A story that could really have happened in the past. The setting of historical fiction stories is usually real and drawn from history. Historical fiction sometimes contains actual historical persons, but the main characters tend to be fictional.
Middle Ages and Renaissance
Armstrong, Alan. W. Raleigh’s Page. In the late 16th century, fifteen-year-old Andrew leaves school in England and must prove himself as a page to Sir Walter Raleigh before embarking for Virginia, where he helps to establish relations with the Indians. 328 pages. (J FIC Abb)
Avi. Crispin: The Cross of Lead. Falsely accused of theft and murder, an orphaned peasant boy in fourteenth-century England flees his village and meets a larger-than-life juggler who holds a dangerous secret. 262 pages. Level W. (Newbery Avi)
Cushman, Karen. Catherine, Called Birdy. During her fourteenth year, in the year 1290, Catherine keeps a diary in which she details her family’s activities and conflicts, the life of their medieval English manor, and her own coming to maturity. 169 pages. Level X (J FIC Cus)
Cushman, Karen. The Midwife’s Apprentice. In a small village in medieval England, a young homeless girl acquires a home and a new career when she becomes the apprentice to a sharp-tempered midwife. 122 pages. Level X. (Newbery Cus)
De Angeli, Marguerite. The Door in the Wall. In England during the Middle Ages, a courageous young boy who suddenly loses the use of his legs is forced to learn how to deal with his new disability. 120 pages. Level U. (Newbery DeA)
Russell, Christopher. Dogboy. In 1346, twelve-year-old Brind, an orphaned kennel boy raised with hunting dogs at an English manor, accompanies his master, along with half of the manor’s prized mastiffs, to France, where he must fend for himself when both his master and the dogs are lost at a decisive battle. 259 pages. (J FIC Dog)
Spradlin, Michael, P. The Youngest Templar: Keeper of the Grail. In 1191, fifteen-year-old Tristan, a youth of unknown origin raised in an English abbey, becomes a Templar Knight’s squire during the Third Crusade and soon finds himself on a mission to bring the Holy Grail to safety. 248 pages. (J FIC Spr)
Colonial Period
Carbone, Elisa Lynn. Blood on the River: James Town 1607. Traveling to the New World in 1606 as the page to Captain John Smith, twelve-year-old orphan Samuel Collier settles in the new colony of James Town, where he must quickly learn to distinguish between friend and foe. 237 pages. Level W. (J Fic Car)
Duey, Kathleen. Silence and Lily: 1773. In 1773, ten-year-old Silence longs to own a beautiful snow-white mare named Lily, but as tensions between the colonists and the British heat up, she fears she may lose Lily forever, especially when she stumbles upon a dangerous secret. 172 pages. (J Fic Due)
Hermes, Patricia. Our Strange New Land: Elizabeth’s Diary. My America series. Nine-year-old Elizabeth keeps a journal of her experiences in the New World as she encounters Indians, suffers hunger and the death of friends, and helps her father build their first home. 109 pages. (J FIC My)
Hesse, Karen. Stowaway. A fictionalized journal relates the experiences of a young stowaway from 1768 to 1771 aboard the Endeavor which sailed around the world under Captain James Cook. 319 pages. Level W. (J FIC Hes)
Lasky, Kathryn. A Journey to the New World: The Diary of Remember Patience Whipple. Dear America series. A Pilgrim girl makes the dangerous journey on the Mayflower to a new world filled with promise and unexpected hardships. 173 pages. (J FIC Dea)
McDonald, Megan. Shadows in the Glasshouse. American Girl History Mystery series. While working as an indentured servant for a Jamestown glass maker in 1621, twelve-year-old Merry uncovers a case of sabotage. 133 pages. (J FIC Ame)
Rose, Caroline Starr. Blue Birds. As tensions rise between the English settlers and the Native peoples on Roanoke Island, twelve-year-old Alis forms an impossible friendship with a native girl named Kim. 393 pages. (J FIC Ros)
American Revolution
Abbott, E.F. Sybil Ludington, Revolutionary War Rider. In 1777, Sybil and her family believe the American colonies should be free from British control. Sybil’s father leads a regiment of New York militiamen, and everyone in the family is dedicated to the Patriot cause. Using spy tactics and codes, the Ludingtons gather intelligence. When British troops raid nearby Danbury, Connecticut, Sybil gallops through the night to call out her father’s men. But the journey is dangerous for a girl who’s all alone. With obstacles at every turn, will she make it in time to stop the British? 184 pages. (J FIC Abb)
Anderson, Laurie Halse. Chains. When Isabel’s owner dies at the start of the Revolution, a greedy nephew keeps Isabel and her younger sister enslaved and sells them to Loyalists in New York, where she is offered the chance to spy for the Patriots. 316 pages. Level Z. (J FIC And)
Bradley, Kimberly Brubaker. Jefferson’s Sons. A fictionalized look at the last twenty years of Thomas Jefferson’s life at Monticello through the eyes of three of his slaves, two of whom were his sons by his slave, Sally Hemings. 360 pages. (J FIC Bra)
Collier, James Lincoln. My Brother Sam is Dead. When Sam Meeker leaves his home in Redding, Connecticut, a town loyal to the king, to fight with the rebel army, he places his family in a very difficult position. 216 pages. Level Y. (J FIC Col)
Forbes, Esther. Johnny Tremain. After injuring his hand, a silversmith’s apprentice in Boston becomes a messenger for the Sons of Liberty in the days before the American Revolution. 256 pages. Level Z (Newbery For)
Gregory, Kristiana. The Winter of the Red Snow. Dear America series. Eleven-year-old Abigail presents a diary account of life in Valley Forge from December 1777 to July 1778 as General Washington prepares his troops to fight the British. 173 pages (J Fic Dea)
Mann, Jennifer Ann. Scar: A Revolutionary War Tale. 144 pages. (J FIC Man) Unable to enlist due to a childhood injury, Noah Daniels is forced to watch the Revolution from his farm in New York–until a raid on his settlement thrusts him into one of the bloodiest battles of the American Revolution, and ultimately, face to face with the enemy. 144 pgs. (J Fic Man)
Pryor, Bonnie. Thomas in Danger. Having lost their home when the Revolutionary War reached their part of rural Pennsylvania, Thomas and his family start a new life running an inn in Philadelphia, where Thomas finds new danger that takes him into captivity among the Iroquois. 170 pages. Level R (J FIC Pry)
Frontier and Pioneer Life
Avi. The Barn. In an effort to fulfill their dying father’s last request, nine-year-old Ben and his brother and sister construct a barn on their land in the Oregon Territory. 106 pages. Level T. (J FIC Avi)
Dalgliesh, Alice. The Courage of Sarah Noble. Remembering her mother’s words, an eight-year-old girl finds courage to go alone with her father to build a new home in the Connecticut wilderness and to stay with the Indians when her father goes back to bring the rest of the family. 52 pages. Level O. (J FIC Dal)
Dallas, Sandra. Hardscrabble.Twelve-year-old Belle Martin and her family move to Mingo, Colorado, in 1910 when the U.S. government offers 320 acres of land free to homesteaders. 240 pages. (J FIC Dal)
Duey, Kathleen. Katie and the Mustang. Orphaned nine-year-old Katie Rose is sent to live with the Stevenses, and her backbreaking toil is eased by the relationship she develops with a mustang Mr. Stevens brings home. 135 pages. (series) (J FIC Due)
Giblin, James. The Boy Who Saved Cleveland. During a malaria epidemic in late eighteenth-century Cleveland, Ohio, ten-year-old Seth Doan surprises his family, his neighbors, and himself by having the strength to carry and grind enough corn to feed everyone. 64 pages. Level Q. (J FIC Gib)
Hermes, Patricia. Westward to Home: Joshua’s Diary. My America series. In 1848, nine-year-old Joshua Martin McCullough writes a journal of his family’s journey from Missouri to Oregon in a covered wagon. Includes a historical note about westward migration. 108 pages. (J Fic My)
Lassieur, Allison. Journey to a Promised Land: A Story of the Exodusters. Hattie Jacobs and her family join the Great Exodus of 1879 in search of a better life in Kansas. 148 pages. (J FIC Iam)
MacLachlan, Patricia. Sarah, Plain and Tall. When their father invites a mail-order bride to come live with them in their prairie home, Caleb and Anna are captivated by their new mother and hope that she will stay. 56 pages. Level R (Newbery MacL)
Mazer, Harry. My Brother Abe: Sally Lincoln’s Story. Forced off their land in Kentucky in 1816, nine-year-old Sarah Lincoln, known as Sally, and her family, including younger brother Abe, move to the Indiana frontier. 202 pages. (J FIC Maz)
McMullan, Kate. As Far As I Can See: Meg’s Prairie Diary. My America series. In her diary for 1856, nine-year-old Meg describes the long, dangerous journey she and her younger brother make from Missouri to Kansas, as well as the new life they find there. 106 pages. (J Fic My A)
Murphy, Jim. My Face to the Wind: the Diary of Sarah Jane Price, a Prairie Teacher. Dear America series. Following her father’s death from a disease that swept through her Nebraska town in 1881, teenaged Sarah Jane must find work to support herself and records in her diary her experiences as a young school teacher. 182 pages. Level W. (J Fic Dea)
Pearsall, Shelley. Crooked River. When twelve-year old Rebecca Carter’s father brings a Native American accused of murder into their 1812 Ohio settlement town, Rebecca, witnessing the town’s reaction to the Indian, struggles with the idea that an innocent man may be convicted and sentenced to death. 249 pages. (J FIC Pea)
Speare, Elizabeth George. The Sign of the Beaver. Left alone to guard the family’s wilderness home in eighteenth-century Maine, a boy is hard-pressed to survive until local Indians teach him their skills.135 pages. Level T. (J FIC Spe)
Wilder, Laura Ingalls. Little House in the Big Woods. Little House series. A year in the life of two young girls growing up on the Wisconsin frontier, as they help their mother with the daily chores, enjoy their father’s stories and singing, and share special occasions with relatives and neighbors. 230 pages. Level Q. (J FIC Wil)
Civil War Era
Abbott, E. F. John Lincoln Clem: Civil War Drummer Boy. A tale based on the life of the youngest drummer boy to participate in the Civil War describes how, at the age of 9, he ran away from his family to join the 3rd Ohio Union Regiment and served as a drummer boy before becoming the youngest soldier to serve in the war and returning home a hero. 185 pages. (J FIC Abb)
Avi. Iron Thunder: The Battle Between the Monitor and the Merrimac: A Civil War Novel. After his father is killed during the Civil War, thirteen-year-old Tom takes on a job to at the iron works to support his family, and finds himself a target of ruthless spies when he begins assisting with the ironclad ship the “Monitor.” 203 pages. (J FIC Avi)
Calkhoven, Laurie. Will at the Battle of Gettysburg. In 1863, twelve-year-old Will, who longs to be a drummer in the Union army, is stuck in his sleepy hometown of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, but when the Union and Confederate armies meet right there in his town, he and his family are caught up in the fight. Includes historical notes, glossary, and a timeline of events. 230 pages. (J FIC Cal)
Gutman, Dan. Abner and Me: A Baseball Card Adventure. With his ability to travel through time using baseball cards and photographs, thirteen-year-old Joe and his mother go back to 1863 to ask Abner Doubleday whether he invented baseball, but instead find themselves in the middle of the Battle of Gettysburg. 166 pages. Level T. (J FIC Gut)
Hahn, Mary Downing. Promises to the Dead. When Jesse Sherman promises to take a dying slave girl’s small son safely to Baltimore, he embarks on a perilous journey that takes him to the darkest depths of humanity where only love, courage, and compassion will see him through, in an exciting novel set against the backdrop of the Civil War. 202 pages. Level Y. (J FIC Hah)
Hart, Alison. Gabriel’s Horses. In Kentucky, during the Civil War, the twelve-year-old slave Gabriel contends with a cruel new horse trainer and skirmishes with Confederate soldiers as he pursues his dream of becoming a jockey. 161 pages. Level V. (J FIC Har)
Hesse, Karen. A Light in the Storm: The Civil War Diary of Amelia Martin. Dear America series. In 1860 and 1861, while working in her father’s lighthouse on an island off the coast of Delaware, fifteen-year-old Amelia records in her diary how the Civil War is beginning to devastate her divided state. 169 pages. Level T. (J FIC Dea)
Hughes, Pat. Seeing the Elephant: A Story of the Civil War. Ten-year-old Izzie wants to join the war like his older brothers and go into battle against the Confederate Army, but when he meets a Rebel soldier in a hospital, he begins to see things differently. 36 pages. (J FIC Hug)
Keith, Harold. Rifles for Watie. A young farm boy joins the Union forces, becomes a scout, and thus temporarily part of Stand Watie’s Cherokee Rebels. 332 pages. (NEWBERY Kei)
Miller, Bobbi. The Girls of Gettysburg. Pickett’s Charge, one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War, is the climax of this Civil War adventure, told from the perspective of three girls: a Union loyalist, a free Black, and a girl from Virginia who disguised herself as a boy to fight in the Confederate Army. 151 pages. (J FIC Mil)
Murphy, Jim. Journal of James Edmond Pease, a Civil War Union Soldier. My Name is America series. James Edmond, a sixteen-year-old orphan, keeps a journal of his experiences and those of “G” Company which he joined as a volunteer in the Union Army during the Civil War. 173 pages. Level V. (J Fic Dea)
Myers, Laurie. Escape by Night. Tommy, the son of a Presbyterian minister in Augusta, Georgia, during the Civil War, must search his conscience to decide whether he should help a Yankee soldier escape and return home. Inspired by the early life of Woodrow Wilson. 120 pages. Level T. (J FIC Mye)
Nolen, Jerdine. Calico Girl. Callie struggles to understand slavery when her stepbrother is sold away at the start of the Civil War, but is determined her whole family will be free one day. Includes historical notes. 164 pages. (J FIC Nol)
Parry, Rosanne. Last of the Name. In 1863, twelve-year-old Danny and his older sister Kathleen arrive in New York City to start a new life, but they soon find themselves navigating through the same prejudices and struggles they experienced in Ireland. 335 pages (J FIC Par)
Polacco, Patricia. Pink and Say. Say Curtis describes his meeting with Pinkus Aylee, a black soldier, during the Civil War, and their capture by Southern troops. 45 pages. Level V. (JIL Pol)
Rinaldi, Ann. Amelia’s War. When a Confederate general threatens to burn Hagerstown, Maryland, unless it pays an exorbitant ransom, twelve-year-old Amelia and her friend find a way to save the town. 265 pages. (J FIC Rin)
Rinaldi, Ann. Come Juneteenth. Fourteen-year-old Luli and her family face tragedy after failing to tell their slaves that President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation made them free. 246 pages. (J FIC Rin)
Schwabach, Karen. The Storm Before Atlanta. In 1863 northwestern Georgia, an unlikely alliance forms between ten-year-old New York drummer boy Jeremy, fourteen-year-old Confederate Charlie, and runaway slave Dulcie as they learn truths about the Civil War, slavery, and freedom. 307 pages. (J FIC Sch)
Wait, Lea. Uncertain Glory. Fourteen-year-old Joe Wood, growing up in Maine during the Civil War, tries to protect his friends, including finding his friend Owen, a young African American boy who has gone missing. 203 pages. (J FIC Wai)
Wells, Rosemary. Red Moon at Sharpsburg. As the Civil War breaks out, India, a young Southern girl, summons her sharp intelligence and the courage she didn’t know she had to survive the war that threatens to destroy her family, her Virginia home, and the only life she has ever known. 236 pages. (J FIC Wel)
Wiechman, Kathy Cannon. Like a River: A Civil War Novel. Two Union soldiers, one too young to have properly enlisted, and the other a girl disguised as a boy, find themselves struggling through the rigors and horrors of war, from amputation to the Andersonville prison camp. 336 pages. (J FIC Wie)
Ylvisaker, Anne. The Curse of the Buttons. When the free state of Iowa is called to fight in the Civil War, eleven-year-old Ike hopes to tap the ingenuity of his fabled ancestors to sneak away and join the Iowa First in disguise as a drummer boy. 227 pages. Level U. (J FIC Ylv)
U.S.A. and Other Countries – 19th Century
Curtis, Christopher Paul. The Journey of Little Charlie. When his poor sharecropper father is killed in an accident and leaves the family in debt, twelve-year-old Little Charlie agrees to accompany fearsome plantation overseer Cap’n Buck north in pursuit of people who have stolen from him. 234 pages. (J FIC cur)
Hopkinson, Deborah. The Great Trouble. A tale set against a backdrop of the mid-19th-century London cholera epidemic follows the survival efforts of a young orphan who supports himself by selling scavenged items from a polluted River Thames and who helps a pioneering doctor identify the source of the virulent disease. 249 pages. Level X. (J FIC Hop)
McClure, Wendy. Wanderville. To escape rumored terrors in Kansas, New Yorkers Jack and Frances, eleven, and Frances’s brother Harold, seven, jump off an orphan train in 1899 and help new friend Alexander to build Wanderville, a safe place for homeless children. 211 pages. (J FIC McC)
Preus, Margi. West of the Moon. In nineteenth-century Norway, fourteen-year-old Astri, whose aunt has sold her to a mean goat herder, dreams of joining her father in America. 213 pages. (J FIC Pre)
Pryor, Bonnie. The Iron Dragon: The Courageous Story of Lee Chin. In the mid-nineteenth century, teenager Lee Chin and his father leave China for California to work on the transcontinental railroad, where Lee defies his father’s wishes and saves money to free his younger sister from slavery in China, then brings her to join him in beginning a new life in America. Includes historical note about the Chinese who helped build the transcontinental railroad. 160 pages. (J FIC Pry)
Rose, Caroline Starr. May B. When a failed wheat crop nearly bankrupts the Betterly family, Pa pulls twelve-year-old May, who suffers from dyslexia, from school and hires her out to a couple new to the Kansas frontier. 231 pages. (J FIC Ros)
Early 20th Century – Miscellaneous women’s rights, factories, family life, influenza epidemic, etc.
Abbott, E.F. Nettie & Nellie Crook, Orphan Train Sisters. A story based on the true experiences of orphan train twins Nettie and Nellie Crook describes how they were put on a train headed west after a mysterious separation from their parents in 1910 and unhappily placed with a family before being rescued and finding a forever home. 161 pages. (J FIC Abb)
Avi. The Secret School. In 1925, fourteen-year-old Ida Bidson secretly takes over as the teacher when the one-room schoolhouse in her remote Colorado area closes unexpectedly. 153 pages. Level T. (J FIC Avi)
Hesse, Karen. Brooklyn Bridge: A Novel. In 1903 Brooklyn, fourteen-year-old Joseph Michtom’s life changes for the worse when his parents, Russian immigrants, invent the teddy bear and turn their apartment into a factory, while nearby the glitter of Coney Island contrasts with the dismal lives of children dwelling under the Brooklyn Bridge. 229 pages. Level U. (J FIC Hes)
Hopkinson, Deborah. Into the Firestorm: A Novel of San Francisco, 1906. Days after arriving in San Francisco from Texas, eleven-year-old orphan Nicholas Dray tries to help his new neighbors survive the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and the subsequent fires. 200 pages. Level T. (J FIC Hop)
Hurst, Carol Otis. You Come to Yokum. Twelve-year-old Frank witnesses his mother’s struggles to muster support for women’s right to vote even as the family’s life is transformed by a year running a lodge in western Massachusetts in the early 1920s. 137 pages. (J FIC Hur)
Jocelyn, Marthe. Mable Riley: A Reliable Record of Humdrum, Peril and Romance. In 1901, fourteen-year-old Mable Riley dreams of being a writer and having adventures while stuck in Perth County, Ontario, assisting her sister in teaching school and secretly becoming friends with a neighbor who holds scandalous opinions on women’s rights. 281 pages. (J FIC Joc)
Kelly, Jacqueline. The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate. In central Texas in 1899, eleven-year-old Callie Vee Tate is instructed to be a lady by her mother, learns about love from the older three of her six brothers, and studies the natural world with her grandfather. Together with her grandfather, Callie makes an important discovery. 340 pages. Level Y. (J FIC Kel)
Larson, Kirby. Hattie Big Sky. For years, sixteen-year-old Hattie’s been shuttled between relatives. Tired of being Hattie Here-and-There, she courageously leaves Iowa to prove up on her late uncle’s homestead claim near Vida, Montana. With a stubborn stick-to-itiveness, Hattie faces frost, drought and blizzards. Despite many hardships, Hattie forges ahead, sharing her adventures with her friends–especially Charlie, fighting in France–through letters and articles for her hometown paper. 289 pages. Level W. (J FIC Lar)
Levine, Gail Carson. Dave at Night. When orphaned Dave is sent to the Hebrew Home for Boys where he is treated cruelly, he sneaks out at night and is welcomed into the music- and culture-filled world of the Harlem Renaissance. 281 pages. (J FIC Lev)
Moss, Jenny. Winnie’s War. Living in the shadow of a Texas cemetery, twelve-year-old Winnie Grace struggles to keep the Spanish influenza of 1918 from touching her family–her coffin-building father, her troubled mother, and her two baby sisters. 178 pages. Level V. (J FIC Mos)
Paterson, Katherine. Bread and Roses, Too. Jake and Rosa, two children, form an unlikely friendship as they try to survive and understand the 1912 Bread and Roses strike of mill workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts. 275 pages. Level W. (J FIC Pat)
Porter, Tracey. Billy Creekmore. In 1905, ten-year-old Billy is taken from an orphanage to live with an aunt and uncle of whose existence he was previously unaware. He enjoys his first taste of family life until his work in a coal mine and his involvement with a union bring trouble. He then joins a circus in hopes of finding his father. 305 pages. (J FIC Por)
Taylor, Sydney. All-of-a-Kind Family. The adventures of five sisters growing up in a Jewish family in New York in the early twentieth century. 188 pages. Level Q. (J FIC Tay)
Winthrop, Elizabeth. Counting on Grace. Twelve year old Grace and her best friend Arthur must leave their Vermont school to work with their mother at a textile mill. They become young activists, collecting evidence for the Child Labor Board. 215 pages. Level W (J FIC Win)
World War I 1914-1918
Boyne, John. Stay Where You Are and Then Leave. Four years after Alfie Summerfield’s father left London to become a soldier in World War I he has not returned but Alfie, now nine, is shining shoes at King’s Cross Station when he happens to learn that his father is at a nearby hospital being treated for shell shock. 245 pages. (J FIC Boy)
Dumon Tak. Soldier Bear. An orphaned Syrian brown bear cub is adopted by Polish soldiers during World War II and serves for five years as their mischievous mascot in Iran and Italy; based on a true story. 145 pages. (J FIC Dum)
Hartnett, Sonya. The Silver Donkey. In France during World War I, four French children learn about honesty, loyalty, and courage from an English army deserter who tells them a series of stories related to his small, silver donkey charm. 266 pages. Level V. (J FIC Har)
Hart, Alison. Darling, Mercy Dog of World War I. In Cosham, England, in 1917, Darling, a mischievous collie, must leave the children who love her when she is chosen for training as a mercy dog, seeking out injured soldiers on the battlefield and leading medics to them. 163 pages. (J FIC Har)
Jones, Elizabeth McDavid. The Night Flyers. History Mysteries Series. In 1918, caring for her family’s homing pigeons while her father is away fighting in World War I, twelve-year-old Pam comes to suspect that a mysterious stranger in her small North Carolina town is a German spy. 148 pages. Level W (J FIC Ame)
McDonough, Yona Zeldis. The Doll Shop Downstairs. Nine-year-old Anna and her sisters love to play with the dolls in their parents’ doll repair shop. But when World War I begins, an embargo on German-made goods-including the parts Papa needs to repair the dolls-threatens to put the family’s shop out of business. Fortunately, Anna has an idea that just might save the day. 118 pages. (FIC McD)
Great Depression
Curtis, Christopher Paul. The Mighty Miss Malone. With love and determination befitting the “world’s greatest family,” twelve-year-old Deza Malone, her older brother Jimmie, and their parents endure tough times in Gary, Indiana, and later Flint, Michigan, during the Great Depression. 307 pages. (J FIC Cur)
Curtis, Christopher Paul. Bud, Not Buddy. Ten-year-old Bud, a motherless boy living in Flint, Michigan, during the Great Depression, escapes a bad foster home and sets out in search of the man he believes to be his father–the renowned bandleader, H.E. Calloway of Grand Rapids 245 pages. Level U (J NEWBERY Cur)
De Young, C. Coco. A Letter to Mrs. Roosevelt. Eleven-year-old Margo fulfills a class assignment by writing a letter to Eleanor Roosevelt asking for help to save her family’s home during the Great Depression. 105 pages. Level R. (J FIC DeY)
Hesse, Karen. Out of the Dust. In a series of poems, fifteen-year-old Billie Jo relates the hardships of living on her family’s wheat farm in Oklahoma during the dust bowl years of the Depression. 227 pages. Level X. (J NEWBERY Hes)
Peck, Richard. A Long Way From Chicago: A Novel in Stories. A boy recounts his annual summer trips to rural Illinois with his sister during the Great Depression to visit their larger-than-life grandmother. 148 pages. Level V. ( J FIC Pec)
Tubb, Kristin, O’Donnell. Autumn Winifred Oliver Does Things Different. Autumn Winifred Oliver, an eleven-year-old girl living in Cades Cove, Eastern Tennessee, during the Depression, watches her grandfather as he tries to persuade his neighbors to back the proposed Great Smoky Mountains National Park, but when they discover that the government representative is lying to them, Gramps becomes even more resourceful. Includes author’s note about the history of the park. 214 pages. (J FIC Tub)
Vanderpool, Clare. Moon Over Manifest. Twelve-year-old Abilene Tucker is the daughter of a drifter who, in the summer of 1936, sends her to stay with an old friend in Manifest, Kansas, where he grew up, and where she hopes to find out some things about his past. 351 pages. Level U (J NEWBERY Van)
World War II 1939-1945
Ackerman, Karen. The Night Crossing. In 1938, having begun to feel the persecution that all Jews are experiencing in their Austrian city, Clara and her family escape over the mountains into Switzerland. 53 pages. Level O. (J FIC Ack)
Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. The Boy Who Dared. In October, 1942, seventeen-year-old Helmuth Hubener, imprisoned for distributing anti-Nazi leaflets, recalls his past life and how he came to dedicate himself to bring the truth about Hitler and the war to the German people. 202 pages. Level Y. (J FIC Bar)
Boyne, John. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Bored and lonely after his family moves from Berlin to a place called “Out-With” in 1942, Bruno, the son of a Nazi officer, befriends a boy in striped pajamas who lives behind a wire fence. 215 pages. (J FIC Boy)
Bradley, Kimberly Brubaker. The War I Finally Won. As the frightening impact of World War II creeps closer and closer to her door, eleven-year-old Ada learns to manage life on the home front. 385 pages. (J FIC Bru)
Carelli, Anne O’Brien. Skylark and Wallcreeper. While helping her granny Collette evacuate to a makeshift shelter in Brooklyn during Superstorm Sandy, Lily uncovers secrets of her grandmother’s past as a member of the French Resistance during WWII. 398 pages. (J FIC Car)
Chapman, Fern Schumer. Is It Night or Day? In 1938, Edith Westerfeld, a young German Jew, is sent by her parents to Chicago, Illinois, where she lives with an aunt and uncle and tries to assimilate into American culture, while worrying about her parents and mourning the loss of everything she has ever known. Based on the author’s mother’s experience, includes an afterword about a little-known program that brought twelve hundred Jewish children to safety during World War II. 205 pages. Level X/Y. (J FIC Cha)
Dauvillier, Loic. Hidden. In this graphic novel, a little girl’s grandmother recounts her childhood as a young Jewish girl in Vichy France, being passed along and sheltered by a series of kind strangers until finally being reunited with her mother. 76 pages. (J COMIC Dau)
Dennenberg, Barry. Journal of Ben Uchida. My Name is America series. Twelve-year-old Ben Uchida keeps a journal of his experiences as a prisoner in a Japanese internment camp in Mirror Lake, California, during World War II. 156 pages. (J FIC Dea)
Erwin, Vicki Berger. Different Days. Twelve-year-old Rosie is fiercely proud to be an American, and has a happy life with her family in their comfortable home in sunny Honolulu, Hawaii. Then, on the morning of December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor is bombed and everything changes. 270 pages. (J FIC Erw)
Glatstein, Jacob. Emil and Karl. In Vienna, Austria, in 1940, two nine-year-old boys, one Jewish and one Aryan, are classmates and best friends when events of the Nazi occupation draw them even closer together as they fight to survive and escape together. 194 pages. Level Y. (J FIC Gla)
Gleitzman, Morris. Then. In early 1940s Poland, ten-year-old Felix and his friend Zelda escape from a cattle car headed to the Nazi death camps and struggle to survive, first on their own and then with Genia, a farmer with her own reasons for hating Germans. 198 pages. (J FIC Gle)
Giff, Patricia Reilly. Island War. In 1942 13-year-olds Izzy and Matt become trapped on an Japanese-occupied Aleutian island when the rest of the American population is evacuated and must survive on their own for the duration of World War II. 203 pages. (J FIC Gif)
Giff, Patricia Reilly. Lily’s Crossing. During a summer spent at Rockaway Beach in 1944, Lily’s friendship with a young Hungarian refugee causes her to see the war and her own world differently. 180 pages. Level S. (J FIC Gif)
Gratz, Alan. Grenade. On April 1, 1945 with the battle of Okinawa beginning, fourteen-year-old native Okinawan Hideki, drafted into the Blood and Iron Student Corps, is handed two grenades and told to go kill American soldiers; small for his age Hideki does not really want to kill anyone, he just wants to find his family, and his struggle across the island will finally bring him face-to-face with Ray, a marine in his very first battle and the choice he makes then will change his life forever. 270 pages. (J FIC Gra)
Hull, Nancy L. On Rough Seas. In Dover, England in 1940, fourteen-year-old Alec Curtis wants nothing more than to go to sea, to absolve himself of the guilt he feels over the earlier drowning of his cousin and to help the war effort, but when he sneaks aboard a small boat going across the English Channel to Dunkirk, his experience changes him forever. 261 pages. (J FIC Hull)
Hopkinson, Deborah. How I Became a Spy: A Mystery of WWII London. In World War II London, a young spy named Bertie, his strong-willed American friend Eleanor, a Jewish refugee named David, and a dog called Little Roo try to prevent a double agent from giving secrets to the Nazis. 264 pages. (J FIC Hop)
Klages, Ellen. The Green Glass Sea. In 1943, eleven-year-old Dewey Kerrigan lives with her scientist father in Los Alamos, New Mexico, as he works on a top secret government program, and befriends an aspiring artist who is a misfit just like her. 321 pages. (J FIC Kla)
Lowry, Lois. Number the Stars. In 1943, during the German occupation of Denmark, ten-year-old Annemarie learns how to be brave and courageous when she helps shelter her Jewish friend from the Nazis. 137 pages. Level U. (J NEWBERY Low)
Mazer, Harry. A Boy at War: A Novel of Pearl Harbor. While fishing with his friends off Honolulu on December 7, 1941, teenaged Adam is caught in the midst of the Japanese attack and through the chaos of the subsequent days tries to find his father, a naval officer who was serving on the U.S.S. Arizona when the bombs fell. 104 pages. (J FIC Maz)
McAllister, Cameron. The Tin Snail. A thirteen-year-old French boy tries to save his father’s job by inventing a special kind of car, but it isn’t easy–especially when the Nazis are planning to steal his design. 274 pages. Level W. (J FIC McA)
McDonough, Yona Zeldis. The Bicycle Spy. Twelve-year-old Marcel loves riding his bicycle, and dreams of competing in the Tour de France, but it is 1942 and German soldiers are everywhere, stopping him as he delivers bread from his parents’ bakery around Aucoin–then one day he discovers that itis not just bread he is delivering, and suddenly he finds himself in possession of dangerous secrets about his parents and his new friend from Paris, Delphine. 197 pages. (J FIC McD)
McDonough, Yona Zeldis. Courageous: A Novel of Dunkirk. It is the end of May 1940, the British government has put out a call for fishing boats to help rescue the British soldiers trapped at Dunkerque and Aiden is the son of a fisherman with access to his father’s dory–his parents forbid him to go, but Aiden has already lost one brother to the war, and his other brother is somewhere over there with the British Expeditionary Force; so despite his fear of the ocean, he and his best friend Sally set out to rescue George and his fellow soldiers.177 pages (J FIC McD)
McDonogh, Yona Zeldis. The Doll with the Yellow Star. When France falls to Germany at the start of World War II, nine-year-old Claudine must leave her beloved parents and friends to stay with relatives in America, accompanied by her doll, Violette. 90 pages. (J FIC McD)
McSwigen, Marie. Snow Treasure. Based on a true story, this heroic tale, set in Norway during World War II, follows a group of courageous schoolchildren who outwit the invading Nazis by sledding thirteen tons of gold bricks down the mountain to a waiting ship, keeping their country’s treasure out of Nazi hands 196 pages. Level R. (J FIC McS)
Meyer, Susan. Black Radishes. Forced to leave his friends behind in Nazi-threatened 1940 Paris, Jewish youth Gustave relocates with his parents to a small country village where he learns about the occupation and meets a Catholic resistance fighter who offers to help them flee to America. 228 pages. (J FIC Mey)
Napoli, Donna Jo. Fire in the Hills. Upon returning to Italy, fourteen-year-old Roberto struggles to survive, first on his own, then as a member of the resistance, fighting against the Nazi occupiers while yearning to reach home safely and for an end to the war. 215 pages. (J FIC Nap)
Osborne, Mary Pope. My Secret War: The World War II Diary of Madeline Beck. Dear America series. Thirteen-year-old Madeline’s diaries for 1941 and 1942 reveal her experiences living on Long Island during World War II while her father is away in the Navy. 185 pages. (J FIC Dea)
Preus, Margi. Shadow on the Mountain. In Nazi-occupied Norway, fourteen-year-old Espen joins the resistance movement, graduating from deliverer of illegal newspapers to courier and spy. 286 pages. (J FIC Pre)
Voorhoeve, Anne C. My Family for the War. Before the start of World War II, ten-year-old Ziska Mangold, who has Jewish ancestors but has been raised as a Protestant, is taken out of Nazi Germany on one of the Kindertransport trains, to live in London with a Jewish family, where she learns about Judaism and endures the hardships of war while attempting to keep in touch with her parents, who are trying to survive in Holland. 402 pages. (J FIC Voo)
Wolf, Joan, M. Someone Named Eva. From her home in Lidice, Czechoslovakia, in 1942, eleven-year-old Milada is taken with other blond, blue-eyed children to a school in Poland to be trained as “proper Germans” for adoption by German families, but all the while she remembers her true name and history. 200 pages. (J FIC Wol)
Yep, Laurence. Hiroshima. Describes the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, particularly as it affects Sachi, who becomes one of the Hiroshima Maidens. 56 pages. Level S. (J FIC Yep)
Civil Rights / Vietnam War Era
Burg, Shana. A Thousand Never Evers. Set in the segregated south of rural Mississippi in 1963, the disappearance of her brother, family problems, and unfair treatment by the mayor sparks a young African-American girl to take action and lead a civil rights march in town with the hopes of getting much-needed answers, justice, and equality for the people she loves. 301 pages. Level W. (J FIC Bur)
Coleman, Evelyn. Freedom Train. Twelve-year-old Clyde Thomason’s older brother is a guard on the Freedom Train, which is carrying the Bill of Rights and other documents throughout the country in 1948, but Clyde is also learning about rights and freedom as he is saved from a beating by an African American boy, and later returns the favor when men in their Atlanta suburb decide to show the “Nigras” their place. 140 pages. (J FIC Col)
Dowell, Frances, O Roark. Shooting the Moon. When her brother is sent to fight in Vietnam, twelve-year-old Jamie begins to reconsider the army world that she has grown up in. 163 pages. Level T. (J FIC Dow)
Kerley, Barbara. Greetings from Planet Earth. In 1977, as twelve-year-old Theo struggles with a science class project on space exploration, questions emerge about why his father never returned from Vietnam and why Theo’s mother has been keeping secrets for many years. 246 pages. (J FIC Ker)
Levine, Kristin. The Lions of Little Rock. In 1958 Little Rock, Arkansas, painfully shy twelve-year-old Marlee sees her city and family divided over school integration, but her friendship with Liz, a new student, helps her find her voice and fight against racism. 298 pages. Level X (J FIC Lev)
Lynch, Chris. I Pledge Allegiance. Enlisting as a group when one of them is drafted into the Vietnam War, best friends Morris, Rudi, Ivan, and Beck pledge their loyalty to one another before reporting to different branches of service. 183 pages. Level Y (J FIC Lyn)
McKissack, Patricia C. A Friendship For Today. In 1954, when desegregation comes to Kirkland, Missouri, ten-year-old Rosemary faces many changes and challenges at school and at home as her parents separate. 172 pages. (J FIC McK)
Rodman, Mary Ann. Yankee Girl. When her FBI-agent father is transferred to Jackson, Mississippi, in 1964, eleven-year-old Alice wants to be popular but also wants to reach out to the one black girl in her class in a newly-integrated school. 219 pages. Level Y (J FIC Rod)
Watts, Jeri Hannel. Kizzy Ann Stamps. In 1963, as Kizzy Ann prepares for her first year at an integrated school, she worries about the color of her skin, the scar running from the corner of her right eye to the tip of her smile, and whether anyone at the white school will like her. She writes letters to her new teacher in a clear, insistent voice, stating her troubles and asking questions with startling honesty. The new teacher is supportive, but not everyone feels the same, so there is a lot to write about. 183 pages. Level T. (J FIC Wat)
Weaver, Lila Quintero. My Year in the Middle. At Lu Olivera’s school the white kids and black kids sit on different sides of the classroom while Lu just wants to get along with everyone, but growing racial tensions will not let Lu stay neutral about the racial divide in school. 268 pages. (J FIC Wea)
Williams-Garcia, Rita. One Crazy Summer. In the summer of 1968, after traveling from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to spend a month with the mother they barely know, eleven-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters arrive to a cold welcome as they discover that their mother, a dedicated poet and printer, is resentful of the intrusion of their visit and wants them to attend a nearby Black Panther summer camp. 218 pages. Level W. (J FIC Wil)