Aldrich, Bess Streeter, A Lantern in Her Hand
Abbie Deal goes west as a bride-and helps build a nation.

Alter, Judith M., Luke and the Van Zandt County War
A small Texas county’s secession from the Union shortly after the Civil war shows the struggle between pacifism and aggression and how a young boy can be confused by “patriotic” aggression

Almond, David, The Fire-Eaters
A passionate exploration of faith of rural English schoolboy Bobby Burns against the backdrop of the Cuban missile crisis.

Anderson, M. T., The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. 1: The Pox Party (NEW)
An episodic, highly ambitious story, deeply rooted in eighteenth-century literary traditions, which examines, among many other things, pre-Revolutionary slavery in New England.

Armstrong, Jennifer. The Dreams of Mairhe Mehan
A young Irish immigrant’s fight for survival in war-torn Washington, D. C., during the Civil war is complicated when her brother decides to join the Union Army.

*Avi. Crispin: The Cross of Lead
Crispin, a thirteen year old boy, falsely accused of murder, flees across 14th Century medieval England. (Newbery Medal)

*Avi. The Fighting Ground
Thirteen year old Jonathan goes of to fight in the Revolutionary War and discovers that the real war is fought within himself.

Avi. Night Journeys
Two young indentured servants escape into Pennsylvania in the late 1700’s and receive help from an unexpected source.

• Bacon, Martha, Sophia Scrooby Preserved (6~8)
An African chieftain’s daughter is taken into slavery and grows up in New England with the Scrooby family.

• Banks, Lynne R., The Indian in the Cupboard (6~9))

Barnes, Margaret Campbell, This Passionate Brood
History of Eleanor of Aquitaine's children. – very interesting reading

Barnes, Margaret Campbell, The Tudor Rose

Beatty, John and Patricia, Master Rosalind
Story of a girl disguised as a boy actor during Shakespeare's time.

Beazely, Jan and Thom Lemmons. King’s Ransom
The heroic story of Tsar Boris III, King of Bulgaria and his courageous defiance of Hitler to save the lives of 50,000 Jews.

Boulle, Pierre. The Bridge Over the River Kwai
A captured British officer is led by his passion for duty to perform a feat of military genius for the Japanese Army.

Bradford, Richard. Red Sky at Morning
World War II forces a young man and his mother to be uprooted from their home in the South to relocate in New Mexico. Libba Bray, A Great and Terrible Beauty
Gothic tale of a Victorian girl’s school with a deadly secret.

Bray, Libba. A Great & Terrible Beauty
After the suspicious death of her mother in 1895, sixteen-year-old Gemma returns to England, after many years in India, to attend a finishing school where she becomes aware of her magical powers and ability to see into the spirit world.

Rebel Angels
Sequel to the Victorian fantasy A Great and Terrible Beauty.

Bruchac, Joseph. Code Talker: A Novel about the Navajo Marines of World War Two (NEW)
Young Navajo men were a crucial part of the American effort in sending and receiving messages that used their native language.

Buck, Pearl, The Good Earth
Through one Chinese peasant and his children, the author traces the whole cycle of life.

• Butterworth, Emma Macalik, As the Waltz was Ending
A true story of a young ballet dancer during World War II in Vienna.

Cather, Willa, My Antonia
Saga of an immigrant girl and her family who came to Nebraska from Czechoslovakia.

Cather, Willa, Death Comes for the Archbishop
Set in the mid-nineteenth century, this is the story of a priest who sets out to win the southwest for Catholicism.

Cather, Willa, O Pioneers!
Alexandra Bergson tames the wild land and leads her less intelligent brothers to prosperity.

Catran, Ken, Voyage with Jason (NEW)
Retells the classic Greek myth of Jason and his search for the Golden Fleece through the eyes of Pylos, a young ship's boy on the super-galley "Argos." They survive the man-murdering women of Lemnos, Trojan ambush, huge Clashing Rocks, troops of Amazons, a writhing nest of deadly snakes guarding the glittering prize and finally the bloody downfall of the kingdom of Colchis.

*Chevalier, Tracy, Girl with a Pearl Earring
A lowly servant girl is elevated to immortality. Vivid characterizations show how Vermeer’s fascination with Griet’s artistic temperament led to false assumptions and gossip.

Choi, Sook Nyul, Year of Impossible Goodbyes
A North Korean family barely survives the Japanese occupation during World War II only to find that after the war they must flee Russian communists.

*Choldenko, Gennifer, Al Capone Does My Shirts
On Alcatraz Island in 1935, 12-year old Moose cares for his unpredictable, autistic sister and tangles with the warden’s daughter.

Chotjewitz, David, Daniel, Half Human: and the Good Nazi
In 1930s Germany, a boy accustomed to privilege is forced into a life of deception after discovering that he is a half-Jewish.

• Collier, James L. and Christopher Collier, My Brother Sam is Dead
Impetuous and idealistic, 16-year-old Sam defies his Tory father to join the Continentals in their war against the British in 1775.

• Conrad, Pam, Prairie Songs
Louise's simple pioneer life is changed when a family from the East moves to a nearby soddy.

Cooper, J. California, Family
From beyond the grave, Clora narrates the story of her family as she watches her children emerge from slavery during the Civil War.

Costain, Thomas, The Black Rose
Set in Medieval Europe and China – a wonderful journey and adventure

Costain, Thomas, The Silver Chalice
Story of the Last Supper, Christ, and the disciples.

Couloumbis, Audrey, Maude March on the Run!, or, Trouble is Her Middle Name(NEW)
Sequel to: The Misadventures of Maude March. Due to a misunderstanding over her involvement in a botched robbery, Maude, with younger sister Sallie, hides out at the home of an uncle, but when she is discovered and arrested, the orphaned sisters flee, trying to clear Maude's name.

Curtis, Christopher Paul, The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963
The lives of an African American family living in Michigan are drastically changed when they head South to visit Grandma in Birmingham, Alabama in the summer of 1963 and come face-to-face with one of the darkest moments in America's history.

Curtis, Christopher Paul. Bud, Not Buddy
A young black boy during the Depression seeking his real father.

Cushman, Karen. The Midwife's Apprentice
In medieval England, a homeless young girl finds a way to survive both physically and spiritually.

Crane, Stephen, The Red Badge of Courage

• Craven, Margaret, I Heard the Owl Call My Name
The touching story of a young, mortally ill priest who spends the last days of his life working among the Kwakiutl Indians of British Columbia.

Dalessandro, James. 1906
A very exciting account of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, showing why the corruption and greed of that government made it worse.

• De Trevino, Elizabeth Borton, I, Juan De Pareja
The story of Juan, a slave, and the great Spanish painter Velazquez, his master, and how their relationship changed from master/slave to equal/friend.

Jennifer Donnelly, A Northern Light
Mattie Gokey, 16, a talented writer, promised her dying mother that she would always take care of her father and younger siblings. She is stuck on a farm, living in near poverty, with no way of escaping, even though she has been accepted at Barnard College. (one in a series)

Draper, Sharon M. Copper Sun(NEW)
An action-packed, multifaceted, character-rich story describing the shocking realities of the slave trade and plantation life while portraying the perseverance, resourcefulness, and triumph of the human spirit.

Edmonds, Walter D., Drums Along the Mohawk

Ernst, Kahtleen, Hearts of Stone (NEW)
Orphaned when their father dies fighting for the Union and mother expires from exhaustion, and also estranged from their Confederate neighbors, fifteen-year-old Hannah and her siblings struggle to find a way to survive during the Civil War in Tennessee.

Fast, Howard, April Morning
A stirring novel of a young man's baptism by fire during the bloody Battle of Lexington.

Fast, Howard, The Immigrants
The Italian-American experience in San Francisco

Fast, Howard, Torquemada
The Spanish Inquisition.

Fletcher, Inglis, Men of Albemarle County
Set in the United States during 1776 when pirate ships docked along the rivers

Fletcher, Inglis, Raleigh 's Eden
During the United States 18th Century revolution.

Fletcher, Inglis, The Scotswoman
During the United States 18th century revolution.

Forester, E. M., A Passage to India

Fox, Paula, The Slave Dancer
A boy kidnapped from New Orleans in 1840 is forced to become the fifer on a slave ship and “dance” the human cargo for exercise—a realistic, moving view of some tragic history.

Gallico, Paul, Snow Goose
In WWII a crippled artist and a girl, nursing an injured snow goose, are involved in a daring rescue of stranded English soldiers.

Goble, Paul, and Dorothy Goble, Lone Bull’s Horse Raid
Bull’s first horse-stealing raid and the battle that followed.

Gordon, Sheila. Waiting for the Rain
This novel shows the bonds of friendship under the strain of apartheid as two lifelong friends, Tengo and Frikkie, come of age amidst the ongoing tragedy of South Africa

Gratz, Alan Samurai Shortstop (NEW)
Growing up in Tokyo in the 1890s, after the emperor outlawed the samurai tradition of his ancestors, Toyo was not trained in the old disciplines. He must find his own path between the old ways and the new ones, which are symbolized for Toyo by the sport he loves: baseball.

• Greene, Bette, Summer of My German Soldier
Patti's Jewish family explodes over her friendship with a German POW. This story shows the human side of the enemy.

Gutman, Dan, Satch & Me : a Baseball Card Adventure (NEW)
With his ability to travel through time using vintage baseball cards, Joe takes Flip with him to find out whether Satchel Paige really was the fastest pitcher ever.

Haley, Alex, Roots
A man traces his family’s roots to the African village from which Kunta Kinte was stolen

Harrison, Sue, Mother Earth, Father Sky
Rich in cultural anthropological detail, this novel offers an astonishing view of prehistoric Alaska as it tells the story of a young woman who faces the brutality of her world with courage, determination, and joy.

Hart, Lenore. The Treasure of Savage Island
A tale of shipwrecks, pirates, treasure, and an unlikely friendship between an escaped slave and a penniless island girl who rescues him.

Haugaard, Erik Christian, The Samurai Tale

Hearn, Julie. The Minister’s Daughter
The superstition, passion, madness, and magic of the tumultuous ear of the Civil War in England.

Hesse, Karen. Aleutian Sparrow
Told in unrhymed verse, a beautiful tale of the Aleuts’ struggle to survive when they are displaced by the Japanese during World War II.

*Hoobler, Dorothy and Thomas, The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn (NEW)
An Eighteenth-Century Japanese mystery with a ghost, action and intrigue

*Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner
Set against the tragic history of Afghanistan, this is the beautifully written story of the doomed friendship of two boys and of relationships between fathers and sons.

Houston, Julian. New Boy
A young African-American boy discovers the world and himself when he integrates an all-white boarding school in the 1950s.

Hudson, Jan. Sweetgrass
Sweetgrass, a fifteen-year-old Blackfoot Indian in the 1830s, living on the plains of southern Canada and northern Montana

Hunt, Irene, Across Five Aprils
The heartache and agony of the Civil War as reflected in the life of a young Illinois boy.

• Hunter, Mollie, You Never Knew Her As I Did

Jackson, Helen Hunt, Ramona
A romance in which the customs, places and life of pre Anglo California are remembered.

Jakes, John, California Gold

Kadohata, Cynthia Weedflower (NEW)
A story of a Japanese American family interned during WWII.

Kelly, Eric P., Trumpeter of Krakow
While trying to save the Great Tarnov Crystal from the Tartons, Joseph and his family are caught up in plots of political intrigue.

Keith, Harold, Rifles for Watie
Sixteen-year-old Jeff, a Union scout behind Confederate lines in Indian country, realizes he must either escape—or join—the enemy he admires.

Kidd, Ronald. Monkey Town: The Summer of the Scopes Trial
A fifteen-year-old student of John Scopes observes the Scopes Trial in Dayton, Tennessee, in 1925.

Knowles, John. Peace Breaks Out—sequel to A Separate Peace

Konigsburg, E. L., A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver
The story of Eleanor of Aquitaine who reflects on the good and not so good days of her earthly life.

*Konigsburg, E. L., The Second Mrs. Giaconda
Leonardo da Vinci and the painting of the Mona Lisa told from the point of view of Salai, daVinci's slave.

Lasky, Kathryn. Beyond the Divide
When fourteen-year-old Meribah Simon leaves her sheltered, Amish life in Pennsylvania to go west with her father in 1849, she enters an exciting but perilous new existence.

Lasky, Kathryn. Beyond the Burning Time
It's 1691. Mary Chase and her mother are living the simple existence of Puritans in the village of Salem.

Lawrence, Iain, The Wreckers
In eighteenth-century London villagers keep all the plunder from ship wrecks where there are no survivors.

Lee, Mildred, The People Therein
A young man from Boston settles in a turn of the century Appalachian community at and helps a physically handicapped young woman.

Linscott, Jillian. Crown Witness
A young girl caught in a mystery in medieval England

MacKall, Dandi Daley. Eva Underground
In 1978, Eva Lott’s father decides they’re moving to Communist Poland to help with a radical underground movement.

*Martinez, Victor, Parrot in the Oven (NEW)
Manny, fourteen years old, is confronted with an alcoholic father, friends involved in gangs, and a rough neighborhood. Manny struggles to make the right choices and to somehow belong. The novel contains mature and graphic situations.

Massie, Robert K., Nicholas and Alexandra
Story of the ruler of Russia and his empress as their nation moved unchecked toward the Revolution.

Matas, Carol. Sworn Enemies
Another grim chapter in Jewish history - the kidnapping and forced conversion of Jewish boys by the Russian Czar's army in the 19th Century.

Mazer, Harry, Heroes Don’t Run. A Novel of the Pacific War (NEW)
To honor his father who died during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, seventeen-year-old Adam eagerly enlists in the Marines in 1944, survives boot camp, and faces combat on the tiny island of Okinawa.

Mazer, Harry. The Last Mission
A too-young American Jewish boy has lied his way into military service in World War II.

Meador, Nancy and Betty Harman. Paco and the Lion of the North
This novel about murder, revenge, and betrayal seen through the eyes of a fourteen-year-old prisoner of Pancho Villa takes place in 1916, when Mexican revolutionaries led by Pancho Villa raided on both sides of the United States-Mexico border.

Meyer, Carolyn. Marie Dancing
Marie van Goethem, a 14-year old ballet dancer in the Paris Opera, was the model for Edgar Degas’ most famous sculpture, Little Dancer Aged Fourteen.

Morpugo, Michael, Private Peaceful
An underage World War I soldier spends the night before his brother’s execution recalling joyful and painful memories of their lives together.

Morpurgo, Michael. Waiting for Anya
Jewish children are being hidden in the village of Lescun, France during World War II.

Mosely, Walter 47
The intense, personal slave narrative of 14-year-old Forty-seven becomes allegorical when a mysterious runaway slave shows up at the Corinthian Plantation.

Myers, Walter Dean. Fallen Angels
Seventeen-year-old Richie Perry and platoon mates spend a year fighting in the jungles of Vietnam and witness more than their share of suffering among soldiers and civilians.

Norris, Frank, The Octopus
San Joaquin Valley ranchers and farmers struggle against the Southern Pacific.

O'Dell, Scott, Sarah Bishop
Set during the American Revolution, a young girl is pursued by British soldiers and forced to flee into the wilderness of northern Westchester county. Based on a true story.

Orzey, Baroness Emmuska. The Scarlet Pimpernel

Page, Elizabeth, The Tree of Liberty
A comprehensive, extraordinary novel of the American Revolution.

Paterson, Katherine. Lyddie
Unable to pay off the debt on the family farm, feisty, single-minded Lyddie survives the dangers of the textile mills in 1840’s Massachusetts, determined not to forfeit her dreams.

Paterson, Katherine. Of Nightingales That Weep—sequel to Sign of the Chrysanthemum

Paterson, Katherine. Sign of the Chrysanthemum
In 12th Century Japan, Muna searches for the samurai father he has never met

Paulsen, Gary. Nightjohn
Sarny, a 12-year-old slave at the Waller plantation, risks terrible punishment when an adult slave called Nightjohn teaches her how to read.

Paulsen, Gary. Soldier’s Heart: Being the Story of the Enlistment and Due Service of the Boy Charley Goddard in the First Minnesota Volunteers
Fifteen year-old Charley Goddard lies about his age and joins the Union Army in search of adventure.

Peck, Richard. The River Between Us
A tale of mystery and the female Civil War experience

Perez, N. A., One Special Year

Rawlings, Marjorie K., The Yearling

*Rawls, Wilson, Where the Red Fern Grows
A young boy's dogs win the gold cup in a contest, but tragedy strikes.

Reuter, Bjarne, The Boys from St. Petri
A group of Danish teens band together to harass the German soldiers occupying their town during World War II. When they discover a stolen German pistol, their pranks and petty thefts escalate into deadly sabotage.

• Richter, Hans Peter, Friedrich
Friedrich’s life becomes a torment as his family is destroyed and he is forced into hiding, alone and in secrecy in Nazi Germany.

Rinaldi, Ann, The Last Silk Dress
In this historical account, l4-year-old Susan Chilmark shows support for the Confederacy during the Civil War by collecting silk dresses to create a huge hot-air balloon to spy on the enemy.

Rinaldi, Ann, Wolf by the Ears
Harriet Hemings, rumored to be Thomas Jefferson's daughter, faces the choice of passing as white or staying a slave in the sheltered but restricted life at Monticello.

Rylant, Cynthia, I Had Seen Castles
Fictional reminiscence of a young man’s experiences in World War II showing the terrible personal price war extracts from young soldiers.

Salisbury, Graham, Eyes of the Emperor (NEW)
Eddy Okubo, a Hawaiian of Japanese descent, enlists in the army just before Pearl Harbor. But before he even faces the enemy, he's assigned to a secret mission that might kill him. A powerful, gripping novel based on a real story.

Salisbury, Graham. Under the Blood-Red Sun
Japanese-American Tomi’s life in Hawaii is turned upside down when the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor

Saroyan, William, My Name Is Aram—Autobiographical

Schaefer, Jack, Shane
An enigmatic stranger helps the Starrett family save their farm in the Wyoming territory. A tale of the Old West about a boy's love for the man who taught him the meaning of courage and self-respect.

*Schmidt, Gary D., Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy
In 1912 Maine a forbidden friendship between a preacher’s son and a dark-skinned girl

• Sebestyen, Ouida, Words by Heart
A touching portrait of a young black girl who vows to win a Bible quoting contest. But winning brings violence and death for the one she loves most dearly.

Sender, Rugh Minsky, The Cage
The memoir of a Nazi Holocaust survivor that recounts the fight for survival from the Lodz ghetto in Poland to Auschwitz, to the slave labor camp where the Russian Army set her free.

Seton, Anya, Avalon—A story of King Arthur.

Seton, Anya, Dragonwyk

Seton, Anya, Foxfire

Seton, Anya, Katherine
A story of Geoffrey Chaucer's sister-in-law.

Seton, Anya, The Winthrop Woman
The niece of the first governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony

Sheth, Kasmira Koyal Dark, Mango Sweet (NEW)
With gentle humor and a rich sense of place, this story of an Indian teen finding a path of her own is an engaging coming-of-age novel set in contemporary Mumbai, India.

Smothers, Ethel Footman. Moriah's Pond
Annie Rye and her sisters learn first hand about being black and punished unjustly in a vivid, poignant story about prejudice in 1950s rural Georgia.

• Speare, Elizabeth George, The Witch of Blackbird Pond
A historical narrative of a girl whose rebellion against the bigotry and her Puritan surroundings culminate in a witch-hunt and trial.

Spillebeen, Geert. Kiplings’s Choice
John Kipling, the teenage son of famed author Rudyard Kipling, entered the British Army during World War I and was killed during his first battle.

Staples, Suzanne Fisher. Under the Persimmon Tree (NEW)
A beautifully written, heartrending novel of Najmah, a young Afghan girl who takes a perilous journey across the mountains to Pakistan and an American woman, Elaine (Nusrat in Islamic) who both seek their way home.

Suzanne Staples, Under the Persimmon Tree
Najmah, a young Afghan girl whose name means “star,” suddenly finds herself alone when her father and older brother are conscripted by the Taliban and her mother and newborn brother are killed in an air raid.

Stolz, Joelle, The Shadows of Ghadames
An all-female community and a young woman’s coming-of-age. In nineteenth-century Libya, Malika questions her restrictions.

Sutcliff, Rosemary, Knight's Fee

• Sutcliff, Rosemary, Song for a Dark Queen

Sutcliff, Rosemary, Warrior Scarlet

Temple, Frances. Tonight, By Sea
At first Paulie does not want to join her grandfather in escaping from Haiti's brutal dictatorship but events conspire to change her mind.

Thom, James Alexander, Follow the River
Mary Ingles, kidnapped by Shawnee Indians in 1755, risks her life by traveling 1,000 miles through untamed wilderness to return to her own people. Based on a true ordeal.

Thom, James Alexander, From Sea to Shining Sea
An amazing story of the Clark family of Virginia, including General George Rogers Clark (founder of Kentucky) and General William Clark (partner of Merriwether Lewis on the Lewis and Clark expedition)

Tomlinson, Theresa. The Forestwife
Mary de Holt, an orphan about to be forced into marriage, escapes to the forest in a tale based on the Robin Hood legends, life in medieval England, and Tomlinson's own idea of Maid Marian.

Van Raven, Pieter. Harpoon Island
Frank Barnes is looking for a job where he can earn a decent living, find peace, and have a place where his "slow for his age" son Brady, will be accepted. The breakout of World War I has an effect on the teacher Mr. Barnes has found on Harpoon Island.

Voigt, Cynthia, Jackaroo
In a country oppressed by titled folk during feudal times, an innkeeper's daughter, moved by the poverty and suffering, dons the cloak of the legendary Jackaroo and rides to the aid of deprived peasants.

Voigt, Cynthia. On Fortune's Wheel
In this tale of a mythical kingdom, two generations after Jackaroo, an innkeeper's young daughter wants to change her fate.

• Wartski, Maureen Crane, A Boat to Nowhere
After terrible conquerors begin taking over the villages, a Vietnamese family is forced to flee, becoming “boat people” and risking perils of pirates, storms, sickness, and starvation to find a land where they could be free.

Westall, Robert, Kingdom by the Sea
It's 1942, and Harry has just become a war orphan. Will he and the stray dog he takes up with be able to survive on their own?

Westall, Robert, The Machine Gunners
With a machine gun salvaged from a German plane shot down over Garmouth, England, Chas McGill and his friends arm their stolen salvage fortress against the enemy, who turn out not to be the Nazi horde they expect from newsreels

White, T. H. The Sword in the Stone—Story of King Arthur's boyhood.

Wisler, G. Clifton. Red Cap
Starvation, disease and despair destroy the lives of Union soldiers at Andersonville. How can Ransom, a 13 year-old prisoner of war, expect to survive?

Yolen, Jane. Encounter
Columbus’s first known landing in the New World is recreated from a native Taino boy’s point of view.

Yolen, Jane. The Devil’s Arithmetic
The effects of the Holocaust and World War II Nazi aggression

Zusak, Markus The Book Thief (NEW)
As Death narrates this sorrowful tale, told from the perspective of Liesel Meminger, a foster child living outside Munich during World War II.