Hyphenated Historical Novels

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While it was difficult to find purely fictional stories in the picture book format, there are more hypenated historical novels.

Mildred D. Taylor's classic Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is the first in a series of novels about the Logan family surviving the Depression. Set in the same time period, Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis carries with it an influence of the all-American musical artform of jazz.

Set in the 1950s, Kira Kira by Cynthia Kadohata is about a Japanese-American family moving from Iowa to the Deep South. In contrast, Kadohata's Weedflower deals with the Japanese-American internment during World War II, over 10 years before.

Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers takes place in 1960s and is about a teen who enlists in the American army and goes abroad to fight in the Vietnam war, while during the same era, The Watsons Go to Birmingham by Christopher Paul Curtis brings us a fictional African-American family that drives right into the deep south.

As I have covered previously, a few books of Laurence Yep's Golden Mountain Chronicles are set in historical times about 3rd or 4th generation Chinese-American children struggling to fit in.

I know there's more historical novels out there set in America starring American-born protagonists of color. What are your favorites?

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Renee Ting is the President and Publisher of Shen's Books. She is the author of The Prince's Diary and the blog, Renee's Book of the Day.

Emily Jiang is a writer of children's and YA literature. She also blogs at TLeaf Readings.

Shen’s Books is a publisher of multicultural children’s literature that emphasizes cultural diversity and tolerance, with a focus on introducing children to the cultures of Asia.

Through books, we can share a world a stories, building greater understanding and tolerance within our increasingly diverse communities as well as throughout our continuously shrinking globe.

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