Historical Fiction
 |
All the Broken Pieces Two years after being airlifted out of Vietnam in 1975, Matt Pin is haunted by the terrible secret he left behind and, now, in a loving adoptive home in the United States, a series of profound events forces him to confront his past. subjects: Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Psychological aspects, Novels in verse, Vietnamese Americans, Adoption |
 |
Anahita's Woven Riddle In Iran, more than 100 years ago, a young girl with three suitors gets permission from her father and a holy man to weave into her wedding rug a riddle to be solved by her future husband, which will ensure that he has wit to match hers. award: ALA Best Books for Young Adults-2007 subjects: Marriage; Sex role; Weaving; Nomads; Afshar (Turkic people);Muslims |
 |
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, volume1: The Pox Party Various diaries, letters, and other manuscripts chronicle the experiences of Octavian, a young African American, from birth to age sixteen, as he is brought up as part of a science experiment in the years leading up to and during the Revolutionary War. Sequel: The astonishing life of Octavian Nothing, traitor to the nation. vol. 2, The kingdom on the waves awards: Printz Honor-2007, National Book Award Winner-2006 subjects: Liberty, Slavery, Science experiments, African Americans, Freedom, United States-History-Revolution-1775-1783 |
 |
Billie Standish Was Here When the river jeopardizes the levee and most of the town leaves, Miss Lydia, an elderly neighbor, and Billie form a friendship that withstands tragedy and time. subjects: Friendship; Rape; Coming of Age |
 |
Black Duck Years afterwards, Ruben Hart tells the story of how, in 1929 Newport, Rhode Island, his family and his best friend's family were caught up in the violent competition among groups trying to control the local rum-smuggling trade. Awards: Texas Lone Star Reading List-2008, ALA Best Books for Young Adults-2007 subjects: Prohibition; Friendship; Adventure and adventurers; Gangsters |
 |
The Boy Who Dared In October, 1942, seventeen-year-old Helmuth Hubener, imprisoned for distributing anti-Nazi leaflets, recalls his past life and how he came to dedicate himself to bring the truth about Hitler and the war to the German people. subjects: Courage; Anti-Nazi movement; World War II; Germany |
 |
The Braid Two Scottish sisters, living on the western island of Barra in the 1850s, relate, in alternate voices and linked narrative poems, their experiences after their family is forcibly evicted and separated with one sister accompanying their parents and younger siblings to Cape Breton, Canada, and the other staying behind with other family on the small island of Mingulay. subjects: Sisters, Emigration and Immigration, Mingulay (Scotland)-History-19th century, Canada-history-1841-1867 |
 |
Brothers, Boyfriends, and Other Criminal Minds While living on the same block as several members of the Mafia does have the advantage of a lower crime rate, fourteen-year-old April and her brother find there are times when it is also a major disadvantage award: Lone Star Reading List 2009 subjects: Organized crime; friendship; brothers and sisters |
 |
Copper Sun Two fifteen-year-old girls--one a slave and the other an indentured servant--escape their Carolina plantation and try to make their way to Fort Moses, Florida, a Spanish colony that gives sanctuary to slaves. Awards: Coretta Scott King Author Award: 2007 Tayshas Reading List : 2007-2008 subjects: Slavery; Indentured servants; African Americans |
 |
Dark Dude In the 1960s, Rico Fuentes, a pale-skinned Cuban American teenager, abandons drug-infested New York City for the picket fence and apple pie world of Wisconsin, only to discover that he still feels like an outsider and that violent and judgmental people can be found even in the wholesome Midwest. award: Best Books for Young Adults, 2009 subjects: Self-perception, Coming of age, Cuban Americans, Wisconsin-history-20th century |
 |
Day of Tears: A Novel in Dialogue Emma has taken care of the Butler children since Sarah and Frances's mother, Fanny, left. Emma wants to raise the girls to have good hearts, as a rift over slavery has ripped the Butler household apart. Now, to pay off debts, Pierce Butler wants to cash in his slave "assets", possibly including Emma. subjects: Slavery, African Americans
|
 |
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. subjects: Yellow fever--Pennsylvania, Epidemics, Survival, Pennsylvania-history-1775-1865 |
 |
Full Service In the summer of 1965, sixteen-year-old Paul Sutton, a northern Minnesota farm boy, takes a job at a gas station in town, where his strict religious upbringing is challenged by new people and experiences. Award: ALA Best Books for Young Adults: 2006 subjects: Coming of age; Service stations; Farm life |
 |
Flygirl During World War II, a light-skinned African American girl "passes" for white in order to join the Women Air Force Service Pilots. subjects: Women Air Force Pilots (U.S.), World War 1939-1945, African Americans |
 |
Hattie Big Sky After inheriting her uncle's homesteading claim in Montana, 16-year-old orphan Hattie Brooks travels from Iowa in 1917 to make a home for herself and encounters some unexpected problems related to the war being fought in Europe. Awards: John Newbery Honor Books: 2007, ALA Notable Children's Books: 2007, ALA Best Books for Young Adults: 2007 subjects: Self-reliance; Frontier and pioneer life; Orphans; World War, 1914-1918 |
 |
A Higher Geometry While grieving the death of her grandmother in 1959, teenager Anna is torn between her aspirations to study math in college and her family's expectations that she will marry and become a homemaker after high school. Subjects: Sex role; Mathematics; Grief; High schools;Schools |
 |
Hurricane A fictional account of one of the worst storms to hit the Caribbean--Hurricane Mitch in 1998--told from the perspective of a thirteen-year-old boy living in a small village in Honduras. Subjects: Hurricane Mitch, 1998--Honduras, Survival |
 |
Hurricane Song Twelve-year-old Miles Shaw goes to live with his father, a jazz musician, in New Orleans, and together they survive the horrors of Hurricane Katrina in the Superdome, learning about each other and growing closer through their painful experiences. Subjects: Fathers and sons, Hurricane Katrina-2005, Jazz |
 |
The Luxe In Manhattan in 1899, five teens of different social classes lead dangerously scandalous lives, despite the strict rules of society and the best-laid plans of parents and others. Sequel: Rumors: A Luxe Novel subjects: Social classes; wealth; love; 19th century Manhattan |
 |
Mare's War Teens Octavia and Tali learn about strength, independence, and courage when they are forced to take a car trip with their grandmother, who tells about growing up black in 1940s Alabama and serving in Europe during World War II as a member of the Women's Army Corps. subjects: Grandmothers, African Americans, World War 1939-1945, Sisters, Family life-Alabama |
 |
The Miner’s Daughter Sixteen-year-old Willa, living in a Depression-era West Virginia mining town, works hard to help her family. She experiences love and friendship, and finds an outlet for her writing when her family becomes part of the Arthurdale, West Virginia, community supported by Eleanor Roosevelt. award: Tashyas Reading List 2008-2009 subjects: Depressions; coal mines and mining; family life |
 |
The Red Necklace In the late eighteenth-century, Sido, the twelve-year-old daughter of a self-indulgent marquis, and Yann, a fourteen-year-old Gypsy orphan raised to perform in a magic show, face a common enemy at the start of the French Revolution. subjects: Social Classes, Romanies, Orphans, Magic Tricks, Adventure and Adventurers, France-History-Revolution-1789-1799 |
 |
Revolution is Not a Dinner Party Starting in 1972 when she is nine years old, Ling, the daughter of two doctors, struggles to make sense of the communists' Cultural Revolution, which empties stores of food, homes of appliances deemed "bourgeois," and people of laughter. award: Tayshas Reading List 2008-2009 subjects: Persecution; family life; physicians; Communism |
 |
The Rock and the River In 1968 Chicago, fourteen-year-old Sam Childs is caught in a conflict between his father's nonviolent approach to seeking civil rights for African Americans and his older brother, who has joined the Black Panther Party. subjects: Black Panther Party, Civil rights movements, Racism, Brothers, African Americans |
 |
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. The Logan Family Saga includes Prequels: The Land, The Well, Mississippi Bridge, Song of the Trees, The Friendship, Sequels: Let the Circle Be Unbroken, The Road to Memphis awards: John Newbery Medal: 1977 subjects: African Americans, Southern States-Race Relations |
 |
Samurai Shortstop While obtaining a Western education at a prestigious Japanese boarding school in 1890, sixteen-year-old Toyo also receives traditional samurai training which has profound effects on both his baseball game and his relationship with his father. Award: ALA Best Books for Young Adults-2007 subjects: Samurai; Fathers and sons; Baseball; Boarding schools; Schools |
 |
Shackleton's Stowaway A fictionalized account of the adventures of eighteen-year-old Perce Blackborow, who stowed away for the 1914 Shackleton Antarctic expedition and, after their ship Endurance was crushed by ice, endured many hardships, including the loss of the toes of his left foot to frostbite, during the nearly two-year return journey across sea and ice. Award: Lone Star Reading List-2008 subjects: Survival; Stowaways; Adventure and adventurers |
 |
Shooting the Moon When her brother is sent to fight in Vietnam, twelve-year-old Jamie begins to reconsider the army world that she has grown up in. subjects: United States Army; Vietnam War; children of military families; separation; soldiers |
 |
Skies Over Sweetwater In 1944, eighteen-year-old Bernadette Thompson leaves her Iowa home and attends training camp for the Women Air Force Service Pilots in Sweetwater Texas, where she hones her flying skills and befriends women of different backgrounds. subjects: technology; aeronautics and astronautics; Texas history |
 |
Star-Crossed Having been discovered as a stowaway as she tries to reach Barbados in 1760 to claim her father's estate, teenaged English orphan Patricia Kelley struggles to survive by learning to be a ship's doctor and by disguising herself as a man when necessary. award: Tayshas Reading List 2008-2009 subjects: seafaring life; survival skills; sex roles; orphans |
 |
Sunrise Over Fallujah Robin Perry, from Harlem, is sent to Iraq in 2003 as a member of the Civilian Affairs Battalion, and his time there profoundly changes him. subjects: Iraq War-2003, War, African Americans |
 |
Ten Cents a Dance In 1940s Chicago, fifteen-year-old Ruby hopes to escape poverty by becoming a taxi dancer in a nightclub, but the work has unforeseen dangers and hiding the truth from her family and friends becomes increasingly difficult. subjects: Dance, Nightclubs, Poverty, Conduct of Life, World War 1939-1945, Chicago (Ill.) |
 |
A Thousand Never Evers As the civil rights movement in the South gains momentum in 1963--and violence against African Americans intensifies--the black residents, including seventh-grader Addie Ann Pickett, in the small town of Kuckachoo, Mississippi, begin their own courageous struggle for racial justice. subjects: Race relations; African-Americans; Civil Rights Movement |
 |
A Thousand Splendid Suns Mariam and Laila are born a generation apart but are are brought together by war and fate. Together they endure the dangers surrounding them and discover the power of both love and sacrifice awards: ALA Best Books for Young Adults 2008; Tashyas Reading List 2008-2009 subjects: Family; Afghanistan; spousal abuse |
 |
Underground In 1839, Charlotte Brown is sold north to Kentucky, where she becomes a maid at Mammoth Cave Hotel, falls in love with one of the tour guides there, and gets involved in the Underground Railroad. subjects: Caves; slavery; Underground Railroad |
 |
The Wednesday Wars During the 1967 school year, on Wednesday afternoons when all his classmates go to either Catechism or Hebrew school, seventh-grader Holling Hoodhood stays in Mrs. Baker's classroom where they read the plays of William Shakespeare and Holling learns much of value about the world he lives in. awards: Texas: Lone Star Reading List : 2009, ALA Best Books for Young Adults : 2008, ALA Notable Children's Books : 2008, John Newbery Honor Book : 2008 subjects: Shakespeare; Junior high school; coming of age |
 |
What I Saw and How I Lied In 1947, with her jovial stepfather Joe back from the war and family life returning to normal, teenage Evie, smitten by the handsome young ex-GI who seems to have a secret hold on Joe, finds herself caught in a complicated web of lies whose devastating outcome change her life and that of her family forever. award: National Book Award 2008 subjects: Coming of age, Family problems, Secrets, Florida-history-20th century |
 |
When the Whistle Blows Jimmy Cannon tells about his life in the 1940s as the son of a West Virginia railroad man, loving the trains and expecting one day to work on the railroad like his father and brothers. subjects: Railroads, Family life, Country life, West Virginia History To 1950 |
List updated September 2009—Jenn Hartley & Joanna Nigrelli
