Tag Archive: young adults
Using Museums for Historical Research
By Melissa Luttmann
Every reader loves juicy historical details, and kids are no exception. Descriptions of unfamiliar foods, interesting objects, or everyday activities are a great way to establish your setting and to interest young readers.
But how do you discover these specific historical tidbits? You can uncover them in books, of course, but I’ve found that an even better way is to head to a museum.
I’m not talking about the Smithsonian here, although you could certainly find some great information there. Instead, your best bets are likely to be small museums with very specific focuses. I’ve been road tripping in New England this past week, and I’m amazed by the wealth of information you can find if you know where to look.
If you’re searching for in-depth coverage of early American furniture, Russian icons, or African-Americans in World War II, you might want to consider heading up this way. These museums aren’t known on a national scale, but they’re some of the best resources for the areas they cover.
Museums are filled with objects you can examine all you like (though you generally can’t touch them), which is incredibly helpful when you want to write a description of one. In addition, they feature knowledgeable staff who are more than happy to answer your questions.
I’ve found that these people tend to be very passionate about their area of expertise and will often give you much more information than you asked for. But that’s okay, because you can never do too much research…right?
DISCUSSION:
What do you think about using museums to research historical fiction?
Are there any that you’ve found to be especially amazing?
Melissa Luttmann is the YA Editorial Assistant for Wonders and Marvels. You can read more about her here: Editorial Staff.
Selling Historical Fiction to Teens
By Melissa Luttmann
Historical fiction author Ann Rinaldi puts a warning label on each of her books—literally. On the back covers of her novels, you’ll find a block of text that reads, “WARNING: This is a historical novel. Read at your own risk. The writer feels it necessary to alert you to the fact that you might enjoy it.”
Seeing that warning on the back of Ms. Rinaldi’s latest release made me think about the way teens perceive historical fiction. I know many teens who refuse to so much as look at historical novels because they find their history classes at school boring. They see history as a bunch of dry facts to be crammed into their brains for the next test, and never stop to consider that history is actually about stories—many of which are very interesting.
Because so many teens have an aversion to historical fiction, those of us who write it are, in a way, aiming for a slightly different market than other YA authors. Of course it would be wonderful if a teen who never liked history picked up your book and fell in love with it. But if your novel is going to stay in print, people have to buy it, and the people who are going to buy a YA historical novel are mostly members of that specific group of teens who like history.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing—I’ve found that many historical fiction lovers are voracious readers who buy tons of books and are loyal to authors they like—but it does mean the average teen consumer is less likely to pick up your novel.
DISCUSSION:
Do you think historical fiction can be a hard sell to the average teenager?
Does it bother you that many teens don’t like history, or are you just happy for the ones that do?
Does it bother you that many teens don’t like history, or are you just happy for the ones that do?
Melissa Luttmann is the YA Editorial Assistant for Wonders and Marvels. You can read more about her here: Editorial Staff.
An Exciting Fall Release
By Melissa Luttmann
Looking through publishers’ catalogues, I found that tons of historical fiction titles are going to be published in September, but one new release got me especially excited. This fall, Scholastic is bringing back its Dear America series (originally published from 1996 to 2004). They’ll be adding new titles as well as reissuing some previously published ones.
I still have a near-complete set of the original series on my bookshelf, and I must admit that I occasionally reread my favorites for the sheer pleasure of it. But I’ve also learned a thing or two about writing historical fiction from them, because, being written in diary format, these books are great examples of the elusive quality known as voice.
The vast majority of Dear America authors do a great job of making their main characters sound like real, relatable girls, and the fact that they manage do this while blending period-authentic vocabulary and style with modern readability never ceases to amaze me. That, in my opinion, is a skill well worth mastering, especially in historical fiction written in the first person.
I’ll definitely be getting my hands on the series’ first new title when it releases this September. First I’ll read it for my own enjoyment, and then I’ll go back and study it to see how the author develops the main character’s voice. It just so happens that this book is set during the same time period as one of my works in progress—World War II—so I’m interested to see how the author handles the language of the time.
DISCUSSION:
Are you a fan of the Dear America books?
Any other middle grade or YA books that you feel are particularly outstanding examples of voice?
Melissa Luttmann is the YA Editorial Assistant for Wonders and Marvels. You can read more about her here: Editorial Staff.
Historical Fiction Isn’t Just Historical Fiction Anymore
By Melissa L.
If someone asked you to define “historical fiction,” you would probably say that it’s fiction set sometime in the past. And if you gave that answer, you would be fundamentally correct. But historical fiction isn’t just historical fiction anymore. More and more, it’s being crossed with other genres to produce books that toe the line between historical and something else.
Historical romances. Historical mysteries. Historical fantasy. These are all examples of the types of books I like to call “historical hybrids”: books that can be called historical fiction, since they do have a historical setting, but are also strongly tied to another genre. In the YA market, these books often seem to sell better than straight historical fiction because they can appeal to a wider audience. Many teens, who otherwise find history boring, will pick up a book that’s fundamentally a romance.
The question with such books, though, is the extent to which they can actually be called historical fiction. For example, many historical fantasy novels are meticulously researched, and their authors certainly deserve credit for including as much historical accuracy as possible—but they’re still fantasy. Part of the point of historical fiction is that the events described in it could have happened, and we all know that people didn’t really work magic in historical times. Is there any way you can ascribe the label “historical fiction” to such a novel? Or is it solely fantasy?
Discussion:
What do you think about the so-called historical hybrids? Can you call them historical fiction, or do they really belong more to their other genres?
Melissa L. is the YA Editorial Assistant for Wonders and Marvels. You can read more about her here: Editorial Staff.
The Importance of Setting
By Melissa L.
One of the first books about writing historical fiction that I ever read described setting as “another character in a historical fiction novel.” I can’t completely agree with this analogy—in my opinion, “character” should really refer to a person—but it made me think about the huge role that setting plays in historical fiction.
As I’ve discussed several times before, historical fiction should, above all else, tell a compelling story. But the point of historical fiction is that the story grows out of the time and place. You may choose to use specific historical events as the basis for your plots and characters, or you may simply write a book that’s set in a given point in history, but either way, there should be a clear reason for the book to be set when and where it is. Otherwise, I would argue that you aren’t really writing historical fiction—you’re writing a middle grade or young adult novel that just so happens to be set in the past. (And honestly, if a historical setting isn’t a vital part of your story, is there any reason not to set it in the modern day?)
In most cases, a setting doesn’t drive your plot in quite the same way that your characters do. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t every bit as vital as strong characters. A strong setting gives historical fiction a strong base—a base that distinguishes it from other kinds of books.
Discussion:
How important is setting in historical fiction? Can it accurately be called “another character”?
Melissa L. is the YA Editorial Assistant for Wonders and Marvels. You can read more about her here: Editorial Staff.
Female Characters in YA Historical Fiction
By Melissa L.
I recently came across a discussion about female characters in YA historical fiction on one of the boards I belong to. The general consensus was this: If you are a female main character in a YA historical novel, and you are not overly spunky and ahead of your time, then, clearly, you are in the wrong book.
Okay, so maybe this isn’t true for every work of YA historical fiction. But as a whole, the female protagonists in these books are a remarkably progressive bunch. I can’t tell you how many books I’ve read set in medieval Europe in which a girl wants to be educated just like the boys—or, even more frequently, to choose her own husband. Not that I disagree with these sentiments…but when you consider the social norms of the time, they just aren’t very accurate.
I understand that if historical fiction portrayed the lives of ordinary women as they were throughout much of history, a lot of those books would be pretty boring. (Who really wants to read about a medieval girl who spends all her time learning to manage a household?) I also understand that there have always been at least a few women who actually were ahead of their times, and that these are just the sorts of people today’s kids want to read about.
But I can’t help but think that we aren’t doing modern children and teens a favor by creating this skewed view of young women throughout history. Until recently, most women weren’t expected to be well-educated or to have a say in who they married. Maybe portraying that reality in our books would help modern teens to understand how the young women of the past really lived—and to realize how far we’ve come.
Discussion:
Do you think female characters in historical fiction are too progressive to be historically accurate?
Is this really a problem, or does just it make otherwise dull books more interesting?
Melissa L. is the YA Editorial Assistant for Wonders and Marvels. You can read more about her here: Editorial Staff.
Test Your Knowledge of Historical Fiction
By Melissa L.
The amount of information about writing historical fiction that you can find on the Internet never ceases to amaze me. While I was playing around one day, I discovered this interesting quiz about historical fiction for children. It was actually designed as part of a children’s literature course for teachers, but writers will benefit from knowing this information, too.
There’s one aspect of this quiz that I found particularly interesting. (Warning—I’m basically going to give away an answer or two here, so you may want to try the quiz before you read the rest of this post.) The curriculum this quiz is taken from is intended to show teachers how to use historical fiction in the classroom—namely, to supplement their history curriculums. I’ve always been under the impression that teachers who choose to use historical titles in this way are more concerned about the historical aspects of the books than anything else. But this quiz emphasizes that the story overrides the history—something that I, as a writer, find incredibly refreshing.
Of course it’s important to write a book that’s true to the time period, but in the end, it’s the story that’s the heart of the matter.
How well did you do on this quiz? Do you think it does a good job of covering the basics of historical fiction? And if not, what other basic ideas would you choose to add?
Melissa L. is the YA Editorial Assistant for Wonders and Marvels. You can read more about her here: Editorial Staff.
Rules for Writing Historical Fiction
By Melissa L.
Like nearly everything else in life, it seems that writing historical fiction comes with its own set of rules. While browsing the Internet, I discovered an article entitled “Seven Rules for Writing Historical Fiction,” by Elizabeth Crook, the author of three historical novels. Crook’s article is intended for authors of historical fiction in general, but I found some of her rules especially applicable to writing for children.
At first glance, Crook’s first two rules—“Sweat the Small Stuff” and “Cut the Ballast”—seem to contradict one another. In reality, though, both are vital to a good novel for young readers. As a historical fiction author, you need to know virtually everything about your time period in order to write accurately; after all, you don’t want to give your readers a false impression of history. At the same time, though, all of the details you learn don’t have to make their way into your book. Kids have notoriously short attention spans, and if you bog them down with information they don’t want or need to know, they’re likely to put the book down.
The idea of including only necessary details echoes in Crook’s sixth rule, “Don’t Get Bogged Down by Back-story.” You need to know the entire back-story, of course, but your readers only need it to a certain extent. Kids in particular like their books to open at a fast pace. If you devote your first chapter entirely to the back-story, you’ll quickly bore and lose your readers.
What do you think about Crook’s set of rules? Are there any other rules you would say are important in historical fiction for kids?
Melissa L. is the YA Editorial Assistant for Wonders and Marvels. You can read more about her here: Editorial Staff.
What Is it with Wars?: Overrepresented Areas in Historical Fiction
By Melissa L.
While many areas are underrepresented in historical fiction, there are also some that are way overrepresented. That’s not to say that books about these topics don’t need to be on the market, but they take up an incredibly large share.
In historical fiction about the United States, the overrepresented areas can be expressed in one word: wars. The American Revolution, the Civil War, and World War II are all extremely popular topics (though World War I isn’t as prominent). I suspect that wars are covered so often in children’s fiction because they’re a great chance to write action scenes, particularly if your novel takes place on the battlefield. This tactic can help to draw reluctant readers, especially boys.
In the rest of the world, it’s harder to say what areas are overrepresented since there’s a much wider variety of titles. Wars tend to be covered pretty well in world history too, with the French Revolution and World War II (especially the Holocaust) being popular topics. And there’s an abundance of fiction about Western Europe during virtually every time period.
It’s certainly not impossible to write and sell a novel about one of these topics, but you’ll definitely need a fresh angle. A title we recently featured at Wonders & Marvels, The Sniper, is a good example. While it’s a World War II story, it approaches the war from an unusual perspective: a Russian teenager recruited as a sniper.
So what areas are overrepresented in historical fiction for children?
How do you make such topics fresh? And what makes wars so popular?
Melissa L. is the YA Editorial Assistant for Wonders and Marvels. You can read more about her here: Editorial Staff.
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- History, Medicine, and Science: Nonfiction and Fiction's Currently-Reading Book Montage
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Discussion about the fascinating stories of our scientific and medical past
