Book Options for Historical Fiction

[Descriptions from Amazon.Com]  [Books About 110]

A Boy At War by Harry Mazer  (3)  Adam Pelko witnesses the sinking of the USS Arizona, his father’s ship, during the attack on Pearl Harbor. (This book could be paired with A Boy No More and Heroes Don’t Run.)  World War II, Pearl Harbor   530L

A Boy No More by Harry Mazer  (3)  Adam Pelko, who witnessed the sinking of the USS Arizona during the attack on Pearl Harbor, now lives in California and his best friend Davi is Japanese American. Davi’s father has been arrested, taken to Manzanar, a Japanese internment camp. Davi asks Adam for help. (This book could be paired with A Boy At War and Heroes Don’t Run.)  World War II, Japanese Internment 

Bat 6  a Novel  (4)  by Virginia Euwer Wolff – Told in 21 voices, this narrative uses a sixth-grade girls' baseball game in 1949 Oregon as a vehicle for examining prejudice and the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII.  Post World War II  Japanese Internment    930L

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys   (2)  Fifteen-year-old Lina is a Lithuanian girl living an ordinary life--until Soviet officers invade her home and tear her family apart. Separated from her father and forced onto a crowded train, Lina, her mother, and her young brother make their way to a Siberian work camp, where they are forced to fight for their lives.   Russian Invasion of Lithuania 1939-, Concentration/Work Camps, Siberia   HL490L   Note: Parents need to know that Between Shades of Gray is a story of horrific cruelty and violence for mature tweens and up. Babies, children, the elderly, and even grieving parents die awful deaths, and many more suffer terribly as they struggle to survive. Families are torn apart. There's just enough telling detail here to drive home the climate of terror in which the deportees lived, without lingering on the gruesome details. The novel illuminates an often-overlooked chapter in history, drawing comparisons to the misery inflicted by the Nazi regime. It's a very worthwhile read, but parents may want to make themselves available to discuss the troubling questions the book raises.
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/between-shades-of-gray
https://sites.google.com/site/parentalbookreviews/shadow/content-review-between-shades-of-gray-by/between-shades-of-gray-content
http://www.betweenshadesofgray.com/

Boy Who Dared, The  by Susan Campbell Bartoletti  (4)  When 16-year-old Helmut Hubner listens to the BBC news on an illegal short-wave radio, he quickly discovers Germany is lying to the people. But when he tries to expose the truth with leaflets, he's tried for treason. – a novel based on a true story (Utah connection:  Helmut Hubner belongs to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.)  World War II   760L 
http://www.enotes.com/the-boy-who-dared

Breadwinner, The  by Deborah Ellis  (6)   Young Parvana lives with her family in one room of a bombed-out apartment building in Kabul, Afghanistan. Because he has a foreign education, her father is arrested by the Taliban, the religious group that controls the country. Since women cannot appear in public unless covered head to toe, or go to school, or work outside the home, the family becomes increasingly desperate until Parvana conceives a plan.  Afghanistan, Taliban   630L

Caged Eagles by Eric Walters  (5)  portrays the internment of Japanese Canadians during World War II. Walters focuses on 14-year-old Tadashi Fukushima, whose family is forced to settle with other "enemy alien" families in cattle barns at the Pacific National Exhibition grounds. World War II  Japanese Internment    650L

Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson  (4)   Freedom. In 1776 New England, that word is on everyone's lips. But for 13-year-old Isabel, the word holds a different meaning, especially after the only mistress she has ever known dies, and instead of receiving the freedom promised, she and her younger sister, Ruth, are sold to the Locktons, a wealthy New York family.  American Revolutionary War, Slavery   780L

Deadly by Julie Chibbaro (2)  Prudence Galewski doesn’t belong in Mrs. Browning’s esteemed School for Girls. She doesn’t want an “appropriate” job that makes use of refinement and charm. Instead, she is fascinated by how the human body works—and why it fails.

Prudence is lucky to land a position in a laboratory, where she is swept into an investigation of a mysterious fever.  -- one of the greatest medical mysteries of the twentieth century!  Early 1900’s, Medicine,  Disease

This book could be paired with Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson.   930L

Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis  (3)  Eleven-year-old Elijah lives in Buxton, Canada, a settlement of runaway slaves near the American border. He's the first child in town to be born free, and he ought to be famous just for that.  Slavery, Escape from Slavery, Slave Catchers  1070L

Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson (4)   During the summer of 1793, Mattie Cook lives above the family coffee shop with her widowed mother and grandfather. Mattie spends her days avoiding chores and making plans to turn the family business into the finest Philadelphia has ever seen. But then the fever breaks out.   Disease, early United States history    580L

This book could be paired with Deadly by Julie Chibbaro.  

Heroes Don’t Run by Harry Mazer  (3)  Even though Adam is underage, he defies his mother's wishes and enlists in the Marines. Sent first to boot camp, then to Okinawa, he experiences the stark reality of war firsthand.

(This book could be paired with A Boy At War and A Boy No More.) World War II, Pacific War  650L

Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes  (3)  The Year: 1773. The place: Boston. Johnny Tremain is fourteen and apprenticed to a silversmith. He is gifted and lords his skills over the other apprentices, until one day his hand is horribly burned by molten silver. Johnny’s dreams of silversmithing are over.

A depressed Johnny finds work as a dispatch rider for the Committee of Public Safety, a job that brings him in touch with Boston patriots—and the excitement that will lead to the Tea Party and the Battle of Lexington. Revolutionary War   840L

Midwife’s Apprentice, The   by Karen Cushman  (6)  The story takes place in medieval England. This time our protagonist is Alyce, who rises from the dung heap (literally) of homelessness and namelessness to find a station in life--apprentice to the crotchety, snaggletoothed midwife Jane Sharp.  Life in the Middle Ages, Medicine in the Middle Ages   [Note: This is one of the shortest books, but also has one of the highest reading levels.]

Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool (6)  In 1936, Manifest is a town worn down by sadness, drought, and the Depression, but it is more welcoming to newcomers than it was in 1918, when it was a conglomeration of coal-mining immigrants who were kept apart by habit, company practice, and prejudice. Abilene, who has been sent there to live while her father works for the railroad, quickly finds friends and uncovers a local mystery that involves a decades-old letter that has a warning, “THE RATTLER is watching.”   Great Depression, World War I   800L

Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg, The  by Rodman Philbrick (6) Twelve-year-old orphan Homer runs away from Pine Swamp, Maine, to find his older brother, Harold, who has been sold into the Union Army. With laugh-aloud humor, Homer outwits and outruns a colorful assortment of civil War-era thieves, scallywags, and spies as he makes his way south, following clues that finally lead him to Gettysburg.    Civil War   950L

Numbering All the Bones by Ann Rinaldi  (3)  The Civil War is at an end, but for thirteen-year-old Eulinda, it is no time to rejoice. Her younger brother Zeke was sold away, her older brother Neddy joined the Northern war effort, and her master will not acknowledge that Eulinda is his daughter.  Civil War, Slavery   600L

Sacajawea by Joseph Bruchac  (6)  Captured by her enemies, married to a foreigner, and a mother at age sixteen, Sacajawea lived a life of turmoil and change. Then, in 1804, the mysterious young Shoshone woman met Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.  Westward Exploration, Native American

840L

Shades of Gray by Carolyn Reeder  (5) The Civil War may be over, but for twelve-year-old Will Page, the pain and bitterness haven't ended. How could they have, when the Yankees were responsible for the deaths of everyone in his entire immediate family?  And now Will has to leave his comfortable home in the Shenandoah Valley and live with relatives he has never met, people struggling to eke out a living on their farm in the war-torn Virginia Piedmont. But the worst of it is that Will's uncle Jed had refused to fight for the Confederacy.   Civil War, Post Civil War  800L  

Steal Away to Freedom by Jennifer Armstrong  (4) In the fall of 1896 elderly Susannah McKnight coaxes her granddaughter Mary to travel with her to Canada to visit someone Mary regards as an "old slave woman." Mary's vision of Bethlehem Reid is shattered, however, when she hears an amazing story of undying friendship and courage. As young girls Susannah and Bethlehem helped each other escape to the North: for Bethlehem, freedom; for Susannah, a return to the home she loved.    Slavery   690L

Tucket’s Travels by Gary Paulsen (6)  You will read the first of the Tucket books -- Mr. Tucket. Fourteen-year-old Francis Tucket is heading west on the Oregon Trail with his family by wagon train. When he receives a rifle for his birthday, he is thrilled that he is being treated like an adult. But Francis lags behind to practice shooting and is captured by Pawnees.  Pioneers, Indians, Mountain Men   830L

War Horse by Michael Morpurgo  (8)  In 1914, Joey, a beautiful bay-red foal with a distinctive cross on his nose, is sold to the army and thrust into the midst of the war on the Western Front. With his officer, he charges toward the enemy, witnessing the horror of the battles in France.  World War I

Watsons Go to Birmingham, The —1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis (2)  When Kenny's 13-year-old brother, Byron, gets to be too much trouble, they head South to Birmingham to visit Grandma, the one person who can shape him up. And they happen to be in Birmingham when Grandma's church is blown up.  Civil Rights    1000L

Woods Runner by Gary Paulsen  (6)  Samuel, 13, spends his days in the forest, hunting for food for his family. He has grown up on the frontier of a British colony, America. Far from any town, or news of the war against the King that American patriots have begun near Boston. But the war comes to them. British soldiers and Iroquois attack.  Revolutionary War  870L

Words By Heart by Ouida Sebestyen  (6 or more)   Lena can recite the Scriptures by heart. Hoping to make her adored Papa proud of her and to make her white classmates notice her "Magic Mind," not her black skin, Lena vows to win the Bible-quoting contest. But winning does not bring Lena what she expected. Instead of honor, violence and death erupt and strike.

Prejudice, 1910      750L

Book Options for Historical Fiction

Original Post included this: We will be reading these books in small groups.  You will have an opportunity to select the three books from this list that you would most like to read.  You will then be assigned to a group.

The books are to stay in the classroom.  

They will not be for check-out.