Showing titles in Historical Fiction

Junie Kim just wants to fit in. So she keeps her head down and tries not to draw attention to herself. But when racist graffiti appears at her middle school, Junie must decide between staying silent or speaking out. Then Junie’s history teacher assigns a project and Junie decides to interview her grandparents, learning about their unbelievable experiences as kids during the Korean War. Junie comes to admire her grandma’s fierce determination to overcome impossible odds, and her grandpa’s unwavering compassion during wartime.

When first published, Walker’s versions of the Iliad and the Odyssey attracted attention for the quality of the writing. Multi-award-winning author Gillian Cross makes two of the greatest stories in the world come alive for children in her strong, clear, deceptively simple retellings, which are faithful to the spirit and structure of Homer’s epic poems, and this new bind-up in a friendly format comes complete with an introduction.

Twelve-year-old Ebony-Grace Norfleet has lived with her beloved grandfather Jeremiah in Huntsville, Alabama ever since she was little. As one of the first black engineers to integrate NASA, Jeremiah has nurtured Ebony-Grace’s love for all things outer space and science fiction - especially Star Wars and Star Trek. But in the summer of 1984, when trouble arises with Jeremiah, it’s decided she’ll spend a few weeks with her father in Harlem.

It's 1942: Tomi Itano, 12, is a second-generation Japanese American who lives in California with her family on their strawberry farm. Although her parents came from Japan and her grandparents still live there, Tomi considers herself an American. She doesn't speak Japanese and has never been to Japan. But after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, things change. No Japs Allowed signs hang in store windows and Tomi's family is ostracized. Things get much worse.

Huguenot Garden is a children's story of the daily and adventurous episodes in the lives of Rene and Albret Martineau, young twin sisters in a 17th-century French-Protestant family. This entertaining but moving story follows the twins and the rest of the Martineau family as they work, worship, commune, and suffer persecution together.

From Newbery Honor author Kirby Larson comes the moving story of a young boy who, with a dad fighting in Europe and a sister working at the Higgins Boat factory, longs to have a dog of his own. Fish has a knack for inventing. His annoying neighbor, Olympia, has a knack for messing things up. But when his latest invention leads Fish to Liberty, a beautiful stray dog who needs a home, he and Olympia work together to rescue her.

The Alden children are visiting Aunt Jane when a nearby house burns down. Their friend Mike is blamed for starting the fire! Can the Aldens help find the real criminal?

Francis Tucket’s life has been exciting ever since his family headed to Oregon in a wagon train. First he was kidnapped by Pawnee Indians. Then Mr. Grimes, a one-armed mountain, man rescued him and taught him wilderness survival skills. Later when Francis set off alone to find his parents on the Oregon Trail, he ended up rescuing two young children stranded in the barren land.

Set in Mississippi at the height of the Depression, this is the story of one family's struggle to maintain their integrity, pride, and independence in the face of racism and social injustice. And it is also Cassie's story - Cassie Logan, an independent girl who discovers over the course of an important year why having land of their own is so crucial to the Logan family, even as she learns to draw strength from her own sense of dignity and self-respect.

In Victorian England, orphan Mary Quinn lives on the edge. Sentenced as a thief at the age of 12, she’s rescued from the gallows by a woman posing as a prison warden. In her new home, Miss Scrimshaw’s Academy for Girls, Mary acquires a singular education, fine manners, and a surprising opportunity. The school is a cover for the Agency — an elite, top secret corps of female investigators with a reputation for results — and at 17, Mary’s about to join their ranks.

A secret past can destroy the future. It all begins when Wade Kaplan receives a strange, coded email from his uncle Henry, shortly before the old man's sudden and suspicious death. He sets off for Germany to attend the funeral with his father, Roald, and his three friends Darrell, Lily, and Becca, only to discover that Uncle Henry left them yet another baffling message that they suspect is the key to figuring out how and why he died. The message leads to a clue, which sends them to a dark and creepy family tomb.

The Aldens visit their mysterious Aunt Jane at her run-down ranch and make a surprising discovery!

Ten-year-old Katy Gordon loves baseball, and she's good at it, too. She tries out for the 1958 Little League season in the disguise of a boy, and she gets in easily. But when the coach finds out she's a girl, he forbids her from playing. "Since the beginning of baseball as an organized sport, it has always been the sole province of male athletes, and will remain so", says the Little League director. It's not fair, and Katy, who's also learning about the Civil Rights Movement in school, recognizes this as another societal injustice.

With the depression bearing down on her family, there isn't much that Cassie Logan can count on anymore. But there is one thing that hasn't changed - the whispering trees outside her window. Cassie's trees, which have stood for centuries, are a great source of comfort to her. But they are also worth a lot of money. With Cassie's daddy gone to lay tracks for the railroad, it seems like no one can stop Mr. Andersen from forcing Big Ma to sell their valuable trees. How can Cassie sit by and watch them disappear?

Angeline Reddy is the daughter of a famous lawyer, but she's no stranger to rule-breaking. Growing up in the wild gold-mining town of Bodie, California, in the 1880s, Angeline has seen it all -- saloons, brawls, dance halls, and a whole lot of desperation. But nothing's more exciting than seeing her daddy, Patrick Reddy, in action in the courtroom. Yet when Angeline's beau, a detective, ends up on trial, she finds herself tangled in a dangerous mystery as she attempts to help clear his name.

This delightful and interesting account of the Pilgrims is written especially for children. It explores the religious oppression of the Pilgrims in England, their escape to Holland and eventual crossing to America on the Mayflower, and their early days in New England. Based on historical fact, the stories are filled with details of everyday life and vivid characterizations of Pilgrim families as they struggle to maintain their faith in the New World.

When the magic tree house whisks Jack and Annie to a mountainside, they are surprised to find farmers nearby. Then they learn that the farmer's baby llama has been stolen, and Jack and Annie vow to bring the little animal back to its owners. But the journey is treacherous - they must climb to the peak of Machu Picchu and climb back down in order to complete this mission. Jack and Annie have been on many dangerous travels, but can they survive this one?

It was only a few weeks ago that the Biedermann twins, Tess and Theo, along with their friend Jaime Cruz, followed the secrets of the Morningstarrs’ cipher further than anyone had in its century-and a-half history - and destroyed their beloved home in the process. But the Old York Cipher still isn’t solved. The demolition of 354 W. 73rd Street only revealed the next clue in the greatest mystery of the modern world, and if they want to discover what lies at the end of the puzzle laid into the buildings of New York by its brilliant, enigmatic architects, they will need to press on.

Sera has a secret. She’s seen the future, and it is terrifying. Unfortunately, she can’t do anything to prevent the Cataclysm while stranded with Dak and Riq thousands of years in the past. Their only hope lies with the ancient Maya, a mysterious people who claim to know a great deal about the future. Is there more to these ancients than meets the eye?

Eleven-year-old Samuel was born as Master Hackler's slave, and working the Kentucky farm is the only life he's ever known - until one dark night in 1859, that is. With no warning, cranky old Harrison, a fellow slave, pulls Samuel from his bed and, together, they run. The journey north seems much more frightening than Master Hackler ever was, and Samuel's not sure what freedom means aside from running, hiding, and starving. But as they move from one refuge to the next on the Underground Railroad, Samuel uncovers the secret of his own past - and future.