Historical Fiction for Children

by Collins,Fiona M.

• ISBN13: 9781853467684
• ISBN10: 1853467685
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2001-10-26
• Publisher: David Fulton Pub

Summary

Historical fiction has a great deal to offer as its readers and devotees have always known. The time is ripe however for the historical novel and historical picture book to be promoted more emphatically so that many more are made aware of the delight and learning to be found in the genre. The editors of this book invited authors, academic writers and teachers to reflect on the nature, scope, range and richness of historical fiction for children. What is collected here provides an overview of the field, a consideration of significant writers of historical fiction from the nineteenth century onwards, a sense of the various historical eras commonly explored (Stone Age to World War 2), a discussion of commonly raised issues, themes and topics such as child labor, slavery and migration, and a forum for writers to reveal their insights into the writing of historical fiction. Julian Atterton, Berlie Doherty, Michael Foreman and Philip Pullman have made contributions. It provides evidence of children and studentsengaging creatively with historical fiction.

Table of Contents

Introduction	v
Contributors' biographies	vii
Section 1 Exploring the narrative past	1	(82)
Dogs and cats: the nineteenth-century historical novel for children	2	(8)
Dennis Butts
The twentieth century - giving everybody a history	10	(13)
Fiona M. Collins
Judith Graham
The silent ages: prehistory and Peter Dickinson	23	(9)
Peter Hollindale
A havey-cavey business: language in historical fiction with particular reference to the novels of Joan Aiken and Leon Garfield	32	(11)
Gillian Lathey
`Time no longer' - history, enchantment and the classic time-slip story	43	(11)
Linda Hall
The historical picture book - is it a `good thing'?	54	(10)
Judith Graham
Beyond expectations: historical fiction and working children	64	(9)
Liz Thiel
Passage to America: migration and change	73	(10)
Fiona M. Collins
Section 2 Writing about the narrative past	83	(36)
Waking quests	84	(6)
Julian Atterton
`Over the stile and into the past': Children of Winter and other historical fiction	90	(7)
Berlie Doherty
Flesh on the bones	97	(5)
Michael Foreman
Daddy, or serendipity	102	(7)
Philip Pullman
History and time	109	(10)
Rosemary Sutcliff
Section 3 Teaching the narrative past	119	(42)
Up and Down the City Road: history through dramatic action	120	(9)
Geoff Fox
Stimulating the historical imagination: working with primary age children on books about the plague	129	(9)
Andrea Fellows
Getting under the skin: the EACH Project	138	(12)
Alun Hicks
Dave Martin
Slavery and the Underground Railroad: working with students	150	(11)
Liz Laycock
Bibliography	161	(2)
Index	163