Suggested Historical Fiction/Non-Fiction Novels for Summer Reading for Rising 7th Graders
Other novels from one of these time periods are acceptable.
WWII Personal Narrative
-Lost Childhood: My life in a Japanese prison camp during World War II by Annelex Hofstra Layson
-Dear Miss Breed: True Stories of the Japanese American Incarceration during World War II and a Librarian Who Made a Difference by Joanne
Oppenheim
-Remember WWII: Kids Who Survived Tell Their Stories by Dorinda Makanaōnalani Nicholson
-Night by Elie Wiesel
-Remember Pearl Harbor: American and Japanese survivors tell their stories by Thomas B. Allen
-Behind Enemy Lines: A Young Pilot's Story by Howard R. DeMallie
-World War II by Virginia Schomp
-D-Day: 1944 by Charlie Samuels
-Hidden on the Mountain: Stories of Children Sheltered from the Nazis in Le Chambon by Deborah Durland DeSaix
-The Boy on the Wooden Box: How the Impossible Became Possible by Leon Leyson
-Leaving China: An Artist Paints his World War II Childhood by James McMullan
-The Upstairs Room by Johanna Reiss
Revolution
-The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, & the Fall of Imperial Russia by Candace Fleming
-Fire/Graceling Realm by Kristin Cashore
-Before We Were Free by Julia Alvarez
-The Lacemaker and the Princess by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
-The Red Necklace: A Story of the French Revolution by Sally Gardner
-Risked by Margaret Peterson Haddix
-Anastasia, the Last Grand Duchess by Carolyn Meyer
-Lara's Gift by Annemarie O’Brien
-Double Crossing by Eve Tal
World War II Fiction
-The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
-Finding Zasha by Randi G. Barrow
-Saving Zasha by Randi G. Barrow
-Two Suns in the Sky by Miriam Bat-Ami
-The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
-For Freedom: the Story of a French Spy by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
-The War that Saved my Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
-Code Talker: a novel about the Navajo Marines of World War Two by Joseph Bruchac
-Is it Night or Day? by Fern Schumer Chapman
-War Games: a novel based on a true story by Audrey Couloumbis
-Under a War-Torn Sky by Laura Elliott
-Warriors in the Crossfire by Bo Flood
-Willow Run by Patricia Reilly Giff
-Emil and Karl by Jacob Glatstein
-Once by Morris Gleitzman
-Then by Morris Gleitzman
-Summer of my German Soldier by Bette Greene
-The Children of the King by Sonya Hartnett
-The Midnight Zoo by Sonya Hartnett
-Shadows on the Sea by Joan Hiatt Harlow
-The 1940s: Secrets by Dorothy Hoobler
-Blue by Joyce Hostetter
-Hero on a Bicycle by Shirley Hughes
-Missing in Action by Dean Hughes
-Soldier Boys by Dean Hughes
-On Rough Seas by Nancy L. Hull
-Weedflower by Cynthia Kadohata
-The Fences Between Us: the Diary of Piper Davis by Kirby Larson
-Autumn Street by Lois Lowry
-Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
-The Right Fight by Chris Lynch
-Odette's Secrets by Maryann Macdonald
-Daniel's Story by Carol Matas
-A Boy at War: a novel of Pearl Harbor by Harry Mazer
-A Boy No More by Harry Mazer
-Heroes Don't Run by Harry Mazer
-Goodnight, Maman by Norma Fox Mazer
-An Elephant in the Garden by Michael Morpurgo
-A Medal for Leroy by Michael Morpurgo
-Captain's Command by Anna Myers
-Fire in the Hills by Donna Jo Napoli
-Stones in Water by Donna Jo Napoli
-Behind Enemy Lines by Jennifer A. Nielsen
-The Island on Bird Street by Uri Orlev
-The Man from the Other Side by Uri Orlev
-Hitler's Secret by William Hanslow Osborne
-My Secret War: the World War II Diary of Madeline Beck by Mary Pope Osborne
-The War in Georgia by Jerrie Oughton
-Man Overboard! by Curtis Parkinson
-Best Friends Forever: a World War II Scrapbook by Beverly Patt
-Thin Wood Walls by David Patneaude
-Jump into the Sky by Shelley Pearsall
-On the Wings of Heroes by Richard Peck
-Shadow on the Mountain by Margi Preus
-Jimmy's Stars by Mary Ann Rodman
-I Had Seen Castles by Cynthia Rylant
-Eddie's War by Carol Saller
-Eyes of the Emperor by Graham Salisbury
-House of the Red Fish by Graham Salisbury
-Elephant Run by Smith, Roland Smith
-Flygirl by Sherri L. Smith
-Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli
-The Lily Pond by Annika Thor
-Hitler's Canary by Sandi Toksvig
-Brothers in Valor: a Story of Resistance by Michael O. Tunnell
-Finding Sophie by Irene N. Watts
-So Far from the Bamboo Grove by Yoko Kawashim Watkins
-Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
-Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein
-Blitzcat by Robert Westall
-The Machine Gunners by Robert Westall
-Summer of the War by Gloria Whelan
-Bat 6 by Virginia Euwer Wolff
-Soldier X by Don L. Wulffson
India
-A Beautiful Lie by Irfan Master
-Keeping Corner by Kashmira Sheth
Holocaust Fiction
-Is it Night or Day? by Fern Schumer Chapman
-Tropical Secrets: Holocaust Refugees in Cuba by Margarita Engle
-The Entertainer and the Dybbuk by Sid Fleischman
-Odette's Secrets by Maryann Macdonald
-Goodnight, Maman by Norma Fox Mazer
-The Island on Bird Street by Uri Orlev
-What World is Left by Monique Polak
-Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli
-Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Gratz
-Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
Great Depression Fiction
-Tennyson by Lesley M. M. Blume
-The Dreadful Revenge of Ernest Gallen by James Lincoln Collier
-Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
-The Mighty Miss Malone by Christopher Paul Curtis
-Nowhere to Call Home by Cynthia C DeFelice
-Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
-Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm
-Hitch by Jeanette Ingold
-A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck
-Song of the Trees by Mildred D. Taylor
-Moon over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool
-Dragon Road by Laurence Yep
-Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
Cuban Missile Crisis
-90 miles to Havana by Enrique Flores-Galbis
-Fallout by Todd Strasser
-Countdown by Deborah Wiles
Communism
-When the Wall Came Down: the Berlin Wall and the fall of Soviet Communism by Serge Schmemann
-Red Scarf Girl: a memoir of the Cultural Revolution by Ji-Li Jiang
-Snow Falling in Spring: Coming of Age in China during the Cultural Revolution by Moying Li-Marcus
-Refugee Child: My Memories of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution by Bobbie Kalman
-Catch You Later, Traitor by Avi
-Revolution is Not a Dinner Party by Ying Chang Compestine
-Breaking Stalin's Nose by Eugene Yelchin
-Apothecary by Maile Meloy