It was a great year for historical fiction: Avi’s Crispin won the Newbery Medal, Ann Martin’s A Corner of the Universe won a Newbery Honor, and Aidan Chambers’ Postcards from No Man’s Land, the Printz Award winner, is partly historical fiction, weaving together a World War II love story with a contemporary teen’s coming-of-age. The titles below, selected from books reviewed in Booklist from May 15, 2002, through May 1, 2003, show that in the best books in the genre details of time and place are more than just a backdrop. They are an integral part of a spellbinding story. —Hazel Rochman
Avi. Crispin: The Cross of Lead. 2002. Hyperion, $15.99 (0-7868-0828-4).
Gr. 5–9. A young orphan in fourteenth-century England flees his village into a vast, new world of opportunity—and terror. Avi builds an impressive backdrop for his arresting characters, a tense medieval world in which hostility against the cruel landowners is increasing. See also the Booklist Interview with Avi [My 15 02].
Baker, Julie. Up Molasses Mountain. 2002. Random/Wendy Lamb, $15.95 (0-385-72908-1).
Gr. 6–9. In 1953 in the mountains of West Virginia, two young people find themselves drawn into the conflict when strikers try to unionize the mine. Baker does an excellent job of presenting both sides of the issue, and she shows the heartache that can come from standing up for one’s beliefs.
Bradley, Kimberly Brubaker. For Freedom: The Story of a French Spy. 2002. Delacorte, $15.95 (0-385-72961-8).
Gr. 6–12. When teenage Suzanne David becomes a spy for the French Resistance during World War II, she can’t even tell her parents. Based on a true story of France under the Nazi occupation, this is a taut, exciting, fast-paced novel.
Bruchac, Joseph. The Winter People. 2002. Dial, $16.99 (0-8037-2694-5).
Gr. 6-10. In a thrilling narrative, Bruchac presents the French and Indian Wars from the standpoint of Saxso, a 14-year-old Abenaki Catholic who sees his home destroyed and later rescues his mother and sister from captivity.
Cushman, Karen. Rodzina. 2003. Clarion, $16 (0-618-13351-8).
Gr. 5–9. In Cushman’s latest, the protagonist, on the orphan train going west from Chicago in 1881, is a mean girl, desperate for home, and her adult mentor is as tough and needy as the child.
Disher, Gary. The Divine Wind: A Love Story. 2002. Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine, $15.95 (0-439-36915-0).
Gr. 9–12. Set in a small northwest Australian coastal town, this World War II story is about friends and enemies close to home, racism, love and family heartaches, betrayal, and discovering personal courage.
Martin, Ann M. A Corner of the Universe. 2002. Scholastic, $15.95 (0-439-38880-5).
Gr. 6–8. Twelve-year-old Hattie feels secure and happy in her 1960s small-town home, but her world turns upside down when her mentally unstable uncle returns to town. Martin’s beautifully drawn characters lend depth to a heartrending story of family secrets.
Meyer, L. A. Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary “Jacky” Faber, Ship’s Boy. 2002. Harcourt, $17 (0-15-216731-5).
Gr. 6–9. At the age of 12, orphan Mary leaves her hard life of begging and stealing on the streets of London, reinvents herself as ship’s boy Jacky, and takes to the high seas with an all-male crew. An action-packed survival adventure with a strong protagonist.
Moranville, Sharelle Byars. Over the River. 2002. Holt, $16.95 (0-8050-7049-4).
Gr. 5–7. Family secrets drive this story set just after World War II in rural Illinois, where 11-year-old Willa Mae can’t quite understand the tensions among the adults who love her. Why does no one talk about Mama’s death?
Yee, Paul. Dead Man’s Gold, and Other Stories. Illus. by Harvey Chan. 2002. Douglas & McIntyre/Groundwood, $16.95 (0-88899-475-3).
Gr. 6–12. Yee’s plain, beautiful words speak with brutal honesty about the struggle of early Chinese immigrants to Canada and the U.S.: the backbreaking work, the anguish of leaving home and of being left behind, the dream of riches and reunion, the shock of prejudice and betrayal.
(Booklist/May 15, 2003)