Fiction About the 1960s

After a week of researching the 1960s, it might be fun to read a fiction book set in the 1960s. The IMC maintains a bibliography of fiction books covering the decades of the 20th century. Use the phrase Twentieth Century in Fiction - 1960s in the I.P.A.C. if you would like to see the complete list. A couple of outstanding choices would be these:

The Wednesday Wars, by Gary D. Schmidt. Currently on the Caudill nominee list, this story focuses on a clash between teacher and student. At a time when religious education moved public school children to their churches on Wednesday afternoons, Holling and Mrs. Baker find themselves unwilling partners because Holling doesn't have a religious affilliation. Mrs. Baker was looking forward to quiet Wednesday afternoons and now she is stuck with Holling.

Yankee Girl, by Mary Ann Rodman, focuses on the outbreak of violent caused by the civil rights movement. Alice's FBI father moves the family to Jackson, Mississippi for his job. Alice wants to be popular at her new school, but that would involve being mean to the black girl in her newly-integrated school.

Paul, in Full Service by Will Weaver, finds a whole new world of people and ideas when he takes a job at a gas station near his Minnesota farm. And finally another current Caudill nominee, Shooting the Moon by Frances O'Roark Dowell, shows the effect of the Vietnam War on a military family when Jamie's older brother is shipped out to Vietnam. He sends her pictures that he takes of the jungle, his camp and comrades, and the moon that express his feelings.

These and other stories about life in the 1960s are available in the Lakeview IMC.