Historical Fiction for Children
Writing for Picture Books and Magazines
© Jennifer Jensen
Jun 30, 2007
What elements make great historical picture books and magazine stories?
Writing short historical fiction for children sounds easy: if the Gettysburg Address or the westward pioneers fascinate you, write it up in a picture book, right? Not so fast.
Fiction, especially historical fiction, needs to be grounded in truth. Children learn much of the world’s cultures and histories through well-researched fiction. So even though you’re “making up” a story, center it around what really happened.
Historical topics
Children love quirky, intriguing, and scary things, and something that is “gross” or includes unusual animals is almost a sure hit. Did Edison ever get zapped with electricity? Did a prince keep a mischievous ferret? Look for things like these to build your plot around, instead of yet another generic story on George Washington or the Pilgrims.
For this short fiction, try basing a true story on one life-changing incident, not the person’s entire life. Capture the essence of the person, but focus on the emotion, tension and mystery of that particular incident. (If you find such an unusual incident, this is where a Pilgrim or George Washington story can succeed.)
Historical settings
Historical fiction can be based on a real person, famous or not, or a fictional character set in real time. Either way, you’ll need to write with a strong sense of time and place. Can a stranger pick up the first page or two of your manuscript and tell when and where the story takes place?
Include specific details to set the time and place, but make sure you have a universal theme. People don’t change through history—they still deal with love, loss, fear, friendship, etc.
Don’t plunk a modern person down in an historical setting. Nothing is more irritating than a liberated woman dressed in period costume. If you have a spunky girl, make her spunky within the limits of her era.
Make sure your close-up story also relates to the world around it. If you’re writing about a child stricken by polio during the 1940s epidemic, don’t forget the fact that a father, brother or neighbor is probably away fighting World War II.
Historical research
The way to succeed in your topic and your setting is to do your research as if you were writing non-fiction.
- Use letters, diaries and scrapbooks to create realistic dialogue.
- Check old newspapers to find out what was for sale at what price, what daily events were important to people, and what was happening on the world stage.
- Look for photos, paintings and museum artifacts to see what things really looked like, what was important to families, what the dress was like.
You may research to make your story believable, or you may research a period you love and find your story through the research. Either way, it’s well worth it. You’ll not only have a story that will pass the publisher’s fact-checkers, but one that is a joy to read.
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Comments
Jul 21, 2007 8:00 AM
Brian Tubbs
:
What kind of platform/credential requirements exist for historical nonfiction for kids?
Jul 23, 2007 9:05 PM
Jennifer Jensen
:
Hi, Brian. Thanks for asking the question. Most of my information comes from a workshop with Carolyn Yoder, the editor for the historical imprint, Calkins Creek Books, as well as the author's bios in the back of children's books and knowing some people who write biographies.
In general, there are no credentials or platforms needed to be a successful children's historical writer, just awesome research skills and the ability to tell a great story. The amount of primary research Carolyn looks for is more than I ever dreamed--if you say that George Washington had pheasant for dinner, you'd better have a reference somewhere that says he did, or that it was available and typical for someone like him. But the best research doesn't do any good if you can't tell a great story--gripping for children, who are often interested in things that we aren't, and bored by things that we think are cool. So you have to use language and syntax as well as subject matter and character development to keep them reading.
With that said, it may be easier to pitch a story idea if you are a historian or have a long-term hobby of a particular era. Expertise always makes a good impression. But a book must stand on its own, no matter who writes it, and once an editor is past your name and credentials, nothing else matters except the book.
Also, I didn't really discuss non-fiction in the articles because I'm specifically writing about fiction, but any quotes or dialogue in non-fiction need to have documentation--you can't make up conversations like they did a few decades ago.
For good examples of children's historical books, look at "The Printer's Trial" by Gail Jarrow (middle grade) and "By the Sword" by Selene Castrovilla (picture book).
If you've got questions about particular areas, I'd be glad to share Carolyn's comments. Do you have a project you're considering?
Aug 9, 2007 6:31 PM
Brian Tubbs
:
I'm sorry. I meant to say "historical fiction" not "historical nonfiction." Brain cramp. And sorry I've been away for so long. The last couple of weeks have been crazy.
I'm considering SEVERAL ideas. I seem to do well in thinking up ideas. Not too well in actually writing them. :( Anyway, my historical fiction ideas are...
*a novel about George Washington in the French and Indian War (a somewhat neglected part of his life, yet one that it's pretty action-packed and seems perfect for drama -- this is, after all, the time he was most pining over Sally Fairfax, his best friend's wife)
*a novel about a Revolutionary War chaplain (which I might spin into a series of novels on chaplains in wartime - RevWar, Civil War, etc)
And then I've got some non-history related projects. Again, my problem is I quintiple-guess myself and have a hard time getting started.
Feb 16, 2008 1:06 PM
peabody172
:
I have a question as to historical fiction dialogue. If there is a real person in the telling of an actual historic event, can any of the dialogue written be created? Example- the sea voyage of the mayflower. Can you have a real passenger converse, using undocumented dialogue, with another within the story you are telling? If not, then these passengers must be ficticious within a factual experience. Thanks
Feb 23, 2008 6:33 AM
Jennifer Jensen
:
I think the idea of historical fiction IS fictitious characters within a factual experience. I enjoy fictional characters whose lives interact with real people, but Jeff Shaara's Civil War books (God and Generals, for example) are prime examples of real people as the main characters.
The trick is to know the real people as well as possible so that their words and actions and attitudes fit with what we know about them. Extremely important in books like Shaara's, mildly important (IMO) if George Washington passes through town and says hello. So yes, you can make up a conversation with William Brewster talking to another passenger, but make sure to keep him anchored in his historical class and attitudes. And don't have him mention a woman he hopes to marry when he's already married!
Non-fiction biographies are where you need the actual words, either from primary sources like journals, letters, speeches, etc., or possibly from contemporary accounts of what they said, such as a friend's journal.
