From: Melody Allen <melody_allen>
Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 12:37:13 -0400

Ginny didn't mention Chance Child by Jill Paton Walsh, I'm sure because it is usually classified as time travel fantasy, but it raises an area I have been thinking about during this discussion. That is writing about history can occur in all the three main fiction genres - naturally as historical fiction, through time travel novels as fantasy, and in books written during a time period as basically realistic fiction which sometimes slips into historical fiction as time passes. Chance Child is a wonderful novel of a boy who has suffered from abuse and on escaping stumbles onto a canal boat that carries him away and back in time. As a neat devise, the girl searching for him does library research just as the boy from the present in Avi's Something Upstairs and the girl from the present in Pam Conrad's Stonewords and in Park's Playing Beatie Bow look up newspaper accounts to verify events/outcomes in the past. This seems only one step removed from a class or child doing research regarding the events and times presented. All are historical writing even though presented through different genres.

Melody Allen melody_allen at gw.doa.state.ri.us


Three of the novels superbly crafted from historical events by Jill Paton Walsh keep coming into my mind during this discussion of Historical Fiction.
  The novel "Fireweed" (U.S. ed: Farrar, 1969) takes place in 1940 in London. "Fireweed" has an immediacy rarely accomplished in an historical novel. Perhaps it's still considered to be one of the finest works of fiction written by who had heard countless first-hand accounts of the blitz from survivors.
  Last summer during the SARS scare, I kept thinking about "A Parcel of Patterns" (U.S. ed: Farrar, 1983). Based in part upon various village records the author had examined, "A Parcel of Patterns" is set in the Derbyshire village of Eyam in 1665 during the time when the villagers exacted extreme measures to keep the plague at bay. Last year as I read articles about travel precautions for anyone preparing to travel to/from nations where cases of SARS had been reported, I would always think about "A Parcel of Patterns."
  I've wanted to know more about Grace Darling ever since reading "Grace"
(U.S. ed: Farrar, 1992). Here the author wrote about the young woman whose involvement in the attempt to rescue sailors shipwrecked off the coast of England in 1838 completely altered her life. It's a finely honed fictional exploration of unbidden celebrity and its accompanying personal tyranny, something not uncommon during the early 21st century.
  Each novel was published in a paperback edition at one time or another. I hope some middle school teachers have discovered one or more of these exemplary works of historical fiction for young readers, in that each is based upon an actual event or series of events, and - in some instances
- centered upon the lives and/or actions of actual individuals. Like Walsh's other novels, they set a standard for excellence in fiction writing rarely achieved. Note: you might find her listed under either
"Paton Walsh," or "Walsh" according to how your library, bookstore, or database has recorded this author's works for children and also for adults.
  Yes, Jill Paton Walsh is the same person who has written novels with sophisticated plots for adults. She's also the author invited by the trustees of the Sayers estate to complete a Sayers' manuscript, which she did: "Thrones, Dominions" (U.S. ed: 1998). She was then encouraged by the trustees to continue writing for adults about Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane, Sayers' famous characters. Jill has excelled at this, too. Readers who've followed Jill's writing over the years are not surprised!
  Cordially, Ginny
 
 
 

Ginny Moore Kruse gmkruse at education.wisc.edu
Received on Wed 19 May 2004 11:37:13 AM CDT