Historical Fiction

Anastasia and Her Sisters / Carolyn Meyer

A novel in diary form in which the youngest daughter of Czar Nicholas II describes the privileged life her family led up until the time of World War I and the tragic events that befell them.

 

Audacity / Melanie Crowder

A historical fiction novel in verse detailing the life of Clara Lemlich and her struggle for women’s labor rights in the early 20th century in New York.

 

Black Dove, White Raven / Elizabeth Wein

Having moved to Ethiopia to avoid the prejudices of 1930s America, Emilia Menotti, her black adoptive brother Teo, and their mother Rhoda, a stunt pilot, are devoted to their new country even after war with Italy looms, drawing the teens into the conflict.

 

Brotherhood / Westrick

The year is 1867, and the South has lost the Civil War. Those on the lowest rungs, like Shad’s family, fear that the freed slaves will take the few jobs available. In this climate of despair and fear, a group has formed. Today we know it as the KKK.

 

Code Name Verity / Elizabeth Wein

After crash-landing in France in 1943 and being captured by Nazis, a female wireless operator for the British (who goes by Queenie, Eva, Verity, and various other aliases) reveals bits of code in exchange for reprieve from torture…and to postpone her execution.

 

Dr. Radway’s Sarsaparilla Resolvent / Beth Kephart

With his father in prison, fourteen-year-old William is left to manage the house and seeks to find a way to save his mother from the paralyzing grief brought on by the death of Francis, her son and William’s older brother.

 

The Extra / Kathryn Lasky

Is the chance to serve as an extra for Hitler’s favorite filmmaker a chance at life — or a detour on the path to inevitable extermination? In this chilling but ultimately uplifting novel, Kathryn Lasky imagines the lives of the Gypsies who worked as extras for the real Nazi filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, giving readers a story of survival unlike any other.

Forbidden / Kimberley Griffiths Little

Devastated by her betrothal to a violent boy she does not love, Jayden is forced to accept her fate as her ancient Mesopotamian tribe moves to the Summer Lands, where she falls for a mysterious youth from the Southern Lands.

 

The Hired Girl / Laura Amy Schlitz

Fourteen-year-old Joan Skraggs chronicles her life in a journal when she leaves her family’s farm in Pennsylvania to work as a hired girl in Baltimore in the summer of 1911.

 

In the Shadow of the Lamp / Susanne Dunlap

Sixteen-year-old Molly Fraser works as a nurse with Florence Nightingale during the Crimean War to earn a salary to help her family survive in nineteenth-century England.

 

Like Water on Stone / Dana Walrath

Inspired by a true story, this relates the tale of siblings Sosi, Shahen, and Mariam who survive the Armenian genocide of 1915 by escaping from Turkey alone over the mountains.

 

Palace of Spies / Sarah Zettel

In 1716 London, an orphaned sixteen-year-old girl from a good family impersonates a lady-in-waiting only to discover that the real girl was murdered, the court harbors a nest of spies, and the handsome young artist who is helping her solve the mystery might be a spy himself.

 

Prisoner of Night and Fog / Anne Blankman

In 1930s Munich, the favorite niece of rising political leader Adolph Hitler is torn between duty and love after meeting a fearless and handsome young Jewish reporter.

 

Sekret / Lindsay Smith

Follows a group of psychic teenagers in 1960s Soviet Russia who are forced to use their powers to spy for the KGB.

 

September 17 / Amanda West Lewis

September 17 is a harrowing fictionalized account of the WWII sinking of the City of Bernares, a ship which was secretly transporting ninety British children to safety in Canada, after being torpedoes by a German U-boat.

 

Stella by Starlight / Sharon M. Draper

When a burning cross set by the Klan causes panic and fear in 1932 Bumblebee, North Carolina, fifth-grader Stella must face prejudice and find the strength to demand change in her segregated town.

 

Touched by Fire / Irene N. Watts

Fourteen-year-old Miriam sails to America in order to reunite with her Father and escape from the pograms in Russia only to find herself working at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company when a major fire breaks out.

 

Tsarina / J. Nelle Patrick

Within the walls of Russia’s Winter Palace, Natalya seeks a magical Faberge egg containing the power of the land and the mystics, that promises a life of love for her and Alexei Romanov and the preservation of Romanov Russia.

 

Under a Painted Sky / Stacey Lee

In 1845, Sammy, a Chinese American girl, and Annamae, an African American slave girl, disguise themselves as boys and travel on the Oregon Trail to California from Missouri.

 

Vango: Between Earth and Sky / Timothee De Fombelle

A gripping mystery-adventure set in the 1930s interwar period about a character desperately searching for his identity.

 

VIII / H.M. Castor

Hal, a young man of extraordinary talents, skill on the battlefield, sharp intelligence, and virtue, believes he is destined for greatness but, haunted by his family’s violent past, he embarks on a journey that leads to absolute power and brings him face to face with his demons as he grows to become Henry VIII.

What World is Left / Monique Polak

Anneke, a Dutch Jewish teenager, is sent with her family to Theresienstadt, a “model” concentration camp, where she confronts great evil and learns to do what it takes to survive.

 

X / Ilyasah Shabazz

Follows the childhood of the civil rights leader to his imprisonment at age twenty, where he found the faith that would lead him to his path towards activism and justice.