Historical Fiction- Grades 5 - 8
Suggestions from Mt. Lebanon Public Library, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
www.mtlebanonlibrary.org
Unless otherwise noted, all books are shelved alphabetically
by the author’s last name in the fiction section.
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MISS CRANDALL’S SCHOOL FOR YOUNG LADIES & LITTLE MISSES OF COLOR / Elizabeth Alexander & Marilyn Nelson—j 811 Ale
When their teacher invites young African-American women to join the daughters of a white town at school, the townspeople try to force the school to close. A book of poems based on fact.
USA, 1800s
THE FIRE-EATERS / David Almond
In the midst of the Cuban Missile Crisis, an English schoolboy copes with illness, new friends, and mean teachers yet still finds comfort in his love for his family and his hope for the future.
England, 1960s - Cuban Missile Crisis
BEFORE WE WERE FREE / Julia Alvarez
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.
Dominican Republic, 1960s
FEVER, 1793 / Laurie Halse Anderson
In 1793 Philadelphia, sixteen-year-old Matilda Cook copes with the horrors of the yellow fever epidemic.
USA, 1700s
CRISPIN: AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD / Avi
In the Middle Ages a boy and his friend face danger and find adventure as they flee from their enemies in order to find freedom and safety. Sequel to Crispin: The Cross of Lead.
England, 1300s
CARRIE’S WAR / Carrie Bawden
At the start of World War II, a brother & sister are evacuated from war-torn London to a village in Wales, where they live with a stern shopkeeper and his lonely sister.
England, World War II
THE EXAMINATION / Malcolm Bosse
Two brothers face famine, flood, and pirates on their journey through China as one pursues his calling as a scholar and the other becomes involved with a secret society.
China, 1400s
CODE TALKER: A NOVEL ABOUT THE NAVAJO MARINES OF WORLD WAR TWO / Joseph Bruchac
Although in school they were taught by white teachers that Navajo is a useless language, Ned Begay and other Navajo men are recruited by the Marines to become Code Talkers, who will send secret messages during World War II in their native tongue.
USA, World War II
BLOOD ON THE RIVER: JAMES TOWN 1607 / Elisa Carbone
The 12 year old page to Captain John Smith adjusts to life in the new colony of James Town where he must learn to distinguish between friend and foe.
USA, 1600s
REVOLUTION IS NOT A DINNER PARTY : A NOVEL /
Ying Chang Compestine
In 1972 the 9 year old daughter of two doctors struggles to make sense of the communists' Cultural Revolution, which empties stores of food, homes of appliances deemed "bourgeois," and people of laughter.
China, 1970s - Cultural Revolution
THE MISADVENTURES OF MAUDE MARCH / Audrey Couloumbis
When two orphaned teenage sisters run away they find themselves in one rollicking Western adventure after another.
USA, 1800s
ELIJAH OF BUXTON / Christopher Paul Curtis
Eleven year old Elijah, whose parents were slaves, is a free child living in Canada when he embarks on a dangerous journey into America in order to find a lying preacher who stole money that was meant to free a slave family.
USA/Canada, 1850s
THE MIDWIFE’S APPRENTICE / Karen Cushman
A homeless medieval girl tries to find her place in the world.
England, Middle Ages
GRANNY WAS A BUFFER GIRL / Berlie Doherty
On the eve before Jess leaves to spend a year in France, her family gathers to reminisce about the memorable and special times that shaped each of their lives.
England, 1900s
THE GAME OF SILENCE / Louise Erdrich
Nine year old Omakayas, of the Ojibwa tribe, must leave her beloved home on the Lake Superior shore when her family and tribe move west. Sequel to The Birchbark House.
USA, 1840s
THE SLAVE DANCER / Paula Fox
In 1840, a 13 year old boy is kidnapped and forced to make music on board a slave ship so the slaves can keep their muscles strong by “dancing.”
USA, 1840
THE EDUCATION OF PATIENCE GOODSPEED /
Heather Vogel Frederick
Although she loves her job as assistant navigator on her father’s whaling ship, when the ship heads into dangerous waters her father forces Patience to enter a boarding school for girls in Hawaii. Funny and exciting.
Hawaii, 1800s
THE SOUND OF COACHES / Leon Garfield
The adopted son of a coachman and his wife longs to discover his origins in this funny adventure of eighteenth century England.
England, 1700s
A HOUSE OF TAILORS / Patricia Reilly Giff
Thirteen year old Dina’s skills as a seamstress help her adapt to her new home in Brooklyn even though she longs to return to her family home in Germany.
USA, 1870s
BLOOD RED HORSE / K. M. Grant
A special horse changes the lives of two English brothers and the young ward of the Muslim leader Saladin when they all meet in the Middle East on the battlefields of the Third Crusades.
England/Middle East, 1100s- Crusades
THE SUMMER OF MY GERMAN SOLDIER / Bette Greene
In Arkansas, a lonely Jewish girl becomes friends with a German prisoner of war.
USA, World War II
TOM CRINGLE: THE PIRATE AND THE PATRIOT / Gerald Hausman
A 14 year old lieutenant in the British navy faces pirates, an uncharted wilderness, man-eating sharks, and brutal battles in Jamaica.
Jamaica, War of 1812
OUT OF THE DUST / Karen Hesse
Fifteen year old Billie Jo relates the hardships her Oklahoma family faces during the Dust Bowl years of the Great Depression.
USA, 1900s
THE GHOST IN THE TOKAIDO INN / Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler
A fourteen year old boy who wants to be a samurai sets out on a dangerous journey in order to solve the mystery of a stolen jewel.
Japan, 1700s
ACROSS FIVE APRILS / Irene Hunt
With one brother in the Union Army and the other in the Confederacy, Jethro Creighton and his family face the cruel reality of war.
USA, Civil War
THE STAR OF KAZAN / Eve Ibbotson
After twelve year old Annika inherits a trunk of costume jewelry, a woman claiming to be her mother takes her to live in a decrepit mansion in Germany.
Vienna, 1800s
CRACKER! : THE BEST DOG IN VIETNAM / Cynthia Kadohata
A young soldier and his specially trained dog search for mines, sniff out enemy locations, and rescue missing soldiers during the Vietnam War.
Vietnam, 1960s
THE GREEN GLASS SEA / Ellen Klages
In 1943 an 11-year-old girl moves west to be with her scientist father who is working on a top secret government program- the atomic bomb.
USA, 1940s
THE STORYTELLER'S BEADS / Jane Kurtz
During the political strife and famine of the 1980's, two Ethiopian girls, one Christian and the other Jewish and blind, struggle to overcome many difficulties, including their prejudices about each other, as they make the dangerous journey out of Ethiopia.
Ethiopia, 1980s
HATTIE BIG SKY / Kirby Larson
In 1918, sixteen-year-old orphan Hattie Brooks moves to the Montana prairie, where she struggles to make an inherited homestead her own.
USA, 1900s
THE CONVICTS / Iain Lawrence
After a thirteen year old boy is convicted of murder, he is sentenced to seven years on a prison ship for boys and is eventually is transported to Australia. An exciting historical adventure.
London, 1800s
THE ART OF KEEPING COOL / Janet Taylor Lisle
Two cousins befriend a German artist who lives on the outskirts of their grandparent’s Rhode Island town and who is suspected of being a spy.
USA, World War II
GOOD NIGHT, MR. TOM / Michelle Magorian
When he is evacuated from war-torn London, an abused boy finds affection and friendship for the first time.
England, World War II
THE KITE RIDER / Geraldine McCaughrean
In this fast-paced adventure, a 12-year-old boy joins the circus as a kite rider.
China, 1200s
MARA, DAUGHTER OF THE NILE / Eloise Jarvis McGraw
The adventures of an Egyptian slave girl who becomes a spy in the royal palace of Thebes.
Egypt, 1400s BC
MISS SPITFIRE : REACHING HELEN KELLER / Sarah Miller
Twenty one year old Annie Sullivan travels from Massachusetts to Alabama to try and teach six-year-old Helen Keller, deaf and blind since age two.
USA, 1900s
THE GLORY FIELD / Walter Dean Myers
The memorable two hundred forty-one year history of one African-American family.
USA, 1700s, 1800s, 1900s
THE KING OF MULBERRY STREET / Donna Jo Napoli
A young Jewish boy from Italy arrives in America on a cargo ship, and although he longs to return home, he begins to make a new life for himself on the streets of New York.
USA, 1890s
SING DOWN THE MOON / Scott O’Dell
In this moving story, a Navaho Indian girl tells of the two years in her life when her tribe was forced to travel 300 miles to Fort Sumner with the rest of the Navajo Nation.
USA, 1800s
A SINGLE SHARD / Linda Sue Park
After he accidentally breaks a piece of exquisite pottery, an orphaned and homeless boy is given a chance at a better life when he begins to assist the master potter Min.
Korea, 1100s
SOLDIER’S HEART: A NOVEL OF THE CIVIL WAR / Gary Paulsen
Charley Goddard lies about his age in order to join the First Minnesota Volunteers, and after four years of fighting amidst the horrors of the war, returns home aged and “deadened.”
USA, Civil War
ON THE WINGS OF HEROES / Richard Peck
An Illinois boy remembers the homefront years of World War II when his world was filled with rationing, sacrifice, and heroes.
USA, World War II
THE RUBY IN THE SMOKE / Philip Pullman - j M PULLMAN
When a 16 year old girl sets out to solve the mystery surrounding her father’s death, she becomes involved in a deadly search for a mysterious ruby. The first of a trilogy.
England, 1800s
DOGBOY / Christopher Russell
An orphaned boy raised with hunting dogs at an English manor, accompanies his master and his prize dogs to France where they join a battle in the Hundred Years War.
England, 1300s
UNDER THE BLOOD RED SUN / Graham Salisbury
Life for a young boy’s Japanese family in Hawaii changes drastically after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941.
Hawaii, World War II
A DROWNED MAIDEN’S HAIR / Laura Amy Schlitz
An eleven year old orphaned girl, adopted by three sisters moonlighting as mediums, is given a part to play in their fraudulent seances.
USA, Early 1900s
LIZZIE BRIGHT AND THE BUCKMINSTER BOY / Gary D. Schmidt
In 1911, a white minister’s son befriends a girl from a poor, island community founded by former slaves that the town fathers- and Turner’s- want to change into a tourist spot.
USA, Early 1900s
THE WITCH OF BLACKBIRD POND / Elizabeth George Speare
After moving from Barbados to Connecticut in 1697, a young girl’s safety is endangered by her friendship with an old woman thought to be a witch.
USA, 1600s
THE SHADOWS OF GHADAMES / Joelle Stolz
As young women come of age in nineteenth-century Libya they are restricted to the homes and rooftops of their city – a women’s only community. Just as 11 year-old Malika questions these restrictions that soon will apply to her, her father’s 2 wives secretly shelter an injured man in this closed community.
Libya, 1800s
A TRUE AND FAITHFUL NARRATIVE / Katherine Sturtevant
In London of the 1680s, a 16 year old aspiring writer debates whether to marry either of the two men who are courting her, one a bookseller’s apprentice and the other a seafarer recently returned from being captured in Algiers.
London, 1600s
THE LAND / Mildred Taylor
The son of a plantation owner father and a slave mother dreams of owning his own land. Prequel to Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.
USA, Post-Civil War
JOURNEY TO TOPAZ / Yoshido Ushida
Yuki, her mother, and her brother are sent to a Japanese-American internment camp in the Utah desert.
USA, World War II
BURYING THE SUN / Gloria Whelan
During the terrible siege of Leningrad in 1941, a fourteen-year-old Russian boy tries to help his family and his city during that time of war and starvation.
Russia, 1940s
BAT 6 / Virginia Euwer Wolff
In post World War II Oregon, sixth grade girls must face up to bigotry during a softball game.
USA, World War II
DRAGONWINGS / Laurence Yep
A Chinese immigrant in San Francisco successfully builds and flies a biplane.
USA, 1900s
THE DEVIL’S ARITHMETIC / Jane Yolen
A young Jewish girl, tired of hearing her grandparent’s stories of the Holocaust, is sent back in time to a small Jewish village in Nazi-occupied Poland.
Poland, 1940s
Look for these and other great books in
The Children’s Library
Mt. Lebanon Public Library
16 Castle Shannon Blvd.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15228
www.mtlebanonlibrary.org
412.531.1913 1/08
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