1863: A House Divided: A Novel of the Civil War

...We are both teachers and have enjoyed the Young Founders series, which suit middle school and high school readers covering American history. A House Divided is appealing in its fast pacing, sympathetic characters, drama, and detailed glimpse at one moment during the Civil War. Gettysburg, like hundreds of other busy but ordinary little towns in the mid-1800's, was a colletion of homes, businesses, and churches, linked to the outside world by trade and train, until the war marched right through it. Much can be learned through well-written and well-researched historical fiction; it can bring events to life and engage readers, who may then develop an interest in history that might not have been there. I recommend this novel for classrooms as well as libraries.

I was so pleased to find this book! As a teacher, I found it compliments our study of Jamestown and the infancy of what would, in almost two hundred more years, become the United States perfectly. Although a fictional account of one of the boys who did, in fact, come over with the first three ships, it includes actual events faced by actual historical figures...Smith, Archer, Newport, Radcliffe, Pocahontas, and more. The book is well-researched and engaging, with lively dialogue that hints of old-style conversation, excellent detail, action, and adventure. My seventh grade students found the story fascinating as we read it over a period of two weeks. They were as interested in this as much they would be any well-told tale. They learned about the hardships, the struggles and occasional friendships the English forged with the Native Americans, the reasons for the English settlement and the fear of the Spanish, the terrible death of Archer and the wounding of Smith, the sickness and starvation in the "Starving Time", the desperation of the settlers -- all true events -- while feeling an empathy for teenaged Nat and his efforts to become a man in a foreign, difficult world. Some of my students even asked if there was a sequel to this book, so I directed them to history books that picked up after 1609, and they dove right in! What a way to get kids hooked on history! I highly recommend this for teachers of early American history or students who are looking for an teen adventure set in American history!