended conferences where it feels like every single session is pre-1900 history and mostly about the Texas Revolution.  These are all fine topics for historical study, but [...]

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The Perils of Historical Fiction

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on January 8, 2010 | 7 Comments »

It’s not that I don’t like historical fiction for kids.  It’s just that there’s so much bad historical fiction out there–books that probably aren’t going to convert any kids to the history-nerd lifestyle. In the past couple of weeks, I’ve been doing a lot more reading than usual.  Due to the bizarre combination of a [...]

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