Books and Stuff

Youth Historical Fiction Books

Fiction about other earlier times and places!


Click here to check the availability of a title in our online catalog.

ANCIENT HISTORY

Younger Readers:

J PIC Brett, Jan
The First Dog  (34 p., Lexile AD490) 
Kip, the Cave Boy, and Paleowolf each face hunger and danger on a journey in Paleolithic times; when they decide to join forces and help one another, Paleowolf becomes the first dog.

Middle Readers:

J FIC Deary, Terry
The Plot on the Pyramid  (64 p., Lexile NA) 
A clever trick saves the workers who are building the Great Pyramid from being punished, and their working conditions are improved as well.

Older Readers:

J FIC McGowen, Tom
The Time of the Forest (110 p., Lexile NA) 
When war breaks out between their opposing sides in ancient Denmark, Bright Dawn of the farming community and Wolf of the hunters’ tribe flee from the battle and take refuge in the forest. 

J FIC McGraw, Eloise
The Golden Goblet (248 p., Lexile 930) 
A young Egyptian boy struggles to reveal a hideous crime and reshape his own destiny. 

J FIC Speare, Elizabeth (Awards Area)
The Bronze Bow (255 p., Lexile 760) 
When the Romans brutally kill Daniel bar Jamin's father, the young Palestinian searches for a leader to drive them out, but comes to realize that love may be more powerful than hate. 

MIDDLE AGES

Younger Readers:

J EASY Osborne, Mary Pope
The Knight at Dawn (65 p., Lexile 310) 
Eight-year-old Jack and his younger sister Annie use the magic treehouse to travel back to the Middle Ages, where they explore a castle and are helped by a mysterious knight.

Middle Readers:

J FIC Kirwan, Anna
Juliet: A Dream Takes Flight, England, 1339 (71 p., Lexile 940) 
In fourteenth-century England, ten-year-old Juliet must recapture a valuable falcon accidentally released by her younger brother. 

J FIC Love, D. Anne
The Puppeteer's Apprentice (185 p. Lexile 760) 
A medieval orphan girl called Mouse gains the courage she needs to follow her dreams of becoming a puppeteer's apprentice.

Older Readers:

J FIC Avi (Awards Area)
Crispin: The Cross of Lead (262 p., Lexile 780)
Falsely accused of theft and murder, an orphaned peasant boy in fourteenth-century England flees his village and meets a juggler who holds a dangerous secret. 

J FIC Cushman, Karen
Catherine Called Birdy (169 p., Lexile 1170) 
The thirteen-year-old daughter of an English country knight keeps a journal in which she records the events of her life, particularly her longing for adventures beyond the usual role of women and her efforts to avoid being married off.

J FIC Cushman, Karen (Awards Area)
The Midwife's Apprentice (122 p., Lexile 1240) 
In medieval England, a nameless, homeless girl is taken in by a sharp-tempered midwife, and in spite of obstacles and hardship, eventually gains the three things that she wants most: a full belly, a contented heart, and a place in this world.

J FIC Edwards, Julie Andrews
Dragon, Hound of Honor (179 p., Lexile NA)
In medieval France, an Irish wolfhound helps solve the murder of his master, the beloved son of the Count de Montdidier and leader of the Royal Bodyguard in the court of Charles V.

J FIC Park, Linda Sue (Awards Area)
A Single Shard (152 p., Lexile 920)
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.

COLONIAL AMERICA

Younger Readers:

J PIC Stanley, Diane
Joining the Boston Tea Party (unpaged, Lexile 380) 
With the help of their grandmother's hat, the time traveling twins journey back in time to the Boston Tea Party. 

Middle Readers:

J FIC Krensky, Stephen 
The Printer's Apprentice (103 p., Lexile 620) 
In 1735 in New York City, a young printer's apprentice learns about the importance of freedom of speech when the printer Peter Zenger is arrested and tried for writing articles criticizing the government.

Older Readers:

J FIC Carbone, Elisa Lynn
Blood on the River: James Town 1607 (237 p., Lexile 820)
Traveling to the New World in 1606 as the page to Captain John Smith, twelve-year-old orphan Samuel Collier settles in the new colony of James Town, where he must quickly learn to distinguish between friend and foe.

J FIC Karr, Kathleen 
Worlds Apart (196 p., Lexile NA)
In 1670, soon after arriving in the Carolinas with a group of colonists from England, fifteen-year-old Christopher West befriends a young Sewee Indian, Asha-po, and learns some hard lessons about survival, slavery, and friendship.

J FIC Osborne, Mary Pope
Standing in the Light: The Captive Diary of Catherine Carey Logan, Delaware Valley, Pennsylvania (184p., Lexile 830)
A Quaker girl's diary reflects her experiences growing up in the Delaware River Valley of Pennsylvania and her capture by Lenape Indians in 1763.

J FIC Speare, Elizabeth George (Awards Area)
The Witch of Blackbird Pond (249;., Lexile 850)
Born in the Caribbean islands, Kit finds life in the Connecticut colony of her relatives to be extremely bleak and lonely. When her only friendship is discovered, she finds herself accused of witchcraft.

REVOLUTIONARY WAR

Younger Readers:

J PIC Krensky, Stephen
Dangerous Crossing: The Revolutionary Voyage of John Quincy Adams (Unpaged, Lexile NA) 
In 1778, ten-year-old Johnny Adams and his father make a dangerous mid-winter voyage from Massachusetts to Paris in hopes of gaining support for the colonies during the American Revolution.

J EASY Walker, Sally
The 18 Penny Goose (61 p., Lexile 370) 
Eight-year-old Letty attempts to save her pet goose from raiding British soldiers in New Jersey during the Revolutionary War.

Middle Readers:

J FIC Avi
The Fighting Ground (157 p., Lexile 580) 
Thirteen-year-old Jonathan goes off to fight in the Revolutionary War and discovers the real war is being fought within himself.

J FIC Van Leeuwen, Jean
Hannah of Fairfield (87 p., Lexile 430) 
For almost nine-year-old Hannah Perley of Fairfield, Connecticut, growing up means facing new challenges, both great and small--from saving the life of a baby lamb to helping the family prepare to send her brother Ben to join the colonial soldiers in the American Revolutionary War.

Older Readers:

J FIC Forbes, Esther (Awards Area)
Johnny Tremain (269 p., Lexile 840) 
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.

J FIC Goodman, Joan
Hope's Crossing (212 p., Lexile 760)
During the Revolutionary War, thirteen-year-old Hope, seized by the band of Tories who attack her Connecticut home, finds herself enslaved in a Tory household on Long Island and uses all her resources to escape and make her way home.

CIVIL WAR

Younger Readers:

J EASY Hopkinson, Deborah
Billy and the Rebel: Based on a True Civil War Story (44 p., Lexile NA) 
During the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, a mother and son shelter a young Confederate deserter. Includes a historical note on the incident.

J EASY Monjo, F.N.
The Drinking Gourd: A Story of the Underground Railroad (62 p., Lexile 370) 
When he is sent home alone for misbehaving in church, Tommy discovers that his house is a station on the underground railroad.

J PIC Polacco, Patricia
Pink and Say (unpaged, Lexile 590) 
Say Curtis describes his meeting with Pinkus Aylee, a black soldier, during the Civil War, and their capture by Southern troops. Based on a true story about the author's great-great-grandfather.

Middle Readers:

J FIC Porter, Connie
Meet Addy: An American Girl (69 p., Lexile 700)
Nine-year-old Addy Walker escapes from a cruel life of slavery to freedom during the Civil War.

Older Readers:

J FIC Fleischman, Paul
Bull Run (104 p., Lexile 810)
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. 

J FIC Hunt, Irene
Across Five Aprils (190 p., Lexile 1100)
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.

J FIC Keith, Harold (Awards Area)
Rifles For Watie (332 p., Lexile 910) 
Jeff Bussey, a young farmer, joins the Union volunteers, and becomes a scout and soldier in the West to see the Civil War from both sides and lives to tell about it. 

J FIC Wisler, G. Clifton
Red Cap (160 p., Lexile 820)
A young Yankee drummer boy displays great courage when he's captured and sent to Andersonville Prison.

WORLD WAR I

Younger Readers:

J PIC Wells, Rosemary
The Language of Doves (unpaged, Lexile AD760)
On her sixth birthday, Julietta's grandfather gives her one of his beautiful homing pigeons and tells her a story of his experience raising and training doves in Italy during the Great War.

Middle Readers:

J FIC Lawrence, Iain
Lord of the Nutcracker Men (212 p., Lexile 640)
An English boy during World War I comes to believe that the battles he enacts with his toy soldiers control the war his father is fighting on the front.

Older Readers:

J FIC Lasky, Kathryn
A Time For Courage: The Suffragette Diary of Kathleen Bowen  (217 p., Lexile 850)
A diary account of thirteen-year-old Kathleen Bowen's life in Washington, D.C. in 1917, as she juggles concerns about the national battle for women's suffrage, the war in Europe, and her own school work and family. Includes a historical note.

J FIC Skurzynski, Gloria
Good-bye, Billy Radish (138 p., Lexile 840)
In 1917, as the United States enters World War I, ten-year-old Hank sees change all around him in his western Pennsylvania steel mill town and feels his older Ukrainian friend Billy drifting apart from him.

WORLD WAR II

Younger Readers:

J PIC Polocco, Patricia
The Butterfly (unpaged, Lexile 430)
During the Nazi occupation of France, Monique's mother hides a Jewish family in her basement and tries to help them escape to freedom.

J EASY Redmond, Shirley-Raye
Pigeon Hero! (31 p., Lexile NA)
Based on the true story of a carrier pigeon named GI Joe, who braved enemy fire and other hazards to deliver a crucial message that prevented the bombing of an Italian town during World War II.

Middle Readers:

J FIC Giff, Patricia Reilly
Lily's Crossing (180 p., Lexile 720)
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.

J FIC Lowry, Lois (Awards Area)
Number the Stars (137 p., Lexile 670)
In 1943, during the German occupation of Denmark, ten-year-old Annemarie learns how to be brave and courageous when she helps shelter her Jewish friend from the Nazis.

J FIC Yolen, Jane
The Devil's Arithmetic (170 p., Lexile 730)
Hannah resents the traditions of her Jewish heritage until time travel places her in the middle of a small Jewish village in Nazi-occupied Poland.

Older Readers:

J FIC Davies, Graham
House of the Red Fish (291 p., Lexile NA)
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.

J FIC Taylor, Theodore
The Cay (144 p., Lexile 860)
When the freighter on which they are traveling is torpedoed by a German submarine during World War II, a twelve-year-old white boy, blinded by a blow on the head, and an old black man are stranded on a small desert island in the Caribbean where the boy acquires a new kind of vision, courage, and love from his old companion.

Click here to check the availability of a title in our online catalog.