My favorite historical fiction books
Discover the best historical fiction books with our curated list of favorites. Immerse yourself in captivating stories and rich historical settings that bring the past to life.
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The Coffin Quilt
by Ann Rinaldi
In the 1880s, young Fanny McCoy witnesses the growth of a terrible and violent feud between her Kentucky family and the West Virginia Hatfields, complicated by her older sister Roseanna's romance with a Hatfield.
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Cast Two Shadows
by Ann Rinaldi
A young girl living in South Carolina during the American Revolution discovers the duplicity within herself and others.
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Or Give Me Death
by Ann Rinaldi
With their father away most of the time advocating independence for the American colonies, the children of Patrick Henry try to raise themselves, manage the family plantation, and care for their mentally ill mother. 12,000 first printing.
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My Heart is on the Ground
by Ann Rinaldi
In the diary account of her life at a government-run Pennsylvania boarding school in 1880, a twelve-year-old Sioux Indian girl reveals a great need to find a way to help her people.
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Girl in Blue
by Ann Rinaldi
As a teen, Sarah Wheelock has vowed never to let a man control her. With this conviction, she leaves her life on a Michigan farm, disguises herself as a boy, and fights in the Civil War.
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Broken Days
by Ann Rinaldi
The second page-turning installment of award-winning historical-fiction author Ann Rinaldi's QUILT TRILOGY. "A definite plus for any historical fiction collection." - VOYA When her mother died, she told 14-year-old Walking Breeze to seek out her family-the Chelmsfords of Salem. She will find solace there. But Ebie Chelmsford has other ideas. Ebie knows that her half-Shawnee "cousin" will take her place as grandfather's favorite. And Ebie will do anything to stop that--even trying to prove that the girl is an imposter... Ebie thinks Walking Breeze is destroying the home Aunt Hannah has fought to keep together. But it's Ebie's actions, ultimately, that risk tearing apart the Chelmsford family, like the tattered threads of the family quilt.
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The Last Silk Dress
by Ann Rinaldi
High-spirited, beautiful Susan Chilmark, fourteen, vows to do something meaningful to support the Confederacy during the Civil War. Despite the wishes of her mother, Susan and her best friend, Connie, collect silk dresses from all the ladies of Richmond to make a balloon that will be used to spy on the Yankees. But the issues behind the war aren't as obvious as Susan thinks. When she meets her dashing, scandalous older brother and discovers why he was banished from the family, Susan unlocks a Pandora's box of secrets that forces her to rethink and challenge the very system she was born into. Does she have the courage to do what is right even though it may hurt the ones she loves?
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Time Enough for Drums
by Ann Rinaldi
Sixteen-year-old Jem struggles to maintain the status quo at home in Trenton, New Jersey, when the family men join the war for independence. There are signs of rebellion in the Emerson household several years before the actual American Revolution hits in 1776! Brought up in a relatively liberal household, Jemima Emerson is quite a challenge for her tutor, John Reid, who is known as a Tory with strong ties to England. How could Jem's parents be friends with a man who opposes American freedom? Jem longs for freedom on every level, in the home and her homeland--and John represents the forces that restrict her. Jem and her family soon find themselves fighting for freedom in whatever ways they can in the Revolutionary War. Before long, Jem discovers that there is much more to Mr. Reid than she ever imagined. Her feelings about him change when Jem realizes that John shares her love of freedom--and will risk his life to defend it.
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The Staircase
by Ann Rinaldi
In 1878, after her mother's death on the way West, thirteen-year-old Lizzy Enders is left by her father at a convent school in Sante Fe, where she must deal with being the only non-Catholic student and where she plays a part in what some consider a miracl
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Amelia's War
by Ann Rinaldi
A riveting middle-grade Civil War drama by acclaimed author, Ann Rinaldi. Based on a true incident. As the Civil War rages, Amelia's Maryland town is beset by divisions. Even she and her best friend Josh disagree. Amelia vows not to take sides, until the Confederate troops march into town...led by Josh's uncle.
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In My Father's House
by Ann Rinaldi
For two sisters growing up surrounded by the Civil War, there is conflict both outside and inside their house.
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An Acquaintance with Darkness
by Ann Rinaldi
Fourteen-year-old Emily Pigbush suspects that her uncle, a respected physician, is involved in body snatching.
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Mutiny's Daughter
by Ann Rinaldi
Gives voice, as a teenager returned to the Christian family in England, to the half-Tahitian daughter of the British ship Bounty's second-in-command and mutineer, Fletcher Christian.
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Wolf by the Ears
by Ann Rinaldi
Harriet Hemings, rumored to be the daughter of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, one of his black slaves, struggles with the problems facing her--to escape from the velvet cage that is Monticello, or to stay, and thus remain a slave.
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The Second Bend in the River
by Ann Rinaldi
In 1798 Rebecca, a young settler in the Ohio territory, meets the Shawnee chief called Tecumseh whom she grows to love and then must choose a future on her family homestead or one with the man she loves. Reprint.
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Kaiulani
by Ellen Emerson White
The life story of Kaiulani, an Hawaiian princess in the late nineteenth century, as written in her dairy.
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Jahanara, Princess of Princesses
by Kathryn Lasky
Written by a Newbery Honor-winning author, this is the story of a princess who longs for freedom. Jahanara is the daughter of a rich emperor in India. While she is showered with many riches, she is also confined by her strict religion and the rules of the palace.
