Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction

2017 Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction: FULL OF BEANS by Jennifer L. Holm

In my quest to read all of the books that have earned the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction, this month I’ll be talking about the 2017 winner, Full of Beans, by Jennifer L. Holm.

In Full of Beans, a middle grade novel, ten-year-old Beans Curry lives in 1934 Key West, Florida, when Key West is a bankrupt town full of trash, but few jobs. Beans’ father leaves town in search of work, his mother takes in laundry, and Beans and his younger brother do whatever odd jobs they can find.

Life’s not all bad. Beans and his gang are the reigning marble champs, they enjoy Cuban food, and Beans goes to the movies to watch the new child actors whenever he gets a chance. However, when he decides to take a job for a shady townsperson, he reaps consequences he wasn’t expecting.

Instead of writing a traditional review of each of the Scott O’Dell Award winning books, I write about the historical facts and the writing craft lessons that I’ve learned. I find that even in books I don’t enjoy, there are often things I can learn.

History lesson—Depression-era Key West

During the Depression, Key West was so broke it had quit picking up trash and there were piles of trash around town causing a terrible odor. The main employers had left. Jobs were scarce. The federal government had decided to either close the town or make it a tourist mecca.

The New Deal employees came in to clean up the trash and paint the houses. Actually, the federal government paid for the supplies, but most of the labor was supplied by volunteer labor, including that of the kids of Key West.

Key West did become a tourist mecca, and it was largely because a marketing campaign.

Writing lesson—Flawed, yet likable protagonist

I think Beans is kind of the neighborhood tough guy. He’s street smart and he’ll take advantage of others to get ahead. Yet he loves his parents and his siblings. He’s a leader and loyal to his friends. He seems to be able to read adults and know if they’ve good or bad intentions. And he has dreams and a conscience.

Holm does a good job showing all these different aspects to Beans, making him a rounded, likable kid even though he makes some unlikable choices. In fact, in the first scene, Beans knows he’s being taken advantage of by an adult, but he goes along with it so he can take care of his hungry younger brother.

This made me enjoy spending time with Beans even if I didn’t like all his choices.

What kids books have you read set in Florida or during the Depression? What books have you read where the protagonists may not be the greatest role models, yet you still enjoyed spending time with them?

Celebrating Historical Fiction: FINDING LANGSTON Earns 2019 Scott O’Dell Award

I’m in the process of reading each of the winners of the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction and sharing something I learn about the craft of writing historical fiction and something I learn about history. I’ve collected my previous articles about the award winners on a separate page of this website.

I just read the 2019 winner, Finding Langston by Lesa Cline-Ransome. This is such an appropriate month to talk about this middle grade novel because it features poetry, and April is also National Poetry Month.

In Finding Langston, young Langston and his father are recent newcomers to 1946 Chicago from Alabama and are grieving the death of Langston’s mother. Langston also misses Alabama rural life, tries to avoid the bullies at school, and is at a loss how to talk with his father.

He finds unexpected refuge in a nearby library—unexpected because he’s not barred from it because of his skin color—and the poems of another Langston.

Writing lesson:

Appeals to young boy readers—Although this book will appeal to both boys and girls, I believe it will especially appeal to boys ages nine through twelve who may struggle to sit and read a book.

First, the novel is short, only about 100 pages. Second, it’s written in present tense and moves quickly. Third, it’s written in first person point-of-view, so the reader lives through Langston’s thoughts, emotions, and experiences. Fourth, Cline-Ransome keeps the time period and setting details to a minimum.

All these craft choices by Cline-Ransome culminates in a book that will grab those young readers who might be new readers of historical fiction who might otherwise feel bogged down in details or who’d rather be doing other things besides reading a novel.

In addition, although Finding Langston deals with themes of poverty and racial discrimination and inequality, it also speaks to universal emotions of loss, loneliness, and tensions in family relationships, and finding hope in expressing those feelings.

History lesson:

Langston Hughes—I know very little about poetry, and even less about Hughes. I appreciated how Cline-Ransome sprinkled in a few details about Hughes but always focused on the connection between her main character, Langston, and how he felt reading Hughes’ poetry.

Hughes was born in 1902. As a child and young man, he lived with various family members in a variety of towns. He traveled widely and held many jobs. Yet, his first book of poetry was published when he was only about 24 years old, even before he had earned his college degree.

Hughes was known as a poet and novelist who spoke for and to his readers—average, working-class black Americans. He also became known for his part in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s.

To read more about Hughes:

Langston Hughes (Poetry Foundation)

Langston Hughes (Academy of American Poets)

Langston Hughes (America’s Story from America’s Library)

For more info about Cline-Ransome:

Lesa Cline-Ransome

Have you read any of Hughes’s works? If so, what’s your favorite piece? What other children’s historical fiction make good introductions of the genre to a very young audience?

2003 Winner of the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction

I’m on a multi-year quest to read and blog about all the winners of the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction. I don’t do a traditional review. Instead I write about the history and writing craft lessons I learn.

This month I read the 2003 winner, Trouble Don’t Last by Shelley Pearsall.

This middle grade novel begins in 1859 Kentucky and features Samuel, an 11-year-old slave boy, who runs away with an aged slave, Harrison, who doesn’t always seem to have all his wits about him.

Writing Lesson:

POV (Point of View)—Pearsall wrote this novel in 1^st Person which allows the readers to experience the story from the main character’s point of view. As I was reading this book I found myself frustrated with Samuel’s childishness. He’s a bundle of excessive fear, and at one point he nearly gives away his and Samuel’s hiding place.

Then I remembered Samuel is a child—one without parents, who has known hardship and cruelty, and who has never been away from the only home he knows.

Pearsall did a very good job portraying what a boy in Samuel’s position might have experienced—including his emotional reactions. She also captured Samuel’s childlike wonder in terms that he would’ve used. For example, the first time he sees a steam train he doesn’t compare it to ships or wagons. I love how he describes it:

“Coming across the field in front of us was an enormous black cookstove, big as a house. Black smoke poured from its wide chimney….Behind the stove came a whole line of houses and sheds, flying on wheels.”
Samuel in Trouble Don’t Last

History Lesson:

Human nature–As I was reading Trouble Don’t Last, I was struck by the variety of people who help Samuel and Harrison: black, white, religious, non-religious, educated, and laborers. They helped for a variety of reasons, some selfless and some self-serving. But all those people helped, even though they were risking serious repercussions. Why?

This book is a good example of why historical fiction remains relevant. It’s not just stories about people who lived unrelatable lives a long time ago. Yes, times change, and events, beliefs, and technology are different. But we humans and our nature are the same as in the past.

We still have the capacity to love, hate, aid, hurt, seek revenge, and offer forgiveness, etc. We still choose to do right and choose to do wrong, often at the same time.

I believe historical fiction helps us understand past events and people, but it also helps us understand ourselves. And sometimes it’s easier to understand ourselves when we’re looking at someone else.

For more info:

Shelley Pearsall

Previous posts about Scott O’Dell Award winners

Have you read Trouble Don’t Last? How about other books that have done an excellent job at letting you experience a child character’s point of view? What have you read that helped you understand yourself?

Learning History and Writing From Scott O’Dell Award-winning Historical Fiction for Kids

I consider myself a fan of historical fiction for children, so a few years ago I checked a list of the winners of the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction. To my surprise, of the thirty-some winners, I had only read four!

I then challenged myself to read all the winners and to report in my blog-at-the-time what I learned about history and about writing. I only have about five books left.

To make it easy for you, I’ve gathered all my articles to a separate page on this website, and I’ll keep adding to the page as I complete the rest of the books.

The Scott O’Dell award is given each year to an American author for a children’s historical fiction book. If O’Dell’s name sounds familiar, it’s because he wrote The Island of the Blue Dolphins and then a host of other historical novels for kids.

Which Scott O’Dell Award-winning books have you read?