ANCIENT TIMES
Lawrence, Caroline. The Thieves of Ostia: A Roman Mystery.
In Rome in the year 79 A.D., a group of children from very different backgrounds work together to discover who beheaded a pet dog -- and why. J-M LAW 
McGraw, Eloise. Mara, Daughter of the Nile.
The adventures of an ingenious Egyptian slave girl who undertakes a dangerous assignment as a spy in the royal palace of Thebes, in the days when Queen Hatshepsut ruled. J-HF MCG
Sutcliff, Rosemary. The Lantern Bearers.
Instead of leaving with the last of the Roman legions, Aquila, a young officer, decides that his loyalties lie with Britain, and he eventually joins the forces of the Roman-British leader Ambrosius to fight against the Saxon hordes. 
MIDDLE AGES
Avi. Crispin: At the Edge of the World.
Branded as traitors by the king's authorities, Crispin and his guardian, Bear, flee to coastal towns in fourteenth-century England, where they perform a musical juggling act and bond as a family after befriending a disfigured girl. J-HF AVI
Cushman, Karen. Will Sparrow’s Road.
In 1599 England, twelve-year-old lying, thieving Will Sparrow runs away, meets many colorful characters on the road, and then reluctantly joins a traveling "oddities" exhibit, where he learns to see beyond appearances.
De Angeli, Marguerite. The Door in the Wall.
The crippled son of a powerful nobleman sets out to prove his courage and his right to be recognized by the king. J-HF DEA, J-PBK DE
Gray, Elizabeth Janet. Adam of the Road.
The adventures of eleven-year-old Adam as he travels the open roads of thirteenth-century England searching for his missing father, a minstrel, and his stolen red spaniel, Nick. J-HF GRA
AMERICAN REVOLUTION 1775-1783
Collier, James Lincoln. My Brother Sam Is Dead.
Tragedy strikes the Meeker family during the Revolution when one son joins the rebel forces while the rest of the family tries to stay neutral in a Tory town. J-HF COL
Forbes, Esther. Johnny Tremain: A Story of Boston in Revolt.
After injuring his hand, a silversmith's apprentice in Boston becomes a messenger for the Sons of Liberty in the days before the American Revolution. J-HF FOR
Lawson, Robert. Ben and Me.
Summary: Benjamin Franklin's companion, Amos the mouse, recounts how he was responsible for Franklin's inventions and discoveries. J-PBK LAW
O’Dell, Scott. Sarah Bishop.
Left alone after the deaths of her father and brother who take opposite sides in the War for Independence, and fleeing from the British who seek to arrest her, Sarah Bishop struggles to shape a new life for herself in the wilderness. J-HF ODE, J-PBK ODE
EARLY 1800’s
Avi. The Man Who Was Poe.
Edgar Allan Poe investigates the problems of 11-year-old Edmund, whose family mysteriously disappeared, to a ghastly end? J-M AVI
Blos, Joan W. A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl’s Journal, 1830-32.
As she keeps house for her widowed father and younger sister, thirteen-year-old Catherine begins her journal, unaware of the eventful year that lies ahead. J-HF BLO
WESTWARD EXPANSION 1800’s
Brink, Carol Ryrie. Caddie Woodlawn.
The adventures of an eleven-year-old tomboy growing up on the Wisconsin frontier in the mid-nineteenth century. J-HF BRI
Cushman, Karen. The Ballad of Lucy Whipple.
In 1849, twelve-year-old California Morning Whipple, who renames herself Lucy, is distraught when her mother moves the family from Massachusetts to a rough California mining town. YA-PBK CUS
Erdich, Louise. The Birchbark House.
Omakayas, a seven-year-old Native American girl of the Ojibwa tribe, lives through the joys of summer and the perils of winter on an island in Lake Superior in 1847. J-PBK ERD
AMERICAN CIVIL WAR 1861-1865
Curtis, Christopher Paul. Elijah of Buxton.
In 1860, eleven-year-old Elijah Freeman, the first free-born child in Buxton, Canada, which is a haven for slaves fleeing the American south, uses his wits and skills to try to bring to justice the lying preacher who has stolen money that was to be used to buy a family's freedom J-PBK CUR
Hesse, Karen. A Light in the Storm.
In 1860 and 1861, while working in her father's lighthouse on an island off the coast of Delaware, fifteen-year-old Amelia records in her diary how the Civil War is beginning to devastate her divided state. J-HF HES
Hunt, Irene. Across Five Aprils.
Young Jethro Creighton grows from a boy to a man when he must take care of the family farm in Illinois during the Civil War. J-HF HUN
POST CIVIL WAR
MacLachlan, Patricia. Sarah, Plain and Tall.
When their father invites a mail-order bride to come live with them in their prairie home, Caleb and Anna are captivated by their new mother and hope that she will stay. J-HF MAC
EARLY 1900s
Hesse, Karen. Letters From Rifka.
In letters to her cousin, a young Jewish girl chronicles her family's flight from Russia in 1919 and her own experiences when she must be left in Belgium for a while when the others emigrate to America. J-PBK HES
THE GREAT DEPRESSION 1929-1939
Curtis, Christopher Paul. Bud, Not Buddy.
Ten-year-old Bud, a motherless boy living in Flint, Michigan, during the Great Depression, escapes a bad foster home and sets out in search of the man he believes to be his father--the renowned bandleader, H.E. Calloway of Grand Rapids. J-HF CUR
Hesse, Karen. Out of the Dust.
In a series of poems, fifteen-year-old Billie Jo relates the hardships of living on her family's wheat farm in Oklahoma during the dust bowl years of the Depression. J-HF HES
Peck, Richard. A Year Down Yonder.
In 1937, during the Depression, fifteen-year-old Mary Alice is sent to live with her feisty, larger-than-life grandmother in rural Illinois and comes to a better understanding of this fearsome woman. J-HF PEC
WORLD WAR II
Bruchac, Joseph. Code Talker.
After being taught that Navajo is a useless language in a boarding school run by whites, Ned Begay and other Navajo men are recruited by the Marines to become Code Talkers, sending messages during World War II in their native tongue. J-HF BRU
Mochizuki, Ken. Baseball Saved Us.
A Japanese American boy learns to play baseball when he and his family are forced to live in an internment camp during World War II, and his ability to play helps him after the war is over. J-HF MOC
AFTER THE WAR 1945-
Gantos, Jack. Dead End in Norvelt.
In the historic town of Norvelt, PA, 12-year-old Jack Gantos spends the summer of 1962 grounded for various offenses until he is assigned to help an elderly neighbor with a most unusual chore involving the newly dead, molten wax, twisted promises, Girl Scout cookies, underage driving, lessons from history, typewriting, and countless bloody noses. J-HF GAN
Philbrick, W.R. Zane and the Hurricane: A Story of Katrina.
A twelve-year-old boy and his dog become trapped in New Orleans during the horrors of Hurricane Katrina. J-HF PHI
Wiles, Deborah. Countdown.
The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 forms the backdrop for this coming-of-age story 11-year-old Franny. Interspersed with Franny's story are photographs and text from songs, advertisements, and speeches from the 1960s. J-HF WIL
Williams-Garcia, Rita. One Crazy Summer.
In the summer of 1968, after travelling from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to spend a month with the mother they barely know, 11-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters arrive to a cold welcome as they discover that their mother, a dedicated poet and printer, is resentful of the intrusion of their visit and wants them to attend a nearby Black Panther summer camp. J-HF WIL |
