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Realistic Fiction

Realistic fiction is kind of a newcomer to the long list of literary genres. Primarily aimed at children and adolescents (the corresponding genre in adult literature is usually just called "literary fiction"), realistic fiction is recognizable by its relatable characters and situations. What sets it apart from historical fiction is that the stories do not center around an actual historical event or person, though they may be set in a very real time period.

Characters deal with the things everyone else deals with—death, friendship, loneliness, embarrassment, first love—and they don't get transported to a make-believe island as a solution to their problems. They have to work it out, which is one of the main appeals of this genre; kids like to read about other kids (real or imaginary) going through the typical young person's trials and how they deal with it.

Not that all realistic fiction is sad and gloomy. It's just what it sounds like—stories about real-life from a fresh perspective. Also, we aren't suggesting there are no realistic elements to a fantasy like The Voyage of the Dawn Treader: there are, which is precisely what makes reading that book so rewarding. It's just that real kids don't fight literal dragons, they fight bullies, or their own insecurities, or ferocious acne.

A lot of the best and most-loved stories fall squarely within the limits of realistic fiction. Huckleberry Finn wasn't a real pirate, but he really rafted the Mississippi; Anne Shirley wasn't a Medieval princess, but she really became Matthew and Marilla's daughter; Anna and Caleb Witting aren't big on imagination, but they are big on really accepting Sarah into their family (at least, eventually).

The full range of human experience is explored in these stories, its darkness, its light, its sorrow, its joy. This is the purpose of literature, after all: to show us true life, and in showing us, to better prepare us for it. These books are some of the best at doing just that.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he's a husband and father who loves church, good food, and weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur. Read more of his reviews here.
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Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Mark Twain
from Reader's Digest
Realistic Fiction for 7th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Alas, Babylon
by Pat Frank
from HarperCollins
Apocalyptic novel for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$17.99
All Creatures Great and Small
James Herriot Series Book 1
by James Herriot
from St. Martin's Press
Realistic Fiction for 7th-Adult
in Animal Stories (Location: FIC-ANI)
$17.00
All Creatures Great and Small / All Things Bright and Beautiful
James Herriot Series Book 1
by James Herriot
from MJF Books
Realistic Fiction for 7th-Adult
in Animal Stories (Location: FIC-ANI)
All He Knew
by Helen Frost
from Farrar, Straus and Giroux
for 7th-Adult
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$15.29
All Things Wise and Wonderful
James Herriot Series Book 3
by James Herriot
from St. Martin's Press
Realistic Fiction for 7th-Adult
in Animal Stories (Location: FIC-ANI)
$15.29
Annotated Little Women
by Louisa May Alcott
from W. W. Norton and Co.
for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Baronet's Song
by George MacDonald, edited by Michael R. Phillips
1st THUS from Bethany House
for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$3.20 (1 in stock)
Beautiful Thread
Hawk and the Dove Series #8
by Penelope Wilcock
from Lion Publishing
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Beloved Bondage
by Elizabeth Yates
from People's Book Club
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$4.80 (1 in stock)
Best of James Herriot
by James Herriot
from St. Martin's Press
for 10th-Adult
in Animal Stories (Location: FIC-ANI)
Best of James Herriot
by James Herriot
from St. Martin's Press
for 10th-Adult
in Animal Stories (Location: FIC-ANI)
Betsy-Tacy & Deep Valley Collection
by Maud Hart Lovelace
from William Morrow & Company
for 3rd-Adult
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Blood Meridian
by Cormac McCarthy
1st edition from Vintage Classics
for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$20.00
Born Free
by Joy Adamson
Anniversary from Pantheon Books
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$17.00 $7.20 (1 in stock)
Born Free
by Joy Adamson
Anniversary from Pantheon Books
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$7.20 (1 in stock)
Boys of Summer
by Roger Kahn
from Harper Perennial
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
Breath of Peace
Hawk and the Dove Series #7
by Penelope Wilcock
from Lion Publishing
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Buffalo Coat
by Carol Ryrie Brink
for 9th-Adult
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Burying the Sun
by Gloria Whelan
from HarperCollins
for 7th-Adult
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Burying the Sun
by Gloria Whelan
from Avyx, Inc.
for 7th-Adult
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
C. W. Anderson's Favorite Horse Stories
by C. W. Anderson
from E.P. Dutton & Co.
for 4th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Carney's House Party & Winona's Pony Cart
by Maud Hart Lovelace
from William Morrow & Company
for 8th-Adult
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$16.99
Catcher in the Rye
by J. D. Salinger
from Little, Brown & Company
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$9.99
Charis in the World of Wonders
by Marly Youmans
from Ignatius Press
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$17.95
Common Life
Mitford Series Book 6
by Jan Karon
from Penguin Classics
for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Complete Novels of Jane Austen
by Jane Austen
from Canterbury Classics
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$25.00
David Copperfield
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Charles Dickens
from Reader's Digest
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Day and a Life
Hawk and the Dove Series #9
by Penelope Wilcock
from Lion Hudson
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Dean's Watch
by Elizabeth Goudge
for 11th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Enchanted April
by Elizabeth von Arnim, afterword by Ulrich Baer
from Warbler Classics
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$11.95
Eugenie Grandet
by Honore de Balzac, translated by Ellen Marriage, introduction by Richard Aldington, illustrations by Rene ben Sussan
from Heritage Press
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Every Living Thing
by James Herriot
from St. Martin's Press
for 7th-Adult
in Animal Stories (Location: FIC-ANI)
$17.00
Everything Sad Is Untrue
by Daniel Nayeri
from Levine Querido
for 11th-Adult
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$16.14
Everything Sad Is Untrue
by Daniel Nayeri
from Lantern Paperbacks
for 11th-Adult
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$11.04
Fighting Words
by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
from Dial Press
for 9th-Adult
2021 Newbery Honor Book
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Forward Me Back to You
by Mitali Perkins
from Square Fish Publishing
for 9th-Adult
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$20.99
Friendly Persuasion
by Jessamyn West
Reprint from Harvest Books
for Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$7.00 (2 in stock)
Gladys Aylward: The Little Woman
by Gladys Aylward
from Moody Press
for 7th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$8.49
Good-bye, Mr. Chips
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by James Hilton
1st edition from Reader's Digest
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Good-bye, Mr. Chips
by James Hilton
Reprint from Little, Brown & Company
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Grapes of Wrath
by John Steinbeck
from Penguin Classics
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$19.00
Grapes of Wrath
by John Steinbeck, illustrated by James Hays
from Reader's Digest
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Grapes of Wrath
by John Steinbeck
3rd printing from Viking Press
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Grapes of Wrath
by John Steinbeck
from Penguin Books
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$21.00
Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens, illustrated by Scott McKowen
from Sterling Publishing Co.
for 8th-Adult
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Greengage Summer
by Rumer Godden
for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Greengage Summer
by Rumer Godden
from Viking Press
for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Greyfriars Bobby
by Eleanor Atkinson
from Living Book Press
for 6th-Adult
in Animal Stories (Location: FIC-ANI)
Greyfriars Bobby
by Eleanor Atkinson
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 6th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
by Mary Ann Shaffer
from Sun Dial Press
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$17.00
Guns of Navarone
by Alastair MacLean
Reprint from Sterling Publishing Co.
for 10th-Adult
in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV)
Half-Crown House
by Helen Ashton
Book Club Edition from Dodd, Mead & Co.
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$9.60 (1 in stock)
Happy Highway
by Francis Brett Young
from Reynal & Hitchcock
for Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Hardest Thing to Do
Hawk and the Dove Series #4
by Penelope Wilcock
3rd Revised edition from Lion Publishing
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Head of the House of Coombe
by Frances Hodgson Burnett
from Frederick A. Stokes Company
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Home Has a Heart
by Thyra Ferre Bjorn
from Holt, Rinehart and Winston
for 7th-Adult
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Homeschool Experiment: A Novel
from Family Man Ministries
for Adult
in Practical Home Schooling (Location: HSR-PRAC)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Hour Before Dawn
Hawk and the Dove Series #5
by Penelope Wilcock
from Lion Publishing
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
House of Mirth
by Edith Wharton
from Dover Publications
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$4.00 $2.00 (1 in stock)
House on Mango Street
by Sandra Cisneros
from Vintage Classics
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$11.95 $4.00 (1 in stock)
How the Heather Looks
by Joan Bodger
Reprint from Living Book Press
for 7th-Adult
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$21.24
How the Heather Looks
by Joan Bodger, illustrated by Mark Lang
Reprint from Living Book Press
for 7th-Adult
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$12.74
Hunger
by Knut Hamsun
Fifth Printing, 1967 from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$48.00 (1 in stock)
I Capture the Castle
by Dodie Smith
from St. Martin's Griffin
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$16.15
I Heard the Owl Call My Name
by Margaret Craven
Book Club from Doubleday & Company
for 8th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
by Maya Angelou
from Bantam Books
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$6.79
In His Steps
by Charles M. Sheldon
from Revell Publishing
for 9th grade-Adult
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$6.79
In His Steps
by Charles M. Sheldon
from Hendrickson Publishers
for 9th grade-Adult
in Hendrickson Christian Classics (Location: XCL-DEV)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
In His Steps
by Charles M. Sheldon
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 9th-Adult
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$11.20 (1 in stock)
Into the Wild
by Jon Krakauer
from Anchor Books
for Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$4.80 (1 in stock)
James Herriot's Favorite Dog Stories
by James Herriot
First Printing from St. Martin's Press
for 8th-Adult
in Animal Stories (Location: FIC-ANI)
Jane Eyre
Puffin Classics
by Charlotte Bronte
from Puffin Books
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 8th-Adult
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$8.49
Jane Eyre
Everyman's Library
by Charlotte Bronte
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$25.50
Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Brontë
from Penguin Classics
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$7.65
Jane Eyre
Portland House Illustrated Classics
by Charlotte Bronte, illustrated by Monroe S. Orr
from Portland House
Gothic Romance for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Bronte
from Wordsworth Classics
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 8th-Adult
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$3.20 (1 in stock)
Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Bronte, illustrated by Fritz Eichenberg
from Random House
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 8th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Bronte, Illustrated by F. H. Townsend
from SeaWolf Press
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 8th-Adult
in Seawolf Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SW)
$11.86
Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Bronte, illustrated by Edward A. Wilson
from Random House
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 8th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Bronte
from Ignatius Press
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 8th-Adult
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$11.95
Jane Eyre & Wuthering Heights - 2 Volume Set
by Charlotte Bronte and Emily Bronte, illustrated by Fritz Eichenberg
from Random House
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 8th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Jungle Books
Macmillan Classics
by Rudyard Kipling, illustrated by Robert Shore
from Macmillan
Animal Stories for 7th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Jungle, The
by Upton Sinclair
from Bantam Books
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$6.99
Jungle, The
by Upton Sinclair
from Dover Publications
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
King's Jackal
by Richard Harding Davis
from Charles Scribner's Sons
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$9.60 (1 in stock)
Lawrenceville Stories
by Owen Johnson
from Simon and Schuster
for 8th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Life With Father
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Clarence Day
from Reader's Digest
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Little Women
by Lousia May Alcott, illustrated by Harve Stein
from Garden City Books
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Living Free
by Joy Adamson
from Harcourt, Brace & World
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Lord God Made Them All
by James Herriot
from St. Martin's Press
for 7th-Adult
in Animal Stories (Location: FIC-ANI)
$17.00
Lord of the Flies
by William Golding
from Penguin Putnam
Utopian and Dystopian Literature for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$12.00
Man Who Saved Robinson Crusoe
by James Poling
from W. W. Norton and Co.
for 7th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Marcelo in the Real World
by Francisco X. Stork
from Scholastic Press
for 9th-Adult
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$8.49
Marquis' Secret
by George MacDonald
from Bethany House
for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$3.20 (1 in stock)
Monster Calls
by Patrick Ness, illustrated by Jim Kay
Reprint from Candlewick Press
for 5th-Adult
2012 Carnegie Medal
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$14.99
Monster Calls
by Patrick Ness
from Candlewick Press
for 5th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Mrs. Appleyard and I
by Louise Andrews Kent
from Houghton Mifflin
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Musician's Quest
by George MacDonald, edited by Michael R. Phillips
from Bethany House
for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
My Cousin Rachel
by Daphne du Maurier
from Doubleday & Company
Mystery/Suspense for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$4.80 (1 in stock)
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