As a child of immigrants, I couldn’t find my family’s story in the Dick and Jane books we had to read in elementary school.  But I kept looking:  first as a university student, then as a mother, and later as a writer.  Turned out, I had to write my own. But the journey – the search, and the re-search - was a trip well worth taking.

Lois Lowry’s book Number the Stars (Newbery Award, 1990) opened my eyes to the power of historical fiction for young people.  And once opened, my eyes couldn’t get enough. Here are some… Continue reading

Terry Lindquist discusses how and why she teaches with historical fiction on Scholastic.com. In this article she covers seven reasons for teaching with HF, tips for choosing good HF books,  and fifteen new HF books.  She also uses the story of Pocahontas as a teaching point to discover where history stops and story starts.  Read more at http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=4346

• Publication Season/Year: Summer 2010
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
• Release Date: May 11, 2010
• ISBN (hardcover): 0375861904
• ISBN (paperback): TBD

The Red Umbrella is the moving tale of a 14-year-old girl's journey from Cuba to America as part of Operation Pedro Pan—an organized exodus of more than 14,000 unaccompanied children, whose parents sent them away to escape Fidel Castro's revolution. In 1961, two years after the Communist revolution, Lucía Álvarez still leads a carefree life, dreaming of parties and her first crush. But when the soldiers come to her sleepy Cuban town, everything begins to change. Freedoms are stripped away. Neighbors disappear. Her friends feel like strangers. And her… Continue reading

Every time I go to jump on a steam train as it chugs its way through Rowlesburg -- Every time I throw out my hands to grab the rusty metal rungs and haul myself up onto the side of one of them black coal cars, hoisting my knees up over its churning, screeching wheels -- Every single time I jump on a train -- my heart thumps even noisier in my ears than the clanking of the old iron horse I'm hopping up onto. I love steam trains. I love living in a town that's chock full of 'em. I love being on 'em, being anywhere near 'em. They're as much a part of my life around here as the mountains. Or breathing. But it's a dangerous business, hopping a ride onto a moving train. First off, there's always a right decent chance of getting killed. Second, and about ten thousand times worse, my father might find out. But I'm not like Dad -- I don't mind breaking the rules now and again. Continue reading

• Publication Season/Year: Spring, 2010
• Publisher: Puffin
• Release Date: May 13, 2010
• ISBN: 978-0-14-241413-2

Janet S. Fox's debut novel for young adults, FAITHFUL, is a romance, mystery and adventure set in the Gilded Age. Ms. Fox's heroine, Maggie Bennet, loses her mother in a tragic accident, and then is forced to accept her father's desire to leave their high society life in Newport, RI, and move to the American west. They relocate to the Greater Yellowstone, where Maggie searches for herself and for love, while her courage and determination are tested in an astonishing and dangerous environment. The planned sequel to FAITHFUL follows Maggie as she… Continue reading