Children’s Historical Fiction Book Reviews
- Lizardo Moreno
- Nov 6, 2018
- 8 min read
THE WEDNESDAY WARS
Schmidt, Gary D. (2007). THE WEDNESDAY WARS. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 9780618724833
PLOT & SUMMARY
Gary takes the reader to the late 60s where Holling Hoodhood goes from weakling 7th grader and becomes a man by June of his 7th-grade year at Camillo Junior High in Long Island, New York. On Wednesdays, half of his classmates attend Hebrew school at Temple Beth-el and the other attends catechism at St. Adelbert. Holling is left alone in the class with Mrs. Baker, who wished she would have had a long conference, but is now stuck with one student to teach. At first Holling senses, Mrs. Baker’s resentment, and doesn’t complain about the menial jobs she makes him do until one day, some ruined chalked covered cream puffs, make her rethink her time with Holling and has him read Shakespeare instead. Each play ending with 150 multiple choice comprehension questions. Over the course of the year, Gary humanizes Mrs. Baker and makes the reader feel sorry that her husband is MIA in Vietnam. She even starts to stick up her Holling when Mickey Mantle would not sign Holling’s baseball because he was dressed as a fairy and shows up at many of her student’s social events. Holling is a loveable character as he describes his adventures in junior high, hitting the school bully in the face with a snowball, performing a Shakespeare play, running cross country, releasing the classroom pet and falling in love with a pretty girl. Expectedly or unexpectedly, Holling takes to Shakespeare and begins to understand that becoming a man is “not just about a job,” or a Bar Mitzvah. It’s more. It has to do with choosing for yourself.”
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Gary created a story that weaves not only the Walter Cronkite and the classic Ford Mustang into his narrative, but masterfully uses Shakespeare as a vehicle to that allows Holling to turn mentally into a man while his peers become men after a religious ceremonial Bar mitzvah. What makes this book challenging is Shakespeare. Gary gives young readers just enough details that explain the gist of the plays and what Holling is supposed to learn. If Gary was a teacher in his former life, this was a good strategy to pique the reader’s interest to learn more about the plays, giving readers tidbits that may excite them and go and search out the stories. Gary pulls enough facts from the Vietnam War, bomb threat drills, Walter Cronkite, Martin Luther King’s Civil Rights movement, and Robert Kennedy’s political campaign for president allows the reader to appreciate what daily life was like in the late 60s. The Wednesday Wars allows for discussion about war, death, running away, bullying, courtship, and Shakespeare.
REVIEW EXCERPTS
Funny, breathtakingly poignant '60s coming-of-age tale. –Common Sense Media
There are many strands in this story: the Vietnam War, air raid drills, missing soldiers, a classmate who is a Vietnamese refugee, a rescue, extreme humiliation, chalk-covered cream puffs, yellow tights with feathers in all the wrong places and a bully. In fact, so much happens I wondered whether all the seeds Schmidt planted could flower by the end. To his great credit, they do. –The New York Times
Schmidt has a way of getting to the emotional heart of every scene without overstatement, allowing the reader and Holling to understand the great truths swirling around them on their own terms. –Kirkus Review
CONNECTIONS
More books set in the 1960s, Civil Rights and Vietnam War include:
Schmidt, Gary. (2011). OKAY FOR NOW. ISBN: 0544022807
Williams-Garcia, Rita. (2010). ONE CRAZY SUMMER. ISBN: 9780061966675
THE MIDWIFE'S APPRENTICE
Cushman, Karen. (1995). THE MIDWIFE'S APPRENTICE. New York: Clarion Books. ISBN 9780395692296.
PLOT & SUMMARY
In this historical fictional story, a young homeless girl, a.k.a. Brat, Dung Beetle, Alyce, is taken in by a midwife as her apprentice. The midwife berates her daily and feeds Alyce just enough to keep her alive. Alyce’s low self-esteem causes her to avoid the village people and keeps from drawing attention to herself, which allows her to meddle in the villager’s secret lives without being noticed. As Alyce grows in knowledge of the midwifery, she is placed in a position to help other women in labor. When she fails to coax a child into the world, she is driven by a deep sense a failure to run away. She arrives at an inn where she is given work cleaning after the guest. Would Alyce ever overcome her feelings of failure and despair? Lucky for her, Magistrate Reese, a guest at the inn would teach her to read, and Will Russet, one of the villagers would lavish her with encouraging words. After helping a guest in labor deliver a baby at the inn, Alyce found the courage to go back to the village and learn more of midwifery as that is what she decided she wanted to do in life. Help bring babies into the world. This book won the 1996 Newbery Medal.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
This piece of historical fiction appears authentic as Cushman leaves her notes about women giving birth in the medieval period. The sentence structures of old English appear authentic “We was wondering where you had got to and were you all right?” There is vocabulary about the period and the profession that may pique a child’s interest such as redhead lout, breeches, rump. The materials the midwife collected (leeches, spiders’ webs, snail jelly, frog liver and ashes of toad, packed in jugs and flask) cemented in the reader’s imagination the power of superstitions, tales, and remedies that had been passed down from woman to woman over time. In her novel, Cushman brings up difficult topics such as adultery, bullying, emotional abuse, child runaways, poverty, child labor, magic. Cushman employs the archetype of baptism when Alyce washes away the dirt in the water and is ready to tackle life in a new way after washing away her old self.
REVIEW EXCERPTS
The force of the ambience produces more than enough momentum to propel the reader from start to finish in a single happy sitting. Ages 12-up. – Publishers Weekly
From the rebirth in the dung heap to Brat's renaming herself Alyce after a heady visit to a medieval fair, this is not for fans of historical drama only. It's a rouser for all times. (Fiction. 12+) –Kirkus Review
Characters are sketched briefly but with telling, witty detail, and the very scents and sounds of the land and people's occupations fill each page as Alyce comes of age and heart. –School Library Journal
CONNECTIONS
More books set in castles and medieval times include:
Cushman, Karen. (2012). CATHERINE, CALLED BIRDY. ISBN: 9780547722184
Cushman Karen. (2000). MATILDA BONE. ISBN:9780786232123
Platt, Richard. (1999). CASTLE DIARY; THE JOURNAL OF TOBIAS BURGESS, PAGE. ISBN: 9780763621643
ONE CRAZY SUMMER
Will
iams-Garcia, Rita. (2010) ONE CRAZY SUMMER. New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers Inc. ISBN 9780061966675
PLOT & SUMMARY
In this historical fictional story, three girls go out to visit a mother who walked out on them after the youngest was born. Set in the late 60s in Oakland, CA, the girls find that they are not welcome in their mother’s home and find solace in a summer camp that is a front to the Black Panther training movement. The girls find that it is not a militant group and that they help out the poor black community. The oldest girl, Delphine, takes it upon herself to make sure her sisters are safe, and after finding out that they would not get to see Disneyland, or get autographs from stars, they make the best of their 30 days stay in the summer camp before flying back out to New York. A lot happens in that time, but the most important is that she finds peace in knowing why her mother, a poet, had to move away and learns that if she could have, her mother would have taken her to live with her.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
There wasn’t much in terms of dialect or sentence construction of the time period as there were references to ‘60s pop culture’s singers, television programs, popular songs, and boxing legends. Rita changes the negative perception of the Black Panther’s organization into ibe that is humanitarian, caring for the poor blacks in their community and asking for equal rights by organizing demonstrations. Rita shows a glimpse of police brutality in that time period. She takes on themes such as family roles, equal rights, protests, vanity, speaking up, and absent parents. ONE CRAZY SUMMER is an easy read that has a good balance of fact and fiction. In addition, the storyline allows the reader to peek into the civil rights organization and protest by the Black Panther in the late 60s.
REVIEW EXCERPTS
A gem, with strong girl characters, '60s black history.—Common Sense Media
Emotionally challenging and beautifully written, this book immerses readers in a time and place and raises difficult questions of cultural and ethnic identity and personal responsibility. With memorable characters (all three girls have engaging, strong voices) and a powerful story, this is a book well worth reading and rereading. – School Library Journal
Regimented, responsible, strong-willed Delphine narrates in an unforgettable voice, but each of the sisters emerges as a distinct, memorable character, whose hard-won, tenuous connections with their mother build to an aching, triumphant conclusion. Set during a pivotal moment in African American history, this vibrant novel shows the subtle ways that political movements affect personal lives; but just as memorable is the finely drawn, universal story of children reclaiming a reluctant parent’s love. Grades 4-7. —Booklist
CONNECTIONS
More books in the dealing with civil rights include:
Lai, Thannhha. (2011). INSIDE OUT AND BACK AGAIN. ISBN: 0061962783
MacDonald, Ann-Marie (2009). THE WAY THE CROW FLIES: A NOVEL (P.S.). ISBN 0676974090
Williams-Garcia, Rita. (2015). P.S. BE ELEVEN. ISBN 9780061938641
BREAKING STALIN’S NOSE
Yelchin, Eugene. (2011). BREAKING STALIN’S NOSE. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company LLC. ISBN: 9780805092165.
PLOT & SUMMARY
Sasha Zaichik vows to make himself strong and be vigilant against capitalist enemies in his beloved Soviet land under the rule of Comrade Stalin. Sasha’s mother dies and he
is left to live with his father, a hero, who works at the Kremlin above the Lubyanka prison. He is a model student and ready to join the Pioneers until his father is arrested. His world turns upside down, he is now homeless and on the verge of getting hauled off to an orphanage and not be trusted because of no one trust children of people who are enemies of the state. Pretty soon Sasha begins to make mistakes like breaking the nose off of Stalin’s statue, not confessing to the crime, and letting others take the heat for it. Sasha must decide if he will become a secret spy for the Soviet State Security or go to prison himself.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Yelchin explains in his author’s note that he grew up in the regime that took over after Stalin. Many people were incarcerated on mere suspicion and many innocent people executed. This reminds me of the US’s McCarthyism when anyone could be arrested on suspicions of being communist. Through Sasha’s character, Yelchin brings to light the ridiculousness of people being guilty until proven innocent. Students will be able to relate to Sasha on different levels of daydreaming, believing in something to be real until it is not. Yelchin puts in enough slapstick comedy to make the read enjoyable. Some of the themes to consider in this book is the teacher as a bully, honesty, death, prison, war, communism, capitalism, and patriotism.
REVIEW EXCERPTS
Yelchin's graphite illustrations are an effective complement to his prose, which unfurls in Sasha's steady, first-person voice, and together they tell an important tale. –Kirkus
Yelchin skillfully combines narrative with dramatic black-and-white illustrations to tell the story of life in the Soviet Union under Stalin. –School Library Journal "Mr. Yelchin has compressed into two days of events an entire epoch, giving young readers a glimpse of the precariousness of life in a capricious yet ever-watchful totalitarian state." "-Wall Street Journal"
Picture book author/illustrator Yelchin (Won Ton) makes an impressive middle-grade debut with this compact novel about a devoted young Communist in Stalin-era Russia, illustrated with dramatically lit spot art. --Publishers Weekly
CONNECTIONS
Similar coming of age books to consider include:
Kamkwamba, William (2012). THE BOY WHO HARNESSED THE WIND YOUNG READERS EDITION. ISBN: 9780803735118
Park, Linda Sue. (2001). A SINGLE SHARD. ISBN: 0395978270
Lai, Thanhha. (2015). LISTEN, SLOWLY. ISBN: 9780062229182