How do students read tales about the past? What kinds of stories might they tell in response to these histories? Within broader considerations about the teaching of history through literature, a more comprehensive consideration of students' understanding of children's and young adult historical literature is warranted. African American historical fiction is a promising site for examining the implications of students' responses to traumatic and controversial events from U.S. history. The proposed ethnographic study, based on current research at an underresourced, predominately African American middle school in a large urban city in the Northeastern United States, will provide new insight into how middle schoolers today read, interpret, and construe time, value, and meaning from informational texts about the past.