Realistic Fiction vs. Historical Fiction. Uhhh, is there a difference?

Realistic Fiction is realistic in the sense that the setting, characters, and events are plausible. Yet these stories are fiction because the characters and events didn't really happen.

Historical Fiction tells the story of history. It not only presents facts or researches a time and place, but also weaves the facts into a fictional story. It is different from Contemporary Realistic Fiction in that the stories in historical fiction are set in the past rather than the present.

But when we explore these two genres, there are striking similarities. They both have plots that are a believable problem solved in realistic, culturally grounded ways. They both have settings that are vivid and realistic, and that support the events of the story. They both have characters that are credible, lacking in stereotypes, multidimensional, and change and develop over time. They both have style in which dialogue and the thoughts of the characters sound natural and that has dialect and diction that doesn't overwhelm the reader. And finally, they both have themes that are applicable to children's lives.

So what really is the difference between Historical Fiction and Realistic Fiction? Well, it all has to do with the timing of when the book was written. For example, the book Bud, Not Buddy is written about a boy growing up during the Great Depression in 1939 in Flint, Michigan. Now, if the book had been written during this time period, it would be considered Realistic Fiction, because it was in the present. But now the Great Depression is considered history because it happened so long ago, so this story is now considered Historical Fiction.

So when deciphering the different between Historical Fiction and Realistic Fiction, just think about the time in which the story is set.