This document provides information about historical fiction and non-fiction genres. It defines historical fiction as novels that take place in a specific historical time period before the time of writing, where the author researches the period to accurately portray it. The characters can be real or imagined and experience major historical events. Non-fiction is defined as literature based on facts, and includes genres like biography, history, science books, and more. Examples of both historical fiction and non-fiction books are also provided.

1. Historical Fiction
&
Non-fiction genres

2. What is Historical Fiction ?
According to The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary
Terms:
• Historical Fiction Novel= the action takes place
during a specific historical period/situation before
the time of writing—anywhere from decades to
centuries.
• Author attempts to write about time accurately with
research on the time period.
• The central character---real or imagined---has divided
loyalties within a larger historic conflict of which
readers may know the outcome.
Example: Homeless Bird and My Brother Sam

3. Historical Fiction
• Historical novels usually examine the main
character’s ideas about the time and their
personal interaction with events such as
wars, social issues, or natural disasters.
• Readers Theater: SCOTT PENDLETON, ALL
THE BROKEN PIECES, ROOM IN THE
HEART

4. historical fiction
• Question to ask yourself—Where
does setting take place?
• How does time/place affect characters?
• Also be a part of sub-genres such as
adventure, comedy, horror,etc
• Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction

5. Non-Fiction
• Non-fiction is literature based on
facts
• NOT made-up
• According to Encyclopedia Britannica:
Non-fiction writing includes biographies
(stories of real people's lives),
histories, how-to books, science, and
cookbooks to name a few.

6. What is Non-fiction ?
Some Types of Non-Fiction books are:
• Biography, History, Science, Sports, Animals
• (Some types of Fiction are located in Non-Fiction shelves:
Fairytales 398.2, Riddles 398.6, Poetry 811, Plays 812.)
Dewey Decimal System Main Classes—Numbers for all books
• 000 Generalities/Reference
• 100 Philosophy and Psychology
• 200 Religion
• 300 Social Science
• 400 Language
• 500 Natural Science and Mathematics
• 600 Technology (Applied Sciences)
• 700 Arts
• 800 Literature
• 900 Geography and History

7. • Now you decide . . .
Are these books

8. Nonfiction
• TRUCE by Murphy
• Tells the story of the December 25, 1914 truce between German and British soldiers as they
laid down their weapons and met in No Man's Land to celebrate Christmas.
• TRAPPED BY Marc Aronson
• Provides a detailed account of rescue efforts to save thirty-three miners, who got trapped in
a copper-gold mine in San Jose, Chile, examining the psychological, physical, and
environmental factors influencing the course of the rescue, and describing the efforts of experts
from around the world--drillers, astronauts, submarine specialists, and others--came together in
response to the crisis.
• GHOSTS IN THE FOG by Samantha Seiple
• A narrative, nonfiction account of the Japanese invasion and occupation of the Aleutian
Islands during World War II, told from the perspectives of an American civilian and soldiers from
both sides of the conflict. Includes more than eighty photographs.

9. Nonfiction
• LINCOLN’S GRAVE ROBBERS by Steve Sheinkin
• An account of how counterfeiter Benjamin Boyd's gang stole the body of Abraham Lincoln
and demanded Boyd's release from jail and two hundred thousand dollars as ransom and the
efforts of the Secret Service to recover the remains.
• SECRET SUBWAY: FASCINATING TALE OF AMAZING ENGINEERING by Martin Sandler
• An illustrated overview of the history of New York's first subway that discusses why it was
necessary to build, Alfred Beach's vision for the system and efforts to see it through, resistance
to its construction, and other related topics.
• SAVING THE GHOST OF THE MTN by Montgomery
• Provides an account of an expedition mounted by the Snow Leopard Trust to the mountains
of Mongolia in an effort to learn more about the elusive snow leopard and find ways to keep it
from extinction.

10. Historical Fiction
• JOURNAL OF SCOTT PENDLETON COLLINS by Walter Dean Myers
• A seventeen-year-old soldier from central Virginia records his experiences in a journal as his
regiment takes part in the D-Day invasion of Normandy and subsequent battles to liberate
France.
• CODE TALKER by Joseph Bruchac
• After being taught in a boarding school run by whites that Navajo is a useless language,
Ned Begay and other Navajo men are recruited by the Marines to become Code Talkers,
sending messages during World War II in their native tongue.
• TROPICAL SECRETS by Engle
• Escaping from Nazi Germany to Cuba in 1939, a young Jewish refugee dreams of finding
his parents again, befriends a local girl with painful secrets of her own, and discovers that the
Nazi darkness is never far away.
• THE ROCK AND THE RIVER by Magoon
• In 1968 Chicago, fourteen-year-old Sam Childs is caught in a conflict between his father's
nonviolent approach to seeking civil rights for African-Americans and his older brother, who has
joined the Black Panther Party.

11. Historical Fiction
• ALL THE BROKEN PIECES by Burg
• Novel in Verse--Two years after being airlifted out of Vietnam in 1975, Matt
Pin is haunted by the terrible secret he left behind and, now, in a loving adoptive
home in the United States, a series of profound events forces him to confront his
past.
• CROSSING STONES by Frost
• Four young people in two families tell of their experience during World War I
when the boys enlist and are sent to fight, Emma finishes school, and Muriel
joins the suffrage movement.
• LOST by Davies
• In 1911 New York, sixteen-year-old Essie Rosenfeld must stop taking care of
her irrepressible six-year-old sister when she goes to work at the Triangle Waist
Company, where she befriends a missing heiress who is in hiding from her family
and who seems to understand the feelings of heartache and grief that Essie is
trying desperately to escape.