Historical Fiction
Subjects:
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Prehistoric Man
Ancient Egypt
Greek Mythology
Ancient Rome
Medieval
Renaissance
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Samurai
Tudor England
American
Revolution
Lewis & Clark
Native Americans
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Slavery
Civil War
Reconstruction
Settling the
American West
Victorian England
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Early 20th century
Great Depression
World War I
World War II
Vietnam War
1950s- 1980s
Call
No.
Title/Author/Summary
Era/Period
F
Alder, Elizabeth. The King’s Shadow.
Medieval
Ald
Evyn’s tongue is cut out and he is sold into slavery after his Welsh village is attacked
by another clan. His dreams of becoming a storyteller are ended, but his new mistress
allows him to learn to read and he eventually becomes the adopted son of King Harold
of England.
F
Alexander, Lloyd. The Rope Trick
Ale
Motivated by her quest to learn a legendary rope trick, the magician Princess Lidi and
her troupe embark on a journey through Renaissance Italy that intertwines adventure,
love, and mystery.
Renaissance
Other books by this author: The Gawgon and The Boy; The Philadelphia Adventure.
This author also writes many other non-historical fiction books for young adults.
F
Alphin, Elaine. The Ghost Cadet.
Alp
Benjy Stark isn’t happy about spending his vacation visiting his grandmother in
Virginia. She probably won’t like him; no one lese seems to. the last thing Benjy
expects to do is make a friend--especially one who’s the ghost of a cadet who was
killed in the Civil War more than 100 years ago!
Civil War
Also by Alphin: Ghost Soldier
Ambrose, Stephen. This Vast Land: A Young Man’s Journal of the Lewis
and Clark Expedition.
F
Amb
A fictional journal recounting the travels--from 1803 to 1806--of eighteen-year-old
George Shannon, the youngest member of Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery as
they explored the west and sought a water route to the Pacific Ocean.
Anderson, Laurie Halse. Fever 1793.
During the hot mosquito-infested summer of 1793, the dreaded yellow fever spread through
Philadelphia like wildfire, killing people overnight. 16-year-old Mattie Cook’s comfortable and
interesting life is shattered by the epidemic, as her mother is felled and the girl and her
grandfather must flee for their lives.
F
And
Lewis and
Clark
expedition
F
Armstrong, Jennifer. Steal Away.
Arm
Two friends, one white, one black, are reunited and relive the perilous journey that
had bound them together many years ago. A granddaughter and a pupil of the two
learn more about themselves and history as they hear the amazing story.
Civil War
More by Armstrong: Becoming Mary Mehan: two novels; Ann of the Wild Rose Inn.
Auch, Mary Jane. Ashes of Roses.
F
Auc
When she arrives on Ellis Island as a seventeen-year-old Irish immigrant, Rose Nolan
is looking for a land of opportunities; what she finds is far from all she'd dreamed.
Stubborn and tenacious, she refuses to give up. Left alone to fend for herself and her
younger sister, Rose is thrust into a hard-knock life of tenements and factory work.
Also by this author: Frozen Summer.
F
Avi. City of Orphans
Avi
The streets of 1893 New York are full of life: crowded, filthy, dangerous. If you are a
newsboy like thirteen-year- old Maks Geless, you need to watch out for Bruno, leader of
the Plug Ugly Gang whose shadowy, sinister boss is plotting to take control of all the
newsies on the lower East Side.
With Bruno’s boys in fierce pursuit, Maks discovers Willa, a strange girl who lives alone
in an alley. It is she, stick in hand, who fights off the Plug Uglies—but further dangers
await.
Maks must find a way to free his sister Emma from The Tombs, the city jail where she has
been imprisoned for stealing a watch at the glamorous new Waldorf Hotel. Maks,
believing her innocent, has only four days to prove it. Fortunately, there is Bartleby
Donck, the eccentric lawyer (among other employments) to guide Maks and Willa in the
art of detection.
Against a backdrop alive with the sights and sounds of tenement New York, Maks, as boy
detective, must confront a teeming world of wealth and crime, while struggling against
powerful forces threatening new immigrants and the fabric of family love. (Readingteen)
F
Avi
Avi. The Fighting Ground.
A farm boy fights and is taken prisoner by Hessian soldiers in the American
Revolution in this swiftly paced adventure story.
Early 20th
century
Victorian
England
American
Revolution
Other books by this author: The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle; Don’t You
Know There’s a War On?; The Mayor of Central Park; The Secret School; The
Traitors’ Gate; Hard Gold: The Colorado Gold Rush of 1859:a tale of the Old West;
and many other non-historical fiction books for young adults.
F
Ayres, Katherine. Macaroni Boy.
Great
Ayr
In Pittsburgh in 1933, sixth-grader Mike Costa notices a connection between several
strange occurrences, but the only way he can find out the truth about what's
happening is to be nice to the class bully. Includes historical facts.
Depression
F
Bea
Beatty, Patricia. Turn Homeward, Hannalee.
Civil War
During the Civil War, twelve year old Hannalee was one of two thousand Georgia
textile workers who were shipped north, against their will, to work in Yankee mills.
This is a story of her struggle to find her way back home again. The sequel to this book
is Be Ever Hopeful, Hannalee.
Also by this author: Who Comes With Cannons; Charley Skedaddle and I Want My
Sunday, Stranger!
F
Bennett, Cherie. Anne Frank and Me.
Ben
After suffering a concussion while on a class trip to a Holocaust exhibit, Nicole finds
herself living the life of a Jewish teenager in Paris during the Nazi occupation.
F
Ber
Berry, James. Ajeemah and His Son.
F
Blackwood, Gary L. The Shakespeare Stealer.
Bla
A Young orphan boy is ordered by his master to infiltrate Shakespeare’s acting troupe
in order to steal the script “Hamlet” but he discovers instead the meaning of
friendship and loyalty. First in the Shakespeare Stealer series.
World War II
Slavery
A father and son are snatched from their African home and sold in Jamaica, never to
see one another again.
Tudor England
Other historical novels by Gary Blackwood: Second Sight and The Year of the
Hangman.
F
Blume, Lesley. Tennyson.
Blu
It's 1932, the Depression. Tennyson Fontaine and her sister Hattie live in a rickety
shack of a house with their mother and father and their wild dog, Jos. There is no
school, only a rope swing in the living room and endless games of hide-and-seek in the
woods on the banks of the Mississippi. But when their mother disappears and their
father sets off to find her, the girls find themselves whisked away to Aigredoux, once
one of the grandest houses in Louisiana, and now a vine-covered ruin. Under the care
of their austere Aunt Henrietta, who is convinced the girls will save the family's failing
fortunes, Tennyson discovers the truth about Aigredoux, the secrets that have
remained locked deep within its decaying walls.
F
Bradley, Kimberly Brubaker. For Freedom: The Story of a French Spy.
Bra
A novel based on the experiences of Suzanne David Hall, who, as a teenager in Nazioccupied France, worked as a spy for the French Resistance while training to be an
opera singer.
Depression
World War II
F
Bray, Libba. A Great and Terrible Beauty.
Bra
After the suspicious death of her mother in 1895, sixteen-year-old Gemma returns to
England, after many years in India, to attend a finishing school where she becomes
aware of her magical powers and the ability to see into the spirit world.
Victorian
England
Sequels: Rebel Angels, A Sweet Far Thing
F
Breslin, Theresa. Remembrance.
Bre
The destinies of two Scottish families, one of shopkeepers and one of wealth and
power, become entwined through their involvement in World War I, social causes, and
love.
F
Bri
Brink, Carol Ryrie. Caddie Woodlawn.
F
Bruchac, Joseph. The Journal of Jesse Smoke: A Cherokee Boy.
Bru
Jesse Smoke, a sixteen-year-old Cherokee, begins a journal in 1837 to record stories of
his people and their difficulties as they face removal along the Trail of Tears. Includes
a historical note giving details of the removal.
F
Bunting, Eve. SOS Titanic.
Bun
Fifteen-year-old Barry O'Neill, traveling from Ireland to America on the maiden
voyage of the Titanic, finds his life endangered when the ship hits an iceberg and
begins to sink.
This is the story of a Wisconsin pioneer family and eleven year old Caddie; the pranks
she played and the courage she displayed when Indians threatened to massacre the
settlers.
World War I
Settling the
American
West
Native
Americans
Early 20th
Century
Also by this author: I am the Mummy Heb-Nefert.
F
Burns, Olive Ann. Cold Sassy Tree.
Early 20th
Bur
Cold Sassy, Georgia, has never been a whirlpool of excitement. But on July 5, 1906,
things took a scandalous turn. That was the day E. Ruckler Baleslee, proprietor of the
general store and barely three weeks a widower, eloped with Miss Love Simpson--a
woman half his age and, worse yet, a Yankee! On that day Will Tweedy’s adventures
began and an unimpeachably pious, deliciously irreverent town came to life.
Century
F
Cabot, Meg. Nicola and the Viscount.
Cab
In Regency London, every girl wants to make a good match. Nicola thinks she's done it
with the fabulously handsome (if conversationally challenged) Viscount Sebastian
Bartholomew. Turns out she's wrong -- but it may be too late!
F
Cadnum, Michael. The Leopard Sword.
Cad
Hubert, a young knight's squire sailing back to England from the Crusades, must take
up arms again when infidels attack the ship, and he discovers his fight is not over
Medieval
when he finally reaches home only to find a friend facing execution.
Other books by this author: The Book of the Lion and Daughter of the Wind: A Novel.
F
Calvert, Patricia. Sooner.
Civil War/
Cal
With the realization that his father may not return now that the Civil War is over,
thirteen-year-old Tyler finds himself the man of their Missouri farm and the master of
a new dog, the strikingly-colored Sooner.
Reconstruction
F
Cameron, Ann. The Secret Life of Amanda K. Woods.
Cam
Living in a rural community in Wisconsin during the 1950s, eleven-year-old Amanda
gradually and painfully learns a lot about herself, her parents, and her older sister.
F
Cannon, A. E. (Ann Edwards).Charlotte’s Rose.
Can
As a twelve-year-old Welsh immigrant carries a motherless baby along the Mormon
Trail in 1856, she comes to love the baby as her own and fear the day the baby's father
will reclaim her.
F
Carbone, Elisa Lynn. Stealing Freedom.
Car
A novel based on the events in the life of a young slave girl from Maryland who
endures all kinds of mistreatment and cruelty, including being separated from her
family, but who eventually escapes to freedom in Canada.
Settling the
American
West
Slavery
Also by this author: Blood on the River: James Town 1607.
F
Car
Carter,
Dorothy
Sharp.
His
Majesty,
Queen
Hatshepsut.
A fictional account based on the real life of an Egyptian princess who defied
extraordinary odds to rule her people.
Ancient Egypt
F
Casanova, Mary. Cécile: Gates of Gold.
Rennaissance
Cas
In 1711, twelve-year-old In 1711, twelve-year-old Cécile Revel unexpectedly gets the
chance to serve Louis XIV's sister-in-law at the palace of Versailles, but instead of a
dream come true, life at court proves to be complicated and precarious.
F
Chan, Gillian. A Foreign Field.
Cha
Young British pilot Stephen Dearborn, training in Canada during World War II, meets
fourteen-year-old Ellen Logan when her younger brother gets into some trouble at the
local airfield, and the two young people fall in love while facing difficult
responsibilities brought about by the conflict.
World War II
F
Chang, Ina. A Separate Battle.
Cha
The author weaves together vivid stories of slave women, abolitionists, women’s rights
leaders, northern teachers, and southern refugees in this book, revealing how women
influenced the course of the Civil War and transformed their own lives in the process.
F
Cheaney, J.B. The True Prince.
Che
Newly apprenticed to Shakespeare's theater company, Richard and Kit are drawn into
a series of crimes involving the members of Queen Elizabeth's court.
Civil War
Tudor England
Another book by this author: The Playmaker.
F
Cheng, Andrea. Marika
Che
Although she has been raised Catholic, Marika learns how dangerous it is to be or
Jewish heritage and living in Hungary during World War II.
World War II
Chevalier, Tracy. Girl with a Pearl Earring.
F
Che
Griet, the young daughter of a tilemaker in seventeeth century Holland, obtains her
first job, as a servant in the painter Vermeer's household. Griet loves being drawn into
his artistic life, and leaving her former drudgery, but the cost to her own survival may
be high.
F
Cho
Choi, Sook Nyul. Year of Impossible Goodbyes.
F
Cho
Chotjewitz, David. Daniel Half Human and the Good Nazi.
F
Cle
Clement-Davies, David. The Telling Pool.
Rennaisance
World War II
During World War II a young Korean and her family suffer the cruelties of Japanese
occupation until they are forced to flee to the South and freedom.
World War II
Daniel and Armin are best friends. They are from well-to-do families and enjoy
football and school. But they also admire Hitler as an underdog and revolutionary
hero. The boys talk about joining the Hitler Youth - until Daniel learns to his horror
that his mother is Jewish, that he is himself half-Jewish and therefore, in Aryan eyes,
half human. So Daniel attempts to keep this fearsome secret to himself ...
The Telling Pool's richly atmospheric tale draws on Arthurian legend and pagan belief,
following the fate of young Rhodri Falcon and his crusader father as they become
entangled in the war of a king and the machinations of a seductive sorceress who
literally steals men's hearts. Its up to Rhodri to defeat the sorceress and save his father
before all is forever lost.
Medieval
F
Col
Collier, James Lincoln. My Brother Sam is Dead.
The Revolutionary War affects a Connecticut family as the father, loyal to the king,
confronts his oldest son, a "rebel" partisan.
American
Revolution
Book by this author: The Worst of Times and The Corn Raid.
F
Cou
Couloumbis, Audrey. The Misadventures of Maude March, or, Trouble
Rides a Fast Horse.
Eleven-year-old Sallie March is a whip-smart tomboy and voracious reader of Western
adventure novels. When she and her sister, Maude, are orphaned for the second time,
they decide to escape their new self-serving guardians for the wilds of the frontier and
an adventure the likes of which Sallie has only read about. First of the Maude March
series.
F
Crane, Stephen. The Red Badge of Courage.
Cra
In the spring of 1863, while engaged in the fierce battle of Chancellorsville in Virginia,
a young Union soldier matures to manhood and finds peace of mind as he comes to
grips with his conflicting emotions about war.
F
Crichton, Michael. Timeline.
Cri
This story features historians in 1999 employed by a tech billionaire-genius. He plans
a theme park featuring artifacts from a lost world revived via cutting-edge science. The
project's chief historian sends a distress call to 1999 from 1357, but the risks are huge.
F
Crossley-Holland, Kevin. Crossing to Paradise.
Cro
Gatty is a field girl on a manor. She has never seen busy London or the bright Channel,
the snowy Alps of France or the boats in the Venetian sea. She has not sung in the
Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem or prayed at the manger in Bethlehem --or been
kidnapped, or abandoned, or kissed, or heartbroken. But all these things will change
as Gatty journeys with Lady Gwyneth and a prickly new family of pilgrims across
Europe to the Holy Land.
F
Crum, Shutta. Spitting Image.
Cru
In the small town of Baylor, Kentucy, twelve-year-old Jessie K. Bovey and her friends
confront some of life’s questions during their summer vacation in the late 1960s.
F
Cunningham, Julia. Wolf Roland.
Cun
After losing his beloved donkey to a ravenous wolf, a poor man is roused to such
sorrow and anger that he challenges the beast to take the place of the donkey and pull
the cart.
Settling the
American
West
Civil War
Medieval
Medieval
F
Curtis, Christopher Paul. Elijah of Buxton.
Cur
Eleven-year-old Elijah is the first child born into freedom in Buxton, Canada, a
settlement of runaway slaves just over the border from Detroit. Elijah embarks on a
dangerous journey to America in pursuit of a thief, and he discovers firsthand the
unimaginable horrors of the life his parents fled.
Slavery
Also by this author: The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963.
F
Cushman, Karen. Rodzina.
Cus
A twelve-year-old Polish American girl is boarded onto an orphan train in Chicago
with fears about traveling to the West and a life of unpaid slavery.
This author also writes other historical fiction and books for young adults, including
Matilda Bone.
F
De Angeli, Marguerite. The Door in the Wall.
deA
In this enthralling and inspiring tale, Robin is no longer alone in plague-ridden
London but must meet his father at Castle Lindsay. When the Welsh attack the castle,
Robin is the only one who can save it.
F
Denenberg, Barry. Elisabeth: The Princess Bride.
Den
Presents the fictionalized diary of Princess Elisabeth in which she describes her
unexpected engagement and marriage to her cousin Franz Joseph I, Emperor of
Austria in 1853-54. Includes historical notes concerning her life as Empress.
F
Dewey, Jennifer. Minik’s Story.
Dew
Minik, an adolescent Inuit girl, relates the conflicts brought into her tribe by the
arrival of a priest from a whaling ship in the late nineteenth century.
F
Dickinson, Peter. The Tears of the Salamander.
Dic
When Alfredo, a twelve-year-old choir boy in eighteenth-century Italy, loses his family
in a fire, he goes to live with Uncle Giorgio, who he discovers is a sorcerer in control of
the fires of Mt. Etna with sinister plans for his nephew.
Medieval
Tudor England
Native
Americans
Rennaissance
This author also writes lots of other historical fiction books for young adults.
F
Donnelly, Jennifer. A Northern Light.
Don
Sixteen-year-old Mattie, determined to attend college and be a writer against the
wishes of her father and boyfriend, takes a job at a hotel in 1906 where the death of a
Early 20th
Century
guest renews her determination to live her own life.
F
Dorris, Michael. Morning Girl.
Dor
Morning Girl, who loves the day, and her younger brother Star Boy, who loves the
night, take turns describing their life on an island in pre-Columbian America; in
Morning Girl's last narrative, she witnesses the arrival of the first Europeans to her
world.
F
Dowell, Frances
Dow
Dovey Coe says what's on her mind, so it's no secret that she can't stand Parnell
Caraway. Parnell may be the son of the richest man in town, but he's mean and
snobby, and Dovey can't stand the fact that he's courting her sister, Caroline, or the
way he treats her brother, Amos, as if he were stupid just because he can't hear. So
when Parnell turns up dead, and Dovey's in the room where his body is discovered,
she soon finds herself on trial for murder.
F
Draper, Sharon
Dra
When pale strangers enter fifteen-year-old Amari's village, her entire tribe welcomes
them. But these strangers are slave traders. Amari's life as she's known it is destroyed,
along with her family and village. Beaten, branded, and dragged onto a slave ship,
Amari is forced to witness horrors and endure humiliations she had never thought
possible -- including being sold to a plantation owner in the Carolinas who gives her to
his sixteen-year-old son, Clay, as his birthday present.
F
Duble, Kathleen
Dub
Two sisters, aged ten and twelve, are accused of witchcraft in Andover, Massachusetts,
in 1692 and await trial in a miserable prison while their mother desperately searches
for some way to obtain their freedom.
Native
Americans
Dovey Coe
Copper Sun
The Sacrifice
F
Durbin, William
Blackwater Ben
Dur
In the winter of 1898, a seventh-grade boy drops out of school to work with his father,
the cook at Blackwater Logging Camp in Minnesota.
F
Durrant, Lynda
Dur
In 1781 twelve-year-old Elizabeth Zane, great-great-aunt of novelist Zane Grey, leaves
Philadelphia to return to her brothers' homestead near Fort Henry in what is now
West Virginia, where she plays an important role in the final battle of the American
Revolution.
F
Erdrich, Louise. The Birchbark House.
Erd
The sole survivor of a smallpox epidemic on Spirit Island, Omakayas, then only a baby
girl, was rescued by a fearless woman named Tallow and welcomed into an Ojibwa
family on Lake Superior's Madeline Island, the Island of the Golden-Breasted
Woodpecker. We follow Omakayas, called Little Frog, and her adopted family through
Betsy Zane: The Rose of Fort Henry
Slavery
Witchcraft
Salem MA
1692
1898 US
Logging
American
Revolution
Native
Americans
a cycle of four seasons in 1847, including the winter, when an outbreak of smallpox
overtakes the island. First in the Little Frog series.
F
Fas
Fast, Howard. April Morning.
F
Fin
Finney, Patricia (as Grace Cavendish). Assassin.
F
Fle
Fleishman, Paul. Saturnalia.
It’s April 19, 1775, and you see the British redcoats marching in a solid column
through your town. You shoot, and shoot again while your shoulder aches from your
musket's kick. The tight, disciplined red column bleeds and wavers and breaks and
you begin to shout at the top of your lungs because you are there, at the birth of
freedom – this is the Battle of Lexington, and you've helped whip the King's best
soldiers...
American
Revolution
Tudor England
It's the spring of 1569 and 13-year-old Lady Grace, the youngest lady-in-waiting to the
Queen, finds herself at a glittering ball choosing amongst three suitors. But the
Queen's generosity turns deadly as threats, dark secrets, and even murder descend on
the Tudor court. And it is up to Grace to use her intelligence, stealth, and curious
nature to solve the mystery that threatens the very lifeblood of England.
This many-sided tale of masters and servants takes place in Boston in 1681. It is the
eve of an ancient Roman holiday. Masters and slaves trade places.
Also by this author: Bandit’s Moon, By the Great Horn Spoon!
F
Forrester, Sandra. Wheel of the Moon.
For
In England in 1627, newly orphaned Pen Downing leaves her country village for
London, where she is abducted and sent to Virginia to work as an indentured servant.
Other book by this author: Sound of Jubilee.
F
Fox
Fox, Paula. The Slave Dancer.
F
Grace, C. L. The Merchant of Death.
Gra
Medieval physician and chemist Kathryn Swinbrooke and her cook Thomasina are
busily preparing for the Christmas holiday in the city of Canterbury when the news of
two murders reaches them. Are they related somehow? Kathryn must investigate.
F
Grant, K. M. A Blood Red Horse.
Gra
A brave and noble knight needs a warhorse, a fair maiden, and a just cause. Will has a
horse - a small chestnut stallion with a white blaze in his brow. Ellie is a fair maiden,
but she's supposed to marry Will's older brother, Gavin. And as for the cause, King
In 1840, Jessie Bollier was thirteen, earning pennies and playing his fife on the docks
of New Orleans when he was kidnapped and thrown on a slave ship headed for Africa.
Medieval
Medieval
Richard is calling for a Crusade. The Knights of England must go to the Holy Land to
fight. Will and Gavin will go. Blood will be shed. Lives will be taken. But through it all,
two things will be constant: Ellie, and a blood-red horse called Hosanna. First in the
de Granville trilogy.
Also by this author: How the Hangman Lost His Heart.
F
Gratz, Alan. Samurai Shortstop.
Gra
While obtaining a Western education at a prestigious Japanese boarding school in
1890, sixteen-year-old Toyo also receives traditional samurai training, which has
profound effects on both his baseball game and his relationship with his father.
F
Gray, Dianne E. Together Apart.
Gra
In 1888, a few months after barely surviving a deadly blizzard that has killed two of
her brothers, fifteen-year-old Hannah goes to work at the home a wealthy widow
whose progressive social ideas scandalize the town of Prairie Hill, Nebraska.
F
Gray, Elizabeth Janet. Adam of the Road.
Gra
Adam, son of a minstrel, finds himself separated from his father while chasing after
his stolen red spaniel, Nick, on the road between Winchester and Oxford.
F
Gre
Greene, Jacqueline Dembar. One Foot Ashore.
F
Griffin, Adele. Hannah, Divided.
Gri
In 1934, a thirteen-year-old with a gift for numbers is offered the chance to leave her
family's dairy farm to spend one term at an exclusive Philadelphia girls' school
preparing for a scholarship exam.
F
Gwaltney, Doris. Homefront.
Gwa
When Margaret's older sister leaves for college, it looks like Margaret's days of waiting
for her own room are over. But then an English cousin arrives who has been forced to
flee 1941 London because of the blitz. Not at all concerned with what's happening in
Europe, Margaret Ann is soon fighting a war of her own as she watches her cousin
Courtney get not only her room, but also the attention of her very own family and
boyfriend. It's not until Margaret's only brother enlists in the navy that Margaret
discovers an ally and a friend where at first she saw only a rival.
F
Haahr, Berit I. The Minstrel’s Tale.
Medieval
Rennaissance
Arriving alone and destitute in Amsterdam in the spring of 1654, sixteen-year-old
Maria Ben Lazar finds refuge and friendship in the household of the artist Rembrandt
and continues to pursue her desperate search for her parents and her younger sister.
When betrothed to a repulsive old man, thirteen-year-old Judith runs away, assumes
Great
Depression
World War II
Medieval
Haa
the identity of a young boy, and hopes to join the King's Minstrels in fourteenthcentury England.
F
Haddix, Margaret. Uprising.
Had
Bella, newly arrived in New York from Italy, gets a job at the Triangle Shirtwaist
Factory. There, along with hundreds of other immigrants, she works long hours at a
grueling job under terrible conditions. Bella is at work on March 25, 1911, when a
spark ignites some cloth and the building is engulfed in fire, leading to one of the
worst workplace disasters ever.
F
Harper, Karen (Karen S.) The Poyson Garden.
Har
The letter came in secret, with a pearl eardrop from an aunt long thought dead,
resurrecting the forbidden past. Banished by her spiteful half sister, Queen Mary, to
Hatfield House in the English countryside, twenty-five-year-old Princess Elizabeth
cannot refuse the summons. Elizabeth, daughter of Anne Boleyn, is marked for death
by a master poisoner whose reign of terror may have royal sanction. With her few loyal
retainers, Elizabeth escapes to Kent. Here, in her ancestral Hever Castle, now held by
the Queen's loyalists, Elizabeth seeks to unravel the plot against her. And here, in the
embrace of intrigue and betrayal, the princess must find a brilliant, powerfully
connected killer—before the killer finds her....
H
Haseley, Dennis. The Amazing Thinking Machine.
Has
During the Great Depression, while their father is away looking for work, eight-yearold Patrick and thirteen-year-old Roy create a machine to help their mother make
ends meet, even as she is helping tramps.
F
Hau
Haugaard, Erik Christian. The Samurai's Tale.
F
Henry, Marguerite. San Domingo: The Medicine Hat Stallion.
Hen
In Pre-Civil War Wyoming, a teenager's life is complicated when his strangely hostile
father trades the boy's beloved horse to the Pony Express.
F
Hesse, Karen. Aleutian Sparrow.
Hes
An Aleutian Islander recounts her suffering during World War II in American
internment camps designed to "protect" the population from the invading Japanese.
Early 20th
century
Tudor England
Great
Depression
Samurai
In turbulent sixteenth-century Japan, orphaned Taro is taken in by a general serving
the great warlord Takeda Shingen and grows up to become a samurai fighting for the
enemies of his dead family.
Settling the
American
West
World War II
By the same author: Brooklyn Bridge.
F
Hil
Hilgartner, Beth. A Murder for Her Majesty.
A young girl, seeing her father shot down, presumably on Queen Elizabeth's order,
Tudor England
goes into hiding. She masquerades as a member of the York Minsters Boys' Choir.
F
Hobbs, Valerie. Sonny’s War.
Hob
In the late 1960s, fourteen-year-old Cori's life is greatly changed by the sudden death
of her father and her brother's tour of duty in Vietnam.
F
Holm, Jennifer L. Boston Jane: Wilderness Days.
Hol
Schooled in the lessons of etiquette for young ladies of 1854, Miss Jane Peck of
Philadelphia finds little use for manners during her long sea voyage to the Pacific
Northwest and while living among the American traders and Chinook Indians of
Washington Territory. First in the Boston Jane series.
F
Holt, Kimberley Willis. Dancing In Cadillac Light.
Hol
In 1968, eleven-year-old Jaynell's life in the town of Moon, Texas, is enlivened when
her eccentric Grandpap comes to live with her family.
F
Hoo
Hoobler, Dorothy and Thomas. The Demon in the Teahouse.
Vietnam War
Settling the
American
West
Samurai
In eighteenth-century Japan, fourteen-year-old Seikei, a merchant's son in training to
be a samurai, helps his patron investigate a series of murders and arson associated
with geishas in the capital city of Edo.
Also by this author: The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn.
F
Hoo
Hooks, William H. Circle of Fire.
F
Horowitz, Anthony. The Devil and His Boy.
Hor
In 1593, thirteen-year old Tom travels through the English countryside to London,
where he falls in with a troupe of actors and finds himself in great danger from several
sources.
F
Hun
Hunt, Irene. Across Five Aprils.
F
Hun
Hunter, Mollie. The King’s Swift Rider: A Novel on Robert the Bruce.
In 1936, in North Carolina, three young friends learn that the Ku-Klux Klan is
planning to attack a band of gypsies on Christmas Day, and they realize they must try
to prevent it.
In this unforgettable story, young Jethro Creighton comes of age during the turbulent
years of the Civil War.
Sixteen-year-old Martin Crawford succeeds in rescuing a fugitive--only to be surprised
that the hunted man is none other than Robert the Bruce, rightful King of Scots.
Martin is proud to be chosen as the king's swift rider--a vital link in the army's
scattered forces. And such is his daring and boldness that the Bruce appoints Martin
Early 20th
Century
Tudor England
Civil War
the king's master of espionage.
F
F Ibb
Ibb
After twelve-year-old Annika, a foundling living in late nineteenth-century Vienna, inherits a
trunk of costume jewelry, a woman claiming to be her aristocratic mother arrives and takes
her to live in a strangely decrepit mansion in Germany.
Ibbotson, Eva
The Star of Kazan
Ibbotson, Eva. Journey to the River Sea.
Miss Minton and Maia are sailing to the city of Manaus, a thousand miles up the
mighty Amazon river. Maia, a lonely orphan, is excited to be starting a new life with
relatives she's never met. But years of living in the jungle have sent Maia's uncle and
aunt slightly mad, and their twin daughters are definitely not like normal children...
Also by this author: The Dragonfly Pool.
F
Jacques, Brian. Castaways of the Flying Dutchman.
Jac
A young boy and his dog stow away on board the Flying Dutchman, a ship bound for
South America, in 1620. The pair are thrown overboard as the ship rounds Cape Horn,
but are saved by an angel. From then on the two are fated to travel the world, through
time to help people in trouble. First book in the Castaways of the Flying Dutchman
series.
F
Jenkins, Beverly. Belle and the Beau.
Jen
Just before the American Civil War, Belle Palmer escapes from slavery in the South to
freedom in the North, where she meets and falls in love with Daniel Best.
F
Jocelyn, Marthe. Mable Riley: a reliable record of humdrum, peril, and
romance.
Joc
Slavery
Early 20th
century
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.
F
Johnston, Tony. Bone By Bone By Bone.
Joh
In 1950s Tennessee, ten-year-old David's racist father refuses to let him associate with
his best friend Malcolm, an African American boy.
F
Jordan, Sherryl. The Hunting of the Last Dragon.
Jor
In England in 1356, as a monk records his every word, a young peasant tells of his
journey with a young Chinese noblewoman to St. Alfric’s Cove and the lair of a dragon.
F
Karr, Kathleen. The 7th Knot.
Medieval
Kar
Two brothers touring Europe in the 19th century become embroiled in a mystery
involving Albrecht Durer's knot woodcuts and a secret German society when they go
in search of their uncle's enigmatic missing valet.
Also by this author: Bone Dry; The Great Turkey Walk.
F
Keehn, Sally M. Anna Sunday.
Kee
In 1863 twelve-year-old Anna, disguised as a boy and accompanied by her younger
brother Jed, leaves their Pennsylvania home and makes the difficult journey to join
their wounded father in Winchester, Virginia, where they find themselves in danger
from Confederate troops.
Civil War
Another book by this author: I am Regina; Gnat Stokes and the Foggy Bottom
Swamp Queen.
F
Kelly, Jacqueline. The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate.
Kel
Calpurnia Virginia Tate is eleven years old in 1899 when she wonders why the yellow
grasshoppers in her Texas backyard are so much bigger than the green ones. As Callie
explores the natural world around her, she develops a close relationship with her
grandfather, and comes up against just what it means to be a girl at the turn of the
century.
F
Kidd, Ronald. Monkey Town: the summer of the Scopes trial.
Kid
When her father hatches a plan to bring publicity to their small Tennessee town by
arresting a local high school teacher for teaching about evolution, the resulting 1925
Scopes trial prompts fifteen-year-old Frances to rethink many of her beliefs about
religion and truth, as well as her relationship with her father.
F
Klages, Ellen. The Green Glass Sea.
Kla
It is 1943, and 11-year-old Dewey Kerrigan is traveling west to live with her scientist
father--but no one will tell her exactly where he is. When she reaches Los Alamos,
New Mexico, she learns why: he's working on a top secret government program. Over
the next few years, Dewey gets to know eminent scientists, starts tinkering with her
own projects, becomes friends with a budding artist--and, all the while, has no idea
how the Manhattan Project is about to change the world.
F
Knowles, John. A Separate Peace.
Kno
Gene was a lonely, introverted intellectual. Phineas was a handsome, taunting,
daredevil athlete. What happened between them at school one summer during the
early years of World War II is the subject of A Separate Peace.
Early 20th
century
World War II
World War II
Also by this author: Peace Breaks Out.
F
Koller, Jackie French. Someday.
Early 20th
Kol
In 1938, fourteen-year-old Celie must cope with leaving her Enfield, Massachusetts,
home and her life-long friend, Chubby, as the day approaches when the Swift River
Valley will be flooded to create a reservoir for Boston.
Century
F
Konigsberg, E. L. A Proud Taste For Scarlet and Miniver.
Medieval
Kon
While waiting in heaven for divine judgment to be passed on her second husband,
Eleanor of Aquitaine and three of the people who knew her well recall the events of
her life.
F
Konzak, Burt. Samurai Spirit: Ancient Wisdom For Modern Life.
Kon
Collects classic Japanese samurai stories and presents them, along with informative
sidebars on samurai, as inspiration for teenagers to increase their mental and
emotional strength.
F
Krisher, Trudy. Uncommon Faith.
Kri
In 1837-38, residents of Millbrook, Massachusetts, speak in their different voices of
major issues of their day, including women's rights, slavery, religious differences, and
one fiery girl named Faith.
F
LaFaye, A. Worth.
LaF
After breaking his leg, eleven-year-old Nate feels useless because he cannot work on
the family farm in nineteenth-century Nebraska, so when his father brings home an
orphan boy to help with the chores, Nate feels even worse.
F
Larson, Kirby. Hattie Big Sky.
Lar
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. 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. She feels threatened by pressure
to be a "Loyal" American, forbidding friendships with folks of German descent.
Despite everything, Hattie's determined to stay until a tragedy causes her to discover
the true meaning of home.
F
Lasky, Kathryn. Broken Song.
Las
The year is 1897, and gifted violinist Reuven Bloom is fifteen years old. Life for the
Jews in Russia is very hard. First Reuven's best friend is captured to serve in the Tsar's
army, then his parents and older sister are murdered. Reuven's dreams of music must
be set aside. Now he has only one goal: escape. With his baby sister strapped to his
back, Reuven sets off toward an unknown freedom.
Also by this author: The Night Journey.
Samurai
World War I
F
Lawrence, Caroline. The Thieves of Ostia: A Roman Mystery.
Law
In Rome in the year 79 A.D., a group of children from very different backgrounds work
together to discover who beheaded a pet dog -- and why. This is the first book in the
Roman Mysteries series, other books in this series: The Assassins Of Rom;, The
Dolphins of Laurentu;, The Enemies of Jupiter; and The Secrets of Vesuvius.
F
Lawrence, Iain. The Buccaneers.
Law
In the eighteenth century sixteen-year-old John Spencer sails from England in his
schooner, the Dragon, to the Caribbean, where he and the crew encounter pirates,
fierce storms, fever, and a strange man who some fear may be cursed. Part of the High
Seas Adventure series.
F
Lee, Tanith. Piratica: Being a Daring Tale of a Singular Girl’s Adventure
Upon the High Seas.
Lee
Ancient Rome
17-year-old Artemis Blastside (Art) longs for the life her mother led - as a notorious
female pirate of the High Seas who earned the feared nickname: Piratica. She finally
seizes the chance one day to make for Portsmouth, where Art finds some of her
mother's crew. As she is trying to convince them of who she is, the dangerously insane
highwayman Cuckoo Jack arrives and sends Art and the crew, flying for the ship and
open water. Suddenly a stowaway emerges from a rum barrel: handsome, artistic Felix
Phoenix. And this is just the beginning of the adventure. First in the Piratica series.
F
Lerangis, Peter. Smiler’s Bones.
Ler
In 1897, famed explorer Robert Peary took six Eskimos from their homes in
Greenland to be "presented" to the American Museum of Natural History. Among the
six were a father and a son. Soon, four were dead, including the father. One returned
to Greenland. And the other, the young boy, remained, the only Eskimo in New York
for twelve years. His name was Minik. This is his story.
F
Levine, Ellen. The Journal of Jedediah Barstow: An Emigrant on the
Oregon Trail.
Lev
In his 1845 diary, thirteen-year-old orphan Jedediah describes his wagon train
journey to Oregon, in which he confronts rivers and sandy plains, bears and
rattlesnakes, and the challenges of living with his fellow travelers. Includes historical
notes.
F
Levitin, Sonia. Clem’s Chances.
Lev
In 1860, fourteen-year-old Clem Fontayne learns from fellow travelers about
important topics of the day, including the Mormon migration, slavery, and the Pony
express, as he journeys from Missouri to California in search of his father.
Settling the
American
West
Settling the
American
West
Also by this author: Journey to America.
F
Lewis, Naomi. Proud Knight, Fair Lady.
Medieval
Lew
This book is a translation of twelve authentic medieval fairy tales originally collected
from wandering minstrels by a twelfth century French poet., Marie de France. Here
are tales of love, of valiant knights, and proud ladies, combined with magical and
wonderful happenings.
F
Lisle, Janet Taylor. The Art of Keeping Cool.
Lis
In 1942, Robert and his cousin Elliot uncover long-hidden family secrets while staying
in their grandparents' Rhode Island town, where they also become involved with a
German artist who is suspected of being a spy.
F
Love, D. Anne. The Puppeteer’s Apprentice.
Lov
A medieval orphan girl called Mouse gains the courage she needs to follow her dreams
of becoming a puppeteer's apprentice.
F
Lurie, April. Dancing in the Streets of Brooklyn.
Lur
In 1944, a thirteen-year-old girl grapples with the discovery that “Pa” isn’t her
biological father, experiences her first romance, and faces hardships dealt to friends in
Brooklyn’s Norwegian community.
F
Lynn, Tracy. Snow.
Lyn
Snow, the daughter of a Welsh duke, takes refuge in London with a group of urban
outcasts after he new stepmother tries to kill her, but Snow soon learns she is going to
have to take charge of her own destiny when it becomes apparent her stepmother is
not going to give up.
F
Martin, Ann. Belle Teal.
Mar
Ten year old Belle Teal Harper lives with her mother and grandmother in a small rural
town in the early 1960s. Though they don't have much, Belle Teal feels rich with love
and loyalty to her family and best friends, Clarice and Little Boss. Belle Teal faces
unexpected challenges, including her grandmother¹s memory fading, her mother
working longer hours to support the family, the bruises inflicted upon Little Boss by
his father, and the two new students at her school: a shy African-American boy caught
in the center of rampant prejudice and a girl who seems determined to taunt Belle
Teal.
F
Mason, Tom and Danko, Dan. The Minotaur: A Novelization.
Mas
Alex Bellows finds himself transported to ancient Crete where he becomes Theseus,
World War II
Medieval
World War II
Greek
Mythology
the hero who fought the bull-headed monster called the Minotaur.
F
Matas, Carol. Sparks Fly Upward.
Mat
In 1910, when a family of Russian Jews moves from Saskatchewan to Winnipeg,
Canada, twelve-year-old Rebecca must live with Christians temporarily and struggles
with anti-Semitism, confusion about God, and changing relationships with family and
friends.
F
Matthews, Kezi. Flying Lessons.
Mat
In 1937, when LaMarr's glamorous mother is lost in a plane crash and she goes to live
with her aunt and uncle, it takes the thirteen-year-old some time to reconcile herself
to the idea that her mother has not gone to Hollywood to become a movie star.
F
McCaughrean, Geraldine. Stop the Train! A Novel.
McC
Despite the opposition of the owner of the Red Rock Runner Railroad in 1893, the new
settlers of Florence, Oklahoma, are determined to build a real town.
Early 20th
Century
Settling the
American
West
Also by this author: The Kite Rider.
F
McGraw, Eloise Jarvis. The Striped Ships.
McG
Juliana, an eleven-year-old Saxon girl, loses her home and family when the Normans
conquer England in 1066 and seeks to order her life by becoming involved in the
creation of the Bayeux tapestry.
F
McKenzie, Nancy. Guinevere’s Gift.
McK
On the night of Guinevere's birth, there was a prophecy that foretold she would one
day be highest lady in the land and wed to a great king. But 13 years have passed, and
the prophecy couldn't be further off. Tomboyish and awkward, Gwen is no great
beauty, and nobody takes the prophecy seriously - especially not Gwen. But then one
day Gwen meets a strange young man in the woods who claims to be part of an ancient
tribe whose mission is to guard and protect her. Then she stumbles across a sinister
plot--one she alone might be able to prevent. Guinevere is beginning to realize her
destiny is more complex than it seems - and this is only the beginning.
Medieval
Medieval
First book in the Chrysalis Queen Quartet.
F
McKernan, Victoria. The Devil’s Paintbox.
McK
When orphans Aiden and Maddy Lynch first meet trailrider Jefferson J. Jackson in
the spring of 1865, they're struggling to survive on their family's drought-ravaged
Kansas farm. So when Jackson offers an escape - a 2000-mile journey on the Oregon
Trail - Aiden knows it's their only choice.
Settling the
American
West
F
McMullan, Margaret. How I Found the Strong.
Civil War
McM It is the spring of 1861 and the serenity of Smith County, Mississippi has been
shattered by Abraham Lincoln's declaration of war on the South. Young and old are
taking up arms and marching off to war. But not ten year-old Frank Russell. Although
he is eager to enlist in the Confederate army, he is not allowed. He is too young, too
skinny, too weak. After all he's just "Shanks," the baby of the Russell family.
Also by this author: When I Crossed No-Bob.
F
Meyer, Carolyn. Beware, Princess Elizabeth.
Mey
After the death of her father, King Henry VIII, in 1547, thirteen-year-old Elizabeth
must endure the political intrigues and dangers of the reigns of her half-brother
Edward and her half-sister Mary before finally becoming Queen of England eleven
years later.
Tudor England
Other books by this author: Doomed Queen Anne; Anastasia, the Last Grand
Duchess; Isabel: Jewel of Castilla; Mary, Bloody Mary; Kristina: the Girl King; The
True Adventures of Charley Darwin; Duchessina: a novel of Catherine de Medici;
Marie, Dancing.
F
Mey
Meyer, L.A. (Louis A.) Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious
Adventures of Mary “Jacky” Faber, Ship’s Boy.
Reduced to begging and thievery in the streets of London, a thirteen-year-old orphan
disguises herself as a boy and connives her way onto a British warship set for high sea
adventure in search of pirates. First of the Bloody Jack series.
F
Mochizuki, Ken. Beacon Hill Boys.
Moc
In 1972 in Seattle, a teenager in a Japanese American family struggles for his own
identity, along with a group of three friends who share his anger and confusion.
F
Moran, Katy. Bloodline.
Mor
Set in Dark Ages Britain, this is the story of Essa, whose father Cai, a travelling bard
and occasional spy, leaves him behind one night at a settlement of the Wolf Clan. Essa
is a survivor and forges new allegiances and even love, but never stops wondering why
his father never came back. The settlement is under threat from cruel Mercian bands
across the forests, and Essa is caught up in a heart-stopping journey to avert disaster.
F
Moranville, Sharelle Byars. Over the River.
Mor
Eleven-year-old Willa Mae finds herself struggling to understand old family tensions
and secrets when her father returns from the war in 1947 to claim her from her
grandparents with whom she has been living for the past five years.
F
Morpurgo, Michael. War Horse.
Mor
Sold to a drunken farmer, Joey, a beautiful red-bay foal with a distinctive cross on his
nose, finds a friend in the farmer's son, Albert. When war breaks out, Albert's father,
World War II
World War I
needy for money for his struggling farm, sells Joey to the army, where he, like the
soldiers around him, must try to cope with the horrors of the First World War.
F
Morris, Gerald. The Savage Damsel and the Dwarf.
Mor
Lynet, a feisty young woman, journeys to King Arthur’s court in order to find a
champion to rescue her beautiful older sister, and she is joined on her quest by a
clever dwarf and a bold kitchen knave, neither of whom are not what they seem.
F
Mosley, Walter. 47.
Mos
47 is a young slave boy living under the watchful eye of a brutal slave master. His life
seems doomed until he meets a mysterious run-away slave, Tall John. Then 47 finds
himself swept up in a struggle for his own liberation.
F
Moss, Marissa. Emma’s Journal: The Story of a Colonial Girl.
Mos
The year is 1774, and the British army has blockaded Boston. Ten-year-old Emma is
stuck at Aunt Harmony's house in the city, far from her family. Emma desperately
wants to help the American struggle for freedom. When Papa gives her a secret code
the militia uses, she finally gets her chance to change the course of history.
F
Myers, Anna. Assassin.
Mye
When John Wilkes Booth persuades Bella, an assistant seamstress to Mary Todd
Lincoln, to help with his plot to kidnap President Lincoln, she believes Booth is only
trying to force the North to release Southern war prisoners, and will not harm her dear
friend Mr. Lincoln. But the kidnapping plot fails, and now Booth will stop at nothing.
F
Naidoo, Beverly. Burn My Heart.
Nai
Mathew and Mugo, two boys - one white, one black - share an uneasy friendship in
Kenya in the 1950s. They're friends even though Mathew's dad owns the land and
everything on it. They're friends despite the difference in their skin color. And they're
friends in the face of the growing Mau Mau rebellion, which threatens British settlers
with violence as black Kenyans struggle to win back their land and freedom. But
suspicions and accusations are escalating, and an act of betrayal could change
everything.
F
Namioka, Lensey. Ties That Bind, Ties That Break.
Medieval
Slavery
American
Revolution
Civil War
Nam Ailin's life takes a different turn when she defies the traditions of upper class Chinese
society by refusing to have her feet bound.
Other novels by this author: The Coming of the Bear; Den of the White Fox; An Ocean
Apart, A World Away: A Novel and Valley of the Broken Cherry Trees.
F
Napoli, Donna Jo. Hush: an Irish Princess’ Tale.
Medieval
Nap
Melkorka is a princess, the first daughter of a magnificent kingdom in mediæval
Ireland -- but all of this is lost the day she is kidnapped and taken aboard a marauding
slave ship. Thrown into a world that she has never known, alongside people that her
former country's laws regarded as less than human, Melkorka is forced to learn
quickly how to survive. Taking a vow of silence, however, she finds herself an object of
fascination to her captors and masters, and soon realizes that any power, no matter
how little, can make a difference.
Also by this author: Bound; Song of the Magdalene.
F
Newman, Sharon. Guinevere.
New
This is an enchanting story of Guinevere’s childhood. Torn between the magic and
fantasy of Old Britain and the young Arthur who envisions a new Britain, Guinevere
must choose between her heritage and her destiny.
F
Nixon, Joan Lowery. Land of Hope.
Nix
Rebekah, a fifteen-year-old Jewish immigrant arriving in New York City in 1902,
almost abandons her dream of getting an education when she is forced to work in a
sweatshop. First in the Ellis Island series.
Medieval
Also by this author: Caesar’s Story, 1759; Maria’s Story, 1773; A Family Apart; A
Dangerous Promise.
F
Ode
O'Dell, Scott. Sarah Bishop.
F
Orlev, Uri. Run, Boy, Run: A Novel.
Orl
Based on the true story of a nine-year-old boy who escapes the Warsaw Ghetto and
must survive throughout the war in the Nazi-occupied Polish countryside.
F
Osborne, Mary Pope. After the Rain.
Osb
In her diary, a ten-year-old girl writes about her family's experiences living in
Washington, D.C., in 1864-65, during which time the Civil War comes to an end and
President Lincoln is assassinated. Includes historical notes.
F
Pal
Palmer, Myron Tim. At the Lion Gate.
During the War for Independence Sarah travels her own path to freedom that takes
her from her home, to the kitchen of a country inn, on to New York, then to a British
prison, and finally to a wilderness refuge.
In ancient Mycenae two cousins fight for their kingdom which is threatened by the hill
people from the north and by the traitors from within.
American
Revolution
World War II
Civil War
F
Pat
Paterson, Katherine. Lyddie.
It is 1843, and Lyddie, needing to pay off family debts, goes to work at a mill. She
befriends radical Diana and ends up jeopardizing her job by signing a petition for
better conditions.
Other books by this author: Park’s Quest; The Sign of the Chrysanthemum.
F
Paton Walsh, Jill. A Presumption of Death.
Pat
Harriet Vane and her beloved Lord Peter find themselves working on the same case
when a body is found after their town's first air-raid drill.
F
Paulsen, Gary. Mr. Tucket.
Pau
In 1848, while on a wagon train headed for Oregon, fourteen-year-old Francis Tucket
is kidnapped by Pawnee Indians and then falls in with a one-armed trapper who
teaches him how to live in the wild. First in the Francis Tucket series.
World War II
Settling the
American
West
Also by this author: Nightjohn; The Cookcamp.
F
Paver, Michelle. Spirit Walker.
Pav
Thousands of years ago an orphan boy and his wolf cub companion challenge a demon
bear that threatens to destroy their world forever. With the help of the World Spirit,
Torak destroys the bear, but his beloved Wolf is lost in the ensuing avalanche. And
Toraks quest is far from over. A strange creeping sickness, silent and deadly, is
threatening the ravens. Word arrives that the seal clan have the cure and Torak must
face a lonely journey to find it. Part of the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series.
F
Peck, Richard. A Year Down Yonder.
Pec
During the recession of 1937, fifteen-year-old Mary Alice is sent to live with her feisty,
larger-than-life grandmother in rural Illinois and comes to a better understanding of
this fearsome woman.
Prehistoric
Man
Great
Depression
Also by this author: A Long Way From Chicago: A Novel in Stories; The Teacher’s
Funeral: A Comedy in Three Parts; Ghosts I Have Been.
F
Peet, Mal. Tamar.
Pee
When Tamar's grandfather, falls from a balcony to his death, he leaves behind a box
with Tamar's name on it. For a long time Tamar refuses even to think about it...until
one hot June day she opens it to reveal a series of clues and hidden messages from her
grandfather. She and her cousin Johannes follow the clues and discover that her name
also belonged to someone involved in the terrifying world of resistance fighters in
Nazi-occupied Holland during the Second World War. As she pieces together the
mystery, another Tamar's story is unravelled; a story of passionate love, jealousy and
tragedy played out amongst the daily fear and horror of war.
World War II
F
Peters, Ellis. A Morbid Taste for Bones.
Pet
In the 12th-century Benedictine monastery of Shrewsbury, Brother Cadfael has settled
down to a quiet life in charge of the herbarium. It is fortunate his prowess as an
herbalist is matched by his detective skills when his prior acquires the bones of a saint,
the obstacles include murder.
Medieval
This is the first book of the Brother Cadfael Chronicles.
F
Pet
Petry, Ann. Tituba of Salem Village.
F
Priestly, Chris. Death and the Arrow.
Pri
After his friend Will, a pickpocket in London in 1715, is murdered as part of a series of
mysterious deaths, fifteen-year-old Tom Marlowe asks his friend Dr. Harker to help
find the killer.
F
Ray, Delia. Ghost Girl: A Blue Ridge Mountain Story.
Ray
Eleven-year-old April is delighted when President and Mrs. Hoover build a school
near her Madison County, Virginia, home -- but her family's poverty, grief over the
accidental death of her brother, and other problems may mean that April can never
learn to read from the wonderful teacher, Miss Vest.
F
Reeder, Carolyn. Foster’s War.
Ree
When his older brother joins the army during World War II in order to escape the
rages of an authoritarian father, eleven-year-old Foster fights his battles on the home
front.
Tituba, a slave from Barbados, is caught up in the superstition, hysteria and terror
that we know today as the Salem Witch Trials.
Early 20th
Century
World War II
Another book by this author: Before the Creeks Ran Red.
F
Rees, Celia. Sorceress.
Ree
Eighteen-year-old Agnes, a Mohawk Indian who is descended from a line of shamanic
healers, uses her own newly-discovered powers to uncover the story of her ancestor, a
seventeenth-century New England English healer who fled charges of witchcraft to
make her life with the local Indians.
Native
Americans
Another book by this author: Pirates!: The True and Remarkable Adventures of
Minerva Sharpe and Nancy Kington, Female Pirates.
F
Rei
Reit, Seymour. Guns for General Washington.
It is the dead of winter when young Will and his brother devise a daring plan to bring
American
Revolution
heavy artillery hundreds of miles to the besieged army.
F
Richardson, V.A. The House of Windjammer.
Ric
In the fall of 1636, Adam, fourteen-year-old heir to the House of Windjammer, must
find a way to keep his family afloat after his father dies and tulip fever sweeps
Amsterdam. First book in the Windjammer series.
F
Richter, Conrad. The Light in the Forest.
Ric
When John Cameron Butler was a child, he was captured in a raid on the
Pennsylvania frontier and, renamed True Son, came to think of himself as fully Indian.
But eleven years later his tribe has signed a treaty with the white men and agreed to
return their captives. Now he must return to his first family, whose ways are as
strange to him as his ways are to them.
F
Rinaldi, Ann. Numbering All the Bones.
Rin
Thirteen-year-old Eulind, a house slave on a Georgia plantation in 1864, turns to Clara
Barton, the eventual founder of the American Red Cross, for help in finding her
brother Neddy who ran away to join the Northern war effort and is rumored to be at
Andersonville Prison.
Rennaissance
Native
Americans
Civil War
Also by this author: Time Enough For Drums; Or Give Me Death: A Novel of Patrick
Henry’s Family; and The Education of Mary: A Little Miss of Color; Sarah’s Ground.
F
Rook, Sebastian. London, 1850.
Roo
An enormous ship has just reached port. From its hull, a flock of bats ascends and
disappears into the streets. Jack Harkett intends to board the ship, in search of food or
money. Instead, he encounters a boy his own age--running for his life! The boy
recounts horrific tales about a vampire plague that's killed the entire crew. With no
one to turn to but each other, the two boys vow to stop these horrors from continuing.
Their pledge will take them on dangerous adventures from London to Paris and finally
to Mexico, to confront the beast who started all this destruction....First book in the
Vampire Plagues series.
F
Rubalcaba, Jill. The Wadjet Eye.
Rub
After his mother dies, Damon, a young medical student living in Alexandria, Egypt, in
45 B.C., makes a perilous journey to Spain to locate his father who is serving in the
Roman army led by Julius Caesar.
F
Salisbury, Graham. Under the Blood-Red Sun.
Sal
Tomikazu Nakaji's biggest concerns are baseball, homework, and a local bully, until
life with his Japanese family in Hawaii changes drastically after the bombing of Pearl
Harbor in December 1941.
F
Sandell, Lisa Ann. Song of the Sparrow.
Ancient Egypt/
Ancient Rome
World War II
Medieval
San
In fifth-century Britain, nine years after the destruction of their home on the island of
Shalott brings her to live with her father and brothers in the military encampments of
Arthur's army, seventeen-year-old Elaine describes her changing perceptions of war
and the people around her as she becomes increasingly involved in the bitter struggle
against the invading Saxons.
F
Saylor, Steven. The Judgment of Caesar: a Novel of Ancient Rome.
Say
Traveling to Alexandria in 48 B.C. in hope of curing his Egyptian wife's illness,
Gordianus’s Roman ship is surrounded by a fleet commandeered by Pompey the
Great. He'll witness the bloody aftermath of Pompey's own landfall and the arrival of
Julius Caesar, who plans to impose a Roman peace on Egypt. Part of the Roma Sub
Rosa series.
F
Schmidt, Gary D. Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy.
Sch
Turner Buckminster is about ready to light out for the Territories, where every shirt he
wears won't have to be starched white and no one will know him as the new minister's
son. But after meeting Lizzie Bright Griffin, a smart and sassy girl who lives on nearby
Malaga Island, a poor community founded by former slaves, he doesn't feel quite so
miserable. Lizzie shows Turner how to hit a Maine baseball, dig for clams along the
shore, and row a boat next to a whale. But the two soon discover that the town elders,
along with Turner's father, want to force the people of Lizzie's island to leave so that a
lucrative tourist trade can be started there. Although Turner is forbidden to step foot
on the island, he and Lizzie try to save its people.
F
Schwartz, Virginia Frances. Messenger.
Sch
Based on the lives of the author’s mother and grandmother, tells the story of a
widowed Croatian immigrant trying to keep her family together in the mining towns of
Ontario in the 1920s and 1930s.
F
Seely, Debra. Grasslands.
See
In the 1880s, thirteen-year-old Thomas moves west from the aristocratic Virginia
home of his grandparents to a poor Kansas farm to live with a father he barely
remembers and his new stepfamily.
F
Selznick, Brian. The Invention of Hugo Cabret: a Novel in Words and
Pictures.
Sel
Ancient Rome
Early 20th
Century
Orphan, clock keeper, and thief, Hugo lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station,
where his survival depends on secrets and anonymity. But when his world suddenly
interlocks with an eccentric, bookish girl and a bitter old man who runs a toy booth in
the station, Hugo's undercover life, and his most precious secret, are put in jeopardy.
F
Ser
Serraillier, Ian. Escape from Warsaw.
Having watched as their mother was arrested by Nazis, two children, alone and with
the war raging, attempt the long, dangerous journey to Switzerland to find their
World War II
father.
F
Ser
Service, Pamela F. The Reluctant God.
F
Spi
Spinka, Penina Keen. White Hare's Horses.
F
Slade, Arthur G. (Arthur Gregory). Dust.
Sla
Eleven-year-old Robert is the only one who can help when a mysterious stranger
arrives, performing tricks and promising to bring rain, at the same time children begin
to disappear from a dust bowl farm town in Saskatchewan in the 1930s.
F
Smith, Roland. The Captain’s Dog: My Journey With the Lewis and Clark
Tribe.
Smi
Ancient Egypt
Can Lorna, an archaeologist’s daughter, help Ameni, son of an Egyptian Pharaoh,
return to his world -- 4,000 years ago?
In sixteenth-century California, a young Chumash Indian, White Hare, must find the
courage to save her people from Aztec invaders with their frightening horses.
Native
Americans
Great
Depression
Lewis & Clark
expedition
Captain Meriwether Lewis's dog Seaman describes his experiences as he accompanies
his master on the Lewis and Clark Expedition to explore the uncharted west.
F
Snow, Maya. Sisters of the Sword.
Sno
Kimi dreams of being a great samurai warrior, but she and her sister, Hana, are young
ladies of feudal Japan. Then, their power-hungry uncle murders their father, and their
mother and little brother mysteriously disappear. Determined to seek revenge and
restore their honor, they disguise themselves as boys to train at a school for samurai.
Kimi and Hana are thrown into a life of warrior codes, sharp swords, and shadowy
figures - as they work to avenge the brutal wrongs done to their family. First in the
Sisters of the Sword series.
F
Snyder, Zilpha Keatley. Song of the Gargoyle.
Sny
When mysterious men in black abduct his father, the court jester of Austerneve,
thirteen-year-old Tymmon flees into the forest, when he acquires a strange animal
companion and plots to rescue his father.
Samurai
Medieval
Also by this author: Gib and the Gray Ghost.
F
Spe
Speare, Elizabeth George. The Bronze Bow.
F
Springer, Nancy. Lionclaw, A Tale of Rowan Hood.
Rome
Daniel bar Jamin discovers that his method of rebellion against the oppressive
Romans brings near disaster to those he loves. It is only as he recognizes another
power that Daniel experiences the peace and healing he desires.
Medieval
Spr
Young Lionel, minstrel in the outlaw band of Rowan Hood, daughter of Robin, tries to
find his courage when she is ab-ducted from Sherwood Forest. Part of the Rowan
Hood series.
Also by this author: I am Morgan le Fay: a Tale From Camelot; the Enola Holmes
series.
F
Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath.
Ste
Forced from their home, the Joad family is lured to California to find work; instead
they find disillusionment, exploitation, and hunger.
F
Stenhouse, Ted. A Dirty Deed.
Ste
Arthur and Will investigate the murder of a young Native American by their town's
richest man.
F
Stevenson, Robert Louis. Kidnapped.
Ste
After being kidnapped by his villainous uncle, sixteen-year-old David Balfour escapes
and becomes involved in the struggle of the Scottish highlanders against English rule.
Depression
Native
Americans
Also by this author: Treasure Island.
F
Sullivan, Paul. Maata’s Journal: A Novel.
Sul
Stranded on an island during a mapping expedition in 1924, a seventeen-year-old
Inuit girl writes about her life on the tundra and the changes brought about by the
Europeans who settled Canada.
F
Sutcliff, Rosemary. Sword at Sunset.
Sut
Interweaving ancient legend and Celtic history, this novel chronicles the life of King
Arthur, a man of towering strength, a dreamer, and a warrior, who lived, fought, and
died for his impossible dream. First in the Legends of King Arthur series.
F
Taylor, Kim
Tay
In New York's tenements in 1883, two orphaned teenage girls realize that their dream
of saving enough money to move to Brooklyn across the newly-built bridge may be
achieved if they learn new trades at a nearby settlement house, rather than continuing
their lives of prostitution and stealing.
F
Taylor, Marilyn
Tay
Karl and his sister Rosa escape from Nazi-occupied Vienna to Northern Ireland, where
they must adapt to a very different way of life at a camp for Jewish refugees.
F
Taylor, Mildred D.
Tay
In Mississippi in the early 1900s, ten-year-old David Logan's family generously shares
Early 20th
Century
Medieval
Bowery Girl
Faraway Home
The Well: David’s Story
World War II
Early 20th
Century
their well water with both white and African-American neighbors in an atmosphere of
potential racial violence.
F
Temple, Frances
The Ramsay Scallop: a novel
Tem
Thirteenth century couple, Elenor and Tom, overcome their reluctance to marry after
they are sent on a pre-nuptial journey to Spain and learn more about the world and
each other.
F
Tingle, Rebecca
Tin
After the death of her mother, Aethelflaed of Mercia, seventeen-year-old Aelfwyn flees
imprisonment by her uncle King Edward and, in the guise of a youthful bard, plays her
part in the resolution of the tangled political enmities of tenth century Britain.
F
Tomlinson, Theresa
Tom
In England during the reign of King Richard I, fifteen-year-old Marian escapes from
an arranged marriage to live with a community of forest folk that includes a daring
young outlaw named Robert.
F
Tre
de Trevino, Elizabeth
F
Tur
Turnbull, Ann
F
Tur
Turner, Ann
F
Twain, Mark
Twa
When young Edward VI of England and a poor boy who resembles him exchange
places, each learns something about the other's very different station in life.
F
Updale, Eleanor
Far Traveler
The Forestwife
Borton de. I, Juan de Pareja
Medieval
Medieval
Medieval
Renaissance
The beauty and the cruelty of seventeenth century Spain is seen through the eyes of a
Negro slave who comes to serve and be befriended by the great painter Velazquez.
Maroo of the Winter Caves
Maroo, a girl of the late Ice Age, must take charge after her father is killed, and lead
her little brother, mother and newborn baby, and aged grandmother to the safety of
the winter camp before the first blizzards strike.
Time of the Bison
A young cave dweller, with a special skill at making pictures, makes a dangerous and
difficult journey to a mysterious cavern.
The Prince and the Pauper
Montmorency: Thief, Liar, Gentleman?
Fleeing across a roof on a dark night in Victorian London, a thief crashes through a
Prehistoric
Man
Prehistoric
Man
Tudor England
Victorian
England
Upd
glass skylight to almost certain death. But an ambitious young doctor revives and
reconstructs his shattered body, proudly showing off his handiwork at the Scientific
Society where the city's intelligentsia meet. It's there that the robber picks up the key
to a new existence, and on his release from prison begins to lead a double life--but the
smallest mistake could reveal his secret and destroy both his lives. First in the
Montmorency series.
F
Van Leeuwen, Jean
Van
In 1803 in Ohio, two young brothers are left to finish the log cabin and guard the land
while their father goes back to Pennsylvania to fetch their mother and younger
siblings.
F
Veciana-Suarez, Ana
Vec
Writing in the diary which her father gave her, thirteen-year-old Yara describes life
with her family in Havana, Cuba, in 1967 as well as her experiences in Miami, Florida,
after immigrating there to be reunited with some relatives while leaving others
behind.
F
Voigt, Cynthia
Voi
Faced with the prospect of an unhappy life in the Kingdom, fourteen-year-old Birle
accompanies a young runaway nobleman on a journey south and falls into slavery in
the citadel of a cruel prince.
F
Wait, Lea
Wai
Few slaves in 1805 Charleston are where they want to be, but thirteen-year-old
Michael works on the docks and ships in Charleston Harbor, close to the seas he longs
to sail. Life seems good. But then his protective mistress dies and Michael's world
changes. His friend Jim encourages him to "steal himself"; to run. Michael is torn.
Does he dare risk everything for a chance at freedom in some unknown place? But if
he stays -- is staying safe worth staying a slave?
F
Wallace, Barbara Brooks Ghosts in the Gallery.
Wal
When eleven-year-old Jenny arrives at her grandfather's house but is not recognized
as one of the family because of a servant's intrigue, the young orphan endures a
difficult fate.
F
Wal
Walsh, Jill Paton
Cabin on Trouble Creek
Flight to Freedom
On Fortune’s Wheel
Seaward Born
A Parcel of Patterns.
When plague is carried into a seventeenth century English village in a parcel of
patterns, the villagers make a pact to stay within the parish boundaries and not spread
it. Young Mall Percival chronicles their struggle and her reflections.
Medieval
Slavery
F
Wartski, Maureen Crane A Boat to Nowhere
Vietnam
F
Wei
Weil, Sylvie
Medieval
F
Wes
Westall, Robert
F
Whelan, Gloria
Whe
Left an orphan after the influenza epidemic in British East Africa in 1918, thirteenyear-old Rachel is tricked into assuming a deceased neighbor's identity to travel to
England, where her only dream is to return to Africa and rebuild her parents' mission
hospital.
F
White, Ellen Emerson
Whi
In 1968 Massachusetts, after her brother Patrick goes to fight in Vietnam, fifteen-yearold Molly records in her diary how she misses her brother, volunteers at a Veterans'
Administration Hospital, and tries to make sense of the war in Vietnam and the
tumultuous events in the United States. Includes historical notes.
War
My Guardian Angel
In France in the year 1096, everyone in the Jewish community is terrified of the
Crusaders, who have been known to burn Jewish houses in the name of religion.
Elvina, the funny, feisty, twelve-year-old granddaughter of the great rabbi Rashi,
knows how to read and write--very rare for a girl of her time. She draws strength from
this, as well as from her guardian angel, to whom she speaks constantly. Then one cold
Sabbath afternoon while Elvina is alone in the house, three soldiers pound on her
door. One of them is wounded. Elvina has only a moment to make a difficult choice
that could put her family and the entire community at risk.
The Cats of Seroster
Medieval
In medieval France, huge, powerful cats and a magic dagger help Cam, a young
English jack-of-all-trades, through a series of unusual and dangerous adventures.
Listening for Lions
Where Have All the Flowers Gone?
Early 20th
century
Vietnam War
Also by this author: The Journal of Patrick Seamus Flaherty, United States Marine
Corps.
F
White, Ruth. Little Audrey.
Whi
In 1948, eleven-year-old Audrey lives with her father, mother, and three younger
sisters in Jewell Valley, a coal mining camp in Southwest Virginia, where her mother
still mourns the death of a baby, her father goes on drinking binges on paydays, and
Audrey tries to recover from the scarlet fever.
F
Wil
Wiles, Deborah. Countdown
1960s
F
Williams, Laura E. The Executioner’s Daughter.
Medieval
Wil
Thirteen-year-old Lily, daughter of the town’s executioner living in fifteenth-century
Europe, decides whether to fight against her destiny of to rise above her fate.
F
Wilson, Diane L. Firehorse.
Wil
Spirited fifteen-year-old horse lover Rachel Selby determines to become a
veterinarian, despite the opposition of her rigid father, her proper mother, and the
norms of Boston in 1872, while that city faces a serial arsonist and an epidemic
spreading through its firehorse population.
F
Winthrop, Elizabeth. Counting on Grace.
Win
It's 1910 in Pownal, Vermont. At 12 Grace and her best friend Arthur must go to work
in the mill, helping their mothers work the looms. Together Grace and Arthur write a
secret letter to the Child Labor Board about underage children working in the mill. A
few weeks later, a famous reformer arrives undercover to gather evidence. Grace
meets him and appears in some of his photographs, changing her life forever.
F
Wiseman, Eva. My Canary Yellow Star.
Wis
A novel about a young Jewish girl in Budapest who suffers worse and worse conditions
under Nazi rule until hope arrives in the form of a foreign man who risks his own life
to save others. Based on the real-life efforts of Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat
who saved up to 100K lives during WWII.
F
Wis
Wisler, G. Clifton. The Raid.
F
Wolf, Allan. New Found Land: Lewis and Clark’s Voyage of Discovery: A
Novel.
Wol
A young boy and a former slave set off across the Texas frontier, risking all, to trade
for the captives taken in a late night Indian raid.
Early 20th
century
World War II
Native
Americans
Louis & Clark
expedition
The letters and thoughts of Thomas Jefferson, members of the Corps of Discovery,
their guide Sacagawea, and Captain Lewis’s Newfoundland dog, all tell of the historic
exploratory expedition to seek a water rout to the Pacific Ocean.
F
Wood, Frances M. Daughter of Madrugada.
Woo Thirteen-year-old Cesa de Haro’s beloved way of life on the beautiful Rancho del Valle
de la Madrugada is threatened by Mexico’s loss of Upper California to the United
States in 1856 and the arrival of the gold seekers from the east.
F
Woodruff, Elvira. Dear Austin: Letters From the Underground Railroad.
Woo In 1853, in letters to his older brother, eleven-year-old Levi describes his adventures
in the Pennsylvania countryside with his African-American friend Jupiter and his
experiences with the Underground Railroad.
Also by this author: The Ravenmaster’s Secret: Escape From the Tower of London.
Slavery
F
Woods, Brenda. The Red Rose Box.
Woo In 1953, Leah Hopper dreams of leaving the poverty and segregation of her home in
Sulphur, Louisiana, and when Aunt Olivia sends train tickets to Los Angeles as part of
her tenth birthday present, Leah gets a first taste of freedom.
Early 20th
Century
F
Yep, Laurence. Dream Soul.
Yep
In 1927, as Christmas approaches, fifteen-year-old Joan Lee hopes to get her parents'
permission to celebrate the holiday, one of the problems belonging to the only Chinese
American family in her small West Virginia community.
F
Yol
Yolen, Jane. The Devil's Arithmetic.
World War II
A young Jewish girl finds herself transported back in time to the 1940s, where Nazi
soldiers take her and her family away to a death camp, a place of unspeakable horrors.
Holocaust
Other book by this author: Odysseus in the Serpent Maze.
F
Zindel, Paul. The Gadget.
Zin
In 1945, having joined his father at Los Almos, where he and other scientists are
working on a secret project to end World War II, thirteen-year-old Stephen becomes
caught in a web of secrecy and intrigue.
Updated 10/2012
World War II