Monday, July 3, 2017

My Historical Fiction Evolution Part 1


I am a member of many different groups on Facebook, as I’m sure many of you are. One of which I find I participate in more than others and that group is called BookAholic Café. Recently a member posted a question about going back and reading or rereading older children’s books as an adult. This is something I have been doing myself over the past couple of years. Just last year I read Tuck Everlasting and started the Nancy Drew series. I have also been re-reading the Little House on the Prairie books as well.

One of the members mentioned re-reading Sadako and theThousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr. This brought back memories for me of when I read it back in the mid 90’s. It was first introduced to me by one of my teachers in elementary school, when she read it aloud to my class. Afterwards I borrowed it from the library and read it aloud with my mom.


Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes follows a young Hiroshima girl who has leukemia, or the “atom bomb disease” as it is also known. Sadako’s story is absolutely heart wrenching and I still remember the tears that flowed each time I read it. As I was only young at the time I didn’t even know what leukemia was, nor did I know of the terrors that occurred when the atom bombs were dropped on Japan during the Second World War.

Thinking back I now realize that it was from reading Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes that my love for historical fiction began. It sparked a curiosity in me to learn about different time periods and how different it was compared to the present day.

Over the past 20 years my love for historical fiction has grown and evolved to where it is today. But it all began with Eleanor Coerr’s Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes.

For the next post in My Historical Fiction Evolution series I will discuss how it evolved during the years of my youth.


Is there one specific book that kicked off your love for a certain genre? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below. 

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