World/European History 

Anna of Byzantium by Tracy Barrett
            In the eleventh century the teenage princess Anna fights for her birthright, the throne to the Byzantine Empire, which she fears will be taken from her by her younger brother John because he is a boy.

The Examination by Malcolm Bosse
            Fifteen-year-old Hong and his older brother Chen face famine, flood, pirates, and jealous rivals on their journey through fifteenth century China as Chen pursues his calling as a scholar and Hong becomes involved with a secret society known as the White Lotus.

Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman
            The thirteen-year-old daughter of an Engle 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.

Young Joan:  A Novel by Barbara Dana
            Joan, a girl growing up in the French countryside during the Hundred Years’ War, begins to hear voices telling her she is destined to reunite her torn country in opposition to the English invaders.

Anson’s Way by Gary Schmidt
            While serving as a British Fencible to maintain the peace in eighteenth-century Ireland, Anson finds that his sympathy for a hedge master, a teacher devoted to teaching Irish children their forbidden language and culture, places him in conflict with the law of King George II.

The Shining Company by Rosemary Sutcliff
            Set in A.D. 600 and based on an old British poem, this story is told by Prosper who at twelve dreams of being shield-bearer to Prince Gorthyn.

The Beduin’s Gazelle by Frances Temple
            In 1302, two cousins of the nomadic Beni Khalid tribe who are betrothed become separated by political intrigue between warring tribes.  Sequel to The Ramsay Scallop.

The Forestwife by Theresa Tomlinson
            In England during the reign of King Richard I, fifteen-year-old Marioan escapes from an arranged marriage to live with a community of forest fold that includes a daring young outlaw named Robert.

 I Rode Horse of Milk White Jade by Diane Wilson
            Oyuna tells her granddaughter the story of how love for her horse enabled her to wind a race and bring good luck to her family living in Mongolia in 1339.

Early America and the Revolutionary War 

My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier
            Recounts the tragedy that strikes the Meeker family during the revolution when one son joins the rebel forces while the rest of the family tries to stay neutral in a Tory town.

The Rifle by Gay Paulson
            A priceless, handcrafted rifle, fired throughout the American Revolution, is passed down through the years until it fires on a fateful Christmas Eve of 1994.

Cast Two Shadows:  The American Revolution in the South by Ann Rinaldi
            In South Carolina in 1780, fourteen-year-old Caroline sees the Revolutionary Way take a treble to all among her family and friends and comes to understand the true nature of war.

The Fifth of March:  A Story of the Boston Massacre by Ann Rinaldi
            Fourteen-year-old Rachel Marsh, an indentured servant in the Boston household of John and Abigail Adams, is caught up in the colonists’ unrest that eventually escalates into the massacre of March 5, 1770.

Between the Revolution and the Civil War

Call Me Francis Tucket by Gary Paulsen
            Having separated from the one-armed trapper who taught him how to survive in the wilderness of the Old West, fifteen-year-old Francis gets lost and continues to have adventures involving dangerous men and a friendly mule.

Mr. Tucket by Gary Paulsen
            In 1848, while on a wagon train headed for Oregon, fourteen-year-old Francis Tucket is kidnapped by Pawnee Indians and then fall in love with a one-armed trapper who teaches him how to live in the wild.

Tucket’s Gold by Gary Paulsen
            Fifteen-year-old Francis and the two children he has adopted travel across the Old West, evade Comancheros, discover a treasure, and wind up rich beyond their wildest dreams.

Tucket’s Home by Gary Paulsen
            Francis, Lottie, and Billy survive a series of hair-raising adventures while on their way west to the Oregon Trail, where they hope to find the Tucket family.

Tucket’s Ride by Gary Paulsen
            When fifteen-year-old Francis and two younger children lose their way in the wilderness of the Southwest, they face capture at the hands of dangerous men.

The Second Bend in the River by Ann Rinaldi
            In 1798 Rebecca, a young settler in the Ohio territory, meets the Shawnee called Tecumseh and later develops a deep friendship with him.

Jayhawker by Patricia Beatty
            In the early years of the Civil War, teenage Kansan farm boy Life Tulley becomes a Jayhawker, an abolitionist raider freeing slaves from the neighboring state of Missouri, and then goes undercover there as a spy.

The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
            The Story of a young man fighting in the Civil War.

Bull Run by Paul Fleischman
            Northerners, Southerners, generals, couriers, dreaming boys and worried sisters describe the glory, the horror and the disillusionment of the first battle of the Civil War.

Baecca’s Story by James Forman
            A Civil War romance concerning a Michigan girl and the two soldiers who are rivals for her hand.

Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
             A love story set during the Civil War in the Blue Ridge Mountains. 

Rifles for Watie by Harold Keith
            Jeff Bussey, a young Union solder during the Civil War, tries to find out where General Watie is getting his weapons.

True North:  A Novel of the Underground Railroad by Kathryn Lasky
            Because of the strong influence which her grandfather, an abolitionist, has in her life, fourteen-year-old Lucy assists a fugitive slave girl in her escape.

Here and Then by George Ella Lyon
            Through ghostly visitation of a diary that seems mysteriously to write itself with twelve-year-old Abbly’s hands, a Civil War nurse asks for help with medical supplies across an abyss of 133 years.

A Dangerous Promise by Joan Lowery Nixon
            After being taken in by Caption Taylor and his wife in Kansas, twelve-year-old Mike Kelly and his friend Todd Blakely join the Union army as musicians and see the horrors of war firsthand n Missouri.

Soldier’s Heart by Gary Paulsen
            Eager to enlist, fifteen-year-old Charley has a change of heart after experiencing both the physical horror and mental anguish of Civil War combat.

After the Civil War

 Sunshine Rider:  The First Vegetarian Western by Ric Lynden Hardman
            In the late 1800s while on a cattle drive which takes him north from Texas, seventeen-year-old Wylie learns that it is no longer necessary to run from the father he never knew.

Jim Dandy by Handley Irwin
             Living after the Civil on a Kansa homestead with his stern stepfather, thirteen-year-old Caleb raises a beloved colt and becomes involved in General Custer’s raids on the Cheyenne.

Canyons by Gary Paulsen
            Finding a skull on a camping trip in the canyons outside El Paso, Texas, Brennan becomes involved with the fate of a young Apache Indian who lived in the late 1800’s.

A Little Bit Dead by Chap Reaver
            In 1876, after interfering with the attempted lynching a f young Yahi Indian names Shanty, eighteen-year-old Reece finds his won life in danger and becomes intimately involved in the future of Shanti’s people.

Forty Acres and Maybe a Mule by Harriette Robinet
            Born with a withered leg and hand, Pascal, who is about twelve years old, joins former slaves in a search for a farm ant eh freedom which is promises.

1900-1929 & World War I

 The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
            A mysterious American millionaire tries to recapture the sweetheart of his youth resulting in tragedy.

Titanic:  The Long Night by Diane Hoh
            Recounts the last night aboard the Titanic.

Dave at Night by Gail Carson Levine
            When orphaned Dave is sent to the Hebrew Home for Boys where he is treated cruelly, he sneaks out at night and is welcomed into the music- and cultured filled world of the Harlem Renaissance.

After the Dancing Days by Margaret Rostkowski
            A forbidden friendship with a badly disfigure soldier in the aftermath of World War I forces thirteen-year-old Annie to redefine the word “hero” and to question conventional ideas of patriotism.

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
            New immigrants struggle to make it in America working the slaughterhouses, becoming involved in politics and protesting.

Daddy Long-Legs by Jean Webster
            After having grown up in an orphanage, Judy at 17, finds herself the recipient of a generous grant to attend collage.  Her benefactor chooses to remain anonymous and they fall in love.

1930’s & the Great Depression

Fire on the Wind by Linda Crew
            The summer before her fourteenth birthday, a fierce forest fire rages throughout northwestern Oregon and threatens the logging camp where Storie and her family live.

Nowhere to Call Home by Cynthia DeFelice
            When her father kills himself after losing his money in the stock market crash, twelve-year-old Frances, now a penniless orphan, decides to hop aboard a freight train and live the life of a hobo.

The Fat Man by Maurice Gee
            In 1933, Herbert Muskie returns to his rundown hometown of Loomis, New Zealand, and uses a combination of cunning and psychological threats to take control of the lives of twelve-year-old Colin Potter and his family as part of a plan to get even for the mistreatment he suffered as a schoolboy.

A Long Way from Chicago:  A Novel in Stories by Richard Peck
            A boy recounts his annual summer trips to rural Illinois with his sister during the Great Depression to visit larger-than-life grandmother.

1940’s, World War II, & The Holocaust

 Walk the Dark Streets by Edith Baer
            Continues the story of Eva, a young Jewish girl living in Nazi Germany where she and her parents experience increasing tension in daily life while considering possibilities if escape. 

Carrie’s War by Nina Bawden
            Carrie and her younger brother spend World War II as evacuees in a small Welsh village where Carrie, upset by a family fed, commits an act that haunts her for thirty years.

Heroes by Robert Cormier
            After joining the army at fifteen and having his face blown away by a grenade in a battle in France, Francis returns home to Frenchtown hoping to find—and—kill the former childhood hero he feels betrayed him.

The Champion by Maurice Gee
            In 1943 twelve-year-old Rex sees his quiet New Zealand village dramatically changed by the arrival of a black American soldier on leave from the war.

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
            The classic tale of pilots stationed in Italy during WWII.

Soldier Boys by Dean Hughes
            Two boys, one German and one American, are eager to join their respective armies during WW II and their paths cross at the Battle of the Bulge.

Silver Days by Sonia Levitin
            Escaping form Hitler’s Germany, a prosperous Jewish family lives in a New York City tenement until Papa decides to move the family to California.

The File on the Fraulein Berg by Joan Lingard
            In Northern Ireland in 1944, three girls collect data on the activities of their German instructor who they suspect is a Nazi spy.

Tug of War by Joan Lingard
            Follows the fortunes of the Pertersnos family as they flee their native Latvia before the advancing Russian armies in the late 1944 and find themselves homeless refugees in a war-torn Germany.

Good Night Mr. Tom by Michelle Magorian
            A battered child learns to embrace life when an old man in the English countryside adopts him during WW II.

After the War by Carol Matas
            After being released from Buchenwald at the end of WW II, fifteen-year-old Ruth risks her life to lead a group of children across Europe to Palestine.

Good Night, Maman by Norma Fox Mazer
            After spending years fleering from the Nazis in war-torn Europe, twelve-yea-old Karin Levi and her older brother Marc find a new home in a refugee camp in Oswego, New York.

Stones in Water by Donna Jo Napoli
            After being taken by German soldiers from a local movie theater along with other Italian boys including his Jewish friends, Roberto is forced to work in Germany, escapes into the Ukrainian winger, before desperately trying to make his way back home to Venice.

Halinka by Mirjam Pressler
            While living in a home for emotionally disturbed girls in Germany just after WW II, twelve-year-old Halinka carefully hides her thoughts, feelings, and even her hopes.

I Had Seen Castles by Cynthia Rylant
            Now an old man, John is haunted by memories of enlisting to fight in WW II, a decision which forced him to face the horrors of war and changed his life forever.

The Bomb by Theodore Taylor
            In 1945, when the Americans liberate the Bikini Atoll from the Japanese, fourteen-year-old Sorry Rinamu does not realize that the next year he will lead a desperate effort to save his island home from a much more deadly threat.

 Blizcat by Robert Westall
            During WW II a black cat journeys all across war-ravaged England in an effort to track down her beloved master.

Hiroshima:  A Novella by Laurence Yep
            Describes the dropping of the atomic bob on Hiroshima, Japan, particularly as it affects Sachi, who becomes one of the Hiroshima Maidens.

1950’s & The Korean War

 My Louisiana Sky by Kimberly Willis Holt
            Growing up in Saitter, Louisiana, in the 1950’s, twelve-year-old Tiger Ann struggles with her feelings about her stern, but loving grandmother, her mentally slow parents, and her good friend and neighbor, Jesse.

What I Know Now by Roger Larson
            Sarah Benjamin, a Jewish teenager, wonders if she can endure four more years at an exclusive, very Christian and impossibly stuffy girls school.

Belle Prater’s Boy by Ruth White
            When Woodrow’s mother suddenly disappears, he moves to his grandparents’ home in a small Virginia town where he befriends his cousin and together they find the strength to face the terrible losses and fears in their lives.

Compiled by Eva Davis, Plymouth District Library, Plymouth, MI