America in Historical Fiction

May 1, 1997
The title of this work is slightly misleading, since it does not indicate that only books currently listed in "Books in Print "from 1993 to 1996 are included. This caveat aside, the work is an excellent guide for librarians and parents wishing to select or recommend fictional readings about America for junior or senior high-school students. A further limitation., mentioned in the introduction, is that the books must be about historical persons or situations. Those that "use a historic setting as incidental to the story are not included."The book lists 1,168 titles and is divided into chronological chapters, such as "The Age of Expansion, 1783^-1860" and "World War II, 1939^-1945." There is also a chapter for epic novels, such as Louise Erdrich's "Love" "Medicine" and James Michener's "Hawaii," that span several time periods. The entries in these chapters have good bibliographical details, including price, but not pagination. Annotations range from three to eight lines and summarize the plot or describe the locale or the type of characters. The time period is also given. The final chapter, "Additional Titles," lists approximately 250 more titles, arranged by state, giving similar bibliographic information but lacking annotations. These are replaced by very brief information on time period and subject, such as "Social Life and Customs^-Georgia." For the most part, information about the titles in this chapter came from state agencies rather than from major bibliographies, which served as sources for the titles that appear in the other chapters.Only one error was noted. "Sally Hemings" consistently appears as "Sally Hemmings" in the index, as well as in the entry for Barbara Chase-Riboud's novel of the same name, and in the annotation for her other work related to Jefferson, "The President's Daughter.Given the above-mentioned constraints, the work is an excellent guide for harried collection developers and for interested parents and students. It is a selection of the best titles, based on some 13 sources and guides, such as Wilson's "Senior High School" "Library Catalog" and the publisher's own "American History for Children and Young Adults "[RBB S 1 90]. With its three good indexes, by author, title, and subject, it is therefore recommended for all public and junior and senior high-school libraries. ((Reviewed May 1, 1997))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1997, American Library Association.)