Historical Fiction
Travel back in time with a good book! Learn about history from a whole new perspective. Remember, your librarian can help you find other good books by these and other authors.Historical Fiction is broken down by time period:
Ancient History | Middles Ages & Renaissance | French Revolution | Colonial Era | American Revolution | 1800s | Civil War | 1900-1940 | World War I | World War II | 1950-1970
| Ancient History | |
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Cooney, Caroline B. Goddess of Yesterday. YA F Coo In ancient Sparta, young Anaxandra must assume a false identity to ensure her safety. She guards against the jealousy and suspicion of Helen, the beautiful wife of King Meneleus, whose actions will trigger a tragic war with Troy. |
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Friesner, Esther M. Nobody's Princess. YA F Fri Determined to fend for herself in a world where only men have real freedom, headstrong Helen, who will be called queen of Sparta and Helen of Troy one day, learns to fight, hunt, and ride horses while disguised as a boy, and goes on an adventure throughout the Mediterranean world. The story continues in Nobody's Prize. |
| Middles Ages & Renaissance | |
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Cadnum, Michael. Ship of Fire. YA F Cad In 1587, sailing to Spain on board Sir Francis Drake’s ship Elizabeth Bonaventure, seventeen-year-old surgeon’s apprentice Thomas Spyre finds that, with the sudden death of his master, he must take over as ship’s surgeon and prove his skill not only as a doctor but also as a fighter when he is enlisted by Drake to face battle. |
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Cushman, Karen. Catherine, Called Birdy. YA F Cus The thirteen-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. Also look for Matilda Bone and The Midwife’s Apprentice by the same author. |
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Grant, K. M. Blood Red Horse. YA F Gra A special horse named Hosanna changes the lives of two English brothers and those around them as they fight with King Richard I against Saladin’s armies during the Third Crusades. The first in a trilogy. |
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Hoffman, Alice. Incantation. YA F Hof 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. |
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McCaughrean, Geraldine. The Kite Rider. YA F McC In thirteenth-century China, after trying to save his widowed mother from a horrendous second marriage, twelve-year-old Haoyou has life-changing adventures when he takes to the sky as a circus kite rider and ends up meeting the great Mongol ruler Kublai Khan. |
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Napoli, Donna Jo. The Smile. YA F Nap In Renaissance Italy, Elisabetta longs for romance, and when Leonardo da Vinci introduces her to Guiliano de Medici, whose family rules Florence but is about to be deposed, she has no inkling of the romance - and sorrow - that will ensue. |
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Wilson, Diane Lee. I Rode a Horse of Milk White Jade. YA F Wil Oyuna tells her granddaughter the story of how love for her horse enabled her to win a race and bring good luck to her family living in Mongolia in 1339. |
| French Revolution | |
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Gardner, Sally. The Red Necklace. YA F Gar In the late eighteenth-century, Sido, the twelve-year-old daughter of a self-indulgent marquis, and Yann, a fourteen-year-old Gypsy orphan raised to perform in a magic show, face a common enemy at the start of the French Revolution. The story continues in The Silver Blade. |
| Colonial Era (1600-1700s) | |
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Cooney, Caroline B. The Ransom of Mercy Carter. YA F Coo 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, where some adapt to new lives and some still hope to be ransomed. |
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Draper, Sharon. Copper Sun. YA F Dra 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. |
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Hearn, Julie. The Minister’s Daughter. YA F Hea 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. |
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Hooper, Mary. Newes from the Dead. YA F Hof In 1650, while Robert, a young medical student, steels himself to assist with her dissection, twenty-two-year-old housemaid Anne Green recalls her life as she lies in her coffin, presumed dead after being hanged for murdering her child that was, in fact, stillborn. |
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Rees, Celia. Witch Child. YA F Ree 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. |
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Sturtevant, Katherine. A True and Faithful Narrative. YA F Stu In London in the 1680s, Meg - now sixteen years old - tries to decide whether to marry either of the two men who court her, taking into account both love and her writing ambitions. |
| American Revolution (1775-1783) | |
 | Anderson, Laurie Halse. Chains. YA F And After being sold to a cruel couple in New York City, a slave named Isabel spies for the rebels during the Revolutionary War. |
 | Anderson, M.T. The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. 1: The Pox Party. YA F And Various diaries, letters, and other manuscripts chronicle the experiences of Octavian, a young African American, from birth to age sixteen, as he is brought up as part of a science experiment in the years leading up to and during the Revolutionary War. The story continues in Vol. 2: Kingdom on the Waves. |
| 1800s | |
 | Bray, Libba. A Great and Terrible Beauty. YA F Bra 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. The story continues in Rebel Angels and The Sweet Far Thing. |
 | Dowswell, Paul. Powder Monkey: The Adventures of a Young Sailor. YA F Dow Thirteen-year-old Sam endures harsh conditions, battles, and a shipwreck after being pressed into service aboard the HMS Miranda during the Napoleonic Wars. |
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Godbersen, Anna. The Luxe. YA F God In Manhattan in 1899, five teens of different social classes lead dangerously scandalous lives, despite the strict rules of society and the best-laid plans of parents and others. The story continues in Rumors, Envy, and Spendor. |
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Holm, Jennifer L. Boston Jane: an adventure. YA F HOL Schooled in the lessons of etiquette for young ladies of 1854, Miss Jane Peck of Philadelphia finds little use for manners during her long sea voyage to the Pacific Northwest and while living among the American traders and Chinook Indians of Washington Territory. |
 | Wolf, Allan. New Found Land. YA F Wol The letters and thoughts of Thomas Jefferson, members of the Corps of Discovery, their guide Sacagawea, and Captain Lewis’s Newfoundland dog, all tell of the historic exploratory expedition to seek a water route to the Pacific Ocean. |
| Civil War (1861-1865) | |
 | Fleischman, Paul. Bull Run. YA F Fle Northerners, Southerners, generals, couriers, dreaming boys and worried sisters describe the glory, the horror, the thrill, and the disillusionment of the first battle of the Civil War. |
 | Rinaldi, Ann. An Acquaintance with Darkness. YA F Rin When her mother dies and her best friend's family is implicated in the assassination of President Lincoln, fourteen-year-old Emily Pigbush must go live with an uncle she suspects of being involved in stealing bodies for medical research. |
 | Wells, Rosemary. Red Moon at Sharpsburg. YA F Wel As the Civil War breaks out, India, a young Southern girl, summons her sharp intelligence and the courage she didn't know she had to survive the war that threatens to destroy her family, her Virginia home, and the only life she has ever known. |
| 1900-1940 | |
 | Auch, Mary Jane. Ashes of Roses. YA F Auc Sixteen-year-old Margaret Rose Nolan, newly arrived from Ireland, finds work at New York City’s Triangle Shirtwaist Factory shortly before the 1911 fire in which 146 employees died. |
 | Bunting, Eve. SOS Titanic. YA F Bun Fifteen-year-old Barry O'Neill, traveling from Ireland to America on the maiden voyage of the Titanic, finds his life endangered when the ship hits an iceberg and begins to sink. |
 | Choldenko, Gennifer. Al Capone Does My Shirts. YA F Cho 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. The story continues in Al Capone Shines My Shoes. |
 | Donnelly, Jennifer. A Northern Light. YA F Don In 1906, sixteen-year-old Mattie, determined to attend college and be a writer against the wishes of her father and fiancé, takes a job at a summer inn where she discovers the truth about the death of a guest. Based on a true story. |
 | Gregory, Kristiana. Earthquake at Dawn. YA F Gre A novelization of twenty-two-year-old photographer Edith Irvine’s experiences in the aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, as seen through the eyes of fifteen-year-old Daisy, a fictitious traveling companion. |
 | Haddix, Margaret Peterson. Uprising. YA F Had In 1927, at the urging of twenty-one-year-old Harriet, Mrs. Livingston reluctantly recalls her experiences at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory, including miserable working conditions that led to a strike, then the fire that took the lives of her two best friends, when Harriet, the boss's daughter, was only five years old. Includes historical notes. |
 | Janeczko, Paul B. Worlds Afire. YA F Jan In this novel written as a collection of eyewitness poems, the excitement and anticipation of attending the circus on July 6, 1944 in Hartford, Connecticut, turns to horror when a fire engulfs the circus tent, killing nearly 180 people, mostly women and children. |
 | Jocelyn, Marthe. How It Happened in Peach Hill. YA F Joc When fifteen-year-old Annie Grey and her “clairvoyant” mother arrive in Peach Hill, New York, in 1924, each finds a reason for wanting to finally settle down, but to reach their goals they will have to do some serious lying and Annie will have to stand up for herself. |
 | Naylor, Phyllis Renolds. Blizzard’s Wake. YA F Nay In March of 1941, when a severe blizzard suddenly hits Bismarck, North Dakota, a girl trying to save her stranded father and brother inadvertently helps the man who killed her mother four years before. |
 | Schlitz, Laura Amy. A Drowned Maiden’s Hair: a melodrama. YA F Sch At the Barbary Asylum for Female Orphans, eleven-year-old Maud is adopted by three spinster sisters moonlighting as mediums who take her home and reveal to her the role she will play in their séances. |
 | Taylor, Mildred D. The Road to Memphis. YA F Tay In 1941 a black youth, sadistically teased by two white boys in rural Mississippi, severely injures one of them with a tire iron and enlists Cassie’s help in trying to flee the state. Set in Mississippi in 1941, The Road to Memphis describes three harrowing, unforgettable days in the life of an African-American high school girl dreaming of law school. Caught up in the center of tense racial dramas unfolding around her, Cassie Logan is forced to confront the adult world as never before. A Coretta Scott King Author Award Book. |
| World War I (1914-1918) | |
 | Ingold, Jeanette. Pictures, 1918. YA F Ing Coming of age in a rural Texas community in 1918, fifteen-year-old Asia assists in the local war effort, contemplates romance with a local boy, and expands her horizons through her pursuit of photography. |
 | Larson, Kirby. Hattie Big Sky. YA F Lar 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. |
| World War II (1939-1944) | |
 | Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. The Boy Who Dared. YA F Bar In October, 1942, seventeen-year-old Helmuth Hubener, 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. |
 | Boyne, John. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas: a fable. YA F Boy Bored and lonely after his family moves from Berlin to a place called “Out-With” in 1942, Bruno, the son of a Nazi officer, befriends a boy in striped pajamas who lives behind a wire fence. |
 | Bradley, Kimberly Brubaker. For Freedom: The Story of a French Spy. YA F Bra Despite the horrors of World War II, a French teenager pursues her dream of 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. |
 | Elliott, Laura. Under a War-Torn Sky. YA F Ell 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. |
 | Friedman, D. Dina. Escaping into the Night. YA F Fri Thirteen-year-old Halina Rudowski narrowly escapes the Polish ghetto and flees to the forest, where she is taken in by an encampment of Jews trying to survive World War II. |
 | Greene, Bette. Summer of My German Soldier. YA F Gre When German prisoners of war are brought to her Arkansas town during World War II, twelve-year-old Patty, a Jewish girl, befriends one of them and must deal with the consequences of that friendship. |
 | Hughes, Dean. Soldier Boys. YA F Hug 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. |
 | Lawrence, Iain. B for Buster. YA F Law In the spring of 1943, sixteen-year-old Kak, desperate to escape his abusive parents, lies about his age to enlist in the Canadian Air Force and soon finds himself based in England as part of a crew flying bombing raids over Germany. |
 | Mazer, Norma Fox. Good Night, Maman. YA F Maz After spending years fleeing from the Nazis in war-torn Europe, twelve-year-old Karin Levi and her older brother Marc find a new home in a refugee camp in Oswego, New York. |
 | Spinelli, Jerry. Milkweed. YA F Spi J F Spi A street child, known to himself only as Stopthief, finds community when he is taken in by a band of orphans in a Warsaw ghetto which helps him weather the horrors of the Nazi regime. |
 | Wulffson, Don L. Soldier X. YA F Wul In 1943 sixteen-year-old Erik experiences the horrors of war when he is drafted into the German army and sent to fight on the Russian front. |
 | Yep, Laurence. Hiroshima. YA F Yep Describes the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, particularly as it affects Sachi, who becomes one of the Hiroshima Maidens. |
 | Yolen, Jane. Briar Rose. YA F Yol A young woman’s promise to her dying grandmother leads her on a quest to discover the truth of her own family’s mysterious beginnings in this grim retelling of the classic fairy tale “Briar Rose,” or “The Sleeping Beauty.” In Yolen’s modern-day version, the wall of thorns becomes a barbed-wire prison, while the sleeping princess is both victim and heroine. (from Library Journal) |
 | Zusak, Markus. The Book Thief. YA F Zus 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. |
| 1950-1970 | |
 | Alvarez, Julia. Before We Were Free. YA F Alv 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. |
 | Arnold, Tedd. Rat Life. YA F Arn After developing an unusual friendship with a young Vietnam War veteran in 1972, fourteen-year-old Todd discovers his writing talent and solves a murder mystery. |
 | Blundell, Judy. What I Saw and How I Lied. YA F Blu In 1947, with her jovial stepfather Joe back from the war and family life returning to normal, teenage Evie, smitten by the handsome young ex-GI who seems to have a secret hold on Joe, finds herself caught in a complicated web of lies whose devastating outcome change her life and that of her family forever. |
 | Couloumbis, Audrey. Summer’s End. YA F Cou Three teenaged cousins worry about their uncle who is missing in Vietnam, their brothers--the one who was drafted and the two who are dodging the draft, and the effects of their absence on the four generations gathered at the family farm in the summer of 1965. |
 | Cushman, Karen. The Loud Silence of Francine Green. YA F Cus In 1949, thirteen-year-old Francine goes to Catholic school in Los Angeles where she becomes best friends with a girl who questions authority and is frequently punished by the nuns, causing Francine to question her own values. |
 | Holt, Kimberly Willis. When Zachary Beaver Came to Town. YA F Hol During the summer of 1971 in a small Texas town, thirteen-year-old Toby and his best friend Cal meet the star of a sideshow act, 600-pound Zachary, the fattest boy in the world. |
 | Schmidt, Gary D. The Wednesday Wars. YA F Sch During the 1967 school year, on Wednesday afternoons when all his classmates go to either Catechism or Hebrew school, seventh-grader Holling Hoodhood stays in Mrs. Baker's classroom where they read the plays of William Shakespeare and Holling learns much of value about the world he lives in. |
 | Stephenson, Lynda. Dancing with Elvis. YA F Ste In Clover, Texas, in the late 1950s, high-schooler Frankilee deals with a devious and manipulative, not to mention prettier and more talented, foster sister, a boyfriend she does not want, and a community divided over school integration. |