HISTORICAL FICTION BIBLIOGRAPHY
Al Capone Does My Shirts Choldenko, Gennifer
Summary: A twelve-year-old boy named Moose moves to Alcatraz Island in 1935 when guards' families were housed there, and has to contend with his extraordinary new environment in addition to life with his autistic sister.
Ashes of Roses Auch, Mary Jane
Summary: Sixteen-year-old Rose Nolan arrives on Ellis Island in 1911 in the hopes of starting a new life, but after most of her family is sent back to Ireland, she must find her own way in a new country and fend for herself and her younger sister.
B For Buster Lawrence, lain
Summary: In the spring of 1943, sixteen-year-old Kak, desperate to escape his abusive parents, lies about his age to enlist in the Canadian Air Force and soon finds himself based in England as part of a crew flying bombing raids over Germany.
A Boy No More Mazer, Harry
Summary: After his father is killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor, Adam, his mother, and sister are evacuated from Hawaii to California, where he must deal with his feelings about the war, Japanese internment camps, his father, and his own identity. (Sequel to: Boy At War)
Breath Napoli, Donna Jo
Summary: Elaborates on the tale of "The Pied Piper," told from the point of view of a boy who is too ill to keep up when a piper spirits away the healthy children of a plague-ridden town after being cheated out of full payment for ridding Hameln of rats.
The Cay Taylor, Theodore
Summary: A young white boy who has been recently blinded learns about vision, courage and race with the help of wise, old Black man. (Also: Timothy of the Cay, The Bomb)
Crispin: The Cross of Lead Avi
Summary: Falsely accused of theft and murder, an orphaned peasant boy in fourteenth century England flees his village and meets a larger-than-life juggler who holds a dangerous secret. (Newberry Award 2003)
Dances With Wolves Blake, Michael
Summary: A civil war veteran adopts the ways of the Indians and fights for their principles.
Dear America (Series)
Summary: Diaries of young American children penned in their own words reveal historical and personal happenings in journal format.
Doomed Queen Anne Meyer, Carolyn
Summary: In 1520, thirteen-year-old Anne Boleyn, jealous of her older sister's beauty and position at court, declares that she will one day be queen of England, and that her sister will kneel at her feet. (Also: Mary. Bloody Mary, Beware Princess Elizabeth)
Fallen Angels Myers, Walter Dean
Summary: Seventeen-year-old Richie Perry, just out of his Harlem high school, enlists in the Army in the summer of 1967 and spends a devastating year on active duty in Vietnam.
Fever 1793 Anderson, Laurie Halse
Summary: In 1793 Philadelphia, a 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.
The Gadget Zindel, Paul
Summary: In 1945, having joined his father in Los Alamos, 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.
Girl in a Cage Yolen, Jane
Summary: As English armies invade Scotland in 1306, eleven-year-old Princess Marjorie, daughter of the newly crowned Scottish king, Robert the Bruce, is captured by England's King Edward Longshanks and held in a cage on public display. (Also: Queen's Own Fool)
Girl of Kosovo Mead, Alice
Summary: Although Zana, an eleven-year-old Albanian girl, experiences the turmoil and violence of the 1999 conflict in her native Kosovo, she remembers her father's admonition to not let her heart become filled with hate.
Girl With a Pearl Earring Chevalier, Tracy
Summary: Griet, sixteen, serves the Dutch painter, Johannes Vermeer, and assists in setting up for his awe-inspiring paintings. (Adult for YA)
Good Night. Maman Mazer, Norma Fox
Summary: After spending years fleeing from the Nazis in war-torm Europe, twelve-year-old Karin Levi and her old brother Marc find a new home in a refugee camp in Oswego, New York.
Good Night. Mr. Tom Magorian, Michelle
Summary: A battered child learns to embrace life when he is adopted by an old man in the English countryside during the Second World War
I Am Regina Keehn, Sally
Summary: In 1755, ten-year-old Regina is kidnapped by Indians and struggles to hold onto memories of her earlier life as she grows up and starts to become an
Indian. (Also: Anna Sunday) .
I Had Seen Castles Rylant, Cynthia
Summary: Now an old man, John is haunted by memories of enlisting to fight in World War II , a decision which forced him to face the horrors of war and changed his life forever.
If! Should Die Before I Wake Nolan, Han
Summary: As Hilary, a Neo-Nazi initiate, lies in a coma, she is transported back to Poland at the onset of World War II into the life of a Jewish teenager.
The Land Taylor, Mildred
Summary: Paul-Edward, the son of a part-Indian, part-African slave mother and a White plantation owner father, finds himself caught between the two worlds of his parents as he pursues his dream of owning land in the aftermath of the Civil War.
Lily's Crossing Giff, Patricia Reilly
Summary: During a summer spent at Rockaway Beach in 1944, Lily's friendship with a young Hungarian refugee helps her to develop an enlightened attitude.
Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy Schmidt, Gary D.
Summary: In 1911, Turner Buckminster hates his new home of Phippsburg, Maine, but things improve when he meets Lizzie Bright Griffin, a girl from a poor, nearby island community founded by former slaves that the town fathers and Turner's - want to change into a tourist spot.
Lord of the Nutcracker Men Lawrence, lain
Summary: An English boy during World War I comes to believe that the battles he enacts with his toy soldiers control the war his father is fighting on the front.
Milkweed Spinelli, Jerry
Summary: A young Polish orphan, called names for being Jewish, dreams of the day when he too could become Nazi in shining boots, until the day he witnesses something that changes his mind forever.
Mississippi Trial Crowe, Chris
Summary: In Mississippi in 1955, a sixteen-year-old finds himself at odds with his grandfather over issues surrounding the kidnapping and murder of a fourteen-year-old African-American from Chicago.
Mr. Was Hautman, Pete
Summary: After his dying grandfather tries to strangle him, Jack Lund discovers a door that leads him fifty years into the past and involves him in events that determine his own future.
Nightjohn Paulsen, Gary
Summary: Twelve-year-old Sarny's brutal life as a slave becomes even more dangerous when a newly-arrived slave offers to teach her how to read. (Sequel:
Samy. a Life Remembered)
A Northern Light Donnelly, Jennifer
Summary: 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 guest renews her determination to live her own life.
On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon Gibbons, Kaye
Summary: In the year 1900 on the afternoon that she suspect might be the last of her long, eventful life, Emma Garnet Tate Lowell sets down on paper what came before, determined to make an honest account of it. (Adult for YA)
Out of the Dust Hesse, Karen
Summary: In a series of poems, fifteen-year-old Billie Jo relates to the hardships of living on her family's wheat farm in Oklahoma during the dust bowl years of the Depression. (Also: Witness)
Phineas Gage Fleischman, John
Summary: The true story of Phineas Gage, whose brain had been pierced by an iron rod in 1848, and who survived and became a case study in how the brain functions.
Primrose Way Koller, Jackie French
Summary: A recent arrival to the New World in 1633, sixteen-year-old Rebekah, a missionary's daughter, befriends a Native American woman and begins to question whether these savages need "saving" after all. (Also: Nothing to Fear)
Private Peaceful Morpurgo, Michael
Summary: When Thomas Peaceful's older brother is forced to join the British Army, Thomas decides to sign up as well, although he is only fourteen years old, to prove himself to his country, his family, his childhood love, Molly, and himself.
The Ransom of Mercy Carter Cooney, Caroline B.
Summary: Eleven-year-old Mercy Carter awaits, with hope, ransom from the Mohawk Indians who have captured her in 1704. When ransom is finally offered, what will her response be?
Rifle Paulsen, Gary
Summary: A priceless, handcrafted rifle, fired throughout the American Revolution, is passed down through the years until it fires on a fateful Christmas Eve of 1994.
Rockbuster Skurzynski, Gloria
Summary: In 1915, after being asked to sing at the funeral of executed songwriter and member of the international union, Industrial Workers of the World, Joe Hill, eighteen-year-old Utah coal miner Tommy Quinlan begins to accept his past and make decisions about his future.
The Royal Diaries (Series)
Summary: Follow the lives of important historical persons through their diaries, historical notes, pictures, other supporting historical evidence.
Elizabeth I, Cleopatra VII, Marie Antoinette, Anastasia, etc.
The Sacrifice Matcheck, Diane
Summary: When her father's death leaves her orphaned, and an outcast among her Apsaalooka (Crow) people, a fifteen-year-old sets out to avenge his death and prove that she, not her dead twin brother, is destined to be the Great One.
Send One Angel Down Schwartz, Virginia Frances
Summary: A young slave tries to hide the horrors of slavery from his younger cousin, a light-skinned slave who is the daughter of the plantation owner.
Sing Down the Moon O'Dell, Scott
Summary: A young Navajo girl recounts the events of 1864 when her tribe was forced to march to Fort Sumner as prisoners of the white soldiers.
Slap Your Sides Kerr, M. E.
Summary: Life in their Pennsylvania hometown changes for Jubal Shoemaker and his family when his older brother witnesses to his Quaker beliefs by becoming a conscientious objector during World War II. (Also: Gentlehands)
Soldier Boys Hughes, Dean
Summary: Two boys, one German and one American, are eager to join their respective armies during World War II, and their paths cross at the Battle of the Bulge.
Soldier X Wulffson, Don L.
Summary: In 1943 sixteen-year-old Erik experiences the horrors of war when he is drafted into the German army and sent to fight on the Russian front.
Steal Away Armstrong, Jennifer
Summary: In 1855, two thirteen-year-old girls, one white and one black, run away from a southern farm and make the difficult journey north to freedom, living to recount their journey forty-one years later to two similar young girls.
Storm Warriors Carbone, Elisa Lynn
Summary: In 1895, after his mother's death, twelve-year-old Nathan moves with his 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.
Stowaway Hesse, Karen
Summary: A young stowaway keeps a journal aboard Captain James Cook's ENDEAVOR in the late 1700's.
The Things They Carried: A Work of Fiction O'Brien, Tim
Summary: An American soldier relates the Vietnam experience through a collection of interwoven short stories.
Ties That Bind, Ties That Break Namioka, Lensey
Summary: Ailin, a strong-willed Chinese child, defies tradition by refusing to have her feet bound, later realizing the impact this will have on her life.
Tom Thread Isaacs, Anne
Summary: In an attempt to save his daughter's life, Eva's father sends her from Poland to a labor camp in Czechoslavakia where she and her sister survive the war.
Trapped Between the Lash and the Gun Whitmore, Arvella
Summary: Just as he's headed to become a street gang member, Jordan is transported through time.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Smith, Betty
Summary: In the slums of early 1900 Brooklyn, a young girl grows up amidst poverty and hard times.
The War Within: A Novel of the Civil Matas, Carol
Summary: As Jews, Hannah's family is expelled by the Union in 1862 from their Mississippi home. A novel of prejudice and war.
The Watsons Go to Birmingham Curtis, Christopher Paul
Summary: The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watsons, and African American family living in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963.
Witch Child Rees, Celia
Summary: In 1659, fourteen-year-old Mary Newbury keeps a joumal of her voyage from England to the New World and her experiences living as a witch in a community of Puritans near Salem, Massachusetts.
Wolf By the Ears Rinaldi, Ann
Summary: Harriet Hemings, rumored to be the daughter of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, one of his black slaves, struggles with the problems facing her to escape from the velvet cage, that is Monticello, or to stay, and thus remain a slave. (Many Other Titles)