More Historical Fiction
Alexander, Caroline, 1956-. Mrs. Chippy's Last Expedition : The Remarkable Journal of Shackleton's
Polar-bound Cat. 1st HarperPerennial ed. New York : HarperPerennial, 1999, c1997.
A fictional account of Sir Ernest Shackleton's treacherous voyage to Antarctica--in which he and his crew
became trapped in ice--told by Mrs. Chippy, a cat on the ship.
Allende, Isabel. Daughter of Fortune : A Novel. New York, NY : HarperCollins, c1999.
Eliza Sommers, left alone and pregnant in Chile when her lover Joaquin runs off to California during the
Gold Rush, decides to follow him only to become entranced with her new life of freedom and
independence.
Alvarez, Julia. Before We Were Free. 1st ed. New York : Knopf, c2002.
In the early 1960s in the Dominican Republic, twelve-year-old Anita learns that her family is involved in
the underground movement to end the bloody rule of the dictator, General Trujillo.
Alvarez, Julia. In the Time of the Butterflies. New York : Plume, [1995], c1994.
Gives a fictionalized account of four sisters in the Dominican Republic under the dictatorship of General
Trujillo.
Anderson, Laurie Halse. Fever, 1793. 1st ed. New York : Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers,
c2000.
Sixteen-year-old Matilda Cook, separated from her sick mother, learns about perseverance and self-reliance
when she is forced to cope with the horrors of the yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia in 1793.
Anderson, M. T. Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation : The Pox Party. 1st ed.
Cambridge, MA : Candlewick Press, 2006.
He is a boy dressed in silks and white wigs and given the best of classical educations. Raised by a
mysterious group of rational philosophers known only by numbers, the boy and his mother - a princess in
exile from a faraway land - are the only people in their household assigned names. As the boy's regal
mother, Cassiopeia, entertains the house scholars with her beauty and wit, young Octavian begins to
question the purpose behind his guardians' fanatical studies. Only after he dares to open a forbidden door
does he learn the hideous nature of their experiments - and his own chilling role in them.
Auch, Mary Jane. Ashes of Roses. 1st ed. New York : Holt, 2002.
Sixteen-year-old Rose Nolan arrives on Ellis Island in 1911 in the hopes of starting a new life, but after
most of her family is sent back to Ireland, she must find her own way in a new country and fend for herself
and her younger sister.
Auel, Jean M. The Clan of the Cave Bear : a Novel. New York : Bantam Books, [1991], c1980.
Ayla, clearly a member of the Others, is raised by the Clan of the Cave Bear, a rival race of humanoid
creatures living in prehistoric Europe.
Bagdasarian, Adam. Forgotten Fire. New York : DK Ink, c2000.
Based on the true story of a 12-year-old boy who survived the massacre that saw hundreds of thousands of
Armenians murdered after the Young Turks came to power. In 1915, Vahan Kenderian lives a pampered
life that he has no reason to believe will ever end. But end it does, and in a brutal way. After the
disappearance of his father and uncle, Vahan witnesses the murder of his two eldest brothers in the garden
of the family home and, after a forced march, loses the other members of his family one by one. He faces
hunger, destitution, beatings, and sexual abuse, and is forced to watch as others are killed or raped as he
crosses Turkey in an attempt to escape this persecution of his people. Throughout these experiences, he
develops, matures, and strengthens his resolve, at the same time-understandably-learning to fear the loss of
anyone he becomes close to. When he finally reaches freedom in Constantinople in 1918, it is as though
readers have, in some small way, endured these experiences as well, and come away stronger.
Baklanov, Grigorii IAkovlevich. Forever Nineteen. 1st American ed. New York : Lippincott, c1989.
The experiences of a nineteen-year-old Soviet lieutenant on the front during World War II as he defends his
Russian homeland from the Nazis.
Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. The Boy Who Dared. 1st ed. New York : Scholastic Press, 2008.
In October, 1942, seventeen-year-old Helmuth Hübener, imprisoned for distributing anti-Nazi leaflets,
recalls his past life and how he came to dedicate himself to bring the truth about Hitler and the war to the
German people.
Bat-Ami, Miriam. Two Suns in the Sky. New York : Puffin Books, 2001, c1999.
In 1944, an Upstate New York teenager named Christine meets and falls in love with Adam, a Yugoslavian
Jew living in a refugee camp, despite their parents' conviction that they do not belong together.
Bennett, Veronica, 1953-. Cassandra's Sister. 1st U.S. ed. Cambridge, MA : Candlewick Press, 2007.
Beginning when 18-year-old Austen wrote Sense and Sensibility, and ending nearly a decade later as its
publication glimmered on the horizon, the plot focuses on the close bond between Jenny (Jane's childhood
nickname) and elder sister Cass as they bide their time before marriage. The more emotional Jenny, swept
along by the prospect of euphoric true love, simultaneously questions her patience for the marital drudgery
of childbearing and preserve making. The siblings' romantic quandaries will be enough to engage many
teens, even some unacquainted with Austen, but affection for the celebrated author will enhance readers'
appreciation for this homage, which gracefully mimics Austen's style and unobtrusively refers to beloved
plots and characters.
Bograd, Larry. Los Alamos Light. 1st ed. New York : Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1983.
Maggie's enforced move to New Mexico during World War II with her scientist father creates friction
between them as he becomes more and more involved in his secret work.
Bradley, Marion Zimmer. The Mists of Avalon. 1st ed. New York : Knopf, 1982.
A re-creation of the Arthurian legend following the clash between Christianity and paganism that led to the
demise of Camelot.
Branford, Henrietta, 1946-. The Fated Sky. 1st U.S. ed. Cambridge, Mass : Candlewick Press, 1999.
In tenth-century Norway, sixteen-year-old Ran is rescued from certain death by the blind musician, Toki,
and, after becoming his wife, travels with him to Iceland where they attempt to start a new life far from the
Brontë, Emily, 1818-1848. Wuthering Heights : the 1847 Text, Backgrounds and Context, Criticism. 4th
ed. New York : Norton, c2003.
In nineteenth-century Yorkshire, the tumultuous relationship between a headstrong girl and a foundling boy
wreaks havoc on them and those around them, as well as the next generation. Also includes 1847 and 1850
reviews, background materials on the Bröntes, modern criticism, a chronology, and a select bibliography.
Brooks, Geraldine. March : A Novel. New York : Penguin Books, 2006, c2005.
As the North reels under a series of defeats during the first years of the Civil War, one man leaves behind
his family to aid the Union cause. His experiences will change his marriage and challenge his ardently held
beliefs.
Brooks, Geraldine. Year of Wonders : A Novel of the Plague. New York : Penguin Books, 2002, c2001.
The story of a small mountain village in England and housemaid Anna Frith as they try to survive the
terrible plague year of 1666.
Buck, Pearl S, 1892-1973 (Pearl Sydenstricker). The Good Earth. [S.l.] : YBM, [1964?].
The story of a Chinese peasant and his passionate, dogged accumulation of land during famine, drought,
and revolution.
Cadnum, Michael. The Book of the Lion. New York : Viking, 2000.
In twelfth-century England, after his master, a maker of coins for the king, is brutally punished for alleged
cheating, seventeen-year-old Edmund finds himself traveling to the Holy Land as squire to a knight
crusader on his way to join the forces of Richard Lionheart.
Cadnum, Michael. Daughter of the Wind. 1st Scholastic ed. New York : Orchard Books, 2003.
In medieval times as various groups of Vikings fight for supremacy of the northern lands and waters,
Hallgerd, Gauk, and Hego, three young people from the quiet coastal village of Spjothof, find their fates
intertwined as a series of events take them into danger far from home.
Cadnum, Michael. Raven of the Waves. New York : Orchard Books, c2001.
On his first Viking raid, seventeen-year-old Lidsmod sails on the ship Raven, joining his comrades as they
destroy and plunder villages in medieval England and take an Anglo-Saxon boy as captive.
Carey, Peter. True History of the Kelly Gang. New York : Knopf, 2001.
Ned Kelly grows up dirt poor in the 19th-century Australian outback. His father was remanded from
British-controlled Ireland, and his mother's family are all crooks. Living conditions are primitive and
abominable, and law enforcement is corrupt, serving only monied and personal interests. Though his
mother apprentices him to the notorious highwayman Harry Power, Kelly retains a powerful sense of
justice until an injustice done to him cannot be ignored. Leading his brother and two friends on a series of
spectacular bank robberies, he evades the authorities for nearly two years and wins huge popular support.
The narrative is composed as if it were a letter to Kelly's daughter, employing a style and argot that while
always rich is sometimes incomprehensible to the American ear. Nevertheless, the novel is a tour de force
akin to an American Western. Though Kelly may or may not have been the sterling character Carey makes
him, his life has been turned into formidable fiction.
Carvell, Marlene. Sweetgrass Basket. 1st ed. New York : Dutton Childrens Books, c2005.
In alternating passages, two Mohawk sisters describe their lives at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School,
established in 1879 to educate Native Americans, as they try to assimilate into white culture and one of
them is falsely accused of stealing.
Cather, Willa, 1873-1947. Death Comes for the Archbishop. Vintage Classics ed. New York : Vintage
Books, 1990, c1955.
The literal and spiritual journey of two French priests who come to the American Southwest as
missionaries in the mid-1800s.
Cather, Willa, 1873-1947. Death Comes for the Archbishop ... New York : Knopf, c1927.
The story of two fervent, cultured French priests who came to New Mexico to elevate and purify the
religion of that region, soon after the Mexican War.
Charlesworth, Monique, 1951-. The Children's War. 1st American ed. New York : Knopf, 2004.
Thirteen-year-old Ilse learns to rely on herself for survival after her mother Lore, terrified the Nazis will
discover the girl is half-Jewish, sends her to live with a relative in Morocco in 1939, while in Germany, one
of the privileged children Lore cares for in her job as a nursemaid, confesses his growing discomfort with
his role in the Hitler Youth.
Chevalier, Tracy. Girl with a Pearl Earring. New York : Plume, [2001], c1999.
Imagines the young woman in Johannes Vermeer's mysterious painting "The Girl With a Pearl Earring" as
a sixteen-year-old Dutch girl named Griet who sparks the interest of the artist when she becomes a maid in
his turbulent household.
Choi, Sook Nyul. Year of impossible goodbyes. New York : Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young
Readers, [1993], c1991.
A young Korean girl survives the oppressive Japanese and Russian occupation of North Korea during the
1940s, to later escape to freedom in South Korea.
Choldenko, Gennifer, 1957-. Al Capone Does My Shirts. New York : Putnam's, c2004.
A twelve-year-old boy named Moose moves to Alcatraz Island in 1935 when guards' families were housed
there, and has to contend with his extraordinary new environment in addition to life with his autistic sister.
Chotjewitz, David. Daniel Half Human and the Good Nazi. 1st U.S. ed. New York : Atheneum Books for
Young Readers, 2004.
In 1933, best friends Daniel and Armin admire Hitler, but as anti-Semitism buoys Hitler to power, Daniel
learns he is half Jewish, threatening the friendship even as life in their beloved Hamburg, Germany, is
becoming nightmarish. Also details Daniel and Armin's reunion in 1945 in interspersed chapters.
Clark, Walter Van Tilburg, 1909-. The Ox-Bow Incident. New York : Random House, c1940.
When cattle rustlers murder a citizen of Bridger's Gulch, others form a posse to catch them and illegally
lynch them. The story is really the struggle in the men's minds for the decision to defy legal justice and to
accept the men's guilt on slim evidence, bare suspicion. It is a skillful laying bare with a knife the thoughts
and emotions of men -- quiveringly open to the reader's gaze.
Clavell, James. Shogun : a Novel of Japan. 1st ed. New York : Atheneum, 1975.
Collier, James Lincoln, 1928-. My Brother Sam is Dead. New York : Scholastic, c1974.
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.
Cooney, Caroline B. Enter Three Witches : A Story of Macbeth. 1st ed. New York : Scholastic Press, 2007.
After her father is killed for being a traitor, fourteen-year-old Lady Mary, who is a ward of Lord and Lady
Macbeth, is sent to the scullery, where she works as a maid and uncovers the couple's secret plans. Includes
lines from Shakespeare's play.
Cooper, J. California. Family. 1st Anchor Books ed. New York : Anchor Books, 1992, c1991.
Set in the years just before and after the Civil War, tells the story of four generations of an AfricanAmerican family whose emotional center is Always, a willful and gentle young woman born into slavery.
Cooper, James Fenimore, 1789-1851. The Last of the Mohicans : A Narrative of 1757. New York : C.
Scribner's sons, 1920, c1919.
The classic tale of a disillusioned man who exiles himself from a society whose values he abhors. Despite
this exile, he agrees to take two sisters through hostile Indian country with the help of a Mohican scout.
Cooper, James Fenimore, 1789-1851. The Leatherstocking Saga. New York : Pantheon Books, [1954].
Cooper, James Fenimore, 1789-1851. The Spy. New York : Dodd, Mead, 1946,c1821.
Written in 1821, The Spy was intended to preserve both the memory and the meaning of the American
Revolution. Inspired by accusations of venality leveled at the men who captured Major Andre (Benedict
Arnold's co-conspirator who was executed for espionage in 1780), the novel centers on Harry Birch, a
common man wrongly suspected by the Patriots of being a spy for the British.
Courtenay, Bryce, 1933-. The Power of One. 1st Ballantine Books trade ed. New York : Ballantine Books,
1996, c1989.
Story of Peekay, an English boy, living in South Africa during World War II whose dream is to become a
winner.
Crane, Stephen, 1871-1900. The Red Badge of Courage. New York : Macmillan, 1967.
In the spring of 1863, while engaged in the fierce battle of Chancellorsville in Virginia, a young Union
soldier matures to manhood and finds peace of mind as he comes to grips with his conflicting emotions
about war.
Cregar, Elyse. Gettysburg : By the Third Sun Setting. Gettysburg, PA : Tamarac, 1988.
Crichton, Michael, 1942-. Eaters of the dead : the manuscript of Ibn Fadlan relating his experiences with
the Northmen in A.D. 922. 1st ed. New York : Knopf, 1976.
Crossley-Holland, Kevin. The Seeing Stone. 1st American ed. New York : Arthur A. Levine Books, 2001.
Arthur, a thirteen-year-old boy in late twelfth-century England, tells how Merlin gave him a magical seeing
stone which shows him images of the legendary King Arthur, the events of whose life seem to have many
parallels to his own.
Crowe, Chris. Mississippi Trial, 1955. New York : P. Fogelman Books, c2002.
In Mississippi in 1955, a sixteen-year-old finds himself at odds with his grandfather over issues
surrounding the kidnapping and murder of a fourteen-year-old African-American from Chicago.
Dai, Sijie, 1954-. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. 1st Anchor Books ed. New York : Anchor
Books, 2002, c2001.
Two boys, moved to the country for "re-education" as part of Mao's Cultural Revolution, find little to
amuse them, but things change when they discover a stash of Western classics in Chinese translation and
use the stories of Balzac to capture the attention of the beautiful daughter of the local tailor.
Danticat, Edwidge, 1969-. The Farming of Bones : A Novel. New York : Penguin Books, 1999, c1998.
Amabelle, a Haitian woman who has grown up as a servant in the home of Dominicans, falls in love with
Sebastien, an itinerant sugarcane cutter, and together they try to weather the storms of persecution against
their people.
De Bernières, Louis. Corelli's Mandolin : A Novel. 1st Vintage International ed. New York, N.Y : Vintage
Books, 1995.
Life changes on the Greek island of Cephalonia as Axis forces invade during World War II, and beautiful
Pelagia finds that she must choose between Mandras, a fisherman who joins the resistance and Corelli, a
captain with the communist Italian troops.
Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731. A Journal of the Plague Year : Being Observations or Memorials of the Most
Remarkable Occurances as Well Publick as Private Which Happened in London During the Last Great
Visitation in 1665. London : Oxford U.P, 1969.
Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731. Robinson Crusoe. London : Penguin Books, 2001.
During one of his several adventurous voyages in the seventeenth century, an Englishman becomes the sole
survivor of a shipwreck and lives for nearly thirty years on a desert island.
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870. David Copperfield. Bantam Classic ed. New York : Bantam Books, 1981,
c1850.
A young boy in 19th-century London runs away from an unhappy home, finds employment in a wine
factory, and becomes acquainted with a wide variety of characters in the city streets.
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870. A Tale of Two Cities. London, England : Penguin Books, 2000.
Relates the adventures of a young Englishman who gives his life during the French Revolution to save the
husband of the woman he loves.
Disher, Garry. The Divine Wind : A Love Story. 1st American ed. New York : A.A. Levine, 2002, c1998.
On the eve of World War II, Hart, an Australian boy and Mitsy, a Japanese-Australian girl, fall in love but
are driven apart.
Doctorow, E. L, 1931-. Billy Bathgate : A Novel. 1st trade ed. New York : Random House, c1989.
The story of Billy Bathgate, a boy who has insinuated himself into the inner circle of the notorious Dutch
Schultz gang to become apprentice and protege to one of the great murdering gangsters.
Doctorow, E. L, 1931-. The March : A Novel. 1st ed. New York : Random House, c2005.
Presents an historical novel that centers around William Tecumseh Sherman's march through Georgia and
the Carolinas and those he encounters along the way which include a freed slave girl named Pearl; a Union
regimental surgeon, Colonel Sartorius; Emily Thompson, the daughter of a Southern judge; and two misfit
soldiers.
Doctorow, E. L., 1931-. Ragtime. Modern Library ed. New York : Modern Library, 1994.
Three remarkable families lives' become entwined with Henry Ford, Harry Houdini, J.P. Morgan, Theodore
Dreiser, Sigmund Freud, and Emiliano Zapata at the turn of the century.
Donnelly, Jennifer. A Northern Light. 1st ed. Orlando : Harcourt, c2003.
Sixteen-year-old Mattie, determined to attend college and be a writer against the wishes of her father and
boyfriend, takes a job at a hotel in 1906 where the death of a guest renews her determination to live her
own life.
Donnelly, Jennifer. A Northern Light. 1st Harcourt pbk. ed. Orlando, Fla : Harcourt, 2004, c2003.
Sixteen-year-old Mattie, determined to attend college and be a writer against the wishes of her father and
boyfriend, takes a job at a hotel in 1906 where the death of a guest renews her determination to live her
own life.
Draper, Sharon M (Sharon Mills). Copper Sun. 1st ed. New York : Atheneum Books for Young Readers,
c2006.
Two fifteen-year-old girls--one a slave and the other an indentured servant--escape their Carolina plantation
and try to make their way to Fort Moses, Florida, a Spanish colony that gives sanctuary to slaves.
Duey, Kathleen. Louisiana Hurricane, 1860. New York : Pocket Books, c2000.
During the hurricane-filled summer of 1860, young Louisiana Creole Madelaine LeBlanc, longing for
freedom and meaning in her life, begins a torrid, forbidden love affair with a poor Cajun laborer while her
controlling father arranges for her to marry a rich heir.
Dumas, Alexandre, 1802-1870. The Count of Monte Cristo. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1998,
c1990.
After escaping from the island fortress where he has been imprisoned for treason, young sailor Edmund
Dantes sets out to discover the treasure of Monte Cristo and seek revenge against the people who falsely
accused him.
Dumas, Alexandre, 1802-1870. The Man in the Iron Mask. New York, N.Y : Airmont Books, c1967.
Presents the adventures of d'Artagnan, who battles political intrigues in the service of King Louis XIV in
17th-century France.
Dumas, Alexandre, 1802-1870. The Three Musketeers. New York : Grosset & Dunlap, c1953.
D'Artagnan comes to Paris in 1625, duels with three men and becomes their best friend for many
adventures.
Dunkle, Clare B. The Hollow Kingdom. 1st ed. New York : Holt, 2003.
In nineteenth-century England, a powerful sorcerer and King of the Goblins chooses Kate, the elder of two
orphan girls recently arrived at their ancestral home, Hallow Hill, to be his bride and queen.
Elliott, Laura. Annie, Between the States. 1st ed. New York : Katherine Tegen Books, c2004.
Instead of spending her teen years at parties and balls, Annie, an idealistic, poetry-loving patriot, finds
herself nursing soldiers, hiding valuables, and running the household as the Civil War rages around her
family's Virginia home.
Elliott, Laura. Under a War-torn Sky. 1st ed. New York : Hyperion Paperbacks For Children, c2001.
After his plane is shot down by Hitler's Luftwaffe, nineteen-year-old Henry Forester of Richmond,
Virginia, strives to walk across occupied France, with the help of the French Resistance, in hopes of
rejoining his unit.
Ellis, Deborah, 1960-. Jackal in the Garden : An Encounter with Bihzad. New York : Watson-Guptill,
2006.
Born deformed, Anibus is considered cursed and is left in the desert to die, but after being rescued and
raised in secret, she leads a nomadic life, finding acceptance with a colony of artists which includes Kamal
al-Din Bihzad, the most famous master of Persian painting.
Ellison, Ralph. Juneteenth : A Novel. 1st Vintage International ed. New York : Vintage International,
[2000], c1999.
Presents the final novel by author Ralph Ellison, telling the story of Adam Sunraider, a race-baiting senator
from New England who, upon being shot while on the Senate floor, calls for Reverend Alonzo Hickman,
the African-American Baptist minister who cared for the orphaned Sunraider when he was a child known
as Bliss.
Erdrich, Louise. Love Medicine : a Novel. 1st ed. New York : Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, c1984.
A story of the intertwined fates of the Kashpaws and the Lamartines near a North Dakota reservation from
1934 to 1984.
Farber, Norma. Mercy Short : A Winter Journal, North Boston, 1692-93. 1st ed. New York : Dutton, c1982.
With the help of the respected minister Cotton Mather, a young girl attempts to recover from her tragic
experience with the Indians which has led her to believe she is bewitched.
Faulkner, William, 1897-1962. The Unvanquished. New York: Vintage, 1966.
Fletcher, Susan, 1951-. Alphabet of Dreams. 1st ed. New York : Atheneum Books for Young Readers,
c2006.
Exiled from their home country because of their father's plot against King Phraates, fourteen-year-old Mitra
and five-year-old Babak, who are of royal descent, live as beggars until it is discovered that the boy can tell
the future through his dreams, and the magus Melchoir and two other Zoroastrian priests take the children
with them to Bethlehem to witness the coming of a new king.
Follett, Ken. Pillars of the Earth. 1st ed. New York : Morrow, c1989.
The construction of a cathedral involves a story of betrayal, revenge and love in 12th century England.
Foote, Shelby. Shiloh : A Novel. 1st Vintage Books ed. New York : Vintage Books, [1991], c1952.
In the novel Shiloh, historian and Civil War expert Shelby Foote delivers a spare, unflinching account of
the battle of Shiloh, which was fought over the course of two days in April 1862. By mirroring the troops'
movements through the woods of Tennessee with the activity of each soldier's mind, Foote offers the reader
a broad perspective of the battle and a detailed view of the issues behind it. The battle becomes tangible as
Foote interweaves the observations of Union and Confederate officers, simple foot soldiers, brave men, and
cowards and describes the roar of the muskets and the haze of the gun smoke.
Frost, Helen, 1949-. The Braid. 1st ed. New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006.
Two Scottish sisters, living on the western island of Barra in the 1850s, relate, in alternate voices and
linked narrative poems, their experiences after their family is forcibly evicted and separated with one sister
accompanying their parents and younger siblings to Cape Breton, Canada, and the other staying behind
with other family on the small island of Mingulay.
Fuentes, Carlos. Old Gringo. New York: harper, 1985.
Gavin, Jamila. Coram Boy. Sunburst ed. New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005, c2000.
Set in the eighteenth century, "Coram Boy" is a tale of two cities and a tale of two boys: Toby, saved from
an African slave ship, and Aaron, the illegitimate heir to a great estate. It's also a tale of fathers and sons:
slave-trader, Otis, and his son Meshak; and landowner Sir William Ashbrook and the son he disinherits.
Geras, Adèle. Troy. 1st Harcourt paperbacks ed. San Diego : Harcourt, 2002.
The last weeks of the Trojan War find the women sick of tending the wounded, men tired of fighting, and
bored gods and goddesses trying to find ways to stir things up.
Glancy, Diane. Pushing the Bear : a Novel of the Trail of Tears. 1st Harvest ed. New York : Harcourt
Brace, 1998.
Maritole, one of the many thousands of Cherokees who were uprooted from their homes after being
betrayed by the U.S. government, struggles to survive on the forced march along the Trail of Tears, while
searching to understand why this has happened to her people.
Golden, Arthur, 1957-. Memoirs of a Geisha : a Novel. Vintage contemporaries ed. New York : Vintage
Books, 1999, c1997.
Nitta Sayuri, a young Japanese woman who was taken from her home at the age of nine and sold into
slavery as a geisha, discovers a rare opportunity for freedom when the outbreak of World War II forces an
end to the only life she has ever known.
Greenwood, Barbara, 1940-. Factory Girl. Toronto, ON : Kids Can Press, c2007.
he year is 1912, and Emily Watson has every reason to hope that she will complete her 8th-grade education
and enter one of the occupations newly opened to women–clerk, nurse, maybe even teacher. That is, until
her father's letters abruptly stop and her family is thrown into poverty. The 12-year-old is forced to seek
employment in a sweatshop, snipping garment threads for four dollars a week. The work is brutal; she
stands in place 11 hours a day, unable to speak to anyone, surrounded by filth and rats, danger, cruel
bosses, and the constant din of the machines. Yet, Emily's job keeps her family from starvation.
Grey, Christopher Peter. Leonardo's Shadow, or, My Astonishing Life as Leonardo da Vinci's Servant. 1st
ed. New York : Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2006.
Fifteen-year-old Giacomo, servant to Leonardo da Vinci, helps his procrastinating master finish painting,
"The Last Supper," while also trying to find clues to his parentage and pursue his own career as an artist in
late fifteenth-century Milan.
Gruen, Sara. Water for Elephants : A Novel. 1st pbk. ed. Chapel Hill, N.C : Algonquin Books, 2007,
c2006.
Ninety-something-year-old Jacob Jankowski remembers his time in the circus as a young man during the
Great Depression, and his friendship with Marlena, the star of the equestrian act, and Rosie, the elephant,
who gave them hope.
Hamley, Dennis. Without Warning : Ellen's Story 1914-1918. 1st U.S. ed. Cambridge, MA : Candlewick
Press, 2007, c2006.
When her brother is called to the front lines during World War I, a young woman sets out to make a
difference, in this powerful novel that deftly portrays the everyday realities of life in wartime along with a
harrowing account of the lifelong effects on the young people caught in its path.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864. The Scarlet Letter : A Romance. Cambridge [England] : Cambridge
University Press, 1997.
"'Thou and thine, Hester Prynne, belong to me.' With these chilling words a husband claims his wife after a
two-year absence. But the child she clutches is not his, and Hester must wear a scarlet 'A' upon her breast,
the sin of adultery visible to all. Under an assumed name her husband begins his search for her lover,
determined to expose what Hester is equally determined to protect. Defiant and proud, Hester witnesses the
degradation of two very different men, as moral codes and legal imperatives painfully collide." "Set in the
Puritan community of seventeenth-century Boston, The Scarlet Letter also sheds light on the nineteenth
century.
Hearn, Julie, 1958-. The Minister's Daughter. 1st ed. New York : Atheneum Books for Young Readers,
c2005.
In 1645 in England, the daughters of the town minister successfully accuse a local healer and her
granddaughter of witchcraft to conceal an out-of-wedlock pregnancy, but years later during the 1692 Salem
trials their lie has unexpected repercussions.
Hemingway, Ernest, 1899-1961. The Sun Also Rises. New York : Scribner Paperback Fiction, [1995?],
c1926.
A group of American and British expatriates living in Paris go on an excursion to Pamplona, Spain.
Hesse, Hermann, 1877-1962. Steppenwolf. 1st Owl Book ed. New York : H. Holt, 1990.
Harry Haller, a joyless, reclusive intellectual, finally learns to reconcile the warring parts of his personality
after meeting Hermine, a woman who knows how to enjoy life.
Heuston, Kimberley Burton, 1960-. Dante's Daughter. 1st ed. Asheville, NC : Front Street, c2003.
In fourteenth-century Italy, Antonia, the daughter of Dante Alighieri, longs for a stable family and home
while developing her artistic talent and seeking a place for herself in a world with limited options for
women.
Hobbs, Valerie. Sonny's War. 1st ed. New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002.
In the late 1960s, fourteen-year-old Cori's life is greatly changed by the sudden death of her father and her
brother's tour of duty in Vietnam.
Hoffman, Alice. Incantation. 1st ed. New York : Little, Brown, 2006.
During the Spanish Inquisition, sixteen-year-old Estrella, brought up a Catholic, discovers her family's true
Jewish identity, and when their secret is betrayed by Estrella's best friend, the consequences are tragic.
Hoffman, Mary, 1945-. The Falconer's Knot. 1st U.S. ed. New York : Bloomsbury USA Children's Books,
2007.
Silvano and Chiara, teens sent to live in a friary and a nunnery in Renaissance Italy, are drawn to one
another and dream of a future together, but when murders are committed in the friary, they must discover
who is behind the crimes before they can realize their love.
Holman, Sheri. A Stolen Tongue. 1st Anchor Books ed. New York : Anchor Books, 1998, c1997.
Story of a pilgrimage filled with danger and adventure as a group of German pilgrims encounter death,
murder, and the unexpected while traveling to the Holy Land.
Holub, Josef, 1926-. An Innocent Soldier. 1st American ed. New York : A.A. Levine, 2005, c2002.
A sixteen-year-old farmhand is tricked into fighting in the Napoleonic Wars by the farmer for whom he
works, who secretly substitutes him for the farmer's own son.
Hoobler, Dorothy. In Darkness, Death. New York : Philomel Books, c2004.
In eighteenth-century Japan, young Seikei becomes involved with a ninja as he helps Judge Ooka, his foster
father, investigate the murder of a samurai.
Hoobler, Dorothy. A Samurai Never Fears Death : A Samurai Mystery. New York : Sleuth/Philomel,
c2007.
Returning home to investigate the possible connection of his family's tea shop with smugglers, Seikei, now
a samauri in eighteenth-century Japan, becomes involved in murder at a local puppet theater and saving the
life of his sister's accused boyfriend.
Hughes, Dean, 1943-. Search and Destroy. 1st Simon Pulse ed. New York : Simon Pulse, 2008, c2005.
Recent high school graduate Rick Ward, undecided about his future and eager to escape his unhappy home
life, joins the army and experiences the horrors of the war in Vietnam.
Hughes, Dean, 1943-. Soldier Boys. 1st Simon Pulse ed. New York : Simon Pulse, 2003, c2001.
Two boys, one German and one American, are eager to join their respective armies during World War II,
and their paths cross at the Battle of the Bulge.
Hughes, Pat (Patrice Raccio). Guerrilla Season. 1st ed. New York : Farrar Straus Giroux, 2003.
Two fifteen-year-old boys in Missouri in 1863 find friendship and family loyalty tested by Quantrell's
raiders, a Rebel guerrilla band who roamed under the black flag of "no quarter to be given by Union
troops.".
Hugo, Victor, 1802-1885. The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. New York : Dodd, Mead, 1947.
In fifteenth-century Paris, a disfigured man named Quasimodo, who was abandoned as an infant in the
cathedral of Notre-Dame and now lives in its bell tower, must come to the aid of a beautiful gypsy girl
named Esmeralda after she repels the advances of the cruel archdeacon Don Claude Frollo.
Iggulden, Conn. Genghis : Birth of an Empire. New York : Delacorte Press, 2007.
Future conqueror Temujin—"a man of iron"—is born to the khan (ruler) of a fierce Mongol tribe that
roams central Asia's steppes in the 12th century. When his father is killed by Tartar raiders before Temujin
reaches manhood, a rival claims the tribe and banishes Temujin's family. Left behind without resources
when the tribe migrates, the family struggles to survive the harsh environment, and Temujin dreams of
gathering similar outcasts—wanderers and herdsmen—into a new tribe. After assembling a core of these
"men scorned by all the others," Temujin begins raiding Tartar camps. As his fame spreads, Temujin
launches an ambitious campaign to unite the Mongol tribes "after a thousand years of warfare" into a single
people, defeat the Tartars and invade China.
Ingold, Jeanette. Hitch. 1st Harcourt pbk. ed. Orlando, Fla : Harcourt, Inc, 2006, c2005.
To help his family during the Depression and avoid becoming a drunk like his father, Moss Trawnley joins
the Civilian Conservation Corps, helps build a new camp near Monroe, Montana, and leads the other men
in making the camp a success.
Isaacs, Anne. Torn Thread. New York : Scholastic Signature, c2000.
In an attempt to save his daughter's life, Eva's father sends her from Poland to a labor camp in
Czechoslovakia where she and her sister survive the war.
Ishiguro, Kazuo, 1954-. The Remains of the Day. Vintage International ed. New York : Vintage
International, 1993, c1988.
Stevens, an elderly butler who has spent 30 years in the service of Lord Darlington, ruminates on the past
and inadvertently slackens his rigid grip on his emotions to confront the central issues of his life.
Jiles, Paulette, 1943-. Enemy Women. 1st Perennial ed. New York : Perennial, 2003, c2002.
After the Union Militia arrives to set her house on fire, driving her brother into hiding and taking her
widowed father away, Adair Colley sets out on foot with her two young sisters hoping to find a safe haven
in the winter mountains.
Jinks, Catherine. Pagan in Exile. 1st Candlewick Press ed. Cambridge, MA : Candlewick Press, 2004,
c1994.
After fighting the infidels in Jerusalem in 1188, Lord Roland and his squire Pagan return to Roland's castle
in France where they encounter violent family feuds and religious heretics.
Jinks, Catherine. Pagan's Crusade. 1st Candlewick Press pbk. ed. Cambridge, Mass : Candlewick Press,
2004, c1992.
In twelfth-century Jerusalem, orphaned sixteen-year-old Pagan is assigned to work for Lord Roland, a
Templar knight, as Saladin's armies close in on the Holy City.
Jinks, Catherine. Pagan's Scribe. 1st U.S. ed. Cambridge, Mass : Candlewick Press, 2005, c2000.
In France in 1209, Pagan, now an archdeacon, takes on a new scribe named Isidore, a fifteen-year-old
epileptic and an orphan, and together they try to survive the siege of Carcassonne.
Jinks, Catherine. Pagan's Vows. 1st Candlewick Press ed. Cambridge, MA : Candlewick Press, 2004,
c1995.
Follows the adventures of Pagan, squire to Lord Roland, through the years 1188 to 1189, as he
accompanies his master, now determined to be a monk, to the French monastery of St. Martin and uncovers
a dangerous blackmail plot.
Johnston, Tony, 1942-. Bone by Bone by Bone. 1st ed. New York : Roaring Brook Press, 2007.
Summary Drawing on her own childhood memories of growing up in the South, noted picture book author
Johnston pens a novel that portrays a friendship between two young boys--one white, one black--in 1950s
Tennessee.
Jones, Ben, 1968-. The Rope Eater : A Novel. 1st ed. New York : Doubleday, c2003.
Brendan Kane defects from the Union army after he realizes he cannot handle the horrors of the Civil War
and drifts north, where he joins a crew of the Pequod on an expedition to the heart of the Arctic.
Jones, Edward P. The Known World. 1st Amistad pbk. ed. New York : Amistad, 2004, c2003.
Henry Townsend, a African farmer and former slave, is befriended by the most powerful man in
antebellum Virginia's Manchester County and becomes proprietor of his own plantation, as well as of his
own slaves.
Kantor, MacKinlay, 1904-. Andersonville. New York : Plume, [1993], c1955.
Captures the glory and shame of America's most tragic conflict, the Civil War, in the crowded world of the
infamous prison, Andersonville, and the people who lived outside its barricades.
Kerr, M. E. Slap Your Sides : A Novel. 1st Harper Trophy ed. New York : HarperTrophy, 2003, c2001.
Bud and Jubal Shoemaker's family are Quakers in the small town of Sweet Creek, Pennsylvania, during
World War Two whose opposition to fighting creates division within the community when Bud declares
himself a conscientious objector.
Kerr, M. E. Your Eyes in Stars : A Novel. 1st ed. New York : HarperCollins, c2006.
In their small New York town, two teenaged girls become friends while helping each other make sense of
their families, neighbors, and selves as they approach adulthood in the years preceding World War II.
Kidd, Sue Monk. The Secret Life of Bees. New York : Penguin Books, 2003, c2002.
Fourteen-year-old Lily and her companion, Rosaleen, an African-American woman who has cared for Lily
since her mother's death ten years earlier, flee their home after Rosaleen is victimized by racist police
officers, and find a safe haven in Tiburon, South Carolina at the home of three beekeeping sisters, May,
June, and August.
Kingsolver, Barbara. The Poisonwood Bible : A Novel. 1st HarperPerennial ed. New York :
HarperPerennial, 1999, c1998.
Nathan Price and his family move to the Belgian Congo in 1959, and the experiences they have while
living in Africa affect each member of the family in a different way.
Kogawa, Joy. Obasan. 1st Anchor Books ed. New York : Anchor Books, 1994, c1981.
Based on the author's own experiences, this story of the evacuation, relocation, and dispersal of Canadian
citizens of Japanese ancestry during WWII is "a tour de force, a deeply felt novel, brilliantly poetic in its
sensibility".
Kositsky, Lynne, 1947-. The Thought of High Windows. Toronto, ON : Kids Can Press, c2004.
Esther, a Jewish girl on the run from the Nazis, is able to deal with the horrors of the war as well as the
normal agonies of teenage life with thoughts of flying out of ever-higher windows.
Krisher, Trudy. Uncommon Faith. 1st ed. New York : Holiday House, c2003.
In 1837-38, residents of Millbrook, Massachusetts, speak in their different voices of major issues of their
day, including women's rights, slavery, religious differences, and one fiery girl named Faith.
Landman, Tanya. I Am Apache. 1st U.S. ed. Cambridge, MA : Candlewick Press, 2008.
Fourteen-year-old Siki vows revenge on the Mexican raiders who brutally murdered her little brother, and
turns away from the tradition roles women in her tribe fill to become an Apache warrior.
Larsen, Deborah. The White : A Novel. 1st Vintage Books ed. New York : Vintage Books, 2003, c2002.
In 1758, at the age of sixteen, Mary Jemison is taken by a Shawnee raiding party and gradually becomes
integrated into her new family and culture.
Larson, Kirby. Hattie Big Sky. 1st ed. New York : Delacorte Press, c2006.
After inheriting her uncle's homesteading claim in Montana, sixteen-year-old orphan Hattie Brooks travels
from Iowa in 1917 to make a home for herself and encounters some unexpected problems related to the war
being fought in Europe.
Lawrence, Iain, 1955-. B for Buster. New York : Delacorte Press, c2004.
Sixteen-year-old Kak, desperate to escape his abusive parents, lies about his age in the spring of 1943 to
enlist in the Canadian Air Force and soon finds himself based in England as part of a crew flying bombing
raids over Germany.
Lerangis, Peter. Smiler's Bones. 1st ed. New York : Scholastic Press, 2005.
Presents a fictionalized account of the life of Minik, a Polar Eskimo taken by explorer Robert Peary, along
with Minik's father, Smiler, and four others, to be presented as exhibits to the American Museum of Natural
History in New York.
Levitin, Sonia, 1934-. Room in the Heart. New York : Speak, 2005, c2003.
After German forces occupy Denmark during World War II, fifteen-year-old Julie Weinstein and fifteenyear-old Niels Nelson and their friends and families try to cope with their daily lives, finding various ways
to resist the Nazis and, ultimately, to survive.
Lisle, Janet Taylor. Black Duck. New York : Sleuth/Philomel, c2006.
Years afterwards, Ruben Hart tells the story of how, in 1929 Newport, Rhode Island, his family and his
best friend's family were caught up in the violent competition among groups trying to control the local rumsmuggling trade.
Lord, Bette. The Middle Heart. 1st ed. New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 1996.
Three Chinese youngsters, Steel Hope, his bookmate Mountain Pine, and Firecracker, a gravekeeper's
daughter, vow to remain true to each other and their country, a promise that becomes impossible to keep as
war, upheaval, and personal tragedies intrude.
Lynn, Tracy. Snow. 1st Simon Pulse ed. New York : Simon Pulse, 2003.
Snow, the daughter of a Welsh duke, takes refuge in London with a group of urban outcasts after her new
stepmother tries to kill her, but Snow soon learns she is going to have to take charge of her own destiny
when it becomes apparent her stepmother is not going to give up.
Marillier, Juliet. Foxmask. 1st U.S. ed. New York : Tor, 2004, c2003.
Thorvald, having always felt apart from the community of Norse warriors and gentlefolk inhabiting the
Orkney Isles, learns upon coming to manhood that he is really the son of Somerled, a war leader exiled for
treachery, and sets out in a boat to find his parent, not realizing the beautiful Creidhe, who has loved him
since birth, has stowed away, determined to be with him.
Marillier, Juliet. Wolfskin. 1st mass market ed. New York : Tom Doherty Associates, 2004, c2002.
Eyvind has always wanted to be a great Viking warrior and perform honorable deeds in the name of his
Warfather god, Thor, and he finally has his chance when his leader and friend asks him to find a fabled
land where men with courage can go to seize their destiny and bring glory to themselves.
Martin, Valerie, 1948-. Mary Reilly : a Novel. New York : Pocket Books, c1990.
Matas, Carol, 1949-. The Burning Time. Victoria, BC : Orca Book Pub, 2007.
After her father's sudden death, fourteen-year-old Rose Rives finds that sixteenth-century France is a
dangerous place for women, when some greedy, vindictive men charge her mother and others with being
witches.
Mazer, Harry. The Last Mission. New York : Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, [1981],
c1979.
In 1944, a fifteen-year-old Jewish boy tells his family he will travel in the West but instead enlists in the
United States Air Corps and is subsequently taken prisoner by the Germans.
McDonald, Joyce. Devil on My Heels. New York : Delacorte Press, c2004.
Fifteen-year-old Dove, the daughter of an orange farmer in cold war-era Florida, opens a Pandora’s box of
racism and exploitation in this socially minded novel. She’s forced to choose between family loyalties and
her sense of justice when she discovers that her dad’s mostly black and Mexican pickers work under
appalling conditions, and that the KKK has been hassling them for planning a protest. Dove’s
transformation from oblivious teeny-bopper to steely activist in the span of about a month is a little hard to
swallow, as is the purposeful deluge of charged issues that she must confront--including a risky interracial
romance between two of her friends and the truth about an apparently racially motivated murder that hits
devastatingly close to home.
McEwan, Ian. Atonement : A Novel. 1st Anchor Books ed. New York : Anchor Books, 2003, c2001.
Imaginative thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis, misinterpreting a scene between her older sister Cecilia and
Robbie Turner, the housekeeper's son, later accuses Robbie of a crime she has no proof he committed and
spends years trying to atone for her actions.
Meyer, Carolyn, 1935-. Patience, Princess Catherine. 1st ed. Orlando, Fla. : Harcourt, c2004.
In 1501 fifteen-year-old Catharine of Aragon arrives in England to marry Arthur, the eldest son of King
Henry VII, but soon finds her expectations of a happy settled life radically changed when Arthur
unexpectedly dies and her future becomes the subject of a bitter dispute between the kingdoms of England
and Spain.
Michener, James A, 1907-. Alaska. 1st ed. New York : Random House, c1988.
Describes the lives and struggles of humans and animals in Alaskan prehistory and then leaps into the
eighteenth century where the historical high points are vividly portrayed.
Michener, James A, 1907-. Centennial. 1st Ballantine Books ed. New York : Fawcett Crest, 1983, c1974.
A novel depicting the history and development of a section of Colorado and the lives of the people of that
area.
Michener, James A, 1907-. Hawaii. 1st Ballantine Books ed. New York : Fawcett Crest, 1982.
A novel that chronicles the history of the Hawaiian people, dramatizing the interactions of Hawaii's original
Polynesians, the first missionaries who arrived there, and the Chinese, Japanese, and Filipinos who
intermarried with the Hawaiians and helped shape their culture.
Michener, James A, 1907. The Source. 1st Ballantine Books ed. New York : Fawcett Books, 1983, c1965.
Recreates the history of the people who have lived at Makor, Israel--from 10,000 B.C.E. to the present state
of Israel.
Michener, James A, 1907-. Space. 1st ed. New York : Random House, c1982.
Dramatically portrays the heroics, exploitation, ingenuity, political maneuverings and brilliance that lay
behind the American explorations and discoveries in space of the past forty years.
Michener, James A, 1907-. Texas. 1st University of Texas Press ed. Austin : University of Texas Press,
1986, c1985.
Michener, James A, 1907- (James Albert). The Covenant. New York : Random House, c1980.
A historical novel covering over 15,000 years of history in South Africa and which focuses on three
principal families who settled in the region throughout the centuries. The family of Nxumalo; the van
Doorns, a Dutch family; and the Saltwoods of England.
Mitchell, Margaret, 1900-1949. Gone With the Wind. Warner Books ed. New York : Warner Books,
[1999].
Willful and pampered Scarlett O'Hara's strength of character carries her thought the deprivations of the
Civil War, but her infatuation with Ashley Wilkes keeps her from recognizing her true love until it is too
late.
Morpurgo, Michael. Private Peaceful. 1st American ed. New York : Scholastic Press, 2004, c2003.
When Thomas Peaceful's older brother is forced to join the British Army, Thomas decides to sign up as
well, although he is only fourteen years old, to prove himself to his country, his family, his childhood love,
Molly, and himself.
Morrison, Toni. Beloved : A Novel. 1st ed. New York : Knopf, 1987.
Sethe, an escaped slave who now lives in post-Civil War Ohio, has borne the unthinkable and works hard at
"beating back the past." She struggles to keep Beloved, an intruder, from gaining possession of her present
while throwing off the legacy of her past.
Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. New York : Plume Book, 1994, c1970.
This is the story of eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove--a black girl in an America whose love for its blond,
blue-eyed children can devastate all others--who prays for her eyes to turn blue: so that she will be
beautiful, so that people will look at her, so that her world will be different. This is the story of the
nightmare at the heart of her yearning and the tragedy of its fulfillment.
Morrison, Toni. Jazz. New York : Plume Books, 1993, c1992.
A mysterious voice weaves the story of a black door-to-door salesman of beauty products who shoots his
young lover and of his wife who tries to disfigure the corpse with a knife in 1926.
Morrison, Toni. A Mercy. 1st ed. New York : Knopf, 2008.
Florens, a sixteen-year-old slave on a Virginia plantation is given to a Dutch trader named Jacob Vaark as
payment for a debt owed to Vaark by her master, and moves to his small Northern farm where her presence
is felt keenly by Vaark's childless wife Rebekka, Native American servant Lina, and Sorrow, a foundling.
Moses, Shelia P. The Legend of Buddy Bush. 1st Simon Pulse ed. New York : Simon Pulse, 2005, c2004.
In 1947, twelve-year-old Pattie Mae is sustained by her dreams of escaping Rich Square, North Carolina,
and moving to Harlem when her Uncle Buddy is under arrest for attempted rape of a white woman and her
grandfather is diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor.
Mosher, Richard. Zazoo. Boston : Garphia, c2001.
One wispy October dawn, a boy on a bike came and went. Little did almost-14-year-old Zazoo know that
this inquisitive, bird-watching bicyclist would hold the key to her past and open a window to the future as
well. The orphaned Zazoo lives alongside a canal with her loving adoptive grandfather, who brought her
from Vietnam to his French village when she was just 2 years old. She and her tiny, 78-year-old GrandPierre share daily oatmeal, a passion for poetry, and a mysterious history. Why do the villagers seem leery
of her gentle grandfather, even though he is often referred to as a war hero? Why does Grand-Pierre call
World War II the "Awful Time"? And what happened to the brown-haired Jewish girl with whom he used
to dance the tango so gracefully?.
Mosley, Walter. 47. 1st pbk. ed. New York : Little, Brown, 2006, c2005.
Number 47, a fourteen-year-old slave boy growing up under the watchful eye of a brutal master in 1832,
meets the mysterious Tall John, who introduces him to a magical science and also teaches him the meaning
of freedom.
Myers, Walter Dean, 1937-. The Journal of Scott Pendleton Collins : A World War II Soldier. 1st ed. New
York : Scholastic, 1999.
A seventeen-year-old soldier from central Virginia records his experiences in a journal as his regiment
takes part in the D-Day invasion of Normandy and subsequent battles to liberate France.
Napoli, Donna Jo, 1948-. Bound. 1st ed. New York : Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2004.
In a novel based on Chinese Cinderella tales, fourteen-year-old stepchild Xing-Xing endures a life of
neglect and servitude, as her stepmother cruelly mutilates her own child's feet so that she alone might marry
well.
Napoli, Donna Jo, 1948-. Breath. 1st ed. New York : Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2003.
Elaborates on the tale of "The Pied Piper," told from the point of view of a boy who is too ill to keep up
when a piper spirits away the healthy children of a plague-ridden town after being cheated out of full
payment for ridding Hameln of rats.
Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds. Blizzard's Wake. 1st ed. New York : Atheneum Books for Young Readers,
c2002.
After four years, Kate Sterling, 15, is still mourning her mother's accidental death caused by Zeke Dexter's
drunk driving. She is so inconsolable that she becomes increasingly withdrawn and isolates herself from
her peers. As Zeke returns to town after serving his prison sentence, a deadly snowstorm is approaching;
simultaneously, Kate's father and brother are returning from visiting one of her dad's patients. They become
stranded in the car, and she is able to rescue them before they freeze to death. Unknown to her, she is also
saving Zeke, the person she hates most.
Némirovsky, Irène, 1903-1942. Suite Française : A Novel. 1st Vintage International ed. New York :
Vintage International, 2007, c2006.
In 1940, several families and individuals are thrown together as they flee Paris on the eve of the Nazi
invasion and struggle to stay alive and grieve for the life they once knew.
Newth, Mette. The Abduction. 1st American ed. New York : Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1989.
Christine watches everyone treat Osuqo and Poq like animals and realizes they are as human as she and in
need of aid. This story is based on the actual kidnapping of Inuit Eskimos by European traders in the 17th
century.
Newth, Mette. The Dark Light. 1st English language ed. New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998.
While enduring a bleak existence in a hospital for lepers in Norway during the early 1800s, thirteen-yearold Tora tries to find meaning in a life surrounded by death.
Noonan, Brandon. Plenty Porter : A Novel. New York : Amulet Books, 2006.
As she turns thirteen in the early 1950s, Plenty Porter--the youngest of eleven children--keeps some secrets
and uncovers some dangerous ones as she tries to understand her place in her family, town, and the world.
Olmstead, Robert. Coal Black Horse. Chapel Hill, N.C : Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2007.
A coming-of-age story whose grim background is the Civil War follows 14-year-old Robey Childs on his
quest to locate his father, a soldier in that war. His mother's premonition sets him on the journey, with no
money, no clear direction, and just a worn-out horse to ride. Robey's fortune in coming across an
extraordinary horse to accompany him is soon cancelled when the horse is violently taken from him, and he
experiences privation and sorrow as he tries to reconnect with the horse and locate his dying father on the
battlefield. changed by the destruction he sees.
Ondaatje, Michael, 1943-. The English Patient : a Novel. 1st Vintage International ed. New York : Vintage
Books, 1993, c1992.
Haunting and harrowing, as beautiful as it is disturbing, The English Patient tells the story of the
entanglement of four damaged lives in an Italian monastery as World War II ends. The exhausted nurse,
Hana; the maimed thief, Caravaggio; the wary sapper, Kip: each is haunted by the riddle of the English
patient, the nameless, burn victim who lies in an upstairs room and whose memories of passion, betrayal,
and rescue illuminate this book like flashes of heat lightning.
Orlev, Uri, 1931-. Run,Boy, Run : A Novel. 1st American ed. Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 2003.
Based on the true story of a nine-year-old boy who escapes the Warsaw Ghetto and must survive
throughout the war in the Nazi-occupied Polish countryside.
Otsuka, Julie, 1962-. When the Emperor Was Divine : A Novel. 1st Anchor Books ed. New York : Anchor
Books, 2003, c2002.
A novel in which the members of a Japanese American family present their unique perspectives on the
experience of being forced into an internment camp during World War II.
Pasternak, Boris Leonidovich, 1890-1960. Doctor Zhivago. New York: Pantheon, 1958.
Pate, Alexs D., 1950-. Amistad : a novel. New York : DreamWorks :, c1997.
A novelization of the motion picture "Amistad," a fact-based story of the 1839 mutiny on board a Spanish
slave ship,which resulted in a trial before the Supreme Court during which former American president John
Quincy Adams argued in favor of freedom for the slaves.
Paulsen, Gary. Nightjohn. New York : Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, [1995], c1993.
Twelve-year-old Sarny's brutal life as a slave becomes even more dangerous when a newly arrived slave
offers to teach her how to read.
Peck, Richard, 1934-. The River Between Us. New York : Dial Books, c2003.
During the early days of the Civil War, the Pruitt family takes in two mysterious young ladies who have
fled New Orleans to come north to Illinois.
Pope, Elizabeth Marie, 1917-. The Perilous Gard. Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 1974.
In 1558 while imprisoned in a remote castle, a young girl becomes involved in a series of events that leads
to an underground labyrinth peopled by the last practitioners of druidic magic.
Power, Susan, 1961-. The Grass Dancer. New York : Berkley Books, 1995, c1994.
Spirits of the 1860s, Ghost Horse and Red Dress, seek to be reunited through an Indian couple of the 1980s.
Pyle, Howard, 1853-1911. Men of Iron. New York : Airmont, c1965.
A boy's story of the time of Henry IV of England, the men of whose court were the "men of iron.".
Qualey, Marsha. Too Big a Storm. New York : Dial Books, c2004.
When serious worrier Brady Callahan meets vivacious Sally Cooper, daughter of a wealthy Minnesota
family, they develop a close friendship that helps them both grow and survive during the turbulent Vietnam
War era.
Rash, Ron, 1953-. The World Made Straight. 1st ed. New York : Holt, 2006.
In an Appalachian community haunted by the dark legacy of a Civil War massacre, young Travis Shelton
struggles to overcome the corruption of the present and the dark influence of Carlton Toomey, a local
marijuana grower.
Rawles, Nancy, 1958-. My Jim : A Novel. 1st pbk. ed. New York : Three Rivers Press, [2006], c2005.
Sadie, the abandoned wife of the slave Jim from Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,"
details her life with Jim, his decision to run away with a white boy named Huck Finn, and the bleak
repercussions of that decision for her.
Rees, Celia. Witch Child. 1st U.S. pbk. ed. Cambridge, Mass : Candlewick Press, 2002.
In 1659, fourteen-year-old Mary Newbury keeps a journal of her voyage from England to the New World
and her experiences living as a witch in a community of Puritans near Salem, Massachusetts.
Renault, Mary pseud. The Bull from the Sea. [New York : Pantheon, c1962.
This is the story of Theseus, King of Athens. He has just returned from Crete after slaying the Minotaur to
become King after the death of his father, Aigeus. His love of adventure draws him to challenge the prirate
prince Pirithoos.
Renault, Mary pseud. The King Must Die. New York : Pantheon, c1958.
Tells the story of a boy, Theseus, who must prove his manhood in a semibarbaric society.
Rinaldi, Ann. A Break with Charity : A Story About the Salem Witch Trials. 1st Gulliver Books pbk. ed.
Orlando : Harcourt, 1994, c1992.
While waiting for a church meeting in 1706, Susanna English, daughter of a wealthy Salem merchant,
recalls the malice, fear, and accusations of witchcraft that tore her village apart in 1692.
Rinaldi, Ann. The Color of Fire : A Novel. 1st ed. New York : Jump at the Sun/Hyperion Books for
Children, c2005.
Phoebe, a slave in the Philipse household in colonial New York, must decide on the right course of action
when her friend Cuffee is implicated in a reputed slave uprising.
Rinaldi, Ann. Wolf By the Ears. New York : Scholastic, c1991.
Harriet Hemings, rumored to be the daughter of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, one of his black
slaves, struggles with the problems facing her--to escape from the velvet cage that is Monticello, or to stay,
and thus remain a slave.
Romkey, Michael. American Gothic : a Vampire Story. 1st ed. New York : Del Rey, 2004.
Salisbury, Graham. Eyes of the Emperor. New York : Wendy Lamb Books, c2005.
Following orders from the United States Army, several young Japanese American men train K-9 units to
hunt Asians during World War II.
Saylor, Steven, 1956-. The Judgment of Caesar : A Novel of Ancient Rome. 1st ed. New York : St.
Martin's Minotaur, 2004.
Gordianus the Finder becomes caught in a tangle of political intrigue when he travels to Egypt seeking a
cure for his ailing wife, Bethesda, and finds himself instead trying to prove the innocence of Meto, the son
he disowned, who is suspected of trying to poison Caesar and Cleopatra.
Schwarz, Christina. Drowning Ruth. 1st Ballantine Books ed. New York : Ballantine Books, 2001, c2000.
Unable to deal with her problems, Amanda Starkey flees to her sister's farm, but when her sister drowns in
a mysterious accident, Amanda is forced to take charge of her young niece, and she soon realizes that she
has not left her problems behind, she has merely brought them with her.
Scott, Walter, 1771-1832 Sir. Ivanhoe : a Romance. New York : Signet Classic, [2001].
Ivanhoe, a Saxon knight, returns home to England from the Third Crusade in 1194 to claim the love of the
beautiful Rowena.
Scott, Walter, Sir, 1771-1832. Rob Roy. New York : Signet Classic, c[1995].
Francis Osbaldistone is banished to Scotland, where he meets Robert Roy MacGregor, and when he joins
Rob Roy in his attempt to overthrow the English, he learns how to fight for what he believes in.
Sedgwick, Marcus. The Foreshadowing. 1st ed. New York : Wendy Lamb Books, c2006.
Having always been able to know when someone is going to die, Alexandra poses as a nurse to go to
France during World War I to locate her brother and to try to save him from the fate she has foreseen for
him.
Sensel, Joni, 1962-. The Humming of Numbers. 1st ed. New York : Holt, 2008.
Aiden, a novice about to take monastic vows in tenth century Ireland, meets Lana, a girl who understands
his ability to hear the sounds of numbers humming from all living things, and just as he is beginning to
question his religious calling, the two of them are thrown together in a mission to save their village from
invading Vikings.
Shaara, Jeff. The Last Full Measure. 1st mass market ed. New York : Ballantine Books, 2000, c1998.
A dramatization of the confrontations between Robert E. Lee, Lawrence Chamberlain, and Ulysses S.
Grant during the last two years of the Civil War.
Shaara, Michael. The Killer Angels : A Novel. New York : McKay, [1974].
A fictional account of four days in July, 1863 at the Battle of Gettysburg discussing tactics, plans and
preparations for battle from both the Northern and Southern points of view.
Sierra, Javier, 1971-. The Secret Supper. 1st Atria Books hardcover ed. New York : Atria Books, 2006.
Father Agostino Leyre is dispatched to Milan in the fifteenth century to discover the identity of the
mysterious "Soothsayer" who is sending cryptic messages to the Church, and to learn whether there is any
truth to the Soothsayer's claims that Leonardo da Vinci has painted heretical messages into his masterpiece,
The Last Supper.
Silko, Leslie, 1948-. Ceremony. New York : Penguin Books, 1986.
Tayo, a young Native American, has been a prisoner of the Japanese during World War II, and the horrors
of captivity have almost eroded his will to survive. His return to the Laguna Pueblo reservation only
increases his feeling of estrangement and alienation. While other returning soldiers find easy refuge in
alcohol and senseless violence, Tayo searches for another kind of comfort and resolution. Tayo's quest
leads him back to the Indian past and its traditions, to beliefs about witchcraft and evil, and to the ancient
stories of his people. The search itself becomes a ritual, a curative ceremony that defeats the most virulent
of afflictions-despair.
Silko, Leslie, 1948-. Gardens in the Dunes : A Novel. 1st Scribner Paperback Fiction ed. New York :
Scibner Paperback Fiction, 2000, c1999.
Indigo, a young child of the Sand Lizard people, a tribe that has been driven from its home, is reduced to
scavenging from the town dump in an effort to stay alive before being rescued by Hattie, a Victorian
woman who, with good intentions, sets out to transform Indigo into a proper American girl.
Silone, Ignazio, 1900-1978. Bread and wine. New York : Signet, c1986.
An English translation of the Italian novel, first published in 1936, about Pietro Spina, a man who returns to
his native Abruzzi after fifteen years in exile, and rallies the peasants into a revolutionary movement.
Spillebeen, Geert. Kipling's Choice. 1st American ed. Boston : Graphia, 2005.
A fictionalized biography of eighteen-year-old John Kipling, son of writer Rudyard Kipling, who
remembers his boyhood and the events leading up to World War I, as he lies dying on a battlefield in
France.
Spinelli, Jerry. Milkweed : A Novel. 1st ed. New York : Knopf, c2003.
The narrator of this tale knows himself only as "Stopthief." He is a Warsaw street orphan, without morals,
without culture, without community—until Uri takes him in to join his pack of fellow orphans, all Jews.
Life is good for the newly renamed Misha, until the Jackboots arrive and force him and his fellow orphans
into the ghetto, where life becomes increasingly more desperate and community—both that of the orphans
and of Janina, a little girl whose family he adopts—increasingly necessary.
Spooner, Michael. Last Child. 1st ed. New York : Holt, 2005.
Caught between the worlds of the her Scottish father and her Mandan mother in what is now North Dakota,
Rosalie fights to survive both the 1837 smallpox epidemic and the actions of a vengeful trader.
Steinbeck, John, 1902-1968. The Grapes of Wrath. New York : Viking, c1939.
The Joad family, Okie farmers forced from their dustbowl home during the Depression, try to find work as
migrant fruitpickers in California.
Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 1811-1896. Uncle Tom's Cabin : or, Life Among the Lowly. Coward-Mccann,
1939.
Straight, Susan. A Million Nightingales. 1st ed. New York : Pantheon Books, c2006.
Moinette, a mixed-race child born into slavery on a Louisiana plantation, gains an education by listening to
the lessons given her young mistress, and when she is sold and separated from her beloved mother at the
age of fourteen, she immediately begins to make plans to gain her freedom.
Terris, Susan. Nell's Quilt. 1st ed. New York : Farrar, c1987.
Urged at the age of eighteen to marry a man she doesn't want, Nell delays the event by working on a quilt,
slowly starving herself, and observing the unhappy lot of many women in turn-of-the century
Massachusetts before arriving at a decision to rescue herself from the brink of death and take charge of her
life.
Tiffany, Grace, 1958-. My Father had a Daughter : Judith Shakespeare's Tale. 1st ed. New York : Berkley
Books, 2003.
A fictionalized account of the life of Judith Shakespeare in which she tries to cope with her famous father's
life.
Tingle, Rebecca. The Edge on the Sword. New York : Speak, 2003, c2001.
In ninth-century Britain, fifteen-year-old Aethelflaed, daughter of King Alfred of West Saxony, finds she
must assume new responsibilities much sooner than expected when she is betrothed to Ethelred of Mercia
in order to strengthen a strategic alliance against the Danes.
Tobin, Betsy, 1961-. Bone House : A Novel. New York : Scribner, 2000.
A village in seventeenth-century England copes with the loss of the beloved local prostitute, Dora, whose
larger-than-life personality fascinated those surrounding her, and whose mysterious death leads a young
chambermaid to investigate the circumstances surrounding it.
Tolstoy, Leo, 1828-1910 graf. Anna Karenina. Modern Library pbk. ed. New York : Modern Library, 2000.
In nineteenth-century Russia, the wife of an important government official loses her family and social
status when she chooses the love of Count Vronsky over a passionless marriage. Includes an introduction
by Mona Simpson, commentary, and a reading group guide.
Tolstoy, Leo, 1828-1910 graf. War and Peace. London : Penguin, 1982.
Reissue of Edmonds's translation of the nineteenth-century epic novel "War and Peace," which provides a
chronicle of Russian family life during and after the Napoleonic Wars.
Torrey, Michele. To the Edge of the World. 1st ed. New York : Alfred A. Knopf, c2003.
In 1519, after the death of his parents, fourteen-year-old Mateo Macías becomes cabin boy to Ferdinand
Magellan on a dangerous journey in search of a route to the fabled Spice Islands.
Turnbull, Ann. No Shame, No Fear. 1st U.S. pbk. ed. Cambridge, Mass : Candlewick Press, 2006, c2003.
In England in 1662, a time of religious persecution, fifteen-year-old Susanna, a poor country girl and a
Quaker, and seventeen-year-old William, a wealthy Anglican, meet and fall in love against all odds.
Twain, Mark, 1835-1910. The Prince and the Pauper. West Berlin, NJ : Townsend Press, Inc, c2004.
wo boys who look alike, one of them poor, the other heir to the English throne, decide to switch places.
When young Edward VI and the poor boy exchange places, each learns something about the other's very
different station in life.
Twain, Mark, 1835-1910. The Prince and the Pauper : a Tale for Young People of All Ages. New York :
Grosset & Dunlap, 1909.
Uchida, Yoshiko. Picture Bride : A Novel. University of Washington pbk. ed. Seattle, Wash : University of
Washington, 1997.
Hana Omiya arrives in San Francisco, California, in 1917 to marry Taro Takeda, an Oakland shopkeeper.
Together they build a business and home, raise a daughter, and find tragedy when sent to a detention camp
during World War II.
Updike, John. Gertrude and Claudius. 1st ed. New York : Knopf :, 2000.
A fictional re-creation of the lives of Claudius and Gertrude, King and Queen of Denmark, in the years
before the action of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" begins.
Uris, Leon, 1924-. Trinity. 1st ed. Garden City, N.Y : Doubleday, 1976.
The Larkens, the Hubbles, and the Weeds are Catholic hill-farmers, Presbyterian industralists, and British
aristocracy fighting before and during the Easter Rising of Ireland in 1916.
Veciana-Suarez, Ana. Flight to Freedom. 1st ed. New York : Orchard Books, 2002.
Writing in the diary which her father gave her, thirteen-year-old Yara describes life with her family in
Havana, Cuba, in 1967 as well as her experiences in Miami, Florida, after immigrating there to be reunited
with some relatives while leaving others behind.
Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughterhouse-five, or, The Children's Crusade : a Duty-Dance with Death. New York :
Dell, c1969.
A fourth-generation German-American is tortured by his memories of the firebombing of Dresden in 1944
which he witnessed while a prisoner of war.
Vreeland, Susan. The Passion of Artemisia. New York : Penguin Books, 2003, c2002.
Eighteen-year-old Artemisia Gentileschi, having ruined her reputation by making a public accusation of
rape against her art teacher, enters into an arranged marriage in post-Renaissance Italy and moves with her
husband to Florence where her talent blossoms, bringing fame and conflict into her life.
Wallace, Lew, 1827-1905. Ben-Hur : a Tale of the Christ. [Murrieta, Calif : Classic Books, 2000?].
A wealthy young Jew and his family, experiencing changing fortunes under Roman tyranny, are affected by
the life and teachings of a Nazarene named Jesus Christ.
Webb, James. Fields of Fire. New York : Bantam , 1978.
The story of a platoon of Marines fighting in Vietnam evokes the ambiguous and gruesome character of the
war and contrasts man's realization of war's dangers with his attraction to war as the ultimate test of
survival.
Welsh, T. K. Resurrection Men. 1st ed. New York : Dutton Children's Books, c2007.
In London during the 1830s, twelve-year-old orphan Victor begins to realize that men are purposely
infecting children with a sickness so they can sell the dead bodies to scientists, and sets out to uncover the
man behind the deadly crime.
Welsh, T. K. The Unresolved. 1st ed. New York : Dutton Books, c2006.
In 1904 New York City, the spirit of a deceased German American teenage girl searches for the person
responsible for the Slocum steamboat fire that claimed her life and the lives of more than 1000 other
passengers.
Wharton, Edith, 1862-1937. The House of Mirth. New York : Signet Classic, [1980].
A portrait of American manners and morals at the turn of the century offers the saga of Lily Bart, a
beautiful heroine who lacks one requirement for marrying well in New York society--her own money.
White, Ellen Emerson. The Journal of Patrick Seamus Flaherty, United States Marine Corps. 1st ed. New
York : Scholastic, 2002.
An eighteen-year-old Marine records in his journal his experiences in Vietnam during the siege of Khe
Sanh, 1967-1968. Includes a history of Vietnam, war timeline, glossary, and related military information.
White, T. H, 1906-1964 (Terence Hanbury). The Book of Merlyn : the Unpublished Conclusion to The
Once and Future King. Austin : University of Texas Press, c1977.
The "last" chapter of The once and Future King," which tells how Arthur, Guenever, and Lancelot come to
their ends.
White, T. H, 1906-1964 (Terence Hanbury). The Once and Future King. New York : Putnam, [1958].
The sword in the stone -- The Queen of air and darkness -- The ill-made knight -- The candle in the wind.
The sword in the stone -- The Queen of air and darkness -- The ill-made knight -- The candle in the wind.
Tells the story of the youth and reign of King Arthur, the establishment of the Round Table, and the search
for the Holy Grail.
Wilder, Thornton, 1897-1975. The Bridge of San Luis Rey. New York : Perennial, [2003].
A tiny footbridge in Peru breaks, and five people hurtle to their deaths. For Brother Juniper, a humble monk
who witnesses the catastrophe, the question is: Why those five?.
Wilson, John, 1951- (John Alexander). Four Steps to Death. Toronto, ON : KCP Fiction, c2005.
The fates of three young men come together during the Battle of Stalingrad in Russia during World War II.
Wulffson, Don L. Soldier X. New York : Viking, 2001.
As World War II rages, sixteen-year-old Erik Brandt finds himself on a train traveling to Russia. He's one
of the hundreds of thousands of German boys being sent to the Eastern Front by Hitler--since no men are
left to fight. Trained as an interpreter and not a soldier, Erik manages to survive the combat, but only by
slipping into a dead enemy's uniform, and posing as a wounded Russian.
Yolen, Jane. Girl in a Cage. New York : Speak, 2004, c2002.
When her father, Robert the Bruce, becomes King of Scotland, Marjorie Bruce becomes a princess. But
Edward Longshanks, the ruthless King of England, has set his sights on Robert and his family. Marjorie is
captured and imprisoned in a wooden cage in the center of a town square, exposed to wind, rain, the taunts
of the townspeople, and the scorn of Longshanks himself. Marjorie knows that despite her suffering and
pain, she is the daughter of noble Robert the Bruce and she will make her father, and her country, proud.
For a true princess is a princess, whether in a castle or in a cage.
Youmans, Marly. Catherwood. 1st ed. New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1996.
In the spring of 1678 Catherwood Lyte, newly arrived in America, loses her way on the path home with her
one-year-old daughter Elisabeth, and becomes hopelessly lost in the forests of the New World.
Zusak, Markus. The Book Thief. 1st American ed. New York : Knopf, c2006.
Trying to make sense of the horrors of World War II, Death relates the story of Liesel--a young German
girl whose book-stealing and story-telling talents help sustain her family and the Jewish man they are
hiding, as well as their neighbors.