HISTORICAL FICTION Book List

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HISTORICAL FICTION BOOKS - divided by TIME period

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Historical Fiction - UNITED STATES 1700's

Albrecht, Lillie Vanderveer. The spinning wheel secret
Joan Tower has never done the typical things a girl growing up in Colonial America should have done. She played and romped with her brothers and learned other skills than those of a housewife. But, after an Indian raid she must do all she can to keep her family together - even learn the skills she has never had.

Alderman, Clifford Lindsey. The way of the eagles
Enoch Robinson didn't like being apprenticed to dour wheelwright Nathaniel Crane and he liked being beaten even less. So, one day in the summer of 1775, he tore the switch out of his master's hand, broke it into four pieces, and began to fight back. Fearing a jail sentence he joins a patriot force taking part in an attempt to drive the British from Canada.

Anderson, Laurie Halse. Fever, 1793
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.

Avi. Encounter at Easton
The doomed flight of two young indentured servants from their unkind master brings together an unlikely assortment of people in a mid-eighteenth-century Pennsylvania town.

Avi. The fighting ground
Thirteen-year-old Jonathan goes off to fight in the Revolutionary War and discovers the real war is being fought within himself.

Avi. Night journeys
In the spring of 1768, twelve-year-old Peter, living with his guardian near the Pennsylvania-New Jersey border, joins in the search for two runaway indentured servants.

Brady, Esther Wood. Toliver's secret
During the Revolutionary War, a ten-year-old girl crosses enemy lines to deliver a loaf of bread containing a message for the patriots.

Bradley, Kimberly Brubaker. Weaver's daughter
In 1791 after her family's journey from Pennsylvania, ten-year-old Lizzie suffers from the disease of asthma in her new home in the Southwest Territory (present-day Tennessee).

Bruchac, Joseph. The arrow over the door
In the year 1777, a group of Quakers and a party of Indians have a memorable meeting.

Bruchac, Joseph. The winter people
As the French and Indian War rages in October of 1759, Saxso, a fourteen-year-old Abenaki boy, pursues the English rangers who have attacked his village and taken his mother and sisters hostage.

Buckey, Sarah Masters. Enemy in the Fort
In 1754, with her own parents taken captive, twelve-year-old Rebecca must confront her fear and hatred of the Abenaki when a boy raised by members of that tribe is brought to the fort at Charleston, New Hampshire, just before a series of thefts occurs.

Cavanna, Betty. Ruffles and drums
Devoted to the revolutionary cause, sixteen-year-old Sarah finds it difficult to accept the presence of a young British officer convalescing in their Concord house.

Chickering, Marjorie. Yankee trader: Ben Tanner, 1799
Sixteen-year-old Ben is the equal of any woodsman with gun and trap and he thinks St. Johnsbury, Vermont is a pretty good place to live but he longs to see more. He gets his chance on a journey to Portland.

Clapp, Patricia. I'm Deborah Sampson: a soldier in the War of the Revolution
Relates the experiences of the woman who disguised herself as a man in order to enlist and fight in the American Revolution.

Collier, James Lincoln. The bloody country
In the mid-eighteenth century a family moves from Connecticut to Pennsylvania and becomes involved in the property conflict between the two states.

Collier, James Lincoln. Jump ship to freedom
In 1787 a fourteen-year-old slave, anxious to buy freedom for himself and his mother, escapes from his dishonest master and tries to find help in cashing the solidier's notes received by his father for fighting in the Revolution.

Collier, James Lincoln. My brother Sam is dead
Recounts the tragedy that strikes the Meeker family during the Revolution when one son joins the rebel forces while the rest of the family tries to stay neutral in a Tory town.

Collier, James Lincoln. The winter hero
Anxious to be a hero, a young boy relates how he becomes involved in Shays' Rebellion begun by farmers in western Massachusetts against unfair taxation levied on them by the Boston government.

Cooney, Caroline B. The ransom of Mercy Carter
In 1704, in the English settlement of Deerfield, Massachusetts, eleven-year-old Mercy and her family and neighbors are captured by Mohawk Indians and their French allies, and forced to march through bitter cold to French Canada, where some adapt to new lives and some still hope to be ransomed.

Curry, Jane Louise. A stolen life
In 1758 in Scotland, teenaged Jamesina MacKenzie finds her courage and resolution severely tested when she is abducted by "spiriters" and, after a harrowing voyage across the Atlantic, sold as a bond slave to a Virginia planter.

Curtis, Alice Turner. The little maid Series
The series details the adventures of girls set in the US during the 1700s.
A little maid of Mohawk Valley
During the Revolutionary War, ten-year-old Joanne Clarke, living in a log cabin in the Mohawk Valley, delivers an important message to General Philip Schuyler at Albany after being kidnapped and abandoned by an Indian.

Denker, Nan Watson. The bound girl
Historical fiction set in Massachusetts during the Colonial Era.

Dubois, Muriel L. Abenaki captive
In 1752, nineteen-year-old Abenaki warrior Ogistin is present when a band of his people capture an English trapper, John Stark, and as Stark is carried into captivity in Canada a bond of hate and competition develops between him and Ogistin.

Durrant, Lynda. The beaded moccasins
After being captured by a group of Delaware Indians and given to their leader as a replacement for his dead granddaughter, twelve-year-old Mary Campbell is forced to travel west with them to Ohio.

Durrant, Lynda. Betsy Zane, the rose of Fort Henry
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.

Faulkner, Nancy. A stage for Rom
Rom and his twin Polly move to Colonial Williamsburg and Rom joins a company of actors. Their lives are changed forever when some old puppets and a stolen horse add up to a mystery and they make an exciting discovery.

Field, Rachel. Calico bush
Marguerite Ledoux, called Maggie by the English family to whom she is bound-out, saves their lives by arranging a Maypole dance for attacking Indians.

Finlayson, Ann. Rebecca's war
Left in charge of her brother and sister in occupied Philadelphia in 1777, fourteen-year-old Rebecca's life is complicated further when two British soldiers are billeted in her house.

Forbes, Esther. Johnny Tremain
After injuring his hand, a silversmith's apprentice in Boston becomes a messenger for the Sons of Liberty in the days before the American Revolution.

Frederick, Heather Vogel. The voyage of Patience Goodspeed
Following their mother's death in Nantucket, Captain Goodspeed brings twelve-year-old Patience and six-year-old Tad aboard his whaling ship, where a new crew member incites a mutiny and Patience puts her mathematical ability to good use.

Goodman, Joan E. Hope's crossing
When kidnapped by English Loyalists during the Revolutionary War, thirteen-year-old Hope draws on every ounce of courage within her to respond to the ordeal.

Gregory, Kristiana. Five smooth stones: Hope's diary
In her diary, a young girl writes about her life and the events surrounding the beginning of the American Revolution in Philadelphia in 1776.

Hudson, Jan. Dawn rider
Kit Fox's sixteenth year with her people, the Bloods, is filled with preparations for an important buffalo run, talk of her older sister's coming marriage, and skirmishes with their traditional enemy the Snakes.

Jones, Elizabeth McDavid. Mystery on Skull Island
In 1724, twelve-year-old Rachel and her friend Sally discover a pirates' hiding place on a deserted island near Charles Town, South Carolina, and they suspect it may be connected to the woman who will soon become Rachel's stepmother.

Keehn, Sally M. I am Regina
In 1755, as the French and Indian War begins, ten-year-old Regina is kidnapped by Indians in western Pennsylvania, and she must struggle to hold onto memories of her earlier life as she grows up under the name of Tskinnak and starts to become Indian herself.

Keehn, Sally M. Moon of two dark horses
At the beginning of the Revolutionary War, hoping to keep bloodshed away from their valley, a twelve-year-old Delaware Indian boy and his white friend search sacred land for the bones of a legendary beast.

Klaveness, Jan O'Donnell. The Griffin legacy
Amy Enfield becomes involved with the spirit of her ancestor Lucy Griffin and undertakes a quest for silver stolen from the parish church by Lucy's lover during the American Revolution.

Moore, Robin. The bread sister of Sinking Creek
Fourteen-year-old Maggie Callahan, who has a special talent for making bread, struggles to survive on the Pennsylvania frontier in the late 1700s.

Moss, Marissa. Emma's journal: the story of a Colonial girl
From 1774 to 1776, Emma describes in her journal her stay in Boston, where she witnesses the British blockade and spies for the American militia. Features hand-printed text, drawings, and marginal notes.

O'Dell, Scott. Sarah Bishop
Left alone after the deaths of her father and brother who take opposite sides in the War for Independence, and fleeing from the British who seek to arrest her, Sarah Bishop struggles to shape a new life for herself in the wilderness.

Rinaldi, Ann. A break with charity: a story about the Salem witch trials
While waiting for a church meeting in 1706, Susanna English, daughter of a wealthy Salem merchant, recalls the malice, fear, and accusations of witchcraft that tore her village apart in 1692.

Rinaldi, Ann. The second bend in the river
In 1798 Rebecca, a young settler in the Ohio territory, meets the Shawnee called Tecumseh and later develops a deep friendship with him.

Shaik, Fatima. Melitte
In 1772, years of mistreatment force thirteen-year-old Melitte to decide whether or not to run away from the Frenchman who has kept her as a slave on his poor Louisiana farm and leave the young girl who is the only person who ever loved her.

Shub, Elizabeth. Cutlass in the snow
In 1797 Sam and his grandfather explore the wild and uninhabited Fire Island, just missing a band of pirates but finding a cutlass and buried treasure.

Speare, Elizabeth George. Calico Captive
This story is very loosely based on the true captivity narrative of Susannah Johnson. The focus of the book is on Mrs. Johnson's younger sister, Miriam Willard, who was just 14 at the time she and her older sister's family were captured by Abenaki Indians in 1754, but Ms. Speare increased her age to 16. The book is filled with adventure and romance and how cultures and religions clashed on the 18th century frontier: New England farmers vs. Abenaki warriors, Puritanism vs. Roman Catholicism, and English vs. French loyalties.

Speare, Elizabeth George. The sign of the beaver
Left alone to guard the family's wilderness home in eighteenth-century Maine, a boy is hard-pressed to survive until local Indians teach him their skills.

Swoboda. The hollow tree
It is 1777, and fifteen-year-old Phoebe Olcott is thrown headlong into the turmoil of war when her beloved cousin Gideon is hanged as a British spy.

Tyler, Royall. The Bay boy: or, The autobiography of a youth of Massachusetts Bay
A semi-autobiographical account of 1700s Boston. Contains delightful sketches of Colonial life, politics, manners, and mores. Also depicts the growing tensions against the strictures of the Crown.

Walter, Mildred Pitts. Second daughter: the story of a slave girl
In late eighteenth-century Massachusetts, Aissa, the fictional younger sister of Elizabeth Freeman, relates how her sister gains freedom for herself and her family by bringing a suit against their owner in court.

Willis, Patricia. Danger along the Ohio
Lost in the Ohio River Valley in May 1793, twelve-year-old Clare and her two brothers struggle to survive in the wilderness and to avoid capture by the Shawnee Indians.

 

Historical Fiction - UNITED STATES 1800's

Alcott, Louisa May. Little women
The sentimental and humorous adventures of the four March sisters as they grew up in the nineteenth century.

Aldrich, Thomas Bailey. The story of a bad boy
The boyhood adventures of a mischievous lad in nineteenth-century New England are based on the author's own experiences.

Armstrong, Jennifer. Black-eyed Susan
Ten-year-old Susie and her father love living on the South Dakota prairie with its vast, uninterrupted views of land and sky, but Susie's mother greatly misses their old life in Ohio.

Armstrong, Jennifer. Steal away
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 story forty-one years later to two similar young girls.

Arrington, Frances. Bluestem
With their father away and their mother traumatized by some unknown event, eleven-year-old Polly and her younger sister are left to take care of themselves and their prairie homestead.

Avi. The barn
In an effort to fulfill their dying father's last request, nine-year-old Ben and his brother and sister construct a barn on their land in the Oregon Territory.

Avi. Beyond the western sea. Book one: The escape from home
Driven from their impoverished Irish village, fifteen-year-old Maura and her younger brother meet their landlord's runaway son in Liverpool while all three wait for a ship to America; their lives continue to intertwine on board ship and in the New World.

Avi. The true confessions of Charlotte Doyle
As the lone "young lady" on a transatlantic voyage in 1832, Charlotte learns that the captain is murderous and the crew rebellious.

Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. A coal miner's bride: the diary of Anetka Kaminska
A diary account of thirteen-year-old Anetka's life in Poland in 1896, immigration to America, marriage to a coal miner, widowhood, and happiness in finally finding her true love.

Beatty, Jerome. Blockade!
Recounts the blockade of a North Carolina port by the Union gunboat, Louisiana, based on the diary of teenage participant, Stephen F. Blanding.

Beatty, Patricia. Be ever hopeful, Hannalee
In 1865 with the war recently over, fourteen-year-old Hannalee and her recently reunited family decide to start a new life in Atlanta where, because of the need to rebuild the devastated city, jobs are plentiful. Sequel to "Turn Homeward, Hannalee."

Beatty, Patricia. By crumbs, it's mine!
While stranded in the Arizona territory in the 1880's a thirteen-year-old girl finds herself the owner of a traveling hotel.

Beatty, Patricia. Charley Skedaddle
During the Civil War, a twelve-year-old Bowery Boy from New York City joins the Union Army as a drummer, deserts during a battle in Virginia, and encounters a hostile old mountain woman.

Beatty, Patricia. Who comes with cannons
In 1861 twelve-year-old Truth, a Quaker girl from Indiana, is staying with relatives who run a North Carolina station of the Underground Railroad, when her world is changed by the beginning of the Civil War.

Blakeslee, Ann R. A different kind of hero
In 1881 twelve-year-old Renny, who resists his father's efforts to turn him into a rough, tough, brawling boy, earns the disapproval of the entire mining camp when he befriends a newly arrived Chinese boy.

Blos, Joan W. A gathering of days
The journal of a fourteen-year-old girl kept the last year she lived on the family farm; records daily events in her small New Hampshire town, her father's remarriage, and the death of her best friend.

Brady, Esther Wood. The toad on Capitol Hill
Eleven-year-old Dorsy and her family come to understand each other better when they are caught in the path of the British Army advancing on Washington in the summer of 1814.

Brill, Marlene Targ. Diary of a drummer boy
The fictionalized diary of a twelve-year-old boy who joins the Union army as a drummer and ends up fighting in the Civil War.

Bryant, Louella. The black bonnet
As they near the end of their journey to freedom along the Underground Railroad, twelve-year-old Charity and her sixteen-year-old sister Bea encounter additional perils.

Byars, Betsy Cromer. Trouble River
When he builds his raft, a twelve-year-old boy never dreams that it will serve as the sole means of escape for him and his grandmother when hostile Indians threaten their prairie cabin.

Calvert, Patricia. Betrayed!
In 1867, after his father's death and his mother's remarriage, fourteen-year-old Tyler and his black friend Isaac set out on the Missouri River headed west to seek their fortunes, encountering an unsavory keel boat captain and a Sioux chief along the way.

Calvert, Patricia. Bigger
When his father disappears near the Mexican border at the end of the Civil War, twelve-year-old Tyler decides to go after him and bring him home, acquiring on the journey a strange dog which he names Bigger.

Cannon, A. E. Charlotte's Rose
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.

Carbone, Elisa Lynn. Stealing freedom
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.

Cavanna, Betty. Runaway voyage
A fictional account of the mid-19th-century voyage, led by Asa Mercer, of several hundred young women going from the east coast to help populate Seattle.

Chambers, Veronica. Amistad rising: a story of freedom
A fictional account of the 1839 revolt of Africans aboard the slave ship Amistad and the subsequent legal case argued before the Supreme Court in 1841 by former president John Quincy Adams.

Clements, Bruce. I tell a lie every so often
In 1848 a fourteen-year-old Missourian, although not a habitual liar, tells two lies that start off an unusual chain of events.

Collier, James Lincoln. Chipper
Orphaned and homeless, twelve-year-old Chipper Carey is a street-wise gang member in 1890s New York City, until a con man introduces him to a wealthy woman who is seeking her long-lost nephew and Chipper must decide where his loyalties lie.

Collier, James Lincoln. The clock
In 1810 in Connecticut, trapped in a grueling job in the local textile mill to help pay her father's debts, fifteen-year-old Annie becomes the victim of the cruel overseer and plots revenge against him.

Collier, James Lincoln. With every drop of blood
While trying to transport food to Richmond, Virginia, during the Civil War, fourteen-year-old Johnny is captured by a black Union soldier.

Conlon-McKenna, Marita. Wildflower girl
In the mid-nineteenth century, thirteen-year-old Peggy O'Driscoll sets out alone from Ireland for America, hoping to make a better life for herself.

Conrad, Pam. Prairie songs
Louisa's life in a loving pioneer family on the Nebraska prairie is altered by the arrival of a new doctor and his beautiful, tragically frail wife.

Crane, Stephen. The red badge of courage
Henry Fleming's fear of what will happen during battles in the Civil War are exacerbated by the action he and the men around him witness.

Crofford, Emily. Born in the year of courage
In 1841, having been shipwrecked and picked up by an American whaling ship outside Japanese territorial waters, fifteen-year-old Manjiro decides to go live in America and work towards opening trade between his country and the West.

Cross, Gillian. Great elephant chase
In 1881, fifteen-year-old Tad, an orphan, helps a girl attempting to get a mighty Indian elephant to friends in Nebraska, all the while pursued by two unscrupulous villains who claim that the elephant is theirs.

Cullen, Lynn. Nelly in the wilderness
In the Indiana wilderness in 1821, twelve-year-old Nelly Vandorn and her older brother hold fast to their rough frontier ways when their father brings home a fancy new city wife not long after burying their mother.

Curry, Jane Louise. What the Dickens!
In 1842, eleven-year-old twins, whose father runs a boat on the Juniata Canal in Pennsylvania, learn of a Harrisburg bookseller's plan to steal Charles Dickens's newly finished novel while Dickens himself is touring the U.S.

Cushman, Karen. The ballad of Lucy Whipple
In 1849, twelve-year-old California Morning Whipple, who renames herself Lucy, is distraught when her mother moves the family from Massachusetts to a rough California mining town.

Cushman, Karen. Rodzina
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.

Dahlberg, Maurine F. The spirit and Gilly Bucket
In 1859, when Gilly's father goes to search for gold in the Rocky Mountains, the eleven-year-old is sent to stay with her aunt and uncle in Virginia, where she befriends one of her uncle's slave girls, finds out about the Underground Railroad, and discovers that people are not always exactly as they seem.

DeFelice, Cynthia C. The apprenticeship of Lucas Whitaker
After his family dies of consumption in 1849, twelve-year-old Lucas becomes a doctor's apprentice.

DeFelice, Cynthia C. Weasel
Alone in the frontier wilderness in the winter of 1839 while his father is recovering from an injury, eleven-year-old Nathan runs afoul of the renegade killer known as Weasel and makes a surprising discovery about the concept of revenge.

Donahue, John. An island far from home
The twelve-year-old son of a Union army doctor killed during the fighting in Fredericksburg comes to understand the meaning of war and the fine line between friends and enemies when he begins corresponding with a young Confederate prisoner of war.

Duey, Kathleen. Amelina Carrett, Bayou Grand Coeur, Louisiana, 1863
When thirteen-year-old Amelina saves the life of a young Yankee spy found injured near her Louisiana home in 1863, the orphaned girl creates a dangerous situation for herself and her uncle.

Duey, Kathleen. Anisett Lundberg: California, 1851
Anisett and her family are struggling to make ends meet by providing food for miners in the gold camps when Anisett finds a small chunk of gold, which she keeps a secret, until a sinister stranger discovers it.

Duey, Kathleen. Cave-in, St. Claire, Pennsylvania, 1859
In 1859 when Rory disguises herself as a boy in order to work in a coal mine in St. Claire, Pennsylvania, she and her friend struggle to survive a cave-in disaster.

Duffy, James. Radical Red
The life of a twelve-year-old Irish girl living in Albany, New York, in the 1890s undergoes many changes when she and her mother become involved with Susan B. Anthony and her suffragist movement.

Erdrich, Louise. The birchbark house
Omakayas, a seven-year-old Native American girl of the Ojibwa tribe, lives through the joys of summer and the perils of winter on an island in Lake Superior in 1847.

Ernst, Kathleen. Retreat from Gettysburg
In 1863, during the tense week after the Battle of Gettysburg, a Maryland boy faces difficult choices as he is forced to care for a wounded Confederate officer while trying to decide if he himself should leave his family to fight for the Union.

Fleischman, Paul. The borning room
Lying at the end of her life in the room where she was born in 1851, Georgina remembers what it was like to grow up on the Ohio frontier.

Fleischman, Paul. Bull Run
Northerners, Southerners, generals, couriers, dreaming boys, and worried sisters describe the glory, the horror, the thrill, and the disillusionment of the first battle of the Civil War.

Fleischman, Sid. Bandit's moon
Twelve-year-old Annyrose relates her adventures with Joaquin Murieta and his band of outlaws in the California gold-mining region during the mid-1800s.

Fleischman, Sid. Mr. Mysterious & Company
The adventures of a family of magicians traveling across the western deserts and plains in the 1880s.

Forrester, Sandra. Sound the jubilee
A slave and her family find refuge on Roanoke Island, North Carolina, during the Civil War.

Fritz, Jean. Brady
A young Pennsylvania boy takes part in the pre-Civil War anti-slavery activities.
Gauch, Patricia Lee. Thunder at Gettysburg
Fourteen-year-old Tillie becomes involved in the tragic battle of July 1-3, 1863.

Gregory, Kristiana. Across the wide and lonesome prairie: the Oregon Trail diary of Hattie Campbell, Booneville, Missoura, 1847
In her diary, thirteen-year-old Hattie chronicles her family's arduous 1847 journey from Missouri to Oregon on the Oregon Trail.

Guccione, Leslie D. Come morning
Twelve-year-old Freedom, the son of a freed slave living in Delaware in the early 1850s, takes over his father's work in the Underground Railroad when his father disappears.

Hahn, Mary Downing. The Gentleman Outlaw and me--Eli: a story of the Old West
In 1887 twelve-year-old Eliza, disguised as a boy and traveling towards Colorado in search of her missing father, falls in with a Gentleman Outlaw and joins him in his illegal schemes.

Hahn, Mary Downing. Promises to the dead
Twelve-year-old Jesse leaves his home on Maryland's Eastern Shore to help a young runaway slave find a safe haven in the early days of the Civil War.

Hansen, Joyce. Out from this place
A fourteen-year-old black girl tries to find a fellow ex-slave, who had joined the Union army during the Civil War, during the confusing times after the emancipation of the slaves.

Hansen, Joyce. Which way freedom?
Obi escapes from slavery during the Civil War, joins a black Union regiment, and soon becomes involved in the bloody fighting at Fort Pillow, Tennessee.

Harness, Cheryl. Ghosts of the Civil War
The ghost of Willie, President Abraham Lincoln's older son, transports Lindsey back to his own time, where she sees and hears many things from both sides of the Civil War. Includes passages from contemporary documents, a glossary, biographical sketches, and a bibliography.

Henry, Marguerite. San Domingo: The medicine hat stallion
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.

Henty, G. A. With Lee in Virginia: a story of the American Civil War
Presents, chronologically, some of the great battles during the Northern invasion of Virginia during the Civil War.

Hill, Elizabeth Starr. The banjo player
In 1888, adopted by a farming couple outside of New Orleans, twelve-year-old orphan Jonathan must choose between security and the excitement of performing as a musician along the river.

Hill, Kirkpatrick. Minuk: ashes in the pathway
Twelve-year-old Minuk's traditional Eskimo way of life is changed forever in 1892 with the arrival of Christian missionaries.

Holm, Jennifer L. Our only May Amelia
As the only girl in a Finnish American family of seven brothers, May Amelia Jackson resents being expected to act like a lady while growing up in Washington state in 1899.

Hotze, Sollace. A circle unbroken
Captured by a roving band of Sioux Indians and brought up as the chief's daughter, Rachel is recaptured by her white family and finds it difficult to adjust, as she longs to return to the tribe.

Hunt, Irene. Across five Aprils
Young Jethro Creighton grows from a boy to a man when he is left to take care of the family farm in Illinois during the difficult years of the Civil War.

Hurmence, Belinda. Tancy
At the end of the Civil War, a young house slave on a small North Carolina plantation searches for her mother who was mysteriously sold when Tancy was a baby.
Johnson, Nancy. My brothers' keeper: a Civil War story
As a young orphaned drummer boy in the Civil War, Josh Parrish joins the 20th Maine in time to be caught up in the battle for Little Round Top.

Johnston, Norma. Over Jordan
In 1836, fourteen-year-old Roxana undertakes a dangerous journey up the Ohio River to help her beloved servant, Jess, and Jess' fiance, a runaway slave, escape to freedom, aided by Roxana's former teacher Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Jones, Elizabeth McDavid. Watcher in the piney woods
In 1865, while helping her family keep their Virginia farm going through the end of the Civil War, twelve-year-old Cassie meets a Confederate deserter and a Yankee prisoner of war and tries to discover who has been stealing from the farm.

Karr, Kathleen. The great turkey walk
In 1860, a somewhat simple-minded fifteen-year-old boy attempts to herd one thousand turkeys from Missouri to Denver, Colorado, in hopes of selling them at a profit.

Keehn, Sally M. Anna Sunday
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.

Keith, Harold. Rifles for Watie
A sweeping novel of the Civil War, this book follows the adventures of a young man determined to join the Union army who somehow befriends the rebels and ends up with friends on both sides of the conflict.

Ketchum, Liza. Orphan journey home
In 1828, while traveling from Illinois to Kentucky, twelve-year-old Jesse and her two brothers and sister lose their parents to the milk sickness and must try to finish the dangerous journey by themselves.

Lampman, Evelyn Sibley. Bargain bride
Because married settlers could claim twice the land of a bachelor, orphaned Ginny was married when she was ten-years-old. Now fifteen, her husband comes to claim her.

Lampman, Evelyn Sibley. Half-breed
A Crow Indian youth returns to his white father's people and to a life in which patience and maturity are the only means to understanding and accepting an unheroic father.

Lasky, Kathryn. Beyond the divide
In 1849, a fourteen-year-old Amish girl defies convention by leaving her secure home in Pennsylvania to accompany her father across the continent by wagon train.

Lasky, Kathryn. True north
Because of the strong influence which her grandfather, an abolitionist, has in her life, fourteen-year-old Lucy assists a fugitive slave girl in her escape.

Laurgaard, Rachel K. Patty Reed's doll: the story of the Donner party
A wooden doll recalls the hope with which a group of pioneers begins their journey and the ordeals they face as they travel from Springfield, Illinois, to California.

Lawlor, Laurie. Addie across the prairie
Sequel: Addie's long summer
Unhappy to leave her home and friends, Addie reluctantly accompanies her family to the Dakota Territory and slowly begins to adjust to life on the prairie.

Levin, Betty. Brother moose
In the late 1800s, two orphan girls, aided by an Indian and his grandson, make a perilous trip to Maine to find a family.

Levoy, Myron. The magic hat of Mortimer Wintergreen
In 1893, thirteen-year-old Joshua and his eleven-year-old sister, Amy, travel from South Dakota to New York City with the help of the mysterious Mortimer Wintergreen and his unpredictable magic hat.

Lord, Athena V. A spirit to ride the whirlwind
Twelve-year-old Binnie, whose mother runs a company boarding house in Lowell, Massachusetts, begins working in a textile mill and is caught up in the 1836 strike of women workers.

Lyon, George Ella. Here and then
Through ghostly visitation and a diary that seems mysteriously to write itself with twelve-year-old Abby's hands, a Civil War nurse asks for help with medical supplies across an abyss of 133 years.

Lyons, Mary E. Dear Ellen Bee: a Civil War scrapbook of two Union spies
A scrapbook kept by a young black girl details her experiences and those of the older white woman, "Miss Bet," who had freed her and her family, sent her north from Richmond to get an education, and then worked to bring an end to slavery. Based on the life of Elizabeth Van Lew.

MacBride, Roger Lea. Bachelor girl
Having left her parents' Missouri farm for good and trained to become a telegraph operator in Kansas City, teenage Rose moves out to San Francisco and joins the thousands of "bachelor girls" supporting themselves.

Mazer, Harry. My Brother Abe
Forced off their land in Kentucky in 1816, nine-year-old Sarah Lincoln, known as Sally, and her family, including younger brother Abe, move to the Indiana frontier.

 

McClung, Robert M. Hugh Glass, mountain man
A fictionalized biography of the legendary hero of the Old West, who as a fur trapper in 1823, survived an attack by a grizzly bear.

McDonald, Brix. Riding on the wind
A tale of Pony Express riders and their lives.

McGill, Alice. Miles' song
In 1851 in South Carolina, Miles, a twelve-year-old slave, is sent to a "breaking ground" to have his spirit broken but endures the experience by secretly taking reading lessons from another slave.

McGraw, Eloise Jarvis. Moccasin trail
A pioneer boy, brought up by Crow Indians, is reunited with his family and attempts to orient himself in the white man's culture.

McKissack, Pat. Run away home
In 1886 in Alabama, an eleven-year-old African American girl and her family befriend and give refuge to a runaway Apache boy.

Meader, Stephen W. The muddy road to glory
The Civil War told through the eyes of a young soldier.

Meyer, Carolyn. Where the broken heart still beats
Having been taken as a child and raised by Comanche Indians, thirty-four-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker is forcibly returned to her white relatives, where she longs for her Indian life and her only friend is her twelve-year-old cousin Lucy.

Minahan, John A. Abigail's drum
During the War of 1812, when British soldiers threaten the town of Scituate, Massachusetts, young Rebecca Bates and her sister Abigail, daughters of the local lighthouse keeper, find a way to save both him and the town.

Moeri, Louise. Save Queen of Sheba
After miraculously surviving a Sioux Indian raid on the trail to Oregon, a brother and sister set out with few provisions to find the rest of the settlers.

Murrow, Liza Ketchum. West against the wind
Fourteen-year-old Abby seeks both her father and the secret of a handsome but mysterious boy during an arduous journey by wagon train from the middle of the country to the Pacific coast in 1850.

Myers, Walter Dean. The journal of Joshua Loper: a Black cowboy
In 1871 Joshua Loper, a sixteen-year-old black cowboy, records in his journal his experiences while making his first cattle drive under an unsympathetic trail boss.

Neufeld, John. Gaps in stone walls
Twelve-year-old Merry Skiffe, who lives on Martha's Vineyard in the 1880s, runs away from home because she is suspected of having committed a murder.

Nixon, Joan Lowery. Aggie's home
A clumsy and unattractive twelve-year-old, Aggie is sure no one will want to adopt her when she rides the orphan train out west, but when she meets the eccentric Bradon family she begins to have some hope. Includes historical information about orphan trains and the woman's suffrage movement.

Nixon, Joan Lowery. A dangerous promise
After being taken in by Captain Taylor and his wife in Kansas, twelve-year-old Mike Kelly and his friend Todd Blakely join the Union army as musicians and see the horrors of war firsthand in Missouri.

Nixon, Joan Lowery. A family apart
When their mother can no longer support them, six siblings are sent by the Children's Aid Society of New York City to live with farm families in Missouri in 1860.

O'Dell, Scott. The 290
A shipyard apprentice finds high adventure aboard the S.S. Alabama, a Confederate ship which sails the Atlantic destroying Union vessels.

O'Dell, Scott. Sing down the moon
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.

O'Dell, Scott. Streams to the river, river to the sea: a novel of Sacagawea
A young Indian woman, accompanied by her infant and cruel husband, experiences joy and heartbreak when she joins the Lewis and Clark Expedition seeking a way to the Pacific.

O'Dell, Scott. Thunder rolling in the mountains
In the late nineteenth century, a young Nez Perce girl relates how her people were driven off their land by the U.S. Army and forced to retreat north until their eventual surrender.

Paterson, Katherine. Jip: his story
While living on a Vermont poor farm during 1855 and 1856, Jip learns his identity and that of his mother and comes to understand how he arrived at this place.

Paterson, Katherine. Lyddie
Impoverished Vermont farm girl Lyddie Worthen is determined to gain her independence by becoming a factory worker in Lowell, Massachusetts, in the 1840s.

Paterson, Katherine. Preacher's boy
In 1899, ten-year-old Robbie, son of a preacher in a small Vermont town, gets himself into all kinds of trouble when he decides to give up being Christian in order to make the most of his life before the end of the world.

Paulsen, Gary. Mr. Tucket
(Series includes several other titles)
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.

Paulsen, Gary. Sarny, a life remembered
Sequel to: Nightjohn
Continues the adventures of Sarny, the slave girl Nightjohn taught to read, through the aftermath of the Civil War during which time she taught other Blacks and lived a full life until age ninety-four.

Pearsall, Shelley. Trouble don't last
Samuel, an eleven-year-old Kentucky slave, and Harrison, the elderly slave who helped raise him, attempt to escape to Canada via the Underground Railroad.

Peck, Richard. Fair weather
In 1893, thirteen-year-old Rosie and members of her family travel from their Illinois farm to Chicago to visit Aunt Euterpe and attend the World's Columbian Exposition which, along with an encounter with Buffalo Bill and Lillian Russell, turns out to be a life-changing experience for everyone.

Pfitsch, Patricia Curtis. Keeper of the light
After her father's death in 1872, Faith takes over his job as lighthouse keeper on Lake Superior, until her mother decides to move into town, where Faith finds herself stifled by the role society expects her to play.

Pfitsch, Patricia Curtis. Riding the flume
In 1894, fifteen-year-old Francie determines to fight the lumbermen and protect the largest Sequoia tree ever seen, which had been given to her sister just before her death six years earlier.

Pinkney, Andrea Davis. Abraham Lincoln : letters from a slave girl
A fictional correspondence between President Abraham Lincoln and a twelve-year-old slave girl that discusses his decision to write the Emancipation Proclamation.

Pryor, Bonnie. Joseph: a rumble of war, 1861
After his stepfather becomes an abolitionist, ten-year-old Joseph struggles with his own thoughts about slavery as he sees its divisive power in his small Kentucky town.

Reeder, Carolyn. Captain Kate
Determined to take her father's coal-carrying barge on the C&O Canal from Cumberland, Maryland, to Georgetown in D.C., twelve-year-old Kate learns hurtful truths about herself.

Rees, Douglas. Lightning Time
Fourteen-year-old Theodore Worth struggles with the decision to leave his home in Boston and join the controversial abolitionist John Brown in the fight against slavery.

Richter, Conrad. The light in the forest
True Son became an Indian when he was captured at four from the field of his parents' Pennsylvania frontier farm. When he is forced to return to his parents, he is torn by the conflict between the free Indian life and the restrictions of the settlers.

Rinaldi, Ann. Amelia's war
When a Confederate general threatens to burn Hagerstown, Maryland, unless it pays an exorbitant ransom, twelve-year-old Amelia and her friend find a way to save the town.

Rinaldi, Ann. In my father's house
For two sisters growing up surrounded by the Civil War, there is conflict both outside and inside their house.

Robinet, Harriette. Forty acres and maybe a mule
Born with a withered leg and hand, Pascal, who is about twelve years old, joins other former slaves in a search for a farm and the freedom which it promises.

Robinet, Harriette. Missing from Haymarket Square
Three children in Chicago in 1886 experience the Haymarket Riot in response to exploitative working conditions.

Roop, Peter. Girl of the shining mountains: Sacagawea's story
Sacagawea describes how, at the age of sixteen, she becomes part of the Lewis and Clark Expedition and serves as their interpreter and guide, surviving many dangerous adventures on their trek through the wilderness.

Ryan, Pam Munoz. Riding freedom
A fictionalized account of Charley (Charlotte) Parkhurst who ran away from an orphanage, posed as a boy, moved to California, and fooled everyone by her appearance.

Sandoz, Mari. The horsecatcher
Unable to kill, a young Cheyenne is scorned by his tribe when he chooses to become a horse catcher rather than a warrior.

Schultz, Jan Neubert. Firestorm
Maggie hates moving from beautiful Superior, Wisconsin, to dusty Hinckley, Minnesota, in 1894, until she almost loses her family to a forest fire that sweeps through the town.

Steele, William O. The perilous road
Chris hates the Yankees who robbed him but when he reports the presence of a Yankee patrol to the Confederates, he realizes too late he may have betrayed his own brother.

Stevens, Carla. Anna, Grandpa, and the big storm
Anna's grandfather is bored with city life until he and Anna are stranded on the Third Avenue El during the blizzard of 1888.

Stolz, Mary. Cezanne Pinto
In his old age Cezanne Pinto recalls his youth as a slave on a Virginia plantation and his escape to a new life in the North.

Talbot, Charlene Joy. An orphan for Nebraska
Orphaned on the journey to America in 1872, a young Irish boy finally makes his way to Nebraska where he goes to work for a newspaper editor and learns to do the work of a printer's devil.

Talbot, Charlene Joy. The sodbuster venture
Following a dying man's last request, thirteen-year-old Maud helps the man's fiance homestead his claim on the Kansas prairie in 1870.

Taylor, Theodore. Teetoncey
Sequels: Teetoncey and Ben O'Neal and The odyssey of Ben O'Neal
In this first novel of a trilogy, eleven-year-old Ben rescues an English girl from a shipwreck off the Outer Banks of North Carolina; and, though she becomes part of his family, she never speaks.

Tolliver, Ruby C. Muddy banks
A twelve-year-old runaway slave is torn between desire for freedom and affection for the woman who has protected him, as the impending Battle of Sabine Pass threatens to engulf their part of Texas.

Turner, Ann Warren. Grasshopper summer
In 1874 eleven-year-old Sam and his family move from Kentucky to the southern Dakota Territory, where harsh conditions and a plague of hungry grasshoppers threaten their chances for survival.

Turner, Ann Warren. Third girl from the left
Itching to do something different, eighteen-year-old Sarah leaves Maine for the harsh Montana environment as a mail-order bride, and is soon left a widow with a 2000-acre ranch to run.

Van Leeuwen, Jean. Bound for Oregon
A fictionalized account of the journey made by nine-year-old Mary Ellen Todd and her family from their home in Arkansas westward over the Oregon Trail in 1852.

Wait, Lea. Stopping to home
In 1806, orphaned eleven-year-old Abigail and her little brother Seth find a home with the young Widow Chase in the seaport of Wiscasset, Maine, and help her discover a way to support them all.

Warner, Sally. Finding Hattie
In 1882 Hattie, a fourteen-year-old orphan, joins her cousin Sophie in attending boarding school at Miss Bulkley's Seminary for Young Ladies in Tarrytown, New York, and tries to find her place in the world.

Whelan, Gloria. Fruitlands
Fictional diary entries recount the true-life efforts of Louisa May Alcott's family to establish a utopian community known as Fruitlands in Massachusetts in 1843.

Wibberley, Leonard. The last battle
Manly and Peter Treegate find themselves aboard the same ship off the West Indies as captain and midshipman respectively during the War of 1812.

Wilkins, Celia. Across the rolling river
Follows the experiences of Caroline Quiner, who will become Laura Ingalls Wilder's mother, and her family on their farm on the Wisconsin frontier during the year in which Caroline turns twelve.

Wisler, G. Clifton. The drummer boy of Vicksburg
In this fact-based story, fourteen-year-old drummer boy Orion Howe displays great bravery during a Civil War battle at Vicksburg, Mississippi.

Yates, Elizabeth. Patterns on the wall
Adventures of a man who travels through New England, painting and decorating homes.

Yates, Elizabeth. Prudence Crandall: woman of courage
A new edition of the historical novel of the Quaker teacher who in 1833 opened a school for African-American women and girls.

Yep, Laurence. Dragon's gate
Sequel to: Mountain light
When he accidentally kills a Manchu, a fifteen-year-old Chinese boy is sent to America to join his father, an uncle, and other Chinese working to build a tunnel for the transcontinental railroad through the Sierra Nevada mountains in 1867.

Historical Fiction - UNITED STATES 1900's

Alexander, Lloyd. The Gawgon and The Boy
In Depression-era Philadelphia, when eleven-year-old David is too ill to attend school, he is tutored by the unique and adventurous Aunt Annie, whose teaching combines with his imagination to greatly enrich his life.

Burch, Robert. Ida Early comes over the mountain
Tough times in rural Georgia during the Depression take a lively turn when spirited Ida Early arrives to keep house for the Suttons.

Coleman, Evelyn. Circle of fire
In 1958, Mendy puts herself in danger when she discovers that the Ku Klux Klan is planning to bomb the Highlander Folk School in order to disrupt a visit from Mendy's hero, Eleanor Roosevelt.

Collier, James Lincoln. The jazz kid
Playing the coronet is the first thing that twelve-year-old Paulie Horvath has taken seriously, but his obsession with becoming a jazz musician leads him into conflict with his parents and into the tough underworld of Chicago in the 1920s.

Curtis, Christopher Paul. Bud, not Buddy
Ten-year-old Bud, a motherless boy living in Flint, Michigan, during the Great Depression, escapes a bad foster home and sets out in search of the man he believes to be his father-the renowned bandleader, H.E. Calloway of Grand Rapids.

Davies, Jacqueline. Where the ground meets the sky
During World War II, a twelve-year-old girl is uprooted from her quiet, East coast life and moved to a secluded army post in the New Mexico desert where her father and other scientists are working on a top secret project.

Davis, Ossie. Just like Martin
Following the deaths of two classmates in a bomb explosion at his Alabama church, fourteen-year-old Stone organizes a children's march for civil rights in the autumn of 1963.

DeFelice, Cynthia C. Lostman's River
In the early 1900s, thirteen-year-old Tyler encounters vicious hunters whose actions threaten to destroy the Everglades ecosystem, and as a result joins the battle to protect that fragile environment.

Duey, Kathleen. Agnes May Gleason, Walsenburg, Colorado, 1932
In 1932, when her father's foot injury makes it impossible for him to do farm work for a while, thirteen-year-old Agnes steps in, proving herself and revealing her understanding of him.

Duey, Kathleen. Alexia Ellery Finsdale, San Francisco, 1905
In San Francisco near the beginning of the twentieth century, Alexia faces a moral dilemma when her con man father tries to cheat the widow who has been like a mother to Alexia.

Duey, Kathleen. Francesca Vigilucci, Washington, D.C., 1913
The women's suffrage movement is coming close to victory in 1913, and when thirteen-year-old Francesca meets a prominent suffragist at one of her mother's charity luncheons, she finds the courage to admit her secret dream of becoming a reporter.

Durbin, William. Song of Sampo Lake
In 1900, as a family of Finnish immigrants begins farming on the edge of a Minnesota lake, Matti works as a store clerk, teaches English, and works on the homestead, striving to get out of his older brother's shadow and earn their father's respect.

Giff, Patricia Reilly. All the way home
In 1941, circumstances bring together Brick, a boy from New York's apple country, and Mariel, a young girl made shy by her bout with polio, and the two make a journey from Brooklyn back to help Brick's elderly neighbors save their apple crop and to help Mariel learn about her past.

Giff, Patricia Reilly. Lily's crossing
During a summer spent at Rockaway Beach in 1944, Lily's friendship with a young Hungarian refugee causes her to see the war and her own world differently.

Greene, Bette. Summer of my German soldier
Sheltering an escaped German prisoner of war is the beginning of some shattering experiences for a 12-year-old Jewish girl in Arkansas.

Hesse, Karen. Out of the dust
In a series of poems, fifteen-year-old Billie Jo relates the hardships of living on her family's wheat farm in Oklahoma during the dust bowl years of the Depression.

Hooks, William H. Circle of fire
Shortly before Christmas, 1936, eleven-year-old Harrison overhears a notorious local bigot planning a Ku Klux Klan raid on a band of Irish tinkers camped nearby and realizes he must do something to prevent it.

Hurwitz, Johanna. Dear Emma
Sequel to: Faraway summer
In her letters to a Vermont friend, eighth grader Dossi, a Russian, Jewish immigrant living in the Lower East Side of New York City in 1910, shares her thoughts about her new brother-in-law, the diphtheria epidemic, and the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.

Hyatt, Patricia Rusch. Coast to coast with Alice
Sixteen-year-old Hermine Jahns relates her experiences traveling on the first cross-country automobile trip with a woman driver in 1909.

Ibbotson, Eva. Journey to the river sea
Sent with her governess to live with the dreadful Carter family in exotic Brazil in 1910, Maia endures many hardships before fulfilling her dream of exploring the Amazon River.

Langton, Jane. The boyhood of Grace Jones
A young girl persists in being a tomboy despite the disapproval of her parents and classmates - set during the Depression.

Lehrman, Robert. The store that Mama built
In 1917 twelve-year-old Birdie and her siblings, the children of Jewish immigrants from Russia, help their recently widowed mother run the family store, picking up where their father left off in his struggle to succeed in America.

Levine, Gail Carson. Dave at night
When orphaned Dave is sent to the Hebrew Home for Boys where he is treated cruelly, he sneaks out at night and is welcomed into the music- and culture-filled world of the Harlem Renaissance.

Levinson, Riki. Boys here--girls there
During the Depression, the year that six-year-old Jennie starts school brings many changes to her loving Jewish family, including her father's loss of his job and the birth of a new baby.

Levitin, Sonia. Annie's promise
Sequel to: Silver Days
Her experiences at a summer camp in the California mountains in 1945 give twelve-year-old Annie Platt new insight into her overprotective family of German-Jewish immigrants.

Levoy, Myron. Alan and Naomi
In New York of the 1940's a boy tries to befriend a girl traumatized by Nazi brutality in France.

Littlefield, Holly. Fire at the Triangle factory
Two fourteen-year-old girls, sewing machine operators at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, are caught in the famous Triangle fire of 1911.

Lyon, George Ella. Borrowed children
Having been forced to act as mother and housekeeper during Mama's illness, twelve-year-old Amanda has a holiday in Memphis, far removed from the Depression drudgery of her Kentucky mountain family, and finds her world expanding even as she grows to understand and appreciate her own background.

Manley, Joan B. She flew no flags
In early 1944, as the war rages around them, an American family travels from India to the United States by ship, under blackout conditions, through the enemy waters of the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

Mazer, Norma Fox. Good night, Maman
After spending years fleeing from the Nazis in war-torn Europe, twelve-year-old Karin Levi and her older brother Marc find a new home in a refugee camp in Oswego, New York.

McKissack, Pat. Color me dark: the diary of Nellie Lee Love, the great migration North
Eleven-year-old Nellie Lee Love records in her diary the events of 1919, when her family moves from Tennessee to Chicago, hoping to leave the racism and hatred of the South behind.

Montes, Marisa. A circle of time
In 1996, a fourteen-year-old girl in a coma is forced back in time by a girl who died in 1906, and who needs help in righting a series of terrible wrongs.

Moranville, Sharelle Byars. Over the river
In 1947, after the war, Willa Mae's father returns to the Illinois town where she has lived with her maternal grandparents for the last five of her eleven years, and Willa Mae finds herself struggling to understand old family tensions and secrets.

Murray, Michele. The crystal nights
Elly is painfully awakened to the realities of the world around her when her aunt and cousin move into their overcrowded farmhouse after fleeing Hitler's persecution of the Jews.

O'Leary, Patsy Baker. With wings as eagles
In 1938 in rural North Carolina, twelve-year-old Bubba Hawkins finds himself in emotional turmoil when his father returns from prison to resume his life with his wife and sons and his black neighbors.

Peck, Richard. A long way from Chicago
A boy recounts his annual summer trips to rural Illinois with his sister during the Great Depression to visit their larger-than-life grandmother.

Peck, Richard. A year down yonder
Sequel to: A long way from Chicago
In 1937, during the Depression, fifteen-year-old Mary Alice, initially apprehensive about leaving Chicago to spend a year with her fearsome, larger-than-life grandmother in rural Illinois, gradually begins to better understand and admire her grandmother's unusual qualities.

Peck, Robert Newton. Arly
Although Arly Poole seems bound to follow in his father's footsteps as a field worker in Jailtown, Florida, where his family lives in 1927 in the shadow of a cruel boss, his world suddenly seems larger when a schoolteacher comes to town.

Peck, Robert Newton. Cowboy ghost
Growing up without a mother and with an aloof father on a cattle ranch in Florida in the first part of the 1900s has made Titus very close to his older brother, Micah, and determined to make Micah proud of him when the two go on their first cattle drive together.

Robinet, Harriette. Walking to the bus-rider blues
Twelve-year-old Alfa Merryfield, his older sister, and their grandmother struggle for rent money, food, and their dignity as they participate in the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott in the summer of 1956.

Rogers, Kenny. Christmas in Canaan
In the early 1960s in a rural, racially-charged Texas town, a poor white boy struggling to get through school and a book-loving black classmate find the common ground on which to build true friendship.

Ross, Ramon Royal. Harper & Moon
Although twelve-year-old Harper has always liked Moon, an abused, orphaned older boy, their friendship is tested by a discovery Harper makes when Moon joins the Army in 1943.

Rostkowski, Margaret I. After the dancing days
A forbidden friendship with a badly disfigured soldier in the aftermath of World War I forces thirteen-year-old Annie to redefine the word "hero" and to question conventional ideas of patriotism.

Salisbury, Graham. Under the blood-red sun
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.

Savin, Marcia. The moon bridge
The friendship between San Francisco girls Mitzi Fujimoto and Ruthie Fox is changed when World War II begins and Mitzi and her family are forced to go into an internment camp.

Taylor, Mildred D. The road to Memphis
Sadistically teased by two white boys in 1940's rural Mississippi, a black youth severely injures one of the boys with a tire iron and enlists Cassie's help in trying to flee the state.

Taylor, Mildred D. Roll of thunder, hear my cry
A black family living in the South during the 1930's are faced with prejudice and discrimination which their children don't understand.

Taylor, Sydney. All-of-a-kind family
Five young sisters experience life in New York's Lower East Side at the beginning of the 20th century. The close-knit group encounters everyday realities such as boring chores, missing library books, and trips to the Rivington Street market, as well as those details which bring the early 1900's to life--scarlet fever, peddlers, and bathing at Coney Island. Woven into the story are the traditions and holidays of the Jewish religion.

Taylor, Sydney. All-of-a-kind family downtown
The further adventures of five sisters and their brother growing up on New York's East Side in the early twentieth century.

Uchida, Yoshiko. A jar of dreams
A young girl grows up in a closely-knit Japanese American family in California during the 1930's, a time of great prejudice.

Vander Els, Betty. The bombers' moon
In the summer of 1942, an American missionary family living in China is separated when the two children are evacuated to India with their school class to escape the Japanese invasion.

Whitmore, Arvella. The bread winner
When both her parents are unable to find work and pay the bills during the Great Depression, resourceful Sarah Ann Puckett saves the family from the poorhouse by selling her prizewinning homemade bread.

Wiegand, Roberta. The year of the comet
Sarah, ten years old in 1910, finds much to enjoy in her family's adventure-filled life on the American prairie, despite fears that the appearance of Halley's comet may signal the end of the world.

Wiggin, Kate Douglas Smith. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
When Rebecca Rowena Randall goes to live with her spinster aunts in Riverboro, Rebecca's aunts find her to be more of a handful than they bargained for. But even more surprising than the transition of Rebecca into a well-mannered young lady are the effects that Rebecca has on her aunts' humdrum lives. Rebecca, with her wide dark eyes and spirit that no walls can contain, will change their lives -- and the lives of everyone she meets -- forever.

Williams, Barbara. Making waves
Having survived the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, twelve-year-old Emily lives in Baltimore where she attends school but also encounters child labor, sweatshops, and the struggle of labor unions.

Wolff, Virginia Euwer. Bat 6
In small town, post-World War Oregon, twenty-one 6th grade girls recount the story of an annual softball game, during which one girl's bigotry comes to the surface.