Historical Fiction

Weather Witch
Shannon Delany
The first in an exciting new young adult series from 13 to Life writer Shannon Delany, Weather Witch is about a young woman enslaved for being a weather witch, and who must fight for her freedom to be with the boy she loves.Some fled the Old World to avoid war, and some fled to leave behind magick. Yet even the fiercely regulated New World--with its ranks and emphasis on decorum--cannot staunch the power that wells up in certain people, influencing the weather and calling down storms. Hunted, the Weather Witches are forced to power the rest of the population's ships, as well as their every necessity, and luxury, in a time when steam power is repressed.Jordan Astraea hails from a flawless background with no taint of magick, but on her seventeenth birthday she is accused of summoning an unscheduled storm. Taken from her family, Jordan is destined to be enslaved on an airship. But breaking Jordan may prove to be the very thing her carefully constructed society cannot weather. And losing Jordan forever may force her beau, Rowen, to be the hero he would have never otherwise dared become.
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Hattie Ever After
Kirby Larson
After leaving Uncle Chester's homestead claim, orphan Hattie Brooks throws a lasso around a new dream, even bigger than the Montana sky. She wants to be a reporter, knowing full well that a few pieces published in the Arlington News will not suffice. Real reporters must go to Grand Places, and do Grand Things, like Hattie's hero Nellie Bly. Another girl might be stymied by this, but Hattie has faced down a hungry wolf and stood up to a mob of angry men. Nothing can squash her desire to write for a big city newspaper. A letter and love token from Uncle Chester's old flame in San Francisco fuels that desire and Hattie jumps at the opportunity to get there by working as a seamstress for a traveling acting troupe. This could be her chance to solve the mystery of her "scoundrel" uncle and, in the process, help her learn more about herself. But Hattie must first tell Charlie that she will not join him in Seattle. Even though her heart approves of Charlie's plan for their marriage, her mind fears that saying yes to him would be saying no to herself. Hattie holds her own in the big city, literally pitching her way to a byline, and a career that could be even bigger than Nellie Bly's. But can making headlines compensate for the pain of betrayal and lost love? Hattie must dig deep to find her own true place in the world. Kirby Larson once again creates a lovingly written novel about the remarkable and resilient young orphan, Hattie Inez Brooks.
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The Portsmouth Alarm: December 1774
Terri A. DeMitchell
Young Andrew Beckett hopes to be a doctor. Jack Cochran plans to take over his father s position as militia captain of the fort. Then Paul Revere rides into town with urgent news that changes their lives forever. The Portsmouth Alarm: December 1774 is based on an actual event. On December 13 1774 just four months before the events in Lexington and Concord Massachusetts Paul Revere delivered a message to the Portsmouth, New Hampshire Committee of Correspondence. The message warned of General Gage s shocking plan for the Piscataqua Region sparking hundreds in New Hampshire and Massachusetts (now Maine) to take action.
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The Watch That Ends the Night: Voices from the Titanic
Allan Wolf
Arrogance and innocence, hubris and hope--twenty-four haunting voices of the Titanic tragedy, as well as the iceberg itself, are evoked in a stunning tour de force.Millionaire John Jacob Astor hopes to bring home his pregnant teen bride with a minimum of media scandal. A beautiful Lebanese refugee, on her way to family in Florida, discovers the first stirrings of love. And an ancient iceberg glides south, anticipating its fateful encounter. The voices in this remarkable re-creation of the Titanic disaster span classes and stations, from Margaret ("the unsinkable Molly") Brown to the captain who went down with his ship; from the lookout and wireless men to a young boy in search of dragons and a gambler in search of marks. Slipping in telegraphs, undertaker's reports, and other records, poet Allan Wolf offers a breathtaking, intimate glimpse at the lives behind the tragedy, told with clear-eyed compassion and astounding emotional power.Extensive back matter includes: Author's noteMorse code with messages to decipherTitanic miscellany Bibliography, articles, periodicals, government documents, discography
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Plague in the Mirror
Deborah Noyes
In a sensual paranormal romance, a teen girl’s doppelgänger from 1348 Florence lures her into the past in hopes of exacting a deadly trade.It was meant to be a diversion — a summer in Florence with her best friend, Liam, and his travel-writer mom, doing historical research between breaks for gelato. A chance to forget that back in Vermont, May’s parents, and all semblance of safety, were breaking up. But when May wakes one night sensing someone in her room, only to find her ghostly twin staring back at her, normalcy becomes a distant memory. And when later she follows the menacing Cristofana through a portale to fourteenth-century Florence, May never expects to find safety in the eyes of Marco, a soulful painter who awakens in her a burning desire and makes her feel truly seen. The wily Cristofana wants nothing less of May than to inhabit each other’s lives, but with the Black Death ravaging Old Florence, can May’s longing for Marco’s touch be anything but madness? Lush with atmosphere both passionate and eerie, this evocative tale follows a girl on the brink of womanhood as she dares to transcend the familiar — and discovers her sensual power.
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Life: An Exploded Diagram
Mal Peet
"Peet’s subtle, literary play with narrative voice, style, and chronology make this a satisfyingly sophisticated teen novel." —The Horn Book (starred review)Carnegie Medalist Mal Peet ignites an epic tale of young love against the dramatic backdrop of the Cold War and the Cuban Missile Crisis. This brilliant coming-of-age novel is a gripping family portrait that interweaves the stories of three generations and the terrifying crises that define them. With its urgent sense of history, sweeping emotion, and winning young narrator, Mal Peet’s latest is an unforgettable, timely exploration of life during wartime and the perennial question: Can love survive a lifetime?
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The Brewster Boys and the Eve of Infamy
Stephen Dittmer
Peter, Jonathan, and Abigail are your average teenagers trying to endure their boring summer in everyday America. They quickly discover this summer will be like no other. Stumbling upon a criminal’s malfunctioning time device, the friends find themselves thrust back to the Hawaiian island of Oahu on the eve of the attack on Pearl Harbor. There, they uncover a plot to prevent the attack from ever taking place. However, there is nothing noble about this plan. The owner of the device is a Nazi sympathizer named Klara Beich. She is the granddaughter of an infamous German scientist, Dietrich von Wexler, who has created many abnormal inventions. By stopping the attack and halting America’s entrance into the war, Klara would prevent her grandfather from being tried at the Nuremberg trials, and also ensure a victory for Nazi Germany. Conflicted between saving the lives of thousands of Hawaiians and preventing a major change in world history, the Brewster boys and Abby, along with their new local friend, Chuck, face many unforeseen obstacles: Nazi inventions, Japanese bombers, mobster henchmen, and the use of 1940’s slang!
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Gingersnap
Patricia Reilly Giff
It's 1944, W.W. II is raging. Jayna's big brother Rob is her only family. When Rob is called to duty on a destroyer, Jayna is left in their small town in upstate New York with their cranky landlady. But right before he leaves, Rob tells Jayna a secret: they may have a grandmother in Brooklyn. Rob found a little blue recipe book with her name and an address for a bakery. When Jayna learns that Rob is missing in action, she's devastated. Along with her turtle Theresa, the recipe book, and an encouraging, ghostly voice as her guide, Jayna sets out for Brooklyn in hopes of finding the family she so desperately needs.
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Through the Skylight
Justin Gerard, Ian Baucom
Two tantalizing tales, magically intertwined, cross cultures and span centuries as three kids set out to save the lives of three others—who just happen to live in the Middle Ages!A stone lion roars....A sleek black cat speaks....A faun leaps from the canvas of a painting.... When Jared, Shireen, and Miranda are each given one glittering gift from an old Venetian shopkeeper, they never fathom the powers they are now able to unleash; they never expect that their very reality is about to be utterly upended. And the adventure has hardly begun. For in another time, centuries earlier, another trio—Rashid, Maria, and Francesca—have been thrown together under terrible circumstances: They have been kidnapped and, along with hundreds of other children, will be sold into child slavery. Unless, that is, they can find some way to save them all. But all their fates lie in the hands of Jared, Shireen, and Miranda. The future—and the lives—of these three very modern children become entirely intertwined with those of the children from the past. Danger, it seems, has a way of spanning centuries.
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Today's Shadow
Becky Melby
Follow grad student Heather Conrad into a forgotten past as her house-sitting venture goes awry. Last minute changes leave Heather in charge of her former boss€™s lakeside Victorian mansion and six-year-old daughter. But the surprises have just begun. Soon startling discoveries convince Heather that something just isn€™t right around the house. . . . When she stumbles on a hidden stairway, the past juts into the present€”altering the course of Heather€™s own future.