Historical Fiction
For Grades 2-8
Historical Fiction
2nd Grade and Up
J DEA Dear America series
J HER (at Main) J DEA (at Black Road) My America series
J MYN (at Main) J DEA (at Black Road) My Name is America series
Gr. 3-6. These books are each written in the form of a diary of a young
woman's or young man’s life during an important event or time period
in American history.
J AYR Silver Dollar Girl by Katherine Ayres
In 1885, unhappy living with her aunt and uncle in Pittsburgh, Valentine Harper disguises herself as a boy and runs away to Colorado determined to find her father who has gone there in search of gold. (195
pages)
Fictional stories that take place in a
particular time period in the past.
Also available in:
Audio Book
E Book
Book plus CD
Digital Audio Book
J GIF Gingersnap by Patricia Reilly Giff
When her brother Rob, a Navy cook, goes missing in
action during World War II, Jayna, desperate for family, leaves upstate New York and their cranky landlady.
Accompanied by a turtle and a ghost, she seeks her
grandmother, who Rob believes may live in Brooklyn. (160 pages)
J GUN The Jade Dragon: A Story of Ancient China
by Jessica Gunderson
Zhou never seems to beat his brother, Cheng, at anything. But when
Zhou finds a jade dragon, his luck changes. Will Zhou and his jade
dragon be able to keep up the winning streak, or will he lose his luck?
(64 pages)
J HOO The Sign Painter’s Secret by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler
When the Redcoats occupy her house in Philadelphia, young Annie finds
a way to help General Washington’s troops at Valley Forge. (52 pages)
J HOP Pioneer Summer by Deborah Hopkinson
Charlie Keller’s papa is an abolitionist, and he’s moving the
family to Kansas in 1855 so he can cast his vote for
freedom. (74 pages)
J LAF Worth by A. LaFaye
After breaking his leg, eleven-year-old Nate feels useless because he
cannot work on the family farm in 1890s Nebraska. When his father
brings home an orphan boy to help with the chores, Nate feels even
worse. (144 pages)
J MAR Better to Wish by Ann M. Martin
In 1930, Abby Nichols is eight, and can't imagine what
her future holds. The best things today would be having a
dime for the fair, keeping her Pops from being angry, and
saving up eighty-seven cents to surprise her little sister
with a tea set for Christmas. Family Tree series number
one. (226 pages)
J TAR I Survived the Sinking of the Titanic by Lauren Tarshis
Ten-year-old George Calder can't believe his luck -- he and his little sister,
Phoebe, are on the famous Titanic, crossing the ocean with their Aunt
Daisy. The ship is full of exciting places to explore, but when George ventures into the first class storage cabin, a terrible boom shakes the entire
boat. Suddenly, water is everywhere, and George's life changes forever.
The first book in the ‘I Survived’ series. (112 pages)
J WEL My Havana: Memories of a Cuban Boyhood by Rosemary Wells
Relates events in the childhood of architect Secundino
Fernandez, who left his beloved Havana, Cuba, in the
1950’s with his parents, first to spend a year in Spain,
and later to move to New York City. (65 pages)
GN J HALE Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales: One
Dead Spy by Nathan Hale
Nathan Hale was America’s first spy, a Revolutionary
War hero who famously said “I only regret that I have
but one life to lose for my country” before being
hanged by the British. In the Nathan Hale’s Hazardous
Tales series, author Nathan Hale channels his
namesake to present history’s roughest, toughest,
and craziest stories in a graphic novel format. (128 pages)
4th Grade and Up
J ANG Soldier Dog by Sam Angus
It's 1917. In the trenches of France, miles from home, Stanley is a boy
fighting a man's war. He is a dog handler, whose dog must be so loyal
that he will cross no-man's-land alone under heavy fire to return to
Stanley's side, carrying a message that could save countless lives.
(256 pages)
J FICTION BARROW, R. Saving Zasha by Randi Barrow
World War II has just ended when thirteen-year-old
Mikhail finds a dying man and his German shepherd,
Zasha, in the woods. It's dangerous -- some say
traitorous -- to own a German dog after Germany
attacked Russia, so Mikhail must keep Zasha a secret to
keep her alive. (240 pages)
J BOL Finding Family by Tonya Bolden
Twelve-year-old Delana lives in Charleston, West Virginia in 1905 with
her grandfather and great-aunt. After Great-Aunt Tilly dies, Delana
works to find the truth behind the stories she’s been told about her
parents and other family members. (181 pages)
J BRA The President’s Daughter
by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Ethel is ten years old in 1901 when her father Theodore
Roosevelt becomes president. The White House is
stuffier than Ethel imagined, but there's never a dull
moment with her adventurous family. (166 pages)
J CAL Daniel at the Siege of Boston
by Laurie Calkhoven
In 1776 Boston, twelve-year-old Daniel enjoys
assuming his father's role in taking care of his mother
and sister, as well as his work as a spy and messenger
for the American revolutionaries, but the pleasure
ends when he witnesses the horrors of war.
First book in the Boys of War series. (195 pages)
J CAN Charlotte’s Rose by A. E. Cannon
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. (246 pages)
J CAR Storm Warriors by Elise Lynn Carbone
In 1895, twelve-year-old Nathan moves with is father and grandfather
to Pea Island off the coast of North Carolina, where he hopes to join
the all-black crew at the nearby lifesaving station
despite his father’s objections. (168 pages)
J CHO Al Capone Does My Shirts
by Gennifer Choldenko
A twelve-year-old boy moves to Alcatraz Island in
1935 when guards' families were housed there, and he
has to contend with his extraordinary new
environment. (225 pages)
J FICTION CHOLDENKO, G. Chasing Secrets by Gennifer Choldenko
Thirteen-year-old Lizzie and her secret friend Noah, who is hiding in
her house, plan to rescue Noah's father from quarantined Chinatown,
and save everyone they love from contracting the plague that is
spreading through San Francisco in 1900. (278 pages)
J COU War Games by Audrey Couloumbis
What were once just boys' games become matters of
life and death as Petros and his older brother Zola
each wonder if, like their resistance-fighter cousin,
they can make a difference in a Nazi-occupied Greece.
(240 pages)
J CUR Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
Newbery Award winner, 2000. Ten-year-old Bud, a
motherless Michigan boy living during the Great Depression, escapes a bad foster home and sets out in
search of the man he believes to be his father.
(245 pages)
J EDI Africa Is My Home: A Child of the Amistad by Monica Edinger
Presents a tale of a child who arrives in America on the slave ship
Amistad describing her capture, her witness to a mutiny, and the Supreme Court trial that prompts her return to Africa. (64 pages)
J ELL The Ugly One by Leanne Statland Ellis
At the height of the Incan empire, a girl called the Ugly
One because of a disfiguring scar on her face seeks to
have the scar removed and instead finds a life path as a
shaman. (256 pages)
J ERD The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich
This story chronicles the Ojibwe way of life in the late 1840s through
the eyes of an eight year old girl named Omakayas. Sequel: The Game
of Silence. (244pages)
J FER Born to Fly by Michael Ferrari
In 1942, an eleven-year-old girl who longs to be a pilot and her family
try to manage their lives in Rhode Island when the father goes to fight
in World War II. (212 pages)
J FRO Salt: A Story of Friendship in a Time of War
by Helen Frost
Twelve-year-olds Anikwa, of the Miami village
of Kekionga, and James, of the trading post outside
Fort Wayne, find their friendship threatened by the
rising fear and tension brought by the War of 1812.
(160 pages)
J FUQ Darby by Jonathon Fuqua
A nine-year-old white girl named Darby and her family become the
target of KKK violence in the 1920s after she protests the killing of a
black sharecropper’s son. (256 pages)
J GOI The Liberation of Gabriel King by K.L. Going
In Georgia during the summer of 1976, Gabriel, a white
boy who is being bullied, and Frita, an African American
girl who is facing prejudice, decide to overcome their
many fears together as they enter fifth grade. (160pp)
J HAS The Amazing Thinking Machine by Dennis Haseley
Brothers Patrick and Roy invent an “amazing thinking machine” to
amuse themselves while they wait for their father’s return from his
search for work during the Great Depression. (128 pages)
J HIL Bo at Ballard Creek by Kirkpatrick Hill
It's the 1920s, and Bo was headed for an Alaska orphanage when she
won the hearts of two tough gold miners. They set out to raise her,
enthusiastically helped by all the kind people of the nearby Eskimo
village. (288 pages)
J HIL Whistle in the Dark by Susan Hill Long
What Clem wants for his thirteenth birthday is a dog.
What he gets is a miner's cap. It's the 1920s in
Leadanna, Missouri, and money is tight in the Harding
household. So, Clem, a gifted student and talented
writer, must leave school and join Pap in the lead
mines, spending his days digging in the suffocating dark
beneath the crushing weight of the earth. (181 pages)
J HOL Penny from Heaven by Jennifer L. Holm
As she turns twelve during the summer of 1953, Penny gains new
insights into herself and her family while also learning a secret about
her father’s death. (274pages)
J HOP The Great Trouble: A Mystery of London, the
Blue Death, and a Boy Called Eel by Deborah Hopkins
Eel has troubles of his own: As an orphan and a
“mudlark,” he spends his days in the filthy River
Thames, searching for bits of things to sell. But even for
Eel, things aren’t so bad until that fateful August day in
1854—the day the deadly cholera (“blue death”) comes
to Broad Street. (249 pages)
J HUG Hero on a Bicycle by Shirley Hughes
Italy, 1944: Florence is occupied by Nazi forces. The
Italian resistance movement has not given up hope,
though, and neither have thirteen-year- old Paolo and
his sister, Costanza. They each find a part to play in
opposing the German forces. (224 Pages)
J KLA The Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages
It is 1943, and eleven-year-old Dewey Kerrigan is traveling west on a
train 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 project. (321pages)
J LYN I Pledge Allegiance by Chris Lynch
Four best friends serving in the Vietnam War make a pledge to one
another that they will do all they can to return home safely together.
First book in the Vietnam series. (192 pages)
J FICTION PARENTEAU, S. Ship of Dolls
by Shirley Parenteau
It’s 1926 and 11 year old Lexie’s class has been raising
money to ship a doll to the children of Japan in a
friendship exchange. When Lexie learns that the girl
who writes the best letter to accompany the doll will
be sent to the farewell ceremony in San Francisco, she
knows she just has to be the winner. (272 pages)
J PAR Written in Stone by Rosanne Parry
Pearl has always dreamed of hunting whales, just like her father. But
now that can never be. Pearl's father was lost on the last hunt, and the
whales hide from the great steam-powered ships carrying harpoon
cannons, which harvest not one but dozens of whales from the ocean.
With the whales gone, Pearl's people, the Makah, struggle to survive
as Pearl searches for ways to preserve their stories and skills. (1920’s)
(208 pages)
J PAT Thin Wood Walls by David Patneaude
When forced to move to an internment camp because
of his Japanese heritage, eleven-year-old Joe Hanada
records his thoughts and feelings in the journal that
his father gave him. (231pages)
J PEC On the Wings of Heroes by Richard Peck
A boy in Illinois remembers the homefront
years of World War II, especially his two heroes--his
brother in the Air Force and his father, who fought
in the previous war. (148pages)
J PHI Zane and the Hurricane by Rodman Philbrick
A boy's visit to meet his great-grandmother for the first time turns into
a nightmare when Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans. (192 pages)
J FICTION PREUS, M. Shadow on the Mountain
by Margi Preus
In Nazi-occupied Norway, fourteen-year-old Espen
joins the resistance movement, graduating from
deliverer of illegal newspapers to courier and spy.
(304 pages)
J ROB Missing from Haymarket Square
by Harriette G. Robinet
An African American girl faces hardships as a child laborer in 1880s
Chicago when her father, a union organizer, is imprisoned.
(160 pages)
J ROY Yellow Star by Jennifer Roy
From 1939, when Syvia is four and a half years old, to 1945 when she
has just turned ten, a Jewish girl and her family struggle to survive in
Poland's Lodz ghetto during the Nazi occupation. (227 pages)
J RYA Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan
Esperanza and her mother are forced to leave their life
of wealth and privilege in Mexico to work in the labor
camps of Southern California on the eve of the Great
Depression. (262pages)
J VOO My Family for the War by Anne C. Voorhoeve
At the start of World War II, ten-year-old Franziska Mangold is torn
from her family when she boards the kindertransport in Berlin, the
train that secretly took nearly 10,000 children out of Nazi territory to
safety in England. (402 pages)
J WHE After the Train by Gloria Whelan
Ten years after WWII, the town of Rolfen, West Germany, looks just as peaceful as ever. Then young Peter
discovers a secret about his past that leads him to
question everything, including the town's calm facade
and his sense of comfort and belonging. (153 pages)
J WIL One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia
Sent to live with absentee mother during the summer of 1968,
Delphine and her sister spend more time at the neighborhood Black
Panther summer camp than they do at home. Delphine still manages
to discover more about her mother, family and herself.
(218 pages)
J WIL Palace Beautiful by Sarah DeFord Williams
After her move to Salt Lake City in 1985, thirteen year
old Sadie finds a journal in a crawl space in the attic, and
with her sister and new friend, they read about the
Influenza epidemic of 1918. (232 pages)
J WIN Counting on Grace by Elizabeth Winthrop
Gr. 5-8. It's 1910. Now that Grace and her best friend
Arthur are 12, they must go to work in the mill, helping work the
looms. When they write to the Child Labor Board, things begin to
change. (232 pages)
6th Grade and Up
J AND Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson
In 1793 Philadelphia, sixteen-year-old Matilda Cook,
separated from her sick mother, learns about
perseverance and self-reliance when she is forced to
cope with the horrors of a yellow fever epidemic.
(251 pages)
J AVI The Barn by Avi
In this stark novel set in 1850s Oregon, Ben and his siblings must run
their farm alone after their father becomes paralyzed. (106 pages)
J BEN Cassandra’s Sister by Veronica Bennett
In 1790’s England, young Jane Austen, or Jenny as she
is called, is a girl with a head full of questions that no
one seems able to answer. Alive with romance and
humor, this novel tells of the writer's coming-of-age.
(227 pages)
J BRA Jefferson’s Sons: A Founding Father’s Secret Children
by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
This fictionalized story takes a 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)
JFICTION BROWN, S. Caminar by Skila Brown
A novel in verse about a young boy surviving the the 1981 civil war in
Guatemala. (193 pages)
J DUB or TEEN FICTION DUBLE The Sacrifice
by Kathleen Benner Duble
This novel describes one family’s experiences with the
Salem witchcraft hysteria, which spread to other towns
in Massachusetts. Ten-year-old Abigail and her twelve
year old sister are accused of witchcraft and await trial
in a miserable prison while their mother desperately
searches for some way to obtain their freedom.
(211 pages)
J FICTION GORDON, A. Painting the Rainbow by Amy Gordon
In this poignant middle-grade novel taking place over the summer of
1965, Holly and her cousin Ivy discover family secrets no one has
spoken of since World War II involving a terrifying accident, their Uncle
Jesse s death in a Japanese Internment camp, and a boy named Kiyo.
(176 pages)
J BRY Kaleidoscope Eyes by Jennifer Fisher Bryant
In 1968, with the Vietnam War raging, thirteen-year-old Lyza inherits a
project from her deceased grandfather, who had been using his
knowledge of maps and the geography of Lyza's New Jersey hometown
to locate the lost treasure of Captain Kidd. (264 pages)
J HEM The Adventurous Deeds of Deadwood Jones
by Helen Hemphill
Thirteen-year-old Prometheus Jones joins a cattle drive
that will eventually end up in Texas, where he hopes to
find his father. He experiences life as an AfricanAmerican cowboy after the Civil War. (228 pages)
J CAR Blood on the River: James Town 1607 by Elisa
Lynn Carbone As the page to Captain John Smith,
12-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)
J HES or TEEN FICTION HESSE Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
In a series of poems, fifteen-year-old Billie Jo relates the hardships of
living on her family's Oklahoma farm during the dust bowl years of the
Depression. (227 pages)
J CLI A Stone in My Hand by Cathryn Clinton
In 1988 Gaza eleven-year-old Malaak and her family are touched by
the violence between Jews and Palestinians when first her father
disappears and then her older brother is drawn to a radical group.
(191 pages)
J LAS True North: A Novel of the Underground Railroad
by Kathryn Lasky
Because of the strong influence which her grandfather, an abolitionist,
has in her life, 14-year-old Lucy aids a fugitive slave girl in her escape.
(267 pages)
J COM Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party
by Ying Chang Compestine
Starting in 1972 when she is nine years old, Ling, the
daughter of two doctors, struggles to make sense of the
communists' Cultural Revolution, which empties stores
of food, homes of appliances deemed "bourgeois," and
people of laughter. (248 pages)
J LEE The Unfortunate Son by Constance Leeds
Luc, a youth born with one ear and raised by a drunken
father in fifteenth-century France, finds a better home
with fisherman Pons, his sister Mattie, and their ward
Beatrice, the daughter of a disgraced knight. Even after
being kidnapped and sold into slavery in Africa, he
remains remarkably fortunate. (320 pages)
J FICTION LOWRY, L. Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
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)
J LUD Spelldown by Karon Luddy
This novel, set in South Carolina during 1968, follows 13-year-old
Karlene Bridges as she tries to overcome a dysfunctional family
situation to become the National Spelling Bee champion. (211 pages)
J MCC Stop the Train! by Geraldine McCaughrean
Despite opposition from the owner of the railroad in
1893, the new settlers of Florence, Oklahoma are
determined to build a real town. Readers meet people
who have hopes for a new life in this rollicking tale.
(304 pages)
J PHI The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg
by Rodman Philbrick
Twelve year old Homer, a poor but clever orphan, has
extraordinary adventures after running away from his evil uncle to
rescue his brother, who has been sold into service in the Civil War.
(240 pages)
J SPE or TEEN FICTION SPEARE The Witch of Blackbird
Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
Newbery winner, 1959. In 1687, Kit Tyler must leave
behind shimmering Caribbean islands to join the stern
Puritan community of her relatives. She feels caged until she meets the old woman known as the Witch of
Blackbird Pond. When their friendship is discovered, Kit
herself is accused of witchcraft. Also, The Sign of the
Beaver. (254 pages)
J TUR Running for Our Lives
by Glennette Tilley Turner
A family of fugitive slaves becomes separated while traveling to
freedom aboard the Underground Railroad. (198 pages)
J WIL Countdown by Deborah Wiles
Franny struggles with fear and family tension during the
height of the Cold War. This fascinating novel intersperses
photos, songs, and newspaper clippings from the era. (377
pages)
Teen Fiction
TEEN FICTION BOYNE The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
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)
TEEN FICTION BRUCHAC Code Talker: A Novel About the
Navajo Marines of World War Two by Joseph Bruchac
After being taught in a boarding school run by whites that
Navajo is a useless language, Ned Begay and other Navajo
men are recruited by the Marines to become Code Talkers,
sending messages during World War II in their native
tongue. (231 pages)
TEEN FICTION HAYNES The Girl is Murder by Kathryn Miller Haines
In 1942 New York City, fifteen-year-old Iris grieves for her mother who
committed suicide and for the loss of her life of privilege. She secretly
helps her father with his detective business since he struggles to make
ends meet. (342 pages)
TEEN FICTION LARSON Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson
After inheriting her uncle's homesteading claim in Montana, sixteen-yearold orphan Hattie Brooks travels from Iowa in 1917 to make a home for
herself and encounters some unexpected problems related to the war
being fought in Europe. (289 pages)
TEEN FICTION MCCOY Dead to Me by Mary McCoy
In 1948 Hollywood, a treacherous world of tough-talking
private eyes, psychopathic movie stars, and troubled
starlets, sixteen-year-old Alice tries to find a young
runaway who is the sole witness to a beating that put her
sister, Annie, in a coma. (297 pages)
TEEN FICTION PECK The River Between Us
by Richard Peck
During the early days of the Civil War the Pruitt family
takes in two mysterious young ladies who have fled New
Orleans to come north to Illinois in this
page-turning mystery. (164 pages)
TEEN FICTION RINALDI The Secret of Sarah Revere by Ann Rinaldi
Paul Revere's daughter describes her father's "rides" and the
intelligence network of the patriot community prior to the American
Revolution. (320 pages)
TEEN FICTION SMITH Elephant Run by Roland Smith
Nick endures servitude, beatings, and more after his
British father's plantation in Burma is invaded by the
Japanese in 1941, and when his father and others are
taken prisoner and Nick is stranded with his friend Mya,
they plan a daring escape on elephants, risking their
lives to save Nick's father and Mya's brother from a
Japanese prisoner of war camp. (318 pages)
TEEN FICTION SMITH Flygirl by Sherri L. Smith
In December 1941, on the eve of America's entrance into World War
II, 18-year-old Ida Mae Jones, a Louisiana girl longs to be a pilot, . She
is pretty and smart, but she has two huge strikes against her. She is
black in an America where racism holds sway, and a competent pilot in
an America in which she is denied her license because she is a woman.
(275 pages)
TEEN FICTION WEIN Code Name Verity
by Elizabeth Wein
Two young women from totally different backgrounds
are thrown together during World War II. Before long
they become devoted friends. But then a vital mission
goes wrong, and one of the friends has to bail out of a
faulty plane over France. She is captured by the
Gestapo and becomes a prisoner of war. (343 pages)
Joliet Public Library
Youth Services Department
Main Library
150 N. Ottawa St. Joliet, IL 60432
(815) 740-2662
Black Road Branch
3395 Black Rd, Joliet, IL 60431
(815) 846-6508
10/10/15