Historical Fiction
A Northern Light
Donnelly, Jennifer
In 1906, 16-year-old Mattie Gokey is torn between her desires to pursue her own dreams of becoming a writer, her responsibility towards her family and the affections of handsome Royal Loomis. She takes a job at a local inn where a mysterious young woman hands her a bundle of love letters with instructions to burn them. When the woman, Grace Brown, is found drowned, the letters that Mattie has may be the only clue to what really happened. Based on a true story. Carnegie Medal & Printz Honor Book Award winner
Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing: The Pox Party
Anderson, M T
This the story of Octavian Nothing, an African American boy who is raised by graduates of the Novanglian College of Lucidity as a science experiment before and during the Revolutionary War. He can speak French, Latin and Greek. He is trained in debate, philosophy and literature. He can play the violin like a virtuoso. And he is a slave. Told through diaries, letters and manuscripts, this is a story of how Octavian sees this new country, America, in all its brutality and glory. Printz Honor Book & National Book Award winner
Barefoot Gen (v. 1-4)
Nakazawa, Keiji
This manga series tells the story of Gen, a young boy, and his family living in Hiroshima before, during and after the dropping of the atomic bomb at the end of World War II. It illustrates the bleakness of war and the high price paid by ordinary citizens. Despite the tragedy, the books still manage to be hopeful and even humorous at times.
Copper Sun
Draper, Sharon
After Amari, 15, is captured in her African village she is brought to America to be sold as a slave and sent to a Carolina plantation. She escapes with an indentured servant in order to find the Spanish colony in Florida that gives sanctuary to slaves. Coretta Scott King Award winner
Earthquake at Dawn
Gregory, Kristiana
Photographer Edith experiences the tumultuous aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. The story is told through the eyes of fifteen-year-old Daisy, her traveling companion. The character of Edith is based on the real photographer, Edith Irvine, who took photographs during the devastating 1906 earthquake.
Fallen Angels
Myers, Walter Dean
When seventeen-year-old Richie Perry cannot get into college, he enlists in the Army in the summer of 1967. On active duty in Vietnam, he and his platoon deal with the horror of war. Coretta Scott King Award winner
Fever, 1793
Anderson, Laurie Halse
Mattie Cook loves her city of Philadelphia—the waterfront where Congress meets, the bustling streets and most of all, the family coffeehouse that she helps run. Just when business is growing, yellow fever grips the city with devastating effects. With the death toll escalating higher each day and her mother struck with the fever, Mattie must flee to the country. Will she be able to outrun the plague?
Forgotten Fire
Bagdasarian, Adam
Overnight, Vahan Kenderian’s world is destroyed when, in 1915, Turkish leaders begin the systematic massacre of the Armenian population of Turkey.
Out of the Dust
Hesse, Karen
Written in a combination of poetic verse and diary entries, Billy Jo tells of her experiences during the bad dust storms and the Depression of the early 1930s. Billy Jo must learn to cope with crops that blow away, guilt over her mother’s accidental death and watching her father die before her eyes.
The Book Thief
Zusak, Marcus
Narrated by Death and set in Germany during World War II, a young German girl, Liesel, steals books, learns to read with the help of her foster father and shares her stolen books with the young Jewish man her family is hiding in the basement. Printz Honor Book Award winner
The River Between Us
Peck, Richard
A young man goes with his father to a small town in Illinois to visit his grandparents that he has never met. His grandparents were his age during the Civil War and his grandmother begins to tell him stories about what life was like during the war. He also learns about a family secret that has been hidden since the war and that changes who he thinks he is.
Witch Child
Rees, Celia
In 1659, Mary’s grandmother, accused of witchcraft, has just been hung and the town’s suspicions are quickly turning to fourteen-year-old Mary. Given the opportunity to flee to America, Mary makes the perilous journey to the New World hoping to escape. But will life in the colonies among the Puritans in Salem, Massachusetts be any safer for Mary?
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