Historical Fiction Suggestions

The Story of Bodri by Hedi Fried – P FRI

Hedi, a young Jewish girl, leaves her dog, Bodri, behind when she finds out the Nazis are after her and her family. Inspired by the author’s experiences, this book is a thoughtful introduction to the Holocaust for young readers.
Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis – J F CUR

Ten-year-old Bud, a motherless boy living in Flint, Michigan, during the Great Depression, escapes a bad foster home and sets out in search of the man he believes to be his father–the renowned bandleader, H.E. Calloway of Grand Rapids.
Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson (series) – J F AND

When their owner dies at the start of the Revolution, Isabel and her younger sister are sold to Loyalists in New York, where Isabel is offered the chance to spy for the Patriots.
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry – J F LOW

In 1943, during the German occupation of Denmark, ten-year-old Annemarie is courageous when she helps shelter her Jewish friend from the Nazis.
The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani – J F HIR

Shy twelve-year-old Nisha, forced to flee her home with her Hindu family during the 1947 partition of India, tries to find her voice and make sense of the world falling apart around her by writing to her deceased Muslim mother in the pages of her diary.
Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes – J F FOR

A fourteen-year-old silversmith’s apprentice becomes a rider for the “Boston Observer” and messenger for the patriots who planned the Boston Tea Party.
It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel by Firoozeh Dumas – J F DUM

Eleven-year-old Zomorod, originally from Iran, tells her story of growing up Iranian in Southern California during the Iranian Revolution and hostage crisis of the late 1970s.
A Long Way From Chicago: A Novel in Stories by Richard Peck – J F PEC

A boy recounts his annual summer trips to rural Illinois with his sister during the Great Depression to visit their larger-than-life grandmother.
The Watsons Go To Birmingham by Christopher Paul Curtis – J F CUR

When the Watson family sets out on a trip south to visit Grandma in Birmingham, Alabama, they don’t realize that they’re heading toward one of the darkest moments in America’s history.
Finding Junie Kim by Ellen Oh – J F OH

A tale based on actual events follows the coming-of-age of a girl who is motivated by an act of racism at school to learn about her ancestral heritage and her grandparents’ experiences as lost children during the Korean War.
Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse – J F HES

In a series of poems, fifteen-year-old Billie Jo relates the hardships of living on her family’s wheat farm in Oklahoma during the dust bowl years of the Depression.
The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich – J F ERD

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.
One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia – J F WIL

In the summer of 1968, after traveling from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to spend a month with the mother they barely know, eleven-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters arrive to a cold welcome as they discover that their mother, a dedicated poet, and printer, is resentful of the intrusion of their visit and wants them to attend a nearby Black Panther summer camp.
The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley – J F BRA

A young disabled girl and her brother are evacuated from London to the English countryside during World War II, where they find life to be much sweeter away from their abusive mother.
Full of Beans by Jennifer L. Holm – J F HOL

Ten-year-old Beans Curry, a member of the Keepsies, the best marble playing gang in Depression-era Key West, Florida, engages in various schemes to earn money. At the same time, “New Dealers” from Washington, D.C., arrive to turn run-down Key West into a tourist resort.
Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan – J F MAC

In the late nineteenth century, when their father invites a mail-order bride to live with them in their prairie home, Caleb and Anna are captivated by their new mother and hope that she will stay.
Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan – TWEEN F RYA

Lost in the Black Forest, Otto meets three mysterious sisters. He finds himself entwined in a prophecy, a promise, and a harmonica–and decades later, three children, Friedrich in Germany, Mike in Pennsylvania, and Ivy in California, find themselves caught up in the same thread of destiny in the darkest days of the twentieth century, struggling to keep their families intact, and tied together by the music of the same harmonica.
Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson – TWEEN F AND

In 1793 Philadelphia, sixteen-year-old Matilda Cook, separated from her sick mother, learns about perseverance and self-reliance when forced to cope with the horrors of a yellow fever epidemic.
Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai – TWEEN F LAI

Through a series of poems, a young girl chronicles the life-changing year of 1975, when she, her mother, and her brothers leave Vietnam and resettle in Alabama.
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick – TWEEN F SEL

When twelve-year-old Hugo, an orphan living and repairing clocks within the walls of a Paris train station in 1931, meets a mysterious toy seller and his goddaughter, his undercover life and his biggest secret are jeopardized.
Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan – TWEEN F RYA

Esperanza and her mother are forced to leave their life of wealth and privilege in Mexico to work in the labor camps of Southern California, where they must adapt to the harsh circumstances facing Mexican farm workers on the eve of the Great Depression.
Revolution by Deborah Wiles – TWEEN WIL

Struggling to adapt within her newly blended family in 1964 Mississippi, young Sunny witnesses increasingly scary community agitation when activists from the North arrive in town to help register African Americans to vote.
I Survived the Nazi Invasion (series) by Georgia Ball – GRAPHIC J TAR

A young Jewish boy escapes the ghetto and finds a group of resistance fighters in the forests of Poland, and he must determine if he has what it takes to survive the Nazis and fight back.
Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales (series) by Nathan Hale – GRAPHIC J HAL

In the Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales series, author Nathan Hale channels his namesake to present history’s roughest, toughest, and craziest stories in the graphic novel format.
The Legend of Autie Po by Shing Yin Khor – GRAPHIC J KHO

Aware of the racial tumult in the years after the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act, Mei tries to remain blissfully focused on her job, her close friendship with the camp foreman’s daughter, and telling stories about Paul Bunyan–reinvented as Po PanYin (Auntie Po), an elderly Chinese matriarch.
White Bird by R.J. Palacio – GRAPHIC J PAL

Tells the story of Julian Grandmére’s childhood as she, a Jewish girl, was hidden by a family in a Nazi-occupied French village during World War II and how the boy she once shunned became her savior and best friend.