Favorite Historical Fiction Read Alouds

[Jocelyne]

We just finished reading By the Great Horn Spoon and Parker loved it. He has requested more historical fiction and is game for something from any time period. He would love something from the Revolutionary period. What have been some of your favorite read alouds in the genre?

[Lori D.]

We just finished reading By the Great Horn Spoon and Parker loved it. He has requested more historical fiction and is game for something from any time period. He would love something from the Revolutionary period. What have been some of your favorite read alouds in the genre?

 

 

Here were some of our DSs favorite historical fiction as read-alouds; the first group are most like The Great Horn Spoon -- that book and Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White are our family's all-time favorite 2 read-alouds!! Along with those, we also especially enjoyed The Great Wheel (humorous and fascinating!); Carry On Mr. Bowditch (we still refer to "sailing by ash breeze" as a wonderful character trait!); and Twenty-One Balloons as great inventor fun.

 

 

Humorous Historical Fiction

- The Bears on Hemlock Mountain (Dalgliesh) -- Colonial U.S.

- Ben and I (Lawson) -- Ben Franklin -- told through the TRUE inventor's eyes: a mouse!

- Mr. Revere and I (Lawson) -- Paul Revere -- told through his horse's point of view

- The Whipping Boy (Fleischman) -- 1700s Europe

- The Great Wheel (Lawson) -- humor and adventure; building of the first Ferris Wheel in 1893

- In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson (Lord) -- post WW2 U.S.

- The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (Robinson) -- modern U.S.

 

 

Adventure Historical Fiction

- The Great Turkey Walk (Karr) -- 1860s U.S.

- The Twenty-One Balloons (DuBois) -- Jules Verne-like story of an 1800s inventor

- The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (Aiken) -- a Dickens-like story of riches-to-rags-to-riches children and an evil governess

 

 

biography books with a good slice of humor in the telling, by Jean Fritz, such as:

- Brendan the Navigator (Fritz)

- Can't You Make Them Behave, King George? (Fritz)

- What's the Big Idea, Ben Franklin? (Fritz)

- And Then What Happened, Paul Revere? (Fritz)

 

 

Historical Fiction at a gr. 2-3 reading level by Clyde Bulla:

- Viking Adventure -- 1000A.D., Eric the Red and Leif the Lucky

- The Sword in the Tree -- medieval England

- A Lion to Guard Us -- 1600s Colonial U.S.

- The Secret Valley -- 1849 Gold Rush / pioneers

- Riding the Pony Express - 1860 pony express

 

 

Historical Fiction -- U.S.

- The Sign of the Beaver (Speare) -- Colonial US/Native American

- Naya Nuki: The Shoshone Girl Who Ran (Thomasa) -- based on true story; friend of Sacajawea

- Om-Kas-Toe (Thomasa) -- Blackfoot boy who tames the first horse for his tribe

- Robert Fulton, Boy Craftsman (Henry) -- Colonial U.S.; the inventor of steam engine as a boy

- Skippack School (de Angeli) -- Colonial U.S.

- The Matchlock Gun (Edmonds) -- Colonial U.S.

- The Courage of Sarah Noble (Dalgliesh) -- Colonial U.S.

- Phoebe the Spy (Griffin) --American Revolution - true story

- Johnny Tremain (Forbes) -- American Revolution

- Carry On, Mr. Bowditch (Latham) -- 1790s-1800s US man who improved naval navigation

- Caddie Woodlawn (Brink) -- pioneer times

- Behind Rebel Lines (Reit) -- Civil War; based on true story; girl disguised self as boy, was a spy

 

 

Historical Fiction -- World

- The Golden Goblet (McGraw) -- Ancient Egypt

- Hittite Warrior (Williamson) -- Ancient Israel/Egypt/Hittite

- Detectives in Togas; Mystery of the Roman Ransom (Winterfeld) -- Ancient Rome

- Story of Rolf and the Viking Bow (French) -- Viking times

- Viking Adventure (Bulla)

- The Kite Fighters (Park) -- 1400s Korea

- The Sword in the Tree (Bulla) -- Medieval England

- Adam of the Road (Gray) -- Medieval England

- The Door in the Wall (de Angeli) -- Medieval England

- Otto of the Silver Hand (Pyle) -- Medieval Europe

- The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn (Hoobler) -- 1700s Japan - boy detective

- The Master Puppeteer (Paterson) - 1700s Japan

- Case of the Baker Street Irregular (Newman) -- 1890s boy helps Sherlock Holmes

- Little Pear (Lattimore) --1900 China

- Twenty and Ten (Bishop) -- WWII French children hide Jewish children

- The Little Riders (Shemin) -- WWII occupied Europe

- Winged Watchman (Van Stockum) -- WWII occupied Europe

- Snow Treasure (McSwigan) -- WWII Norweigan children hide the country's gold

- The House of Sixty Fathers (de Jong) -- WWII occupied China

- Land I Lost; Water Buffalo Days (Nhuong) -- memories of pre-war rural Vietnam

[Jocelyne]

Thanks so much - this is a great list!

 

I was browsing my shelves and realized we are seriously lacking in this genre. I will read up on some of these and get an amazon order placed soon :D

[Lori D.]

Thanks so much - this is a great list!

 

I was browsing my shelves and realized we are seriously lacking in this genre. I will read up on some of these and get an amazon order placed soon :D

 

Also try your local library -- most of these are classics or Newberry books, which most libraries carry. :)

[Joyofsixreboot]

My 9yo is enjoying the Tucket series by Gary Paulsen. Lots of adventure in the west with a 14yo boy as the main character.

[prairiegirl]

We just finished 'Bud, Not Buddy' by Christopher Paul Curtis. It is set in the Depression. It was a wonderful story.

[Irishmommy]

I know this isn't that genre, but we are reading and loving OTTO OF THE SILVERHAND. It is quite a challenging read (I first assigned it as a silent read and then quickly realized that it would be over his head for a silent read, but we are loving it for read-aloud). I couldn't help but notice that lots of the titles that the first responder mentioned are Sonlight books. You might look at their reading lists. They are usually pretty good choices, imo.