Historical Fiction
The Devil's Arithmetic
Jane Yolen
"A triumphantly moving book." —Kirkus Reviews, starred reviewHannah dreads going to her family's Passover Seder—she's tired of hearing her relatives talk about the past. But when she opens the front door to symbolically welcome the prophet Elijah, she's transported to a Polish village in the year 1942. Why is she there, and who is this "Chaya" that everyone seems to think she is? Just as she begins to unravel the mystery, Nazi soldiers come to take everyone in the village away. And only Hannah knows the unspeakable horrors that await. A critically acclaimed novel from multi-award-winning author Jane Yolen. "[Yolen] adds much to understanding the effects of the Holocaust, which will reverberate throughout history, today and tomorrow." —SLJ, starred review"Readers will come away with a sense of tragic history that both disturbs and compels." —BooklistWinner of the National Jewish Book AwardAn American Bookseller "Pick of the Lists"
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The Drummer Boy of Vicksburg
G. Clifton Wisler
In this fact-based story, fourteen-year-old drummer boy Orion Howe displays great bravery during a Civil War battle at Vicksburg, Mississippi
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Stonewall
Stephen Gammell, Jean Fritz
“An absorbing biography of the controversial Confederate general, one of the country’s greatest, and oddest heroes.”—The New York TimesNo one thought Thomas Jackson would grow up to be a hero. Certainly not his childhood friends, who laughed at him when he fell into the river on the way to church and then sat through the service in his wet clothes. The cadets at West Point watched him sweat buckets whenever he had to speak in class and doubted if he’d even graduate. But through it all, Jackson’s determination to succeed served him well. He found that war allowed him to be the kind of man he’d always dreamed of being. While other soldiers fell back in terror, Jackson stood “like a stone wall” and went on to be one of the most brilliant and heroic military leaders in America. A New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year
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Streams to the River River to the Sea
Scott O'Dell
Scagawea, a Shashone Indian, guided and interpreted for explorers Lewis and Clarke as they traveled up the Mississippi, but she had adventures long before that one, like the time she was captured by the Minnetarees, and taken away from her family and everything that she knew and loved....
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Snow Treasure
Marie Mcswigan
An actual incident in which Norwegian children smuggled gold past the Nazis is the basis for this story of courage and patriotism
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Rifles for Watie
Harold Keith
Winner of the Newbery Medal * An ALA Notable Children’s Book * Winner of the Lewis Carroll Shelf AwardA captivating and richly detailed novel about one young soldier who saw the Civil War from both sides and lived to tell the tale.Earnest, plain-spoken sixteen-year-old Jeff Bussey has finally gotten his father’s consent to join the Union volunteers. It’s 1861 in Linn County, Kansas, and Jeff is eager to fight for the North before the war is over, which he’s sure will be soon.But weeks turn to months, the marches through fields and woods prove endless, hunger and exhaustion seem to take up permanent residence in Jeff’s bones, and he learns what it really means to fight in battle—and to lose friends. When he finds himself among enemy troops, he’ll have to put his life on the line to advance the Union cause.Thoroughly researched and based on firsthand accounts, Rifles for Watie “should hold a place with the best Civil War fiction for young people” (The Horn Book).
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Rise to Rebellion
Jeff Shaara
Jeff Shaara dazzled readers with his bestselling novels Gods and Generals, The Last Full Measure, and Gone for Soldiers. Now the acclaimed author who illuminated the Civil War and the Mexican-American War brilliantly brings to life the American Revolution, creating a superb saga of the men who helped to forge the destiny of a nation.
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Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Mildred D. Taylor
Set in Mississippi at the height of the Depression, this is the story of one family's struggle to maintain their integrity, pride, and independence in the face of racism and social injustice. And it is also Cassie's story--Cassie Logan, an independent girl who discovers over the course of an important year why having land of their own is so crucial to the Logan family, even as she learns to draw strength from her own sense of dignity and self-respect.
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Shabanu
Suzanne Fisher Staples
"This first novel is, on several counts, one of the most exciting YA books to appear recently. Staples is so steeped in her story and its Pakistani setting that the use of a first-person voice for a desert child rings authentic--the voice is clear, consistent, and convincing. Shabanu and her sister are to marry brothers as soon as they all come of age. But she will eventually lose her betrothed and be promised to a wealthy landowner to settle a feud. The richness and tragedy of a whole culture are reflected in the fate of this girl's family. Through an involving plot Staples has given readers insight into lives totally different from their own, but into emotions resoundingly familiar."--(starred) Bulletin, Center for Children's Books.
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Shades of Gray
Carolyn Reeder
At the end of the Civil War, twelve-year-old Will, having lost all his immediate family, reluctantly leaves his city home to live in the Virginia countryside with his aunt and the uncle he considers a "traitor" because he refused to take part in the war.
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