Wintering Well

by Lea Wait

Gr. 5-8. The time is 1819, and the narrator is Cassie Ames, an 11-year-old living near Wiscasset just before Maine becomes a state. The story begins with a terrible accident that leaves Cassie's older brother, Will, without a leg, and offers a grim, if not overly explicit, scene of how amputation was performed at the time. Will and Cassie leave the family farm to spend the summer with their older sister in town, where Will finds new skills and discovers what he can do for himself, and Cassie chafes against the cooking, baking, and sewing skills she is learning. Limned with just the right amount of detail about the realities of life in the early nineteenth century, this is a quiet story of seeking. In the end, Will finds his whittling skill may lead to real work as a carver, and Cassie, who has been assisting the town doctor, feels she may also have found a path to follow.

The Last Mission

by Harry Mazer

In 1944, Jack Raab, a 15-year-old who dreams of being a hero, lies his way into the U.S. Air Force. From their base in England, Jack and his crew fly 24 treacherous bombing missions over occupied Europe. Hitler is near defeat, when Jack is shot down behind enemy lines and taken to a German POW camp.

Hard Times for Jake Smith: A Story of the Depression Era

by Aileen Kilgore Henderson

Gr. 5-9. It's Alabama during the Great Depression, and 12-year-old MaryJake's sharecropper parents, who must move on, abandon her by the side of the road to make her own way. Disguised as a boy, she finds a home with a kind widow in a rural community in the woods, where she helps in the barnyard and the vegetable garden and gathers empty whisky bottles with a friend to sell to the local moonshiner. Henderson draws on her own childhood memories of the time, and she invests the story with a strong visceral sense of the daily struggle for food and shelter, when even care for a toothache is an unaffordable luxury. The plot has some contrivances (Could MaryJake really remain disguised for so long in the intimacy of a one-room cabin?), but family secrets add suspense, and the plain words tell an elemental abandonment story that has the power of a fairy tale. It's nightmare rooted in realism.

The Art of Keeping Cool

by Janet Taylor Lisle

Grade 5-7-Despite a misleading title (the word "cool" does not conjure up the 1940s), this is a well-drawn story that is part coming-of-age, part mystery. Robert and his mother have come to live with his grandparents on the Rhode Island coast in 1942, soon after his father has gone off to fight in the war. The coastal residents are getting ready for war and a German painter, living like a hermit on the outskirts of town, has raised suspicions of being a spy. To complicate matters, Robert's cousin Elliott, also an artist, is at odds with their grandfather, an imposing patriarch prone to anger. As the summer unfolds, the tension mounts. Robert and his mother wait anxiously for word from the front; Elliott grows more unhappy at home as he befriends the painter; the town turns against the outsider with tragic consequences; and Robert finally learns why his father has been estranged from his family. The focus is clearly on the men of the household, and cursory treatment is given to the women's feelings and thoughts. Although women in such situations are indeed often overshadowed by their husbands or fathers, the emotional depth of this story is

undercut by their portrayals. Still this is a heartfelt story about family dynamics and the harmful power of prejudice and hatred.

The Adventures of Chip and Marty in Mr. Sandman's Class: Cahokia - A U.S. Historical Fiction Novel for Children

by Amy Lynn Fisher

Steal Away Home

by Lois Ruby

When Lois discovers a diary and a human skeleton in a hidden room, she learns that her house was a station on the Underground Railroad; scenes alternate between 1856 and the present. Ages 8-12.

Bigger

by Patricia Calvert

Grade 5-8-The Civil War is over and Tyler Bohannon, 12, begins a trek that will take him from his secure home in Sweet Creek, Missouri, to Eagle Pass, Texas. His goal is to find and bring back his father, who joined General Jo Shelby and the Confederates four years earlier. Soon after setting out, Bigger, a fierce, apparently abused dog, becomes Tyler's companion. Their odyssey is one of body, mind, and spirit. They face hunger, heat, and exhaustion; in a brief meeting with a scarred, orphaned black boy, Tyler confronts the brutality of slavery; and walking over Pea Ridge, he is horrified by the bones littering the battlefield. He finally finds his father, but the man is hardened in his resolve to settle his score with the Union, and refuses to go home. As the boy tries to understand this rejection, he must face further heartbreak when, on the way home, Bigger is killed. Through strong characters, flowing narrative, geographic description, and historical detail, Calvert draws readers into her hero's life and times. Although he endures a heavy dose of adversity, the boy is not extraordinary. His resilience stems from his realization that loyalty, love, and courage take many forms. Readers will relate to his friendship with Bigger, his emerging social consciousness, and his struggle to accept the loss of his dreams and the hard realities of the adult world.

Candy Bombers

by Robert Elmer

In book one of this series, cousins Erich and Katarina find that survival in post-World War II Berlin isn’t easy, especially when the Russians impose a 24/7 blockade around the city. But everything changes when they sneak inside an American cargo plane and meet a U.S. airman named Fred DeWitt. Though Erich has plenty of reasons to resent this man, in the end they must decide: cling to bitterness, or learn to forgive?

Betsy and the Emperor

by Staton Rabin

Grade 5-9–Betsy Balcombe has just returned to her remote island home of St. Helena from boarding school in London. At 14, she is a headstrong, adventure-seeking young lady. She gamely faces the challenge of playing host to Napoleon Bonaparte, who is exiled on the forbidding island after his capture at Waterloo. The only member of her family who is not timid around the former emperor of France, Betsy strikes up an unlikely friendship with "Boney" that surprises both of them. Rabin presents an interesting and intimate look at the life of one of history's most famous men. The relationship between Betsy and Napoleon is well captured and satisfying, and the historical details are well researched. However, some of the plot seems improbable, such as when Betsy watches her brothers' tutor die in a horrible accident that is partly her fault, only to be dancing and flirting at a ball a few days later. Still, this daredevil protagonist engages in many thrilling escapades, from a hot-air balloon flight to a horserace.

Fires of Jubilee

by Alison Hart

Gr. 5-7. At the end of the Civil War, 13-year-old Abby Joyner, who lives on an isolated plantation in Virginia, suddenly finds that she is free from slavery. She has only one obsession: to find her mother. Where is Mama? Why did she leave when Abby was a baby? And why will no one, including Abby's grandmother and the white Mistress, talk about the secrets? The solution to the mystery is both convoluted and contrived. More interesting is Abby's search for her mother, which dramatizes blacks' struggle for freedom and dignity, the ongoing racism, and also the changes for whites, rich and poor.

The Trouble with Jeremy Chance

by George Harrar

Gr. 4-7. In 1919 in rural New Hampshire, 12-year-old Jeremy's mother has died from the flu, and Jeremy is waiting for his older brother, Davey, to return from the war in Europe. After infuriating his father by daring to say that Pa has done wrong in a dispute with a neighbor, Jeremy takes off, jumping on the train to Boston to meet the ship bringing his brother home. The city is strange and exciting to the country kid, especially when he is caught in the dangerous flood of molasses that explodes from a distillery. Harrar has done a good job of researching the history (an afterword fills in more background), but it's the coming-of-age story that provides the drama here, particularly the fierce anger and love that are part of Jeremy's war with his dad. The son must break from his father, but he finds himself using what he's learned from Pa to save someone's life.

Walk Across the Sea

by Susan Fletcher

Gr 5-9-Eliza Jane McCully's father maintains a lighthouse perched on a picturesque island along the coast of northern California in 1886. Twice a day, the tide withdraws, leaving a rocky isthmus between the island and the mainland. The 13-year-old loves to observe the delicate creatures collected in the tide pools, for just a few hours before the sea covers them again. She is always aware of her father's admonition about unpredictable "sneaker waves," and is nearly claimed by one as she and her balking goat attempt to return home one day. They are rescued by a Chinese boy with whom Eliza feels an immediate spiritual connection, prompting her to question her father's beliefs that the immigrants are godless heathens and opportunists who take jobs away from the townspeople. She becomes an outspoken advocate for the Chinese a month later when she wanders into a shantytown and witnesses an old man (who turns out to be her rescuer's grandfather) being threatened and bullied. In ensuing days, anti-Chinese sentiment escalates, with vigilantes forcing the immigrants from their homes at gunpoint. Eliza harbors Wah Chung until her secret is exposed, and then pleads that he not be handed over to authorities who are likely to expel or harm him. Eliza challenges her father and her community to live up to their Christian values by protecting the boy. This is a gripping and complex story, and Fletcher's lyrical depiction of 19th-century life, her exceptionally well-drawn protagonist, and her deft analysis of racial discrimination make the book even more powerful.

A Bride for Anna's Papa

by Isabel R. Marvin

Grade 5-7-In 1907 in the iron-range town of Chisholm, Minnesota, 13-year-old Anna Kallio has taken over the household responsibilities since her mother's death the summer before. Caring for her nine-year-old brother, Matti, and her blacksmith father does not leave her with much time for school or play. She yearns for life as it once was and tries to arrange for a mail-order bride for her father so that she can continue her education. When Papa begins to take an interest in the widowed school teacher, however, Anna begins to have second thoughts about having a stepmother. The difficulty of mining town life is emphasized throughout as the girl's family struggles through a strike, loss of income, accidents, and a frightening episode in which Matti playfully explores a dangerous mine shaft. Anna's advanced maturity, brought on by her familial obligations, is offset by her wavering, insecure reactions concerning a new mother. A fire brings on the concluding climax, in which Marvin creates the right emotional atmosphere for Anna's acceptance of her Papa's remarriage. Well-developed characters and a plot with enough suspense and drama will hold readers' attention throughout.

Rosie in Chicago: Play Ball!

by Carol Matas

Life in Chicago sure is busy for Rosie. Between school and working as an usher in her father's nickelodeon, she has little time for play. She hears all about the Chicago baseball scene, though, from Abe, one of her younger brothers. He's always talking about the fierce rivalry between two teams, the Tigers and the Chavarim. Things really heat up when the Chavarim's top player gets hurt, with only one deciding game left in the season. The team's in a bind and they need help...fast! With an arm and a spirit stronger than most boys', Rosie seems to her brothers an obvious choice for a substitute player. Maintaining her disguise as a boy to play with the all-male Chavarim is a big enough challenge without having to deal with bullies on the other team -- and the sidelines -- who are standing between her and a win. But fortunately for the Chavarim, nothing can stop this girl!

Jesse Bowman: A Union Boy's War Story

by Tom McGowen

In this action-packed historical fiction novel, Jesse Bowman joins the Union Army in hopes of finding adventure. However, this teenage soldier learns that victory comes at a great cost. He discovers the hardships of war, the horror of battle, and the loss of friendship on his journey through the Civil War. Join Tom McGowen as he tells the story of one boy s contribution to the Union s triumph over the Confederacy.

Hannah Pritchard: Pirate of the Revolution

by Bonnie Pryor

Upon finding her family murdered by British redcoats, Tories, and Iroquois Indians, Hannah Pritchard begins a long and difficult journey in search of revenge and adventure. The former New York farm girl wants the opportunity to fight the British, and she finds it aboard an American privateer ship during the Revolutionary War. However, Hannah must hide her female identity to be able to work as a cabin boy aboard the Sea Hawk. Follow Hannah s brave story as this teenager discovers a wild life at sea, forges new friendships, and learns the bittersweet taste of revenge.

Brooklyn Doesn't Rhyme

by Joan W. Blos

Gr. 5-7. Rosey Sachs, 11, narrates these loosely connected stories about a Polish Jewish immigrant family in New York City in the early 1900s. Her voice is gently upbeat, with an authentic Yiddish idiom ("He bought for us a house"), evoking the warmth of the extended family that celebrates the old ways even as it eagerly tries to become part of America. Like Blos' Newbery winner, A Gathering of Days (1979), the focus is on the small events of daily life. The account of the family's move to a new house is a marvel of affectionate comedy. The story "Momma and the Vote" personalizes history with wit and verve. There's a touching episode about two brothers who can only go to school alternate weeks because they share a pair of shoes. Unfortunately, much of the material reads like bits and pieces of anecdote and local color, with characters that come and go too quickly to hold our interest. As Rosey comes to realize, there's a difference between something that happens and making it a story. This is family folklore, and in fact, that's the way the book will be best used: in writing classes to encourage kids to find their own family stories, whether the immigration was many generations back or is happening right now.

Rosie in Los Angeles: Action!

by Carol Matas

Grade 3-6--Set in 1911, this third story about irrepressible Rosie explores the early years of the movies. The Lepidus family has moved to Los Angeles from Chicago, changed their name to Lake, and purchased a ranch where Rosie's father can film Westerns. He hires a small Wild West troop as actors and extras and starts to dream up a new story with Rosie as his star. Then the Cowboy King, the show's main attraction, is injured when Rosie spooks his horse. His son Zach is none too happy about teaching her how to ride, especially when she guesses that he is reluctant to get in the saddle himself--injured in a fall, he hasn't yet found the courage to get back on. Soon, however, the two find they must cooperate as they track down two runaway horses in the nearby hills. They become lost in the fog, barely escape a mountain lion, encounter horse thieves, and are forced to spend the night hiding. Each supports the other when they have to face their fears in order to get back home. The next morning, they arrive just in time to help thwart the robbers.

Lost in Space: The Flight of Apollo 13

by Gary R. Bush

Angel on the Square by Gloria Whelan.
In 1913 Russia, twelve-year-old Katya eagerly anticipates leaving her St. Petersburg home, though not her older cousin Misha, to join her mother, a lady-in-waiting in the household of Tsar Nicholas II, but the ensuing years bring world war, revolution, and undreamed-of changes to her life.

The Apprenticeship of Lucas Whitaker by Cynthia DeFelice.
In 1849, a 12-year-old orphan becomes an apprentice to a kind physician and must choose between applying limited medical knowledge or following macabre superstition.

The Art of Keeping Cool by Janet Taylor Lisle.
This wrenching WWII novel traces the relationship between two 13-year-old American boys and a German-born Expressionist painter reputed to be a spy.

Bat 6 by Virginia Euwer Wolff.
In small town, post-World War Oregon, twenty-one 6th grade girls recount the story of an annual softball game, during which one girl's bigotry comes to the surface.

The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich.
Omakayas, a seven-year-old Native American girl of the Ojibwa tribe, lives through the joys of summer and the perils of winter on an island in Lake Superior in 1847.

The Cay by Theodore Taylor.
In April, 1942, following the torpedo blast that sinks his Virginia-bound ship, eleven-year-old Phillip Enright is left blinded and stranded on a saltwater cay with an initially fearsome West Indian native, Timothy.

Child of the Owl by Laurence Yep.
Growing up in San Francisco in the '60s, young Casey hears of her Chinese heritage and the mother she never knew from her grandmother, Paw Paw.

Crispin: the Cross of Lead by Avi.
Falsely accused of theft and murder, an orphaned peasant boy in fourteenth-century England flees his village and meets a larger-than-life juggler who holds a dangerous secret.

A Circle Unbroken by Sollace Hotze.
Captured by a roving band of Sioux Indians and brought up as the chief's daughter, Rachel is recaptured by her white family and finds it difficult to adjust, as she longs to return to the tribe.

The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn by Dorothy Hoobler
While attempting to solve the mystery of a stolen jewel, Seikei, a merchant's son who longs to be a samurai, joins a group of kabuki actors in eighteenth-century Japan.

Demon in the Teahouse by Thomas Hoobler.
Sequel to The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn. In eighteenth-century Japan, fourteen-year-old Seikei, a merchant's son in training to be a samurai, helps his patron investigate a series of murders and arson, each of which is associated in some way with a popular geisha.

Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen.
When 12-year-old Hannah is transported back to a 1940's Polish village, she experiences the very horrors that had embarrassed and annoyed her when her elders related their Holocaust experiences.

Fair Weather by Richard Peck.
Thirteen-year-old Rosie Beckett visits the1893 World's Columbian Exposition, the "wonder of the age".

Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson.
In 1793 Philadelphia, 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 a yellow fever epidemic.

For Freedom: the Story of a French Spy by Kimberley Brubaker Bradley.
Despite the horrors of World War II, a French teenager pursues becoming an opera singer, which takes her to places where she gains information about what the Nazis are doing--information that the French Resistance needs.

Goddess of Yesterday by Caroline B. Cooney.
An action-filled novel set in ancient Greece at the time of the Trojan war.

Jason’s Gold by Will Hobbs.
When news of the discovery of gold in Canada’s Yukon Territory in 1897 reaches fifteen-year-old Jason, he embarks on a 10,000-mile journey to strike it rich.

Journey to America by Sonia Levitin.
A Jewish family fleeing Nazi Germany in 1938 endures innumerable separations before they are once again united.

Homeless Bird by Gloria Whelan.
When thirteen-year-old Koly enters into an ill-fated arranged marriage, she must either suffer a destiny dictated by India's tradition or find the courage to oppose it.

Letters from Rifka by Karen Hesse.
In letters to her cousin, a young Jewish girl chronicles her family's flight from Russia in 1919 and her own experiences when she must be left in Belgium for a while when the others emigrate to America.

Lily’s Crossing by Patricia Reilly Giff.
During a summer spent at Rockaway Beach in 1944, Lily's friendship with a young Hungarian refugee causes her to see the war and her own world differently.

Mary, Bloody Mary by Carolyn Meyer.
Mary Tudor, who would reign briefly as Queen of England during the mid sixteenth century, tells the story of her troubled childhood as daughter of King Henry VIII.
In the same Young Royals Series: Doomed Queen Anne; Beware, Princess Elizabeth.

Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli.
He’s a boy who lives in the streets of 1939 Warsaw. He’s a boy who steals food for himself and the other orphans. He’s a boy who wants to be a Nazi some day, with tall shiny jackboots and a gleaming Eagle hat of his own. Until the day that suddenly makes him change his mind.

Morning Girl by Michael Dorris.
Morning Girl, who loves the day, and her younger brother Star Boy, who loves the night, take turns describing their life on an island in pre-Columbian America. Morning Girl witnesses the arrival of Columbus.

Nightjohn by Gary Paulsen.
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.

Our Only May Amelia by Jennifer L. Holm.
As the only girl in a Finnish American family of seven brothers, May Amelia Jackson resents being expected to act like a lady while growing up in Washington state in 1899.

The Pirates of Pompeii by Caroline Lawrence.
At a refugee camp following the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius which buried Pompeii, Flavia and her friends discover that children are disappearing and a very powerful citizen might be involved.

The Ramsay Scallop by Frances Temple.
At the turn of the fourteenth century in England, fourteen-year-old Elenor finds her betrothal to an ambitious lord's son launching her on a memorable pilgrimage to far-off Spain.

Ransom of Mercy Carter by Caroline B. Cooney.
In 1704, in the English settlement of Deerfield, Massachusetts, eleven-year-old Mercy and her family and neighbors are captured by Mohawk Indians and their French allies, and forced to march through bitter cold to French Canada.

Rodzina by Karen Cushman.
In the late 1800’s, a twelve-year-old Polish American girl is boarded onto an orphan train in Chicago with fears about traveling to the West and a life of unpaid slavery.

Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry by Mildred D. Taylor.
A black family living in the South during the 1930s is faced with prejudice and discrimination which its children do not understand.

Sarah Bishop by Scott O'Dell.
Left alone after the deaths of her father and brother who take opposite sides in the War for Independence, and fleeing from the British who seek to arrest her, Sarah Bishop struggles to shape a new life for herself in the wilderness.

Saving Grace by Priscilla Cummings.
When Grace's family is evicted from their Washington, D.C. apartment just before Christmas 1932, Grace wonders what will become of her sick older brother, her pregnant mother, and her out-of-work father.

A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park.
Tree-ear, a thirteen-year-old orphan in medieval Korea, lives under a bridge in a potters' village, and longs to learn how to throw the delicate celadon ceramics himself.

The Sky is Falling by Kit Pearson.
The experiences of a young girl and her small brother who are evacuated to Canada at the beginning of World War II and find that they will be staying with complete strangers.

Spying on Miss Muller by Eve Bunting.
At Alveara boarding school in Belfast at the start of World War II, thirteen-year-old Jessie must deal with her suspicions about a teacher whose father was German and with her worries about her own father's drinking problem.

Stowaway by Karen Hesse.
A fictionalized journal relates the experiences of a young stowawy from 1768 to 1771 aboard the Endeavour, which sailed around the world under Captain James Cook.

The Thieves of Ostia by Caroline Lawrence.
In Rome, in the year 79 A.D., a group of children from very different backgrounds work together to discover who beheaded a pet dog -- and why.

Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare.
Kit Tyler is marked by suspicion and disapproval from the moment she arrives on the unfamiliar shores of colonial Connecticut in 1867.

Year of Impossible Goodbyes by Sook Nyul Choi.
Ten-year-old Sookan survives the oppressive Japanese and Russian occupation of North Korea during the 1940s, to later escape to freedom in South Korea.