Children in historical fiction

I really love reading about children/childhoods in historical fiction such as Young Bess and Innocent Traitor. Has anyone got any good recommendations?

The Quincunx by Charles Palliser would be a good bet, albeit long and somewhat demanding, it is an excellent read.

The first two books in Mary Renault's Alexander-trilogy also spring to mind. In the first, Fire From Heaven, the child is Alexander the Great himself, while in the second it is Bagoas, the Persian Boy of the title.

Ayla is a child in the early part of Clan of the Cave Bear.

These are really chidren's/teen books, but all of Rosemary Sutcliff's historical novels involve really well developed child characters. I particularly like her The Lantern Bearers, and others in that series about Roman and post-Roman Britain.

Gatty's Tale is all about a young girl in Medieval England. Many of Sharon Penman's novels start with the childhood of the main characters. Those are mainly set in England around the late 1100s, early 1200s (can you guess what time period/place I enjoy most?).

Written for a young adult audience, the Pagan books by Catherine Jinks are fantastic. They focus on a young boy called Pagan who turns up on the doorstep of the Knights Templar in Jerusalem in the late 1100s. I think the first one is called Pagan's Crusade and there are four books in total.

YES! I do have a recommendation!

It is a series by Leisha Kelly
It is the The Wortham Family Series
1 - Julia's Hope
2 - Emma's Gift
3 - Katie's Dream

There are other series after this one that continues with the family.

I loved this series! Pager turners all of them. They are really sweet, sad, and you really get to know all the family especially the children.

If you do ever read them, PM me and let me know.

I definitely second Rosemary Sutcliff. I loved those.

Written for a young adult audience, Ann Rinaldi's works (focused mostly on American history) are really fun.

I loved King of Shadows by Susan Cooper about a boy who ends up traveling back in time to Elizabethan England. Very cool.

I would also recommend The Coffin Quilt : the Feud Between the Hatfields and the McCoys by Ann Rinaldi

It is a Young Adult book but reads like an adult book, I just read it last year myself.

Ann Rinaldi has many good Young Adult books that are His. Fic. check her out.

The "Childhood of Famous Americans" series were good. Unfortuantely they're out of print.

Great suggestions.I am really excited as I have not read any of them - and here was me thinking it was my specialist subject. I will let you know how I get on.

Johnny Tremain is a really good YA book about the American Independence......not particularly deep but I learnt a lot, read it quickly and thoroughly enjoyed it!

Here's an oldie but goody -- The Mudlark by Theodore Bonnet, based on the true story of a boy in the court of Queen Victoria.

{The Midwife's Apprentice} and {Catherine Called Birdy} both by Karen Cushman are stories about girls in the middle ages.

#13 KathiJ

I LOVED Catherine Called Birdy when I was younger! makes me want to go and read it as an adult.

Ok, this is my own book, but it fits the bill for what 'mumoftheanimals' is looking for so I would like to mention it - Hitler and Mars Bars by Dianne Ascroft. It's based on a real life story about a German boy who is taken to Ireland by the Red Cross to recuperate from the Second World War. it follows his life from the time he is 4 until he leaves school at 14. You can read others reviews of it on Librarything and decide for yourself whether it might interest you.

Oh, my...after reading these posts, I'm suddenly very homesick for all my old dog-eared Laura Ingalls Wilder classics...though truthfully, my favorites are those later on, as she was preparing to be a teacher. Little Town on the Prairie was held together by wisps of binding by the time I got through the millionth reading.

A nonfiction favorite: "Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey" by Lillian Schlissel includes several diaries written by girls, either as members of families who travelled west (by 'covered wagon') or as young brides.
The first part of "Thousand Pieces of Gold" tells of Lalu/Polly Bemis' childhood in 1871 China before she was sent to Shanghai & then to San Francisco.
"Memoirs of a Geisha" also includes her childhood experiences.

re 4
Actually Rosemary Sutcliff wrote some books for adults: Sword at Sunset; The Flowers of Adonis; Rider on a White Horse; Blood and Sand. She said, mind you, that she wrote for children aged 8 to 88 .... see www.rosemarysutcliff.wordpress.com

A few of my favorites that I think have not been mentioned yet.

Kim by Rudyard Kipling, Colonial India
The Chosen by Chaim Potok, Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn, WWII
The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen Jews in the concentration camps
The Ramsay Scallop--Europe around 1000.
The Witch of Blackbird Pond Colonial New England

I recently read The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti. It is based on the true story of a German boy who witnesses Hitler's rise to power and what he does to stand up to the Nazi regime.

The Lantern Bearers won the Carnegie Medal in 1959 in the UK. See www.rosemarysutcliff.wordpress.com

I recently read "The Book Thief" and "Sarah's Key" both of which are stories involving children in Nazi controlled Europe. "The Book Thief" involves a displaced German girl placed with a working class German family & her/their experiences of WWII.
"Sarah's Key" involves the experience of a Polish/French Jewish girl in Nazi-Occupied France.

The Angel in Red Square by Gloria Whelan was set in Russia during the revolution.

I am sorry for not replying sooner but thanks everyone. I am following them up.
Jenny