More Historical Fiction Books You Must Read
Discover must-read historical fiction books that transport you to the past. Explore captivating stories, rich settings, and unforgettable characters in this curated list of top picks.
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When Will this Cruel War be Over?
by Barry Denenberg
The diary of a fictional fourteen-year-old girl living in Virginia, in which she describes the hardships endured by her family and friends during one year of the Civil War.
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Letters from a Slave Girl
by Mary E. Lyons
A fictionalized version of the life of Harriet Jacobs, told in the form of letters that she might have written during her slavery in North Carolina and as she prepared for escape to the North in 1842.
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Becca's Story
by James D. Forman
Becca Case finds herself faced with a choice between two suitors--steadfast Alex Forman and charming Charlie Gregory--but her choice become complicated by the outbreak of the Civil War, in a story based on the author's own ancestors' letters and diaries.
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Beyond the Burning Time
by Kathryn Lasky
When in the winter of 1692, accusations of witchcraft surface in her small New England village, twelve-year-old Mary Chase fights to save her mother from execution.
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The House on Hound Hill
by Maggie Prince
Soon after she, her mother, and her younger brother move into an old house on what was once known as Beggarsgate, Emily begins to have terrifyingly real glimpses of scenes of 17th century London devastated by the plague.
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Keeping the Good Light
by Katherine Kirkpatrick
Bored with living in a New York lighthouse at the turn of the twentieth century, sixteen-year-old Eliza seeks a teaching position away from home.
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Sacred Shadows
by Maxine Schur
"When I was told my father was dead, I ran away....I reached the pine grove, and there I flung myself down, hugged the damp earth, and waited."Against a pre-Hitler backdrop rarely viewed in young adult novels, Lena Katz suddenly learns that the Germany for which her father died is now considered part of Poland. She grows up torn between her desire to leave and her allegiance to her mother, who ignores thecountry's growing anti-Semitism. Then Janusz, a handsome young idealist, enters Lena's world and alters her life forever.Maxine Rose Schur's books include The Circlemaker (Dial), her first novel, which Publishers Weekly hailed as "atmospheric and suspenseful...maintaining an edge-of-the-seat tension until the very last words."
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Annie's Promise
by Sonia Levitin
Annie's Promises is Sonia Levitin's unforgettable work of historical fiction. As a young refugee from Nazi Germany, Annie Platt seizes the opportunity to attend Quaker Pines, a camp for people of many different backgrounds. The conclusion to Levitin's series about the Platt family, German Jewish refugees, is a "solidly crafted novel." (Publisher's Weekly)
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Pictures, 1918
by Jeanette Ingold
Coming of age in a rural Texas community in 1918, 15-year-old Asia assists in the local war effort, contemplates romance with a local boy, and expands her horizons through her pursuit of photography.
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The Great Railroad Race
by Kristiana Gregory
As the daughter of a newspaper reporter, fourteen-year-old Libby keeps a diary account of the exciting events surrounding her during the building of the Transcontinental Railroad in the West in 1868.
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Silver Days
by Sonia Levitin
Silver Days is Sonia Levitin's story of a Jewish family—escaping from Hitler's Germany—that moves from New York City to California. In this sequel to Journey to America, the reunited Platt family works hard at settling in to America, but the spectre of the war in Europe continues to affect their lives.
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Nellie Bishop
by Clara Gillow Clark
Nellie struggles to survive in the rough and tumble world of a Pennsylvania canal town.
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Silent Stranger
by Amanda Benton
Although they do not know anything about him, the mute young man who shows up on their New York farm at Christmastime in 1813 becomes increasingly important to fourteen-year-old Jessie and her family.
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The Journal of William Thomas Emerson, a Revolutionary War Patriot
by Barry Denenberg
William, a twelve-year-old orphan, writes of his experiences in pre-Revolutionary War Boston where he joins the cause of the patriots who are opposed to the British rule, in a boy-narrated companion to the Dear America series.
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We are Witnesses
by Jacob Boas
Accounts of how five teenagers faced human evil and became a testament to the best in the human spirit.
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In My Enemy's House
by Carol Matas
When German soldiers arrive in Zloczow during World War II, a young Jewish girl must decide whether or not to conceal her identity and work for a Nazi in Germany in order to survive.
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Four Perfect Pebbles:
by Lila Perl
If she could find four perfect pebbles of almost exactly the same size and shape, it meant that her family would remain whole. Mama and papa and she and Albert would survive Bergen-Belsen. The four of them might even survive the Nazis' attempt to destroy every last Jew in Europe.
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Fire in the Hills
by Anna Myers
After sixteen-year-old Hallie's mother dies, she loses herself in caring for her seven brothers and sisters. Then the outbreak of World War I divides her tiny Oklahoma town, bringing a mysterious draft-dodger searching for refuge in the hills. Neighbors mistrust neighbors, fear turns to anger-and love forces Hallie to stand up for what she knows is right.
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Tituba of Salem Village
by Ann Petry
In the Salem Village of 1692, superstition and hysteria peaked with the Salem witch trials. One of the first three "witches" condemned is Tituba, a slave from Barbados. "This restrained but dramatic narrative . . . brings to life not only Tituba but also those around her, and shows how suspicion against her culminated in her arrest and trial".--Booklist.
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The Ornament Tree
by Jean Thesman
When fourteen-year-old Bonnie moves to her cousin's boardinghouse in Seattle in 1918, she learns about life from the boarders and progressive women who live and work there.