Historically Speaking

I had the pleasure of reviewing one of Donna Jo Napoli's latest titles, Lights on the Nile for the Historical Novel Society and was eager to chat with this award-winning author about her latest retelling.   Thanks, Donna Jo, for sharing more about this wonderful middle grade novel.   1. You’ve written so many fairytale retellings, what sparked this one? Brenda Bowen, who was an editor at Harper Collins at the time, asked me if I liked Tinker Bell.  Indeed, as a little kid, I adored Tinker Bell.  I even defaced books by cutting her out, to play with (a shameful act, but one I couldn't keep myself from).  She fascinated me.  So Brenda asked me to write a Tinker Bell story. I normally start my fairytales by going to the earliest source I can find, so I naturally found myself asking where the very first fairies originated.  And my search came up with Egypt.  So that's where I started.  Tinker Bell w...

Historical fiction is hard.....Yes, it is and this post , from School Library Journal,  addresses some of its issues very well.  Check it out. Have you read Shades of Grey yet?  I'm going to begin reading it today.  Do you think it will be a Printz contender?  Let me know. Coming soon: An interview with Donna Jo Napoli about her book, Lights on the Nile.  If you haven't read this one yet..now is the time!

A great post on writing historical fiction by agent Mary Kole.  Check it out on http://kidlit.com/2011/04/27/time-period-setings/ !

Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent (Author) Award Winner (picked May 2010/JLG date February 2011)  By:  Victoria Bond and T.R. Simon  Candlewick, 2010  978-0-7636-4300-3, Middle Grade Zora Neale Hurston was one of the most important African-American writers in our literary history.  She was an integral part of the Harlem Renaissance and became the only black student at Barnard College.  Most of her childhood was spent in Eatonville, Florida, the first all-black township in the United States.  Authors, Victoria Bond and T.R. Simon have imagined what that childhood and that young girl must have been like for their historical novel, Zora and Me .       Readers of Hurston’s famous novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God , will recognize the young Zora’s imagination and spirit in this middle grade book.  Even readers not familiar with the real Zora will be captivated by the early storytelling abilities of ...

  Sharon Dogar, Houghton Mifflin, 2010, 17.00hb, 341pp, 978-0-547-50195-6, 12 and up Author Sharon Dogar has bravely entered Anne Frank’s annex to tell Peter Van Pels’ compelling story. Readers might be hesitant, as I was, to cross the boundary into such hallowed ground, but it is well worth it.   Dogar has fleshed out the account of the families hiding in the Amsterdam attic during World War II and given us another view of Anne, through Peter’s watchful eye.  She has taken great care to keep events historically accurate, while at the same time providing Peter with a depth unavailable in Anne’s diary.   Dogar tells Peter’s story in first person narrative and begins his tale as he is dying in the camps after being found in the annex.  Readers who followed Anne’s journey along in her diary will feel the same pull and compassion toward Peter.  This can be read as a stand-alone book, but will work as a wonderful companion to The Diary of Anne Fran...