Anderson, Laurie

Fever, 1793

Late 1700's

251 pages

Simon & Schuster Children's Press, 2000

4.4, UG 

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

Crispin: Cross of Lead

Middle Ages

262 pages

Hyperion, 2002

5.0, MG 

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.

 

Avi

Iron Thunder

Civil War

Hyperion, 2007

202 pages

Tom Carroll is a thirteen year old boy living in Brooklyn during the Civil War.  He leaves his mother and sister to enlist aboard the Monitor, a ship made of iron, unheard of at that time, made specifically to fight the Merrmimac and to protect the blocade of Confederate troops.  He dodges spies and summons his courage to protect the Union.

 

Ayres, Katherine

North by Night

Civil War

192 pages

Delacorte, 1998

4.8, MG

Presents the journal of a sixteen-year-old girl whose family operates a stop on the Underground Railroad.

 

Ayres, Katherine

Stealing South

Civil War

201 pages

Delacorte, 2001

4.5, MG

Sixteen-year-old Will Spencer leaves home to become a peddler, but gets more than he bargained for when he agrees to go to Kentucky, steal two slaves, and help them reach their brother in Canada.

 

Barrett, Tracy

Anna of Byzantium

11th Century Byzantine Empire

Delacorte, 1999

224 pages

6.4 MG

In the eleventh century the teenage princess Anna Comnena fights for her birthright, the throne to the Byzantine Empire, which she fears will be taken from her by her younger brother John because he is a boy.

 

Bruchac, Joseph

Pocahontas

1600's

192 pages

Silver Whistle, 2003

6.3, MG 

Told from the viewpoints of Pocahontas and John Smith, describes their lives in the context of the encounter between the Powhatan Indians and the English colonists of seventeenth-century Jamestown, Virginia.

 

Bruchac, Joseph

Sacajawea

Lewis & Clark

199 pages

Silver Whistle, 2000

5.7, MG 

Sacajawea, a Shoshoni Indian interpreter, peacemaker, and guide, and William Clark alternate in describing their experiences on the Lewis and Clark Expedition to the Northwest.

 

Bruchac, Joseph

Winter People

mid 1700's

176 pages

Dial, 2002

5.5, MG 

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.

 

Cadnum, Michael

The Book of the Lion

Middle Ages

Viking, 2000

208 pages

6.9, UG

Edmund is sprung from prison by promising to fight in the Crusades for Edmund, a knight.  He is involved in the terrible bloody battle of Asruf and sees that the holy war is not at all holy.  This is a frank, unsentimental look at the Crusades from the perspective of an innocent young boy who is pressed into service.

 

Cadnum, Michael

The Dragon Throne

Middle Ages

Viking, 2005

224 pages

7.7, MG

Edmund and Hubert are back in England enjoying their celebrity as knights after the bloody Crusades.  But they are sent by Eleanor of Aquitane on a dangerous voyage to Rome.  This is an exciting glimpse into the turbulent life and times of the Middle Ages.

 

Cadnum, Michael

The Leopard Sword

Middle Ages

Viking, 2002

224 pages

7.3, UG

Hubert and Edmund are on their way back to England.  They face a terrible sea journey, survive a shipwreck, and arrive to face a band of criminals.  In England they must fight to become "proper knights" after their terrible ordeal in battle and perilous journey back home.

 

Carbone, Elisa

Blood on the river: James Town 1607

Colonial America

Viking, 2006

224 pages

5.3 MG

Samuel Collier is John Smith's page on his voyage to the New World.  There he must learn hard lessons if he wishes to survive in the hostile environment, lessons of reliance on others and maturity.  This is a fine historical novel full of detail worthy of class study.

 

 

Draper, Sharon

Fire from the Rock

School Integration/50's

Dutton, 2007

229 pages

5.0MG

It is 1957 in Little Rock, Arkansas and Sylvia and her family are African Americans facing the tumult of the school integration crisis.  Sylvia, who is to attend the all black high school in the fall, is asked to be one of the first few black students to enter all white Central High School in the fall.  She accepts the offer, knowing it will take courage and that she will face a lonely existence away from all of her friends and the friendly environment she has known all of her life.  This is a fine novel about an important segment of US history of which adolescents should all be aware.  It is a coming of age novel which will instill a sense of the time period.

 

Duble, Kathleen Benner

The Sacrifice

Salem Witchcraft Trials/1690's

McElderry, 2005

203 pages

4.6 MG

Abigail and her family believe the witchcraft hysteria that plagues Salem, a nearby town, will not touch their town of Andover.  But the evil does spread to encompass her town and even her family in a way which surpasses her worst nightmares. 

 

Durrant, Lynda

Betsy Zane

Revolutionary War

198 pages

Clarion, 2000

4.9, MG 

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.

 

Ernst, Kathleen

Hearts of Stone

Civil War

Dutton, 2006

248 pages

4.2 MG

Hannah tries to take care to her three siblings in Tennessee after the death of her parents during the the Civil War.  She finds it easier to develop a "heart of stone" because of all of the tragedy she must face in the midst of the war. 

 

Friedman, D. Dina

Escaping into the Night

World War II/Holocaust

Simon & Schuster, 2006

195 pages

4.4 MG

Thirteen year old Halina must learn to survive in the forests of Poland with other Jewish refugees from the ghettoes when the Nazis take her mother and she flees for her life.  She meets other teens and they begin a friendship, a fight for survival, and form a sort of new family. 

 

Giff, Patricia

Nory Ryan's Song

mid 1800's Ireland

Delacorte, 2000

148 pages

4.3, MG

It is the mid 1800's in Ireland and life is hard for potato farmers in Ireland, but Nory Ryan's family has always scraped by, until the day when all the potatoes in the land rotted with a blight. Nory tries to help her family, but the lure of America is pulling her.

 

Glatshteyn, Yankev

Emil and Karl

Holocaust/World War II

Roaring Brook, 2006

186 pages

4.7 MG

Emil is Jewish and Karl's parents are socialists.  Both boys are in jeopardy as the Nazis occupy Vienna.  When their parents are taken away the 9 year old boys stick together and try to cope in a city which has been turned upside down by racist fanatics and mobs.  They must run for their lives and try to find the few people who are still sane in the midst of this insanity.  

 

Grant, K.M.

Blood Red Horse 

Middle Ages

Walker, 2005 

288 pages 

6.3, MG

Gavin, William, and Ellie are three teens caught up in the tumultuous times of the Crusades (1100 A.D.)  The two boys go to the Holy Land to fight under Richard the Lionhearted.  Ellie must stay in England and fight her own battles.  This is a fine coming of age story with much richness of historical detail.

 

Grant, K.M.

Green Jasper

Middle Ages

Walker, 2006

249 pages

5.8, MG

Back from the Crusades, brothers Will and Gavin are caught up in the political intrigue of King Richard and his brother Prince John.  Both are claiming the throne of England.  To whom do Will and Gavin owe their loyalty?  Ellie plans to marry Gavin, but she is kidnapped by one loyal to Prince John. 

 

Grey, Christopher

Leonardo's Shadow

Fifteenth Century Italy

Atheneum, 2005

390 pages

4.9 MG

In a readable but staccato style, Grey dishes out an amazing amount of information about the life of the famous fifteenth century painter.  Giacomo is a fifteen year old boy who, being chased as a thief, jumps from a building and lands on a scaffolding on which da Vinci is working.  The painter takes him home as a servant and a mystery about the boy's past emerges, as well as the story of the painting of The Last Supper. 

 

Hahn, Mary

Hear the Wind Blow

Civil War

Clarion, 2003

224 pages

4.5, MG

A young man agrees to hide a wounded Confederate soldier on his family's Virginia farm, but the Yankees come searching for him. War is the real villair here, and the horrors of war are shown clearly.

 

Harlow, Joan Hiatt

Midnight Rider

American Revolution

McElderry, 2005

416 pages

5.1, MG

Hannah is an orphan who has been sold an an indentured slave to the Gage family of Boston by her heartless Aunt Phoebe.  The Gages are Loyalists but Hannah's heart lies with the Sons of Liberty. 

 

Hesse, Karen

Witness

1920's KKK

Scholastic, 2001

208 pages

5.0, MG 

Eleven voices chronicle actual events occurring in a sleepy Vermont town after the arrival of the Ku Klux Klan in 1924. Victimized are the families of Leanora Sutter, a 12-year-old African-American girl, and Esther Hirsh, the six-year-old daughter of a Jewish shoe salesman.

 

Ibbotson, Eva

The Star of Kazan

Pre-World War I / Vienna

Dutton, 2004

416 pages

6.1, MG

Annika was a baby found in a basket, raised by two servants and three professors, and loved by all who knew her in this pre-World War I story of Vienna.  When she was 12, her mother showed up to claim her and take her north to a palace in Germany.  What she had always hoped for turned out to be the beginning of her troubles.

 

Karr, Kathleen

Skullduggery

1840's New York

160 pages 

Hyperion, 2000

5.0, MG 

In 1840's NY, 12 year old Matthew is alone; a Cholera epidemic has wiped out his family. He sees an ad in the paper and contacts a Dr. ABC because he is interested in medicine, not knowing that he will become involved in grave-robbing.

 

Karwoski, Gail

Langer Seaman, the Dog Who Explored the West with Lewis and Clark 

Lewis and Clark Expedition

Peachtree, 2003 

192 pages

6.0, MG 

The story of the dog who was helpful and cherished on the expedition.  Lewis bought the Newfoundland for $20 and he proved to be quite valuable on the expedition.  This account will help reluctant readers be drawn into the drama surrounding this historical time. 

 

Larson, Kirby

Hattie Big Sky

Early Montana Homesteading/World War I

288 pages

Delacorte, 2006

4.4, MG

Hattie Brooks is a sixteen year old orphan who is left a piece of land in Montan by her uncle.  If she can successfully homestead it, it will be hers.  There is much information here about early homesteading and about the war front at home in this fine first novel.

 

Lasky, Kathryn

True North

1850's/Pre-Civil-War

288 pages

Scholastic, 1996

5.2, MG

Lucy Bradford discovers the young slave hiding in her grandfather's house. Lucy helps the girl continue north. After Afrika reaches the safety of Canada and Lucy returns home, the two write to one another regularly. Finally, five decades later, Lucy welcomes Afrika to her Boston home.

 

Lavender, William

Just Jane

Revolutionary War

288 pages

Gulliver, 2002

5.3, UG

In 1776, 14-year-old Lady Jane Prentice crosses the Atlantic to live with her Uncle Robert and his wife, Clarissa, in South Carolina. There she becomes aware of differing factions: the Loyalists (including her uncle), and the Rebels (including the schoolmaster).

 

Meyer, Carolyn

Beware, Princess Elizabeth

Elizabethan Renaissance

Gulliver, 2001

224 pages

7.2 UG

After the death of her father, King Henry VIII, in 1547, thirteen-year-old Elizabeth must endure the political intrigues and dangers of the reigns of her half-brother Edward and her half-sister Mary before finally becoming Queen of England eleven years later. (Card Catalog Description) 

 

Meyer, Carolyn

Doomed Queen Anne

Elizabethan Renaissance

240 pages

Gulliver, 2002

6.9, UG

The doomed one is Anne Boleyn, whose only apparent ambition in life was to marry Henry VIII.  This was unfortunate for her, as he changed wives often and disposed of them through beheading.  Such was Anne's fate

which Meyer accurately records in fiction format. Elizabethan Renaissance.

 

Meyer, Carolyn

Mary, Bloody Mary

Elizabethan Renaissance

Gulliver, 1999

240 pages

6.3 UG

Mary Tudor, who would reign briefly as Queen of England during the mid sixteenth century, tells the story of her troubled childhood as daughter of King Henry VIII. (Card Catalog Description) 

 

Morpurgo, Michael

Private Peaceful

World War I

208 pages 

Scholastic, 2004

5.2, MG 

Thomas lied about his age to join his beloved brother Charlie fighting for England against the Germans in France in World War I. He learns first hand about the horrors of trench warfare and the horrors of war within the ranks for nonconformists such as Charlie.

 

Napoli, Donna Jo

Song of the Magdalene

Biblical Times

Scholastic, 1996

240 pages

Miriam knows that in ancient Israel her seizures make her unclean and that if anyone finds out she will be an outcast.  She only tells Abraham, son of her father's caretaker, who is afflicted with cerebral palsey but a very loving and brilliant young man.  They fall in love and that love is doomed from the start.  This is a love story, a history of ancient Israel, and finally, a religious vision quest for Miriam, who is, of course, the famous Mary Magdalene.

 

Napoli, Donna Jo

Stones in Water

World War II / Venice, Italy 

208 pages 

Dutton Juvenile, 1997

4.2, UG

The setting is Venice during World War II. Roberto, his older brother and two of his friends sneak into an American movie, which is strictly forbidden. They get caught by the Nazis and are sent to a work camp. They try to hide the fact that one of his friends is Jewish.

 

Nolan, Han

A Summer of Kings

Civil Rights, 1963 

Harcourt, 2006

334 pages

5.1, MG 

Esther, a fourteen year old living in New York, is part of a family which takes in a young southern black man accused of murder in the summer of 1963.  She is caught up in a whirlwind of change as he gravitates toward the violent Muslim movement while she tries to convince him that Martin Luther King's nonviolent change is the way.  She is at odds with the young man (King Roy), her family, and her friends much of the time.  Things culminate at the March on Washington.

 

Park, Linda Sue

Single Shard, A

Medieval Japan

192 pages

Clarion, 2001

6.6, MG 

Tree-ear is a young apprentice to a potter, Min. Min entrusts him with two priceless pieces of pottery to carry to the king in a bag. Along the way he is set upon by robbers and arrives at the King's throne with only a single shard.

 

Patneaude, David

Thin Wood Walls

World War II / U.S. Internment Camps

240 pages

Houghton Mifflin, 2004

4.3, MG

Joe is a Japanese-American just after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Anti-Japanese sentiment is strong on the west coast. His father is arrested by the FBI and taken away. Soon his entire family is sent to an internment camp in California.

 

Pearsall, Shelley

Crooked River

1812 Ohio/Native Americans

Knopf, 2005

236 pages

In 1812 Ohio 13 year old Rebecca witnesses ugly frontier justice when a native American is falsley accused of murdering a white trapper and tried by the white court system.  She is shocked by the town's refusal to see him as a human being. 

 

Rinaldi, Ann

Or Give Me Death

Revolutionary War

240 pages 

Gulliver, 2003

4.0, MG

This is the fictionalized story of Patrick Henry's family as narrated by his two oldest daughters, Patsy and Anne. Patsy opens by explaining that she is the first to know that her mother is going insane. The second half of the book is narrated by Anne.

 

Rinaldi, Ann

Secret of Sarah Revere

Revolutionary War

336 pages 

Gulliver, 1995

3.7, MG 

The 13-year-old daughter of Paul Revere, Sarah, gives the reader a picture of what the American Revolution would have been like for women and young people and how it affected home life. As usual, readers learn much detail about the historical period from Rinaldi.

 

Salisbury, James 

Eyes of the Emperor 

World War II / Hawaii  

Wendy Lamb, 2005 

240 pages

3.9, MG 

Eddy Okubo lies about his age and joins the army in his hometown of Honolulu only weeks before the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor. Suddenly Americans see him as the enemy—even the U.S. Army doubts the loyalty of Japanese American soldiers.  Then the army sends Eddy and a small band of Japanese American soldiers on a secret mission to a small island off the coast of Mississippi. Here they are given a special job, one that only they can do. Eddy’s going to help train attack dogs. He’s going to be the bait.  (Amazon Description) 

 

Salisbury, Graham

House of the Red Fish

World War II / Hawaii

Wendy Lamb, 2006

304 pages

3.7 MG

In this second book about Tomi Nakaji, a boy on Oahu during World War II, a time of great prejudice against the Japanese, Salisbury delivers a moving story about a boy who wants more than anything to bring his father's sunken fishing boat to the surface before he returns from being imprisoned wrongfully simply because of his nationality.  His grandfather helps along with his best friends, one who is a haole (white).  He has many enemies also who try to impede his progress, but he perseveres for his papa and for his family honor.  This is a fine coming of age novel in a historical setting. 

 

Smith, Roland

Elephant Run

World War II / Burma

Hyperion, 2007

318 pages

Nick is sent to lives with his father on a teak plantation in Burma because his mother feels it is too dangerous in London with the Blitz.  However, the Japanese invade Burma and Nick and his father find themselves in a struggle for survival.

 

Spain, Susan Rosson

The Deep Cut

Civil War

Marshall Cavendish, 2006

217 pages

5.2, MG

It is Virginia during the Civil War and thirteen year old Lonzo, who is a little slow, just wants to please his father.  But the war interferes.  His best friend and cousin Ferdy secretly enlists, and his two uncles are also Confederate soldiers.  Then the Yankees start winning and come to Culpepper, Virginia. 

 

Spinelli, Jerry

Milkweed

World War II / Poland

224 pages

Knopf, 2003

3.6, MG

In 1939 Poland, a young boy lives on the streets and keeps alive by stealing food. He only knows himself by the name "stopthief" because that is what the merchants call him. At first he welcomes the Nazis, but soon learns their true dark motives.

 

Sturtevant, Katherine

A True and Faithful Narrative

17th Century Britain/Algiers/Piracy

Farrar, 2006

247 pages

5.9 MG

Meg wants to be a writer, but her father wants her to marry either Edward or Will.  In 1680's London it is uncommon for a woman to be a writer.  Then Edward travels to Italy, is captured by pirates, sold into slavery, and asks Meg to write his story.

 

Taylor, Mildred

The Land

Post Civil War

400 pages

Scholastic, 2002

5.0, MG

Paul-Edward Logan is the son of a white plantation owner father and a black slave mother. He is determined to buy his own land and shape his own future. Ugly, painful racism is everywhere during and after the Civil War in the deep South.

 

Torrey, Michele

Voyage of Plunder

17th Century Piracy

Knopf, 2005

182 pages

5.5 MG

Daniel, his father, and his father's new pregnant wife Faith, set sail for Jamaica from Boston in 1696.  Daniel hates to leave Boston and he hates Faith because she has changed his life.  Then they are set upon by pirates and life only gets much worse for Daniel.  

 

Wells, Rosemary

Red Moon at Sharpsburg

Civil War

Viking, 2007

236 pages

4.7 MG

India Moody is fourteen when the Civil War breaks out.  She wants to go to college, but the war and societal limitations are holding her back.  As the war progresses, it tears the world she has knows apart and India learns the truth about war and its effects upon humanity and gains a strength she never knew she possessed. 

 

Whelan, Gloria

Angel on the Square

Russian Revolution 1913-1918

304 pages

HarperCollins, 2001

5.6, MG 

The story of the Russian Revolution from 1913 to 1918 is told through the eyes of Katya, a young lady in waiting to the Romanov children of Tsar Nikolai II. Shows both sides of the Russian Revolution through her eyes.

 

Whelan, Gloria

Burying the Sun

World War II / Russia

205 pages  

HarperCollins, 2004

5.6, MG 

 

This is the story of the seige of Leningrad as told through the eyes of Georgi, a 14 year old boy who would love to join the Russian army but is too young.  He instead drives a truck across the frozen river to pick up food for the starving people who have been cut off from supplies by the German army.

 

Whelan, Gloria

Listening to Lions

Early 20th Century Africa, England

HarperCollins, 2005

194 pages

5.4 MG

Rachel Sheridan lives with her parents who are missionaries in East Africa until they die of influenza.  The Prichards are neighbors who take her in because their daughter has died, but their motives are sinister.  They send her back to England for their own greedy purposes.

 

Whelan, Gloria

Parade of Shadows

Early 20th Century Middle East

HarperCollins, 2007

304 pages

Sixteen year old Julia and her father travel from their home in England to the Middle East in 1907 where her father is a secret diplomat and Julia hopes to see a little of the world.  She finds more than she bargained for when she becomes involved in the impending breakup of the Ottoman Empire.  The political intrigue threatens to destroy her relationship with her father and her budding romance with a young man who is traveling with her group.  This is a fine historical novel set in an unusual time period.

 

Whelan, Gloria

The Turning

1991 Dissolution of the Soviet Union

HarperCollins, 2006

224 pages

5.8 MG

Ballerina Tatiana is going on tour to Paris in the spring of 1991.  She wants to defect to the West, but she has reservations about leaving her family and beloved Leningrad.  Rumors are rampant about impending freedom in her own country, but she doesn't know whether to trust them or not. 

 

Wilson, Diane

Black Storm Comin'

Early Civil War/Pony Express

McElderry, 2005

291 pages

5.5 MG

Colton and his family are stranded near Carson City on their way to Sacramento near the beginning of the Civil War.  His father has left them and Colton must become the man of the family by becoming a rider for the Pony Express.  He becomes an integral part of his family's survival and the beginning of the fight for the freedom of slaves with Lincoln's election. 

 

Zindel, Paul

Gadget

1945 Atomic Bomb

192 pages 

HarperCollins, 2001

4.5, UG

In 1945 13-year-old Stephen has come to Los Alamos, New Mexico to be with his physicist father, who is working on a top secret project for the Allies. After some time, Stephen's curiosity gets the best of him and he must sneek a peek at the project which is making his father so nervous.