Young Adult Historical Fiction Book List
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That Inevitable Victorian Thing by E. K. Johnston – YA F JOH
Set in a near-future world where the British Empire was preserved, not by the cost of blood and theft but by the effort of repatriation and promises kept, That Inevitable Victorian Thing is a novel of love, duty, and the small moments that can change people and the world. |
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Alma Presses Play by Tina Cane – YA F CAN
Alma’s life is a series of halfways: She’s half- Chinese, half-Jewish; her parents spend half the time fighting, and the other half silent; and she’s halfway through becoming a woman. But as long as she can listen to her Walkman, hang out with her friends on the stoops of the Village, and ride her bike around the streets of New York, it feels like everything will be all right. Then comes the year when everything changes. |
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My Contrary Mary by Cynthia Hand – YA F HAN
Mary is the queen of Scotland and the jewel of the French court. Except when she’s a mouse. Yes, reader, Mary is an Eðian (shapeshifter) in a kingdom where Verities rule. It’s a secret that could cost her a head—or a tail. |
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Lovely War by Julie Berry – YA F BER
Thirty years after four lovers’ fates collide, the Greek goddess Aphrodite tells their stories to her husband, Hephaestus, and her lover, Ares, in a luxe Manhattan hotel room at the height of World War II. She seeks to answer the age-old question: Why are Love and War eternally drawn to one another? |
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Daughters of Jubilation by Kara Lee Corthron – YA F COR
In the Jim Crow South, white supremacy reigns, and tensions are high. But Evalene Deschamps has other things to worry about. Evvie’s magic abilities are growing stronger by the day. Her family calls it jubilation—a gift passed down from generations of black women since slavery. And as Evvie’s talents waken, something dark comes loose and threatens to resurface… |
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Dread Nation by Justina Ireland – YA F IRE
Jane McKeene was born two days before the dead began to walk the battlefields of Gettysburg and Chancellorsville—derailing the |
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The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee – YA F LEE
Henry “Monty” Montague was born and bred to be a gentleman, but he was never one to be tamed. The finest boarding schools in England and the constant disapproval of his father haven’t been able to curb any of his roguish passions—not for gambling halls, late nights spent with a bottle of spirits or waking up in the arms of women or men. |
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Girls Like Us by Randi Pink – YA F PIN
Set in the summer of 1972, this moving YA historical novel is narrated by teen girls from different backgrounds with one thing in common: Each girl is pregnant. Four teenage girls. Four different stories. What they all have in common…they’re dealing with unplanned pregnancies. |
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Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys – YA F SEP
While the Titanic and Lusitania are both well-documented disasters, the single greatest tragedy in maritime history is the little-known January 30, 1945, sinking in the Baltic Sea by a Soviet submarine of the Wilhelm Gustloff, a German cruise liner that was supposed to ferry wartime personnel and refugees to safety from the advancing Red Army. |
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Alex and Eliza by Melissa De la Cruz – YA F CRU
When Alexander Hamilton and Eliza Schuylers meet one fateful night at the Schuylers’ grand ball, it begins an epic love story that would forever change the course of American history. |
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The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson – YA F AND
For the past five years, Hayley Kincain and her father, Andy, have been on the road, never staying long in one place as he struggles to escape the demons that have tortured him since his return from Iraq. Now they are back in the town where he grew up so Hayley can attend school. |
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Beyond the Mapped Stars by Rosalyn Eves – YA F EVE
Seventeen-year-old Elizabeth Bertelsen dreams of becoming an astronomer, but she knows such dreams are as unreachable as the stars she so deeply adores. As a Mormon girl, her duty is to her family and the man who’ll choose to marry her. When she unexpectedly finds herself in Colorado, she’s tempted by the total eclipse of the sun that’s about to happen—and maybe even meeting up with the female scientists she’s long admired. |
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The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee – YA F LEE
By day, seventeen-year-old Jo Kuan works as a lady’s maid for the cruel daughter of one of the wealthiest men in Atlanta. But by night, Jo moonlights as the pseudonymous author of a newspaper advice column for the genteel Southern lady, “Dear Miss Sweetie.” When her column becomes wildly popular, she uses the power of the pen to address some of society’s ills, but she’s not prepared for the backlash that follows when her column challenges fixed ideas about race and gender. |
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And I Darken by Kiersten White – YA F WHI
No one expects a princess to be brutal. And Lada Dragwlya likes it that way. Ever since she and her gentle younger brother, Radu, were wrenched from their homeland of Wallachia and abandoned by their father to be raised in the Ottoman courts, Lada has known that being ruthless is the key to survival. |
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Burn Baby Burn by Meg Medina – YA F MED
After a freezing winter, a boiling hot summer explodes with arson, a blackout, and a serial killer named Son of Sam shooting young people on the streets seemingly at random. Not only is the city a disaster, but Nora has troubles of her own. The super’s after her mother to pay their overdue rent, and her teachers are pushing her to apply for college, but all Nora wants is to turn eighteen and be on her own. |