I was an odd sort of reader as a kid.  Mainly because I was limited to my parents' bookshelves (my dad liked fantasy at least!), my local library (with a woefully under stocked 'kids' section, which was the only section I was allowed to borrow from) and my school library (which we were restricted by our grade level to which books we could take out).  This meant I depended upon the mercies of people to lend me books, buy me books and sneak me books.

I did however read a lot more historical fiction then I do now.  Actually I read very little historical fiction (except of the romance kind) as an adult, mostly because not many authors engage me the way the following five did.  I still go back and re-read many of these books and recommend them to any child I meet who is interested in reading.  Many of them are out of print, and not even available at libraries anymore, but used copies are fairly easy to obtain.

not my picture

The Little House Books (late 19th century/early 20th century)
by Laura Ingalls Wilder

1. Little House in the Big Woods
2. Little House on the Prairie
3. Farmer Boy
4. On the Banks of Plum Creek
5. By the Shores of Silver Lake
6. The Long Winter
7. Little Town on the Prairie
8. These Happy Golden Years
9. The First Four Years

I received the above set of books from a neighbor when I was about 10years old for Christmas.  I had previously only owned the first book, Little House in Big Woods, as a used hardback my mom had gotten me from Goodwill when I was sick with chicken pox.  Its hard to describe how much I loved those books--most especially the first one.  I was a suburban girl--lived by highways and diners and shopping centers my entire life.  I hated the outdoors.

Somehow Ingalls made me want to live in the middle of the woods, where my nearest neighbors weren't in shouting distance and I only saw them a few times a year.  As I grew older I found out that a lot of the stories were softened, but that didn't make me love them any less.   Ingalls' descriptions of her family life and the hardships they faced gave me strength and inspired me.  I credit a lot of my notions about how to be a big sister to those books thanks to Mary and Laura.


Canadian West books (early 20th century)
by Janette Oke 

1. When Calls the Heart
2. When Comes the Spring
3. When Breaks the Dawn 
4. When Hope Springs New 
5. Beyond the Gathering Storm 
6. When Tomorrow Comes

I originally read the first three books while staying a friend's house.  I visited this friend a lot and the family didn't believe in cable TV (very religious, though not catholic?) so I would often poke through the books in the family room and ask to borrow this or that book during 7th grade.

These were my first foray into 'christian' fiction, though at the time I didn't know that.  Never thought much of Canada honestly--it was there, I wasn't likely to ever go there, so I didn't think about it (except when watching Dudley Do-Right cartoons I guess). 

Something about these books hooked me however and I knew without a shadow of a doubt I would love to have my own Wynn (the hero of the first four books, books 5-6 follow Wynn and Elizabeth's children).  Their courtship is fast and awkward, Wynn's a Mounty so he doesn't get a whole lot of time off to hang out in the city, but there was something so...warming about their relationship.

Supposedly the first book was made into a TV movie starring Maggie Grace.  I haven't seen it?  Though if its anything like the 'Love Comes Softly' movies I'm deeply worried about how they changed things (and Maggie Grace is NOT my idea of Elizabeth. At all.)


The Tide Trilogy (early 20th century)
by Elisabeth Ogilvie

1. High Tide At Noon 
2. Storm Tide 
3. The Ebbing Tide

I originally read the second book first.  I'm not entirely sure how this came about, but my mom went to the main branch of our library system, when I was like 13 or 14 and got this book for me. She thought I'd like it.  It wasn't an author I'd ever heard of, nor a subject matter I was terribly interested in (lobster farming in Maine?) and I'm pretty sure I expressly said I wanted a fantasy novel, but I became engrossed in the book.

A few years later I was trying to remember the book and all I could remember was that there was lobster farming, in New England, with a girl and guy on the cover and lighthouse in the background.  It would take me another ten years to figure out the name of the book and track down copies of it (sadly of the reprinted editions). 

These are not action packed books.  Like the others they focus on a very specific group of people and how they lived.  Little House focused on the pioneers and farmers, Canadian West focused on the Mounties and pioneers and The Tide trilogy (which is part of a larger series known as 'Joanna Bennett's island and follows Joanna's family through several generations) focuses on the small island community dependent on lobster farming.


Searching for Shona (1940's)
by Margaret J. Anderson

This is a novel about a girl, Marjorie, who has everything (but a happy family life) and meets a girl from an orphanage named Shona one day at the park.  The two find a connection, but its the early days of the second world war in england all the kids are being sent to the countryside or abroad (if they had the money).  The girls hatch a daring plan--switch places and at the end of the war (which they felt certain would end in mere months, not years) switch back.

Things don't go the way they should, but Marjorie learns a valuable lesson and finds what she's looking for in the end.

I chose this one mainly because of the cover (which I can't find the cover of the edition I read so many years ago).  I knew very little of the second world war, at least nothing outside of what we learned in school at the time, and even less about England during it.  It was a shock to me to read about some of the things that happen to Marjorie as she masquerades as Shona.  Reading it now, its quite young in tone and strays from some of the even worse things I've learned about, but its an interesting re-imagining of the Prince and Pauper theme.



Mara, Daughter of the Nile (ancient Egypt)
by Eloise Jarvis McGraw

Oh this book.  I picked this up relatively late all things considered, when I was busy trying to find all the interesting books at the library by my grandma's house (there were sadly not that many, the selection was not often updated back then).  It was about Egypt, which I adore, so I took it out.  And instantly fell in love with Mara and Sheftu.

I was less pleased with the portrayal of Hatshepsut as the evil evil bitch queen, but I was pleased that McGraw didn't make Thutmose a rosy saint either.  Hell no one is particularly good in the book quite frankly as they all alternate between lying, backstabbing, threatening, torturing, injuring and attempted murder.   


This is a wonderful introduction to Ancient Egypt however and is a book I re-read at least once a year.