The Great Depression Book List
Taylor, Mildred Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Fogelman, 2001 ISBN 0803726473. Grades 5 – 9
Hesse, Karen Out of the Dust
Scholastic, 1997 ISBN 0590360809. Grades 5 – 9
Curtis, Christopher Paul Bud, Not Buddy
Delacorte, 1999 ISBN 0385323069. Grades 4 – 8
Peck, Richard Year Down Yonder
Dial, 2000 ISBN 0803725183. Grades 4 - 8
Hard Times For Jake Smith: A Story of the Depression Era
Aileen Kilgore Henderson
Historical Fiction
Ages 12 and up
Christmas After All: The Great Depression Dairy of Minnie Swift
Kathryn Lasky
Historical Fiction (Series)
Ages 12 and up
Survival of the Storm: The Dust Bowl Diary of Grace Edwards
Katelan Janke
Historical Fiction (Series)
Ages 12 and up
The Journal of C.J. Jackson: A Dust Bowl Migrant
William Durbin
Historical Fiction (Series)
Ages 12 and up
Meet Kit: An American Girl, 1934
Valerie Tripp
Illustrated by Walter Rane
Vignette by Susan McAliley
Historical Fiction (Series)
Ages 7 to 12
Dust to Eat: Drought and Depression in the 1930's
Michael L. Cooper
Fiction
Ages 10 and up
Rose's Journal: The Story of a girl in the Great Depression
Marissa Moss
Fiction Picture Book
Ages 8 to 12
Hoping For Rain: The Dust Bowl Adventures of Patty and Earl Buckler
Kate Connell
Fiction/Non-fiction
Ages 8 to 10
Saving Strawberry Farm
Deborah Hopkinson
Pictures by Rachel Isadora
Picture Book
Ages 4 to 8
Six Days in October
Karen Blumenthal
Non-fiction
Ages 12 and up
The Dust Bowl
David Booth
Illustrated by Karen Reczuch
Picture Book
Ages 5 to 8
The Miner’s Daughter
Gretchen Moran Laskas
Fiction
Ages 14 and up
Rudy Rides the Rails: A Depression Era Story
Dandi Daley Mackall
Illustrated by Chris Ellison
Picture Book (Series)
Ages 7 to 10
We the People: The Great Depression
Michael Burgan
Non-Fiction (Series)
Ages 8 to 10
Hitch
Jeanette Ingold
Fiction
Ages 12 and up
We the People: The Dust Bowl
Ann Heinrichs
Non-Fiction (Series)
Ages 8 to 10
No promises in the wind
Irene Hunt
Fiction 12 and up
Children of the Great Depression
Russell Freedman
Non-fiction
Ages 10 and up
Black Tuesday: Prelude to the Great Depression
Robin S. Doak
Non-Fiction (Series)
Ages 9 to 12
Potato: A Tale from the Great Depression
Written by Kate Lied
Illustrated by Lisa Campbell Ernst
Picture Book
Ages 4 to 6
The Truth About Sparrows
Marian Hale
Fiction
Ages 12 and up
Tough Times
Milton Meltzer
Historical Fiction
Ages 10 and up
Kit’s World – A Girl’s-Eye View of the Great Depression
Harriet Brown and Teri Witkowski
Novelty (Series)
Ages 7 to 12
The Lucky Star
Judy Young
Illustrated by Chris Ellison
Picture Book (Series)
Ages 8 to 12
The Gingerbread doll
Susan Tews
Illustrated by Megan Lloyd
Picture Book
Ages 6 to 8
Chig and the Second Spread
Gwenyth Swain
Fiction Ages 8 to 12
Don’t forget Winona
Jeanne Whitehouse Peterson
Illustrated by Kimberly Bulcken Root
Picture Book
For ages 5 to 7
The Storm in the barn
Matt Phelan
Graphic Novel
Ages 10 and up
Candlewick Press, 2009, 0763636185
Tar Beach
Faith Ringgold
(NYC; African American; bridges)
Tree of Hope
Amy Littlesugar
il Floyd Cooper
(NYC; African American; theater: Macbeth in Harlem
Sarah Stewart - Gardener - il David Small
(NYC; bakery; child w/ relatives)
David Adler - The Babe & I - il Terry Widener
(NYC; baseball, newsboys, apple sellers)
Rent Party Jazz by William Miller il Charlotte
Riley-Webb
(New Orleans; African-American;
Leah's Pony - Elizabeth Friedrich il Michael Garland
(Great Plains; farm auction)
Angela Shelf Medearis - Picking Peas for a Penny il
Charles Shaw
(family farm; African American)
Jeanne Whitehouse Peterson "Don't Forget Winoa"
illustrations by Kimberly Bulcken Root
(Okies heading west on Rte. 66 to California; SLJ
recommends pairing w/ Natalie Cole's "Rte 66" on
"Unforgettable" to listen for the title phrase)
The Dust Bowl by David Booth il Karen Reczuch
(Present-day Canada; reminiscences of Depression
farming)
Kate Lied - Potato: A Tale from the Great Depression
il Lisa Campbell Ernst
(Kansas? to Idaho to pick potatoes
This Land Is Your Land - Woody Guthrie il Kathy
Jakobsen
(US: scenes from Depression & contemporary times)
Susan Campbell Bartoletti - Christmas Promise, with
illustrations by David Christiana
(Hoboes; riding trains)
Rocks in His Head, by Carol Otis Hurst, illustrated by James Stevenson
(backdrop for story? Hurst's father, a rock collector whose gas station failed during the Depression,
copes w/ labor situation & finds his dream
Dust for Dinner by Ann Turner (rural)
Cohen, Miriam - Mimmy & Sophie (NYC)
Cohen, Miriam - Mimmy & Sophie All Around the Town
Great Depression _Dust Bowl
Brother, can you spare a dime? by Molly Schaar Idle
Book : Fiction : Juvenile audience
Rose's journal : the story of a girl in the Great Depression
by Marissa Moss
Down Cut Shin Creek : the pack horse librarians of Kentucky
by Kathi Appelt; Jeanne Cannella Schmitzer
Book : Elementary and junior high school
Black Tuesday : prelude to the Great Depression
by Robin S Doak
Book : Juvenile audience
Climbing out of the Great Depression : the New Deal
by Sean Price
Book : Juvenile audience
Years of dust : the story of the Dust Bowl
by Albert Marrin
Book : Elementary and junior high school
Children of the Great Depression
by Russell Freedman
Book : Juvenile audien
The truth about sparrows
by Marian Hale
Book : Fiction
Esperanza rising
by Pam Muñoz Ryan
Book : Elementary and junior high school : Fiction
Stormy weather
by Paulette Jiles
Book : Fiction
Water for elephants : a novel
by Sara Gruen
Book : Fiction
Dear Mrs. Roosevelt : letters from children of the Great Depression
by Robert Cohen; Eleanor Roosevelt;
Book : Biography : State or province government publication
Daughters of the Great Depression : women, work, and fiction in the
American 1930s
by Laura Hapke
Book : State or province government publication
The Dust Bowl
by Sue Vander Hook
Book : Juvenile audience
Water for elephants
by Sara Gruen; Jennifer Christiansen; Moline Public Library (Ill.);
Book : Kit : Fiction.
Hitch
by Jeanette Ingold
Book : Elementary and junior high school : Fiction
Flora's money : a novel
by Ray Rueby
Book : Fiction
The train jumper
by Don Brown
Book : Fiction : Juvenile audience
Nothing to fear
by Jackie French Koller
Book : Fiction : Juvenile audience
Language: English
Publisher: San Diego : Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, ©1991.
Not a nickel to spare : the Great Depression diary of Sally Cohen
by Perry Nodelman
Book : Fiction : Juvenile audience.
Children of the Great Depression era
by Bobbi E Simmons
Book : Fiction
American lives : looking back at the children of the Great Depression
by John A Clausen
Book