historical ficiton for dd 9th

[dovrar]

Dd is in 9th grade and looking for some historical ficiton to make history stick better. She says that she remembers what she learned from Story of the World, but some of the other texts we've read just aren't as easy to retain. I told her to read some historical fiction, even if it's at a lower level, alongside of our text, Light to the Nations Part 1. I remembered that we have a copy of Genevieve Foster's Augustus Caesar's World​ and she's reading that right now, but I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions for any other literature that would work well for Ancient History.

 

Thank you!

 

[Sebastian (a lady)]

Pompeii by Harris. Imperium by same author.

 

Eagle of the Ninth

 

Black Ships Before Troy

 

Books by Mary Renault

[Lori D.]

Some historical fiction ideas:

 

Mesopotamia
Gilgamesh and Other Babylonian Tales (Westwood) -- retelling of the epic, but also several myths

Till We Have Faces (Lewis) -- loose retelling of the Cupid and Psyche myth with ancient Mesopotamian-like setting and  (modern author; fictional story loosely retelling the Cupid and Psyche myth with ancient Mesopotamian-type of setting)

 

Ancient Israel / Hittite / Assyria
Hittite Warrior (Williamson) -- ancient Israel/Hittite

Behold, Your Queen (Malvern) -- ancient Israel/Assyria; historical fiction of Queen Esther
The Bronze Bow (George) -- ancient Israel/Rome

Ancient Egypt
Tales of Ancient Egypt (Green) -- myths, underworld/afterworld beliefs, and several folktales

Mara, Daughter of the Nile (McGraw) -- mid period Egypt

Shadow Hawk (Norton) -- late period Egypt

 

Ancient Greece

Jason and the Golden Fleece (Riordan)
Black Ships Before Troy (Sutcliffe)
The Wanderings of Odysseus (Sutcliffe)
Ides of April; Beyond the Desert Gate (Ray)

for fun: The Queen's Thief series -- Whalen Turner -- fictionalized/mythological world of ancient Mediterranean small nations, heavily drawing on ancient Greece influences

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

Eagle of the Ninth; The Silver Branch; The Lantern Bearers (Sutcliff) -- Roman troops in Ancient Britain

 

 

You might also include some documentaries and feature films from the time periods of interest. Visual material often "sticks" better for some students. Feature film ideas:

 

Egypt/Israel

The Ten Commandments (1956)

 

Greece

The Odyssey (1997 mini-series)

Jason and the Argonauts (1963)

TV series: Jim Hensen's The Storyteller: Greek Myths

 

Rome

Spartacus (1960)

Gladiator (2000) -- preview first

TV series: I Claudius (1976) -- preview first

 

Rome/Israel

Ben Hur (1959)

Edited September 15, 2017 by Lori D.

[Farrar]

Colleen McCullough's Rome series is thick, but very readable and shockingly packed with detail and information that's all very historically accurate. Reading one of those, you'd emerge with a ton of Rome knowledge.

 

There are *so* many other good Rome novels written for adults - Rome mysteries are a big thing. I mostly know this because dh has read them *all*. Before we did our book purge, we had a whole shelf just for Rome related books. This is just to say, if you want more suggestions, I can go there. Most of the adult titles, like McCullough's, are basically fine for competent readers, though you might want to preview, depending on your comfort levels. 

 

Adele Geras's novels Troy and Ithaka are both good YA versions of the events in the Iliad and Odyssey. There are a number of novels for adults in this vein too - I liked The Firebrand by Marion Zimmer Bradley a lot at that age (it's a sort of Mists of Avalon for the Trojan War), but there are more. I think Geras does a great job if you want to stick with YA though. Those books are underappreciated.

[Bluegoat]

The Roman Conspiracy is a nice book - the author is a professor of Roman history.  It would be a very light read for grade 9, but i enjoyed it when my kids read it.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

Colleen McCullough's Rome series is thick, but very readable and shockingly packed with detail and information that's all very historically accurate. Reading one of those, you'd emerge with a ton of Rome knowledge.

 

There are *so* many other good Rome novels written for adults - Rome mysteries are a big thing. I mostly know this because dh has read them *all*. Before we did our book purge, we had a whole shelf just for Rome related books. This is just to say, if you want more suggestions, I can go there. Most of the adult titles, like McCullough's, are basically fine for competent readers, though you might want to preview, depending on your comfort levels.

 

Adele Geras's novels Troy and Ithaka are both good YA versions of the events in the Iliad and Odyssey. There are a number of novels for adults in this vein too - I liked The Firebrand by Marion Zimmer Bradley a lot at that age (it's a sort of Mists of Avalon for the Trojan War), but there are more. I think Geras does a great job if you want to stick with YA though. Those books are underappreciated.

I heard a bit of Ithaka as a condensed audio and spent a while tracking it and Troy down. I liked Troy but the full Ithaka frustrated me a bit. I felt like it altered rather than expanded the character of Penelope.

[Lori D.]

List of Young Adult Historical Novels: Ancient History from the Historical Novels website.

Here is the page with links to all of the time periods for Young Adult titles.

 

A Book in Time website - lists books by time period/location, and by age range/suitability of the books.

Here is the page with links to Ancients book lists.

[mschickie]

Check out Sonlight for some of their books, they have some great selections for historical fiction

[Sebastian (a lady)]

Oh, how could I forget the Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters.  These are Victorian/Edwardian era mysteries with a family of Egyptologists.  Set mostly in Egypt with lots of info about the ancient Egyptians.  And they are lots of fun.  The author's real name was Barbara Mertz, who was a real life Egyptologist.  She published Red Land, Black Land and another history under her own name.

 

 

[dovrar]

Thanks all. My son also told me that he had read The Martyr of the Catacombs.  We are reading that now and enjoying it.