Sharon Cameron, the author of “Artifice” and other young adult novels, recommends some of her favorite Y.A. historical fiction.
I view history as the ultimate story and the ultimate mystery. It’s the vast accumulation of our shared humanity, and yet, so much of it has died in our memories.
Rescuing the past from oblivion is one reason I love writing young adult historical fiction. But historical books do so much more than just preserve a memory. They present the past with a purpose — by showing us the choices of yesterday, they challenge the choices of now.
Here are six Y.A. historical novels that dare us to question the past, and through that, help us chart the course of our future.
Berliners, by Vesper Stamper
“Berliners” takes a deep dive into the building of the Berlin Wall, and follows twin brothers who end up on opposite sides of the barrier. The novel is rich with well-researched detail, but it is the nuanced characters who really keep the pages turning. Separated by politics and a long stretch of concrete, both brothers try (and fail) to balance their new realities of East versus West. In a divided world that feels hauntingly like our own, “Berliners” asks the all-important question: What would you do, or not do, for your family?
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