Historical Fiction

Once Upon A Time In Harlem
D. C. Copeland
Billy Rhythm, the quintessential American, teams up with Tharbis Jefferson, a "Copper Colored Gal" from the latest Cotton Club revue, to win a dance contest at the Savoy Ballroom. Unfortunately, their competition will stop at nothing to win, including murder. This jitterbug love story is woven between the lives and times of legendary black entertainers, black and white thugs, and the common man in swinging 1930's Harlem. Based on the full-length play, this radio play is perfect for readings and the classroom. Winner of the Jaz Dorsey Fusion Award from the African American Playwrights Exchange.
Book Details

The Smile
Donna Jo Napoli
Hers is the most famous portrait in the world. Here, in prose as rich as the high Renaissance, is Mona Lisa?s tale?a story of passion, intrigue, loss, and, most of all, love. Elisabetta longs for romance, though she thinks she is too plain. Then, on a fateful visit to glittering Florence, she catches the eye of the great Leonardo da Vinci, and falls for a boy named Giuliano de? Medici. It is a dangerous time to be?or be involved with?a Medici. As tragedy and chaos threaten their happiness, Elisabetta faces the bittersweet truth of love.
Book Details

Patriot's Reward
Stephen Clarkson
Patriot's Reward is a fictional tale about a real-life slave owned by the author's ancestor in Portsmouth, New Hampshire during the American Revolution. His struggle to be free leads him to heroism in battles at Quebec, Lake Champlain, Bennington and Saratoga, and finally to a petition to the NH Legislature for his freedom. Clarkson's extensive research adds depth to this fast paced story.
Book Details

The Remarkable and Very True story of Lucy and Snowcap
H. M. Bouwman
Set on fictional islands off northeast America in 1787, this story features two twelve-year-old girls from different cultures who must join forces to save themselves, their people, and one special baby.
Book Details

Brothers of War
J. Marshall Martin
Book Details

Leo and the Lesser Lion
Sandra Forrester
A heartwarming family story set during the Depression that reads like a classic.Everyone's been down on their luck since the Depression hit. But as long as Mary Bayliss Pettigrew has her beloved older brother, Leo, to pull pranks with, even the hardest times can be fun. Then one day, there’s a terrible accident, and when Bayliss wakes up afterward, she must face the heartbreaking prospect of life without Leo. And that’s when her parents break the news: they’re going to be fostering two homeless little girls, and Bayliss can’t bear the thought of anyone taking Leo’s place. But opening her heart to these weary travelers might just be the key to rebuilding her grieving family.
Book Details

Blitzed
Robert Swindells
George is fascinated by World War II—even evacuation and rationing has got to be more exciting than living in dreary old Witchfield! He is looking forward to his school trip to Eden Camp, a World War II museum, but he never could have imagined how authentic this visit to wartime Britain will be. A hand reaching out of the fake rubble, a slip in time, and George has to survive something much worse than boredom. The rubble is now real—he has slipped through time into 1940s London. Imagine being alive before your parents were even born!
Book Details

The Tsarina's Daughter
Carolly Erickson
From the bestselling author of The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette comes a dramatic novel and powerful love story about the last Russian imperial family. It is 1989 and Daria Gradov is an elderly grandmother living in the rural West. What neighbors and even her children don’t know, however, is that she is not who she claims to be—the widow of a Russian immigrant of modest means. In actuality she began her life as the Grand Duchess Tatiana, known as Tania to her parents, Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra. And so begins the latest entrancing historical entertainment by Carolly Erickson. At its center is young Tania, who lives a life of incomparable luxury in pre-Revolutionary Russia, from the magnificence of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg to the family’s private enclave outside the capital. Tania is one of four daughters, and the birth of her younger brother Alexei is both a blessing and a curse. When he is diagnosed with hemophilia and the key to his survival lies in the mysterious power of the illiterate monk Rasputin, it is merely an omen of much worse things to come. Soon war breaks out and revolution sweeps the family from power and into claustrophobic imprisonment in Siberia. Into Tania’s world comes a young soldier whose life she helps to save and who becomes her partner in daring plans to rescue the imperial family from certain death.
Book Details

The Youngest Templar
Michael Spradlin
Read Michael Spradlin's posts on the Penguin Blog.1191 A.D. The orphan Tristan has joined the Knights Templar as a squire, journeying with Richard the Lionheart on his crusade to free the Holy Land from the Saracens. As defeat looms near, Tristan is entrusted with the most sacred of Christian relics, the Holy Grail. He must return it safely to Britain, but he must also keep it secret, because the Grail’s power will drive men to madness, and even his fellow Knights Templar will kill for it. Tristan teams up with the fiery Robard Hode— returning to his home in Sherwood after serving with the King’s Archers—and Maryam, an equally fierce girl and a member of the dreaded Hashshashin. Together they must escape the Holy Land, dodging bandits, the forces of the Saladin, and unscrupulous knights who will stop at nothing to possess the Grail.
Book Details

Crusade
Taylor Anderson
The ?gripping and riveting?( S.M. Stirling, author of The Scourge of God) Destroyermen saga continues.Lieutenant Commander Matthew Reddy, along with the men and women of the USS Walker, have chosen sides in a war not of their making. Swept from the World War II Pacific into an alternate world, they have allied with the Lemurians?a mammalian race threatened by the warlike reptilian Grik. The Lemurians are vastly outnumbered and ignorant of warfare, and even the guns and technology of Walker cannot turn the tide of battle. Luckily they are not alone?Reddy finally finds Mahan, the other destroyer that passed through the rift. Together, the two American ships will teach the Lemurians to make a stand. Or so they think. For the massive Japanese battleship Amagi, the very ship that Walker was fleeing from when the rift took them, has followed them through. And now the Amagi is in the hands of the Grik.