Reading historical fiction is a great way to get to know the time period, history, and stories better. (It's also a great way to get stickers on your Rewards Punch Pass.) :)
Here are some of my suggestions for historical literature having to do with the founding era:
· The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore: Deep in the forests of upper New York State, the brave woodsman Hawkeye and his loyal Mohican friends Chingachgook and Uncas become embroiled in the bloody battles of the French and Indian War. The abduction of the beautiful Munro sisters by hostile savages, the treachery of the renegade brave Magua, the ambush of innocent settlers, and the thrilling events that lead to the final tragic confrontation between rival war parties create an unforgettable, spine-tingling picture of life on the frontier.
· Fever, 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson: In 1793, 14-year-old Matilda Cook finds herself in the middle of a struggle to keep herself and her loved ones alive in the midst of the yellow fever epidemic.
· The Year of the Hangman by Gary Blackwood: Kidnapped from England to the American colonies, a fifteen-year-old boy becomes part of a story that asks, what if the British had defeated the Americans in 1777?
· The Winter People by Joseph Bruchac: A fourteen-year-old Abenaki Indian sets off to rescue his mother and sisters after his village is destroyed in an attack by British soldiers in 1759.
· Sweetgrass Basket by Marlene Carvelle: Two Mohawk sisters describe their lives at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School as they try to assimilate into white culture and one of them is falsely accused of stealing.
· Redemption by Julie Chibbaro: A twelve-year-old English girl and her mother flee with other religious protesters to the New World in the early 1500’s and find both heartbreak and hope when they arrive.
· My Brother Sam is Dead by James Collier: A classic that recounts the tragedy that strikes the Meeker family during the Revolution when one son joins the rebel forces while his family tries to stay neutral in a Tory town.
· The Ransom of Mercy Carter by Caroline Cooney: After being captured in an Indian attack in 1704, Mercy Carter becomes accustomed to the Kahnawake Indian way of life and wonders if she will want to return to her old life.
· The Journal of William Thomas Emerson, a Revolutionary War Patriot (Dear America/My Name is America) by Barry Dennenberg: As tensions escalate in the period before the Revolutionary War, a boy surrounded by political rumblings and violence becomes a spy for the rebel colonists.
· Copper Sun by Sharon Draper: Amari’s life is shattered when her family is murdered and she is taken aboard a slave ship to the Carolinas and purchased by a plantation owner as a present for his son.
· Beaded Moccasins: The Story of Mary Campbell by Lynda Durrant: A twelve-year-old white girl has to give up her life and her family and adapt to a new one after she is kidnapped by Delaware Indians in 1759.
· Echohawk by Lynda Durrant: A white boy is taken from his family and raised by the Mohican tribe as one of their own, and as he grows older, he realizes that he must make a choice between the Mohicans or the world he came from long ago.
· And many more!
Here are some of my suggestions for historical literature having to do with the founding era:
· The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore: Deep in the forests of upper New York State, the brave woodsman Hawkeye and his loyal Mohican friends Chingachgook and Uncas become embroiled in the bloody battles of the French and Indian War. The abduction of the beautiful Munro sisters by hostile savages, the treachery of the renegade brave Magua, the ambush of innocent settlers, and the thrilling events that lead to the final tragic confrontation between rival war parties create an unforgettable, spine-tingling picture of life on the frontier.
· Fever, 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson: In 1793, 14-year-old Matilda Cook finds herself in the middle of a struggle to keep herself and her loved ones alive in the midst of the yellow fever epidemic.
· The Year of the Hangman by Gary Blackwood: Kidnapped from England to the American colonies, a fifteen-year-old boy becomes part of a story that asks, what if the British had defeated the Americans in 1777?
· The Winter People by Joseph Bruchac: A fourteen-year-old Abenaki Indian sets off to rescue his mother and sisters after his village is destroyed in an attack by British soldiers in 1759.
· Sweetgrass Basket by Marlene Carvelle: Two Mohawk sisters describe their lives at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School as they try to assimilate into white culture and one of them is falsely accused of stealing.
· Redemption by Julie Chibbaro: A twelve-year-old English girl and her mother flee with other religious protesters to the New World in the early 1500’s and find both heartbreak and hope when they arrive.
· My Brother Sam is Dead by James Collier: A classic that recounts the tragedy that strikes the Meeker family during the Revolution when one son joins the rebel forces while his family tries to stay neutral in a Tory town.
· The Ransom of Mercy Carter by Caroline Cooney: After being captured in an Indian attack in 1704, Mercy Carter becomes accustomed to the Kahnawake Indian way of life and wonders if she will want to return to her old life.
· The Journal of William Thomas Emerson, a Revolutionary War Patriot (Dear America/My Name is America) by Barry Dennenberg: As tensions escalate in the period before the Revolutionary War, a boy surrounded by political rumblings and violence becomes a spy for the rebel colonists.
· Copper Sun by Sharon Draper: Amari’s life is shattered when her family is murdered and she is taken aboard a slave ship to the Carolinas and purchased by a plantation owner as a present for his son.
· Beaded Moccasins: The Story of Mary Campbell by Lynda Durrant: A twelve-year-old white girl has to give up her life and her family and adapt to a new one after she is kidnapped by Delaware Indians in 1759.
· Echohawk by Lynda Durrant: A white boy is taken from his family and raised by the Mohican tribe as one of their own, and as he grows older, he realizes that he must make a choice between the Mohicans or the world he came from long ago.
· And many more!