Children's literature encompasses a rich tapestry of historical fiction, allowing young readers to explore cultural diversity across different time periods and locations. This presentation explores the world of historical fiction, categorizing it into four distinct types, providing a framework for selecting high-quality examples, and offering four engaging student projects that leverage the power of historical fiction.

Students can explore four types of historical fiction: A Story of Historical Events Happening Before the Life of the Author; A Contemporary Novel Becomes Historical Fiction With the Passage of Time; An Author Chronicles Own Life Story in a Fictional Format; The Protagonist Travels Back Into History.

Students discuss three criteria for selection of quality historical fiction:
1. The historical facts must be correct and true without being overbearing to the story;
2. Dialogue, thoughts, actions, and motivations of the characters must be true to the time period of the story;
3. Setting, characters, plot, mood, word choice, and themes need to be interesting to keep the attention of young readers.

Four student projects with historical fiction include Booktalks; Primary Sources; Graphic organizers; and Recipes representing historical and cultural settings in books.
On going reflection leads to deeper historical understanding.

Keywords: Historical fiction, cultural diversity.