Did you read historical fiction as a child? I didn’t have any ambition to become a historian or archivist, but I read a wide variety of books including historical novels. I should thank my parents for having so many good books around! We even had one shelf in the upstairs hallway where children’s novels were arranged chronologically.
There are two historical novels that I remember reading repeatedly.
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry (1989) tells the story of a Danish girl who helps a Jewish friend escape from the Nazis during World War II.
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare (1959) follows the life of Kit Tyler as she moves from the Caribbean to a Puritan community in Connecticut Colony and befriends an old Quaker woman who is accused of witchcraft.
There are many other historical novels that I remember fondly, even if I only read them once or twice.
Cue for Treason by Geoffrey Trease (1940) depicts the adventures of two children who become apprentices to William Shakespeare.
Calico Bush by Rachel Field (1931) follows Marguerite, a French girl who becomes an indentured servant in eighteenth century Maine.
In Calico Captive by Elizabeth George Speare (1957) Miriam Willard is captured in a raid during the French and Indian War.
Johnny Tremaine by Esther Forbes (1943) is set during pivotal events of the American Revolution.
In Underground to Canada by Barbara Smucker (1978) Julilly and Liza escape from a ruthless slave trader.
Days of Terror by Barbara Smucker (1979) depicts the experience of a Mennonite family during the Russian Revolution.
The Singing Tree by Kate Seredy (1940) focuses on the lives of two cousins in Hungary during World War I. (It’s the sequel to The Good Master, but somehow I remember The Singing Tree more.)
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor (1976) is part of a moving series about the Logans, a black family living in Mississippi in the 1930s.
Twenty and Ten by Claire Hutchet Bishop (1952) is the inspiring tale of twenty French children who agree to hide ten Jewish children from the Nazis.
Bonus pick: One of my mom’s childhood favourites was Snow Treasure by Marie McSwigan (1958), in which a group of brave Norwegian children use their sleds to save bars of gold from the Nazis.
I also loved to read (and collect) the Royal Diaries series and my sister did the same with the Dear Canada series.
What a wonderful selection of books. I have to admit that I only remember reading a Geoffrey Trease book. I also read some G A Henty historicals but in retrospect, I suspect that they were establishment history. I still have a novel called The Ivory Horn – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1698653.The_Ivory_Horn – which I read as a child. My mother named me after the hero from the original story that this is based on – La Chanson de Roland.
I’ve never read Cue for Treason – which balances your earlier commentator. Historical fiction that we all loved: By the Great Horn Spoon (Fleischman), All of a Kind Family (Taylor), The Great and Terrible Quest (Lovett), The Bronze Bow (Speare),The Trumpeter of Krakow (Kelly), Detectives in Togas (Winterfield). Caddie Woodlawn (Brink), Stowaway (Hesse), A Single Shard (Park), Shadow Spinner (Fletcher), The Ark (Benary-Isbert), The Reb and the Redcoats, and its sequel Enemy Brothers (both by Constance Savery), Beorn the Proud (Polland), Hittite Warrior (Williamson), The Mitchells series and anything else by Hilda van Stockum. Can you tell that I went to the Bethlehem Books website to recall those last titles?
Thanks for sharing your list! Some of those I’ve never heard of… but how could I forget Caddie Woodlawn?!