Historical Fiction
(General) in BLC
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Anderson,
M.T. The Astonishing Life of Octavian
Nothing After escaping a death sentence in the summer of 1775,
Octavian and his tutor find shelter but no safe harbor in British-occupied
Boston and, persuaded by Lord Dunmore's proclamation offering freedom to
slaves who join his counterrevolutionary Royal Ethiopian Regiment, Octavian
and his friends soon find themselves engaged in naval raids on the Virginia
coastline as the Revolutionary War breaks out in full force. |
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Angry and humiliated when his sharecropper father is
jailed for stealing food for his family, a young black boy grows in courage
and understanding by learning to read and with the help of the devoted dog
Sounder. Newbery Medal Winner 1970 |
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Avi. Crispin:
the cross of lead 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. Newbery Medal Winner 2003. |
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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. |
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Boyne,
John. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas Bored and lonely after his family moves from Berlin to a
place called "Out-With" in 1942, Bruno, the son of a Nazi officer,
befriends a boy in striped pajamas who lives behind a wire fence. |
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Bradford,
Chris. Young Samurai: the way of the warrior Orphaned by a ninja pirate attack off the coast of Japan
in 1611, twelve-year-old English lad Jack Fletcher is determined to prove
himself, despite the bullying of fellow students, when the legendary sword
master who rescued him begins training him as a samurai warrior. |
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For this new historical novel, the acclaimed author of “Sacajawea” now turns his attention to the great Apache warrior and spiritual leader. |
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Bruchac,
Joseph. Sacajawea: the story of Bird Woman and the Lewis and
Clark Expedition 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. |
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Burg,
Ann E. 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. |
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Choldenko,
Gennifer. Al Capone Does My Shirts Set in 1935, when guards actually lived on Alcatraz Island
with their families, Choldenko’s second novel brings humor to the
complexities of family dynamics. |
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Alternating chapters follow the mysterious connection
between a homesick English girl living in present-day America and an
eleven-year-old boy serving in the British Royal Navy in 1803, aboard the
H.M.S.Victory, commanded by Admiral Horatio Nelson. |
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Crossley-Holland,
Kevin. Crossing to Paradise When fifteen-year-old Gatty, an illiterate field-girl who
sings beautifully, is selected for a pilgrimage, she travels from her home on
an English estate to London, Venice, and eventually Jerusalem, and
experiences great changes in her circumstances and in herself. |
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Cushman,
Karen. Alchemy and Meggy Swann In 1573, the crippled, scorned, and destitute Meggy Swann
goes to London, where she meets her father, an impoverished alchemist, and
eventually discovers that although her legs are bent and weak, she has many other strengths. |
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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. |
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Curtis,
Christopher Paul. Bud, Not Buddy In this Newbery Medal-winning novel, then-year-old Bud is
a motherless boy living in Flint, Michigan, during the Great Depression. Bud escapes a bad foster home and sets out
in search of the man he believes to be his father—the renowned band leader,
H.E. Calloway of Grand Rapids. |
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Curtis,
Christopher Paul. The Watsons Go to
Birmingham The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watsons, an African American family living in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963.Newbery Honor Book 1996 |
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Cushman,
Karen. The Midwife’s Apprentice
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Dana,
Barbara. A Voice of Her Own: becoming
Emily Dickinson: a novel A fictionalized first-person account of revered American poet Emily Dickinson's girlhood in mid-nineteenth-century Amherst, Massachusetts. |
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Dash,
Joan. The World at Her Fingertips: the story of Helen Keller This lively biography goes beyond Helen’s youth and
learning process and includes many fascinating details of her later life,
including her college years and involvement with politics. It’s “riveting reading for students in need
of inspiration, or who’re overcoming disability or studying changing
expectations for women (Kirkus).” |
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DeFelice,
Cynthia. Nowhere to Call Home When her father kills himself after losing his money in
the stock market crash, twelve-year-old Frances, now a penniless orphan,
decides to hop aboard a freight train and live the life of a hobo. |
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A fictionalized account of the Pakistani child who escaped
from bondage in a carpet factory and went on to help liberate other children
like him before being gunned down at the age of thirteen. |
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A twelve-year-old white boy, adopted and raised by
Mohicans in the Hudson River Valley during the 1730's, is sent with his
younger brother to an English settlement for schooling. |
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Edwardson,
Debby Dahl. Blessing’s Bead In 1917, Aaluk leaves for Siberia while her sister Nutaaq
remains in their Alaskan village and becomes one of the few survivors of an
influenza epidemic, then in 1986, Nunaaq's great-granddaughter leaves her
mother due to a different kind of sickness and returns to the village where
they were born. |
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Elliott,
Patricia. The Pale Assassin In early 1790s' Paris, as the Revolution gains momentum,
young and sheltered Eugenie de Boncoeur finds it difficult to tell friend
from foe as she and the royalist brother she relies on become the focus of
"le Fantome," the sinister spymaster with a long-held grudge
against their family. |
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Engle,
Margarita. Tropical Secrets: Holocaust
refugees in Cuba Escaping from Nazi Germany to Cuba in 1939, a young Jewish refugee dreams of finding his parents
again, befriends a local girl with painful secrets of her own, and discovers
that the Nazi darkness is never far away. |
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Finn,
Mary. Anila’s Journey Chronicles the life of internationally-acclaimed jazz musician Duke Ellington, from the Harlem Renaissance through his later years. |
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Gardner,
Sally. 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. |
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After living in an Catholic
orphanage for nearly four years, a naive Jewish boy runs away and embarks on
a journey across Nazi-occupied Poland to find his parents. |
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In 1242 in the restive Languedoc region of France,
Parsifal, having been charged as a child to guard an important religious
relic, has lived in hiding for much of his life until he befriends a young
couple on opposite sides of the escalating conflict between the Catholics and
the Cathars. |
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Gratz,
Alan. The Brooklyn Nine: a novel in
nine innings Follows the fortunes of a German immigrant family through nine generations, beginning in 1845, as they experience American life and play baseball. |
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During the Spanish Inquisition, sixteen-year-old Estrella, brought up a Catholic, discovers her family's true Jewish identity, and when their secret is betrayed by Estrella's best friend, the consequences are tragic. |
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Holm,
Jennifer L. Penny From Heaven "As she turns twelve during the summer of 1953, Penny
gains new insights into herself and her family while also learning a secret
about her father's death." |
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Hoobler,
Dorothy & Thomas. In Darkness,
Death In eighteenth-century Japan, young Seikei
becomes involved with a ninja as he helps Judge Ooka,
his foster father, investigate the murder of a samurai. |
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Howard,
Ellen. The Crimson Cap In 1684, wearing his father's faded cap, eleven-year-old
Pierre Talon joins explorer Rene-Robert Cavelier on an ill-fated expedition
to seek the Mississippi River, but after the expedition falls apart Pierre,
deathly ill, is taken in by Hasinai Indians. Includes historical facts. |
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In the grimy London docklands of 1935, eleven-year-old Dominic Walker has stopped speaking. Life with an ailing mother, an unemployed father, and unanswered questions about the war that haunts his family lead him to retreat into a world of silence. Then Uncle Roo invites Dominic and his sister to spend the summer on the Cornish coast. In a boarding house full of eccentrics, the children discover a free-thinking, unstructured way of life unlike any they have known before. |
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Amelia is unhappy about the restrictions placed on girls in 1851 San Francisco, so she disguises herself as a boy in order to join a gang of newsboys, where she gets to work and have fun alongside her rambunctious friends. |
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Klages,
Ellen. The Green Glass Sea In 1943, eleven-year-old Dewey Kerrigan lives with her
scientist father in Los Alamos, New Mexico, as he works on a top secret
government program, and befriends an aspiring artist who is a misfit just
like her. |
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After inheriting her uncle's homesteading claim in Montana,
sixteen-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. Newbery Honor Book 2007. |
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In 1932 Berlin, thirteen-year-old Gaby Schramm witnesses
the beginning of Hitler's rise to power, as soldiers become ubiquitous, her
beloved literature teacher starts wearing a jeweled swastika pin, and the
family's dear friend, Albert Einstein, leaves the country while Gaby's
parents secretly bury his books and papers in their small yard. |
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When the city of Carthage falls to the Romans during the
Punic Wars, Sara, the fifteen-year-old daughter of a Carthaginian senator,
must gather her grief-stricken father and take to the seas, where, with only
with a meager cargo to trade, her healing skills, her wits, and her courage,
Sara must face a life wildly different from anything she thought possible. |
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Magoon,
Kekla. 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. |
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Magorian,
Michelle. Just Henry |
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McKay,
Hilary. Wishing for Tomorrow Relates what becomes of Ermengarde and the other girls
left behind at Miss Minchin's School after Sara Crewe leaves to live with her
guardian, the Indian gentleman. The
sequel to A Little Princess. |
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Miller,
Sarah. Miss Spitfire: reaching Helen
Keller At age twenty-one, partially-blind, lonely but spirited Annie
Sullivan travels from Massachusetts to Alabama to try and teach six-year-old
Helen Keller, deaf and blind since age two, self-discipline and communication
skills. Includes historical notes and timeline. |
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While traveling through early seventh-century Britain
trying to stop an impending war, Essa, who bears the blood of native British
tribes and of the invading Anglish, makes discoveries that divide his
loyalties. |
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Morpurgo,
Michael. The Mozart Question A young journalist goes to Venice, Italy, to interview a famous violinist, who tells the story of his parents' incarceration by the Nazis, and explains why they can no longer listen to the music of Mozart. Includes an author's note about the Nazi Holocaust. |
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Nyembezi,
Sibusiso. The Rich Man of Pietermaritzburg An urban swindler finds his way to the village of Nyanyadu
in rural South Africa where he dupes the villagers with the promise of untold
riches. |
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Park,
Linda Sue. A Single Shard Tree-ear, a thirteen-year-old orphan in medieval Korea,
lives under a bridge in a potters' village, and longs to learn how to throw
the delicate celadon ceramics himself. Newbery Medal Winner 2003. |
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Paterson,
Katherine. Bread and Roses Too Jake and Rosa, two children, form an unlikely friendship
as they try to survive and understand the 1912 Bread and Roses strike of mill
workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts. |
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Peck,
Richard. A Season of Gifts Relates the surprising gifts bestowed on twelve-year-old Bob Barnhart and his family, who have recently moved to a small Illinois town in 1958, by their larger-than-life neighbor, Mrs. Dowdel. |
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Pignat,
Caroline. Greener Grass Finding their life becoming more difficult every day, the Byrne family is forced to leave their homeland to escape the Great Famine. (Paperback Collection) |
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Quinn,
Gaellen. The Last Aloha (Hawaiian Collection –
Fiction) |
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Rinaldi,
Ann. An Unlikely Friendship: a novel of Mary Todd Lincoln and Elizabeth
Keckley Relates the lives of Mary Todd Lincoln, raised in a
wealthy Virginia family, and Lizzy Keckley, a dressmaker born a slave, as
they grow up separately then become best friends when Mary's childhood dream
of living in the White House comes true. |
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From 1939, when Syvia is four and a half years old, to 1945 when she has just turned ten, a Jewish girl and her family struggle to survive in Poland's Lodz ghetto during the Nazi occupation. |
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A fictionalized biography of the Nobel Prize-winning
Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, who grew up a painfully shy child, ridiculed by
his overbearing father, but who became one of the most widely-read poets in
the world. |
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Salisbury,
Graham. House of the Red Fish Over a year after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and the
arrest of Tomi's father and grandfather, Tomi and his friends, battling
anti-Japanese-American sentiment in Hawaii, try to find a way to salvage his
father's sunken fishing boat. |
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Sandell,
Lisa Ann. Song of the Sparrow In fifth-century Britain, nine years after the destruction
of their home on the island of Shalott brings her to live with her father and
brothers in the military encampments of Arthur's army, seventeen-year-old
Elaine describes her changing perceptions of war and the people around her as
she becomes increasingly involved in the bitter struggle against the invading
Saxons. |
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Sensel,
Joni. The Humming of Numbers Aiden, a novice about to take monastic vows in tenth
century Ireland, meets Lana, a girl who understands his ability to hear the
sounds of numbers humming from all living things, and just as he is beginning
to question his religious calling, the two of them are thrown together in a
mission to save their village from invading Vikings. |
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Snow,
Maya. Journey Through Fire Recovering from injuries sustained while escaping a fire,
Kimi, Hana, and their mother and little brother take refuge in a monastery
where their mother petitions the Shogun for help against evil Uncle
Hidehira. (Sisters of the Sword: Book 3) |
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Spradlin,
Michael P. Keeper of the Grail In 1191, fifteen-year-old Tristan, a youth of unknown origin raised in an English abbey, becomes a Templar Knight's squire during the Third Crusade and soon finds himself on a mission to bring the Holy Grail to safety. The Youngest Templar: Book 1 |
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Stolz,
Joelle, tr. from the French by Catherine Temerson. The Shadows of Ghadames At the end of the nineteenth century in Libya,
eleven-year-old Malika simultaneously enjoys and feels constricted by the
narrow world of women, but an injured stranger enters her home and disrupts
the traditional order of things. |
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Thor,
Annika. A Faraway Island In 1939 Sweden, two Jewish sisters wait for their parents
to join them in fleeing the Nazis in Austria, but while eight-year-old Nellie
settles in quickly, twelve-year-old Stephie feels stranded at the end of the
world, with a foster mother who is as cold and unforgiving as the island on
which they live. |
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Venkatraman,
Padma. Climbing the Stairs In India, in 1941, when her father becomes brain-damaged
in a non-violent protest march, fifteen-year-old Vidya and her family are
forced to move in with her father's extended family and become accustomed to
a totally different way of life. |
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When thirteen-year-old Koly enters into an ill-fated arranged marriage, she must either suffer a destiny dictated by India's tradition or find the courage to oppose it. |
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Whelan,
Gloria. Listening for Lions Left an orphan after the influenza epidemic in British East Africa in 1918, thirteen-year-old Rachel is tricked into assuming a deceased neighbor's identity to travel to England, where her only dream is to return to Africa and rebuild her parents' mission hospital. |
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White,
Ellen Emerson. Kaiulani: the people’s princess Follows the life of Victoria Kaiulani Cleghorn from 1889 to 1893 as she studies to be a better princess, even as Hawaii's monarchy, and her throne, is being undermined by American businessmen. |
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In 1881 Amherst, Massachusetts, six-year-old Gilbert finds it both challenging and wonderful to spend time with his aunt, the reclusive poet Emily Dickinson, who lives next door. |
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Yolen,
Jane. Sword of the Rightful King: a novel of King Arthur Merlinnus the magician devises a way for King Arthur to
prove himself the rightful king of England--pulling a sword from a stone--but
trouble arises when someone else removes the sword first. |
