YOUNG ADULT HISTORICAL FICTION
Pre-history
Brennan, J. SHIVA: A Cro-Magnon tribe is forced to confront its collective fear of the Neanderthal people they call ogres, when a young girl of the tribe, befriends an ogre boy, and when Hiram, a young hunter from the tribe, is captured by ogres.
Brennan, J. SHIVA ACCUSED: As the major ceremony, the Star Jamboree approaches, political rivals from another tribe falsely accuse the Shingu girl Shiva of murdering the Hag, the leader of all the tribal witch women. Sequel to "Shiva."
Garcia, A. SPIRIT ON THE WALL: The fiercely independent Mat-Maw, who lives in the inner depths of the cave, defies all clan customs in order to permit her crippled granddaughter to develop her artistic gift.
Sutcliffe, R. WARRIOR SCARLET: In Bronze Age Britain, Drem must overcome the disability of a crippled
arm in order to pass his tribe's test of manhood and become a warrior
Roman Period
Sutcliffe, R. MARK OF THE HORSE LORD: It is the story of Phaedrus the Gladiator, who poses as Midir, Lord of the Dalriadain (a tribe of Northern Britain).
Sutcliffe, R. EAGLE OF THE NINTH: A young centurion ventures among the hostile tribes beyond the Roman Wall to recover the eagle standard of the Ninth, a legion which mysteriously disappeared under his father's command
Middle Ages
Barrett, T. ANNA OF BYZANTIUM: In the eleventh century the teenage princess Anna Comnena fights for her birthright, the throne to the Byzantine Empire, which she fears will be taken from her by her younger brother John because he is a boy.
Cushman, K. CATHERINE, CALLED BIRDY: The 13 year-old daughter of an English country knight keeps a journal in which she records the events of her life, particularly her longing for adventures beyond the usual role of women and her efforts to avoid being married off.
Cushman, K. THE MIDWIFE’S APPRENTICE: In medieval England, a nameless, homeless girl is taken in by a sharp-tempered midwife, and in spite of obstacles and hardship, eventually gains the three things she most wants: a full belly, a contented heart, and a place in this world.
Konigsburg PROUD TASTE FOR SCARLET AND MINIVER While waiting in heaven for divine judgment to be passed on her second husband, Eleanor of Aquitaine and three of the people who knew her well recall the events of her life.
Leighton, M. JUDITH OF FRANCE: The story of one of history’s most fascinating princesses. Her life as a queen is full of danger as she flees the Vikings and later defends herself against the hostile Saxons after her husband dies.
O’Dell, S. ROAD TO DAMIETTA: Deeply attached to the charming and carefree Francis Bernardone,
Cecilia, a young noblewoman of Assisi, watches as he turns from his life of
wealth and privilege, takes vows of poverty, and devotes himself to serving God
by helping all those around him.
Skurzynski MANWOLF: Only when he finally reaches adolescence does a boy, living in medieval Poland, realize people think he is a werewolf.
Sutcliffe, R. DAWN WIND: A story of 6th-century Britain and the grueling 12-year odyssey of a farm boy who survives the Saxon victory at the great battle at Aquae Sulis.
Sutcliffe, R. KNIGHT’S FEE: It tells the story of Randal, a half-Saxon half-Breton lad in Norman England, an orphan left to fend for himself as a dog-boy in Arundel castle, and details his gradual rise to knighthood and freedom, at a terrible price.
Sutcliffe, R. SHINING COMPANY: Britain in 600 A.D. forms a vibrant backdrop
for this gripping action-adventure tale concerning the son of a feudal
chieftain.
Sutcliffe, R. SUN HORSE, MOON HORSE: A young boy in pre-Roman England becomes
chieftain of his tribe and learns just how much he must sacrifice for his
people.
Voight, C. JACKAROO: When hard times among the People revive the old stories of the hero Jackaroo, an innkeeper's daughter follows her own quest to unlock the secret reality behind the legend.
16th Century
Hunter, M. YOU NEVER KNEW HER AS I DID: Will Douglas, a seventeen-year-old page, attempts to free Mary, Queen of Scot, from her island prison.
Matas, C. BURNING TIME: 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.
O’Dell, S. AMETHYST RING: Spanish seminarian Julian Escobar, known to the Mayas as Lord Kukulcan
and worshipped as a god, witnesses the fall of the Mayan and Incan
civilizations with the coming of Cortes and Pizarro.
17th Century
Armstrong, J. BRIDIE
OF THE WILD ROSE INN: The first
installment of the series Bridie's new home is not far from witchy Salem. Being a healer, Bridie is looked on with
suspicion and dislike by her new Puritan neighbors.
Clapp, P. CONSTANCE: A young girl's diary reflects life in Plymouth Colony.
WITCHES CHILDREN: During the winter of 1692, when the young girls of Salem suddenly find themselves subject to fits of screaming and strange visions, some believe that they have seen the devil and are the victims of witches.
Kyle, E. PRINCESS OF ORANGE: The romantic story of gentle Mary Stuart who became Queen of England.
Petry, A. TITUBA OF SALEM VILLAGE: It is 1692 in Salem Village and there is talk that someone has been doing devil’s work and all eyes are on Tituba.
18th Century
Armstrong, J. ANN OF THE WILD ROSE INN: The second story in a family saga about six generations of young women
who grow up at the same inn.
Duncan, L. PEGGY: A fictionalized account of the life of the belle of Philadelphia who became the wife of Benedict Arnold.
Moore, R. BREAD SISTER OF SINKING CREEK: Fourteen-year-old Maggie Callahan, who has a special talent for making
bread, struggles to survive on the Pennsylvania frontier in the late 1700s.
Sutcliffe, R. FLAME-COLORED TAFFETA: In England, 12 year old Damaris and her friends become involved with smugglers and a man who may be a spy in the eighteenth century
19th
Century
Angell, J. ONE WAY TO ANSONIA: At the turn of the century, 10 year-old Rose immigrates from Russia to America and eventually finds that her emergence into adolescence brings employment, marriage, motherhood, and self-determination.
Charbonneau GHOSTS OF STONY COVE: A forbidding and possibly haunted old estate affects the fortunes of two young people for whom life is difficult in their upstate New York small town.
Cole, S. DRAGON IN THE CLIFF: Recounts the girlhood of the woman who made many of the important fossil discoveries in the early nineteenth century, yet never received the credit she deserved.
Fleischman, P. BORNING ROOM: Lying at the end of her life in the room where she was born in1851, Georgina remembers what it was like to grow up on the Ohio frontier.
Lasky, K. BEYOND THE DIVIDE: In 1849, a fourteen year old Amish girl defies convention by leaving her secure home in Pennsylvania to accompany her father cross the continent by wagon train.
Lasky, K. BONE WARS: In the mid-1870s, young teenage scout Thad Longsworth, blood brother to the Sioux visionary Black Elk, finds his destiny linked with that of three rival teams of paleontologists searching for dinosaur bones, as the Great Plains Indians prepare to go to war against the white man.
Levin, B. BROTHER MOOSE: In the late 1800s, two orphan girls, aided by an Indian and his grandson, make a perilous trip to Maine to find a family.
Lunn, J. SHADOW IN HAWTHORN BAY When fifteen-year-old Mary journeys from Scotland to Canada in search of
her cousin, she makes a tragic discovery and alienates the townsfolk who fear
her psychic powers.
Lyons, M. LETTERS FROM A SLAVE GIRL:
A fictionalized version of the life of Harriet Jacobs, told in the form
of letters that she might have written during her slavery in North Carolina and
as she prepared for escape to the North in 1842.
Murrow, L. WEST AGAINST THE WIND:
Fourteen-year-old Abby seeks both her father and the secret of a
handsome but mysterious boy during an arduous journey by wagon train from the
middle of the country to the Pacific coast in 1850.
O’Dell, S. STREAMS TO THE RIVER:
A young Indian woman, Sacagawea, accompanied by her infant and cruel
husband, experiences joy and heartbreak when she joins the Lewis and Clark
Expedition seeking a way to the Pacific.
Pullman, P. RUBY IN THE SMOKE: In nineteenth-century London, sixteen-year-old Sally, a recent orphan, becomes involved in a deadly search for a mysterious ruby.
Pullman, P. TIN PRINCESS: In 1882 sixteen-year-old Becky applies for a tutoring job in London and becomes embroiled in assassination, intrigue, and dangerous politics in the small European kingdom of Razkavia.
Rinaldi, A. BLUE DOOR: When her grandmother sends her alone on a difficult journey up North, 14 year-old Amanda encounters the exploitation of women in textile mills.
Rinaldi, A. WOLF BY THE EARS: 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.
Sanders, S. BAD MAN BALLAD: 17 year-old Eli Jackson and a 31 year-old lawyer in early-nineteenth-century Ohio set out to find a murderer who might be a "Bigfoot."
Turner, A. THIRD GIRL FROM THE LEFT: Itching to do something different, eighteen-year-old Sarah leaves Maine for the harsh Montana environment as a mail-order bride, and is soon left a widow with a 2000-acre ranch to run.
20 Century
Armstrong, J. CLAIRE OF THE WILD ROSE INN: Book 5 of the Wild Rose Inn Series Struggling with financial
difficulties due to the Prohibition and her brother's wish to make the inn into
a speakeasy, Claire is drawn into a mystery regarding the murder of the town
drunk and fears her brother may be involved.
Blos, J. BROTHERS OF THE HEART: Fourteen-year-old Shem spends six months in the Michigan wilderness in the 1930’s alone with a dying Indian woman, who helps him, not only to survive, but to mature to the point where he can return to his family and the difficulties of life as a cripple in a frontier village.
Cannon, B. BELLSONG FOR SARAH RAINES: Surrounded by the warmth of new-found relatives and friends, 14 year-old Sarah is eased of the sadness of her father's suicide in Detroit during the Depression and finds a way to celebrate his life.
Doherty, B. GRANNY WAS A BUFFER GIRL: The night before Jess goes off to France for a university year abroad, her parents and grandparents gather to celebrate and share the stories of their lives.
Froehlich, M. REASONS TO STAY: After her mother's death, 12 year-old Babe learns hard truths about her mother's life shaking her confidence and her sense of self-worth.
Gregory, K. EARTHQUAKE AT DAWN: Photographer Edith Irvine's experiences in the aftermath of the 1906 San FranciscoEarthquake, as seen through the eyes of fifteen-year-old Daisy, a fictitious traveling companion.
Hinton, S.E. OUTSIDERS: The struggle of three brothers to stay together after their parent's death and their quest for identity among the conflicting values of their peers in the 1950’s.
Lasky, K. PAGEANT: Sarah Benjamin, a Jewish teenager on the brink of Kennedy's New Frontier, wonders if she can endure four more years of Stuart Hall, Indianapolis's most exclusive, very Christian, and impossibly stuffy school for girls.
Levoy, M. ALAN AND NAOMI: When Naomi, a refugee child from Nazi-occupied Paris who
acts ‘crazy,’ moves into Alan Silverman’s building in New York, he does his
best to avoid her. They slowly develop
a deep and touching friendship in this
story with its heart-wrenching ending
Lyon, G. BORROWED CHILDREN: Having been forced to act as mother and housekeeper during Mama's
illness, 12 year-old Amanda has a holiday far from the Depression drudgery of
her Kentucky mountain family, and finds her world expanding even as she grows
to understand and appreciate her own background.
Nixon, J. LAND OF DREAMS:
In 1902 sixteen-year-old Kristin travels with her family from Sweden to
a new life in Minnesota, where she finds herself frustrated by the restrictions
placed on what girls of her age are expected or allowed to do.
Nixon, J. LAND OF HOPE:
Rebekah, a fifteen-year-old Jewish immigrant arriving in New York City
in 1902, almost abandons her dream of getting an education when she is forced
to work in a sweatshop.
Nixon, J. LAND
OF PROMISE: In 1902, fifteen-year-old
Rose travels from Ireland to join family members in Chicago, where she must use
all her resources to deal with her father's drinking and her brothers'
dangerous involvement in politics.
Paterson, K. JACOB HAVE I LOVED: Having felt deprived all of her life of schooling, friends, mother, and even her name, by her twin sister, Louise finally begins to find her identity.
Peck, R BLOSSOM CULP AND THE SLEEP OF DEATH: Blossom, high-school freshman and possessor of "second sight,"
helps an Egyptian princess, dead for 3500 years, to regain her tomb, and in
addition saves a suffragette school teacher from losing her job in 1914.
Peck, R. THE DREADFUL FUTURE OF BLOSSOM CULP: Blossom, not the most popular member of her
freshman class in 1914, travels ahead seventy years, and returns in time to
make Halloween a memorable night for her classmates and teachers.
Peck, R. THE GHOST BELONGED TO ME, a novel: In 1913 in the Midwest a quartet of
characters share adventures from exploding steamboats to "exorcizing"
a ghost.
Peck,
R. GHOSTS I HAVE BEEN, a
novel: Blossom gradually discovers her
gift of second sight which leads her across the seas and onto the ship Titanic.
Peck, R. A DAY NO PIGS WOULD DIE: To a 13 year-old Vermont farm boy whose father slaughters pigs for a living, maturity comes early as he learns "doing what's got to be done," especially regarding his pet pig who cannot produce a litter.
Peyton, K.M. The Flambards Series: The saga of the Russell family and
Flambards, their historic mansion.
Peyton, K.M. FLAMBARDS:
A 12 year-old orphan girl is faced with a different way of life when she
is sent to live with a crippled, tyrannical uncle who is obsessed with hounds
and horses and who expects her and his two sons to follow in his footsteps.
Peyton, K.M. EDGE OF THE CLOUD: Despite the danger involved, a young girl is determined that her fiancé shall fulfill his dream of being a pilot in the early days of aviation.
Peyton, K.M. FLAMBARDS IN SUMMER: After her husband is killed in the war of 1916, twenty-one year old Christina returns to take care of the deserted estate where she grew up.
Rostkowski AFTER THE DANCING DAYS: A forbidden friendship with a badly disfigured soldier in the aftermath of World War I forces thirteen-year-old Annie to redefine the word "hero" and to question conventional ideas of patriotism.
Sebestyen, O. FAR FROM HOME: After the death of his mother, 13-year-old Salty goes to take her place working for the Buckley Arms Hotel where he begins to learn about the complexities of love and family.
Sebestyen, O Words by Heart A young black girl struggles to fulfill her papa's dream of a better future for their family in the southwestern town where, in 1910, they are the only blacks.
Thesman, J. ORNAMENT TREE: When
fourteen-year-old Bonnie moves to her cousin's boardinghouse in Seattle in
1918, she learns about life from the boarders and progressive women who live
and work there.
Thrasher, C. JULIE’S SUMMER: Remaining behind to finish high school and get a job when her
family leaves rural Indiana at the end of the Depression, Julie learns what a
destructive force vicious gossip can be.
Thrasher, C. TASTE OF DAYLIGHT: After her father dies, Seely and her family move to the city where her mother feels life will be easier, but life in the city presents a new set of problems that the family has not encountered before.
Watkins, Y. MY BROTHER, MY SISTER AND I: Living as refugees in Japan in 1947 while trying to locate their missing father, 13 year-old Yoko and her older brother and sister must endure a bad fire, injury, and false charges of arson, theft, and murder.
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SW 11/03