American Historical Fiction Titles

Abraham, Susan Gonzales and Denise Gonzales Abraham.  Surprising Cecilia.  221 p.

          In the 1930s as she ventures from her small and poor New Mexican farming community to go to high school in the city, teenaged Cecilia finds herself challenged in unexpected ways.

Anderson, Laurie Halse.  Fever 1793.  251 p.

          Sixteen-year-old Matilda Cook, separated from her sick mother, learns about perseverance and self-reliance when she is forced to cope with the horrors of the yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia in 1793.

Antle, Nancy.  Lost in the War.  137 p.

          Twelve-year-old Lisa Grey struggles to cope with a mother whose traumatic experiences as a nurse in Vietnam during the war are still haunting her.

Auch, Mary Jane.  Ashes of Roses.   250 p.

          Sixteen-year-old Rose Nolan arrives on Ellis Island in 1911 in the hopes of starting a new life, but after most of her family is sent back to Ireland, she must find her own way in a new country and fend for herself and her younger sister.

Baldwin, James.  Go Tell It on the Mountain.  221 p.

          Describes a day in the life of several members of a Harlem fundamentalist church. The saga of three generations of people is related through flashbacks.

Bass, Rick.  The Diezmo: a Novel.  205 p.

          Two young men, part of an expedition to patrol the Mexican border in the early days of the Republic of Texas, find their dreams of glory turning to a struggle for survival after they are taken prisoner and become pawns in an international showdown to decide the fate of Texas.

Bruchac, Joseph.  Code-Talkers. 231 p.

            After being taught in a boarding school run by whites that Navajo is a useless language, 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.

Bruchac, Joseph.  Geronimo: a novel.  344 p.

            A fictional retelling of the story of Native American leader Geronimo's life after his last surrender, told from the point of view of his grandson.

Bruchac, Joseph.  Jim Thorpe: Original All – American.  273 p.

            A biographical novel in which Native American athlete and Olympic gold medalist Jim Thorpe discusses his life, focusing on the years he spent at Pennsylvania's Carlisle School where coach Pop Warner first recognized Thorpe's abilities.

Bryant, Jen.  The Trial.  168 p.

          Living in Flemington, New Jersey, in 1935, Katie Leigh Flynn describes, in a series of poems, the effect on her small town of the ongoing trial of Bruno Hauptmann for the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh's baby son.

Budhos, Marina. Ask Me No Questions.  162 p.

          Fourteen-year-old Nadira, her sister, and their parents leave Bangladesh for New York City, but the expiration of their visas and the events of September 11, 2001, bring frustration, sorrow, and terror for the whole family.

Burns, Olive Ann.  Cold Sassy Tree.  391 p.

          Grandpa Blakeslee marries a young milliner just three weeks after Granny Blakeslee has gone to her reward. Young Will is boggled by this act but becomes the newlyweds' conspirator and confidant; meanwhile he does some growing up on his own.

Burtinshaw, Julie.  The Freedom of Jenny. 175 p.

          Jenny Estes and her family escape the slavery of the Leopold plantation in 1840s Missouri and journey to Saltspring Island, Canada, only to encounter the hardships of scarlet fever, racial persecution, warring native tribes, and the challenges of homesteading.

Carbone, Elisa.  Blood on the River: James Town 1607. 224 p.

            Traveling to the New World in 1606 as the page to Captain John Smith, twelve-year-old orphan Samuel Collier settles in the new colony of James Town, where he must quickly learn to distinguish between friend and foe.

Carbone, Elisa.  Stealing Freedom.  258 p.

          A novel based on the events in the life of a young slave girl from Maryland who endures all kinds of mistreatment and cruelty, including being separated from her family, but who eventually escapes to freedom in Canada.             

Carr, Caleb.  The Alienist.  597 p.

          In New York City in 1896 reporter John Moore, psychologist Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, and police secretary Susan Howard join forces to catch a serial murderer.

Choldenko, Gennifer.  Al Capone Does My Shirts.  215 p.    

          A twelve-year-old boy named Moose moves to Alcatraz Island in 1935 when guards' families were housed there, and has to contend with his extraordinary new environment in addition to life with his autistic sister.

Cooper, Susan.  Vicotry.  190 p.

Cornwell, Bernard.  Battle Flag.  409 p. Book 3

            Nate Starbuck, renegade Bostonian and now a Confederate officer, must now prove himself to his superior and lead his men in one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War.

Cornwell, Bernard.  The Bloody Ground.  345 p. Book 4

          Nate Starbuck, Boston renegade and Confederate officer, is sent to Richmond to take command of a battalion of criminals, murderers, deserters, and other misfits of society to prepare them for the next major battle of the Civil War.

Cornwell, Bernard.  Copperhead.  412 p. Book 2

            Nate Starbuck, a young Bostonian and a lieutenant in the Confederate Army, is accused of being a Yankee spy. To prove his innocence means getting behind enemy lines.

Cornwell, Bernard.  Rebel.  397 p. Book 1

          Nate Starbuck, a young Bostonian and a lieutenant in the Confederate Army, is accused of being a Yankee spy. To prove his innocence means getting behind enemy lines.

Couloumbis, Audrey. Summer’s End.  184 p.

            Three teenaged cousins worry about their uncle who is missing in Vietnam, their brothers--the one who was drafted and the two who are dodging the draft, and the effects of their absence on the four generations gathered at the family farm in the summer of 1965.

Crane, Stephen.  The Red Badge of Courage.  267 p.

          Story of a young Union soldier under fire for the first time during the Civil War.

Crowe, Chris.  Mississippi Trial, 1955.  229 p.

          In Mississippi in 1955, a sixteen-year-old finds himself at odds with his grandfather over issues surrounding the kidnapping and murder of a fourteen-year-old African-American from Chicago.

Dallas, Sandra.  Tallgrass. 305 p.

Doctorow, E. L. The March.  363 p.

          Presents an historical novel that centers around William Tecumseh Sherman's march through Georgia and the Carolinas and those he encounters along the way which include a freed slave girl named Pearl; a Union regimental surgeon, Colonel Sartorius; Emily Thompson, the daughter of a Southern judge; and two misfit soldiers.

Doig, Ivan.  Dancing at the Rascal Fair.  400 p.

          Chronicles the American experiences of Angus McCaskill and Rob Barclay, Scottish immigrants, who lived for three decades in Two Medicine Country at the base of the Rocky Mtns.

Doig, Ivan.  The Whistling Season.  345 p.

          Oliver Milliron answers an ad for a housekeeper named Rose from Minneapolis, who arrives with her unconventional brother, Morrie, in tow.

Donnelly, Jennifer.  A Northern Light.  384 p.

          Sixteen-year-old Mattie, determined to attend college and be a writer against the wishes of her father and boyfriend, takes a job at a hotel in 1906 where the death of a guest renews her determination to live her own life.

Draper, Sharon M. Copper Sun. 302 p.

          Two fifteen-year-old girls--one a slave and the other an indentured servant--escape their Carolina plantation and try to make their way to Fort Moses, Florida, a Spanish colony that gives sanctuary to slaves.

Draper, Sharon M.. Fire From the Rock. 225 p.

          Sylvia Patterson's life suddenly changes with the integration of Little Rock's Central High in 1957 when she is selected to be one of the first black students to attend the previously all white school.

Dreiser, Theodore.  An American Tragedy.  814 p.

          The corruption of a young man becomes a portrait of the society that shaped his ambitions and destroyed him.

Duble, Kathleen Benner.  The Sacrifice. 203 p.

          Two sisters, aged ten and twelve, are accused of witchcraft in Andover, Massachusetts, in 1692 and await trial in a miserable prison while their mother desperately searches for some way to obtain their freedom.

Durbin, William.  The Journal of Otto Peltonen: a Finnish Immigrant.  (Dear America

series)  168 p.

In 1905 fifteen-year-old Otto describes in his journal how he travels from Finland to America, joining his father in a dreary iron mining community in Minnesota and becoming involved in a union fight for better working conditions.’

Durrant, Lynda.  My Last Skirt: The Story of Jennie Hodgers, Union Soldier.  196 p.

            Enjoying the freedom afforded her while dressing as a boy in order to earn higher pay after emigrating from Ireland, Jennie Hodgers serves in the 95th Illinois Infantry as Private Albert Cashier, a Union soldier in the American Civil War.

Elliot, L. M.  Annie, Between the States.  476 p.

          Instead of spending her teen years at parties and balls, Annie, an idealistic, poetry-loving patriot, finds herself nursing soldiers, hiding valuables, and running the household as the Civil War rages around her family's Virginia home.

Elliot, L. M. Under a War-Torn Sky.  277 p.

            After his plane is shot down by Hitler's Luftwaffe, nineteen-year-old Henry Forester of Richmond, Virginia, strives to walk across occupied France, with the help of the French Resistance, in hopes of rejoining his unit.

Ernst, Kathleen.  Hearts Desire.  248 p.

Ferber, Edna.  So Big.  252 p.

          Gambler's daughter Selina DeJong marries a farmer in the Dutch settlement of High Prairie and begins the never ending drudgery of a farmer's wife.

Finney, Jack.  From Time to Time.  (Sequel to Time and Again) 303 p.

          Simon Morley, who is capable of traveling back and forth in time, must ensure the safety of a man carrying papers on the Titanic that might help avert World War I.

Finney, Jack.  Time and Again.  398 p.

          Illustrator Si Morley steps out of his twentieth-century New York apartment one night--right into the winter of 1882.

Frazier, Charles.  Cold Mountain.  229 p.

          Inman, a wounded Confederate soldier, leaves the hospital where he is being treated and determines to walk home to his sweetheart Ada, only to find the land and the girl he remembers as changed by the war as he.

Fritz, Jean.  Brady.  223 p.

          A young Pennsylvania boy takes part in the pre-Civil War anti-slavery activities.

Foster, Sharon Ewell.  Passing by Samaria: a novel.  382 p.

          Eighteen-year-old African-American Alena's sheltered life on her parent's Mississippi farm has not prepared her for the truth about racism, but a shocking discovery leads her to leave her home in 1919 and travel to Chicago in search of answers and justice.

Geras, Adele.  Voyage.  193 p.

          Relates the experiences of a group of Jewish young people in the early twentieth century as they journey from their homes in Eastern Europe to the United States in search of a new life.

Giff, Patricia Reilly.  Water Street.  164 p.

            In the shadow of the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, eighth-graders and new neighbors Bird Mallon and Thomas Neary make some decisions about what they want to do with their lives.

Giles, Janice Holt.  The Believers.  214 p.

          A novel of Shaker life. After her first child is stillborn, a young woman in nineteenth-century Kentucky joins a Shaker village with her husband and finds her life forever changed by the community's beliefs and lifestyle.

Glancy, Diane.  Stone Heart: A Novel of Sacajawea.  150 p.

          Imagines the feelings and experiences of Shoshone guide and interpreter Sacagawea during the Lewis and Clark expedition.

Greene, Bette.  Summer of My German Soldier.  199 p.

          When German prisoners of war are brought to her Arkansas town during World War II, twelve-year-old Patty, a Jewish girl, befriends one of them and must deal with the consequences of that friendship.

Guthrie, A. B. The Big Sky.  386 p.

            Three frontiersmen travel the Missouri River from St. Louis to the Rockies, and along the way, they all learn some important lessons about life, love, and survival.

Hale, Marian.  Dark Water Rising.  233 p.

            While salvaging and rebuilding in the aftermath of the Galveston flood of 1900, sixteen-year-old Seth proves himself in a way that his previous efforts never could, but he still must face his father man-to-man.

Hamamura, John.  Color of the Sea.  306 p.

            Sam's pain over losing the love of his life when her parents take her back to Japan is overshadowed when he is drafted by the U.S. Army and sent to Japan on a secret mission that forces Sam to choose between his loyalties to America and loyalties to his heritage.

Hambly, Barbara.  Patriot Hearts: A Novel of the Founding Mothers.  415 p.

Hemingway, Ernest.  A Farewell to Arms.332 p.

          An American ambulance officer serving on the Austro-Italian front deserts to join an English nurse after the retreat of Caporetto.

Hesse, Karen.  Aleutian Sparrow.  156 p.

          An Aleutian Islander recounts her suffering during World War II in American internment camps designed to "protect" the population from the invading Japanese.

Hesse, Karen.  Witness.  161 p.

          Poems express the views of various people in a small Vermont town, including a young black girl and a young Jewish girl, during the early 1920s when the Ku Klux Klan is trying to infiltrate the town.

Hobbs, Will.  Crossing the Wire.  214 p.

          Fifteen-year-old Victor Flores journeys north in a desperate attempt to cross the Arizona border and find work in the United States to support his family in central Mexico.

Hobbs, Will.  Down the Yukon.  (Sequel to Jason’s Gold)  193 p.

          In the wake of Dawson City's Great Fire of 1899, sixteen-year-old Jason and his girlfriend Jamie canoe the Yukon River across Alaska in an epic race from Canada's Klondike to the new gold fields at Cape Nome.

Hobbs, Will.  Jason’s Gold.  221 p.

          Fifteen-year-old Jason embarks on a ten thousand-mile journey in 1897 in hopes of striking it rich after hearing the news that gold has been discovered in Canada's Yukon Territory.

Holms, Jennifer L. Boston Jane: Wilderness Days.  239 p.

          Far from her native Philadelphia, Miss Jane Peck continues to prove that she's more than an etiquette-schooled graduate of Miss Hepplewhite's Young Ladies Academy as she braves the untamed wilderness of Washington Territory in the mid 1850s.

Houston, Jeanne Wakatsuki.  The Legend of Fire Horse Woman.  327 p.

Houston, Julian.  New Boy.  282 p.

          As a new sophomore at an exclusive boarding school in the 1950s, Rob Garrett, a young black man, is witness to the persecution of other students and wonders about the growing civil rights movement back home in Virginia.

Hudson, Jan.  Sweetgrass.  157 p.

            Living on the western Canadian prairie in the nineteenth century, Sweetgrass, a fifteen-year-old Blackfoot Indian girl, saves her family from a smallpox epidemic and proves her maturity to her father.

Hughes, Dean. Search and Destroy.  216 p.

          Recent high school graduate Rick Ward, undecided about his future and eager to escape his unhappy home life, joins the army and experiences the horrors of the war in Vietnam.

Hunter, Bernice Thurman.  The Girls They Left Behind.  191 p.

          During World War II, a spunky teenager finds a way to contribute to the war effort while she waits for the boys in her life to come home.

Hurmence, Belinda.  A Girl Called Boy.  168 p.

          A pampered young black girl who has been mysteriously transported back to the days of slavery, struggles to escape her bondage.

Ingold, Jeanette.  The Big Burn.  292 p.

          Teenagers battle the flames of the Big Burn of 1910, one of the century's biggest wildfires.

Ingold, Jeanette. Hitch.  267 p.

          To help his family during the Depression and avoid becoming a drunk like his father, Moss Trawnley joins the Civilian Conservation Corps, helps build a new camp near Monroe, Montana, and leads the other men in making the camp a success.

Irwin, Hadley.  Kim/Kimi.  200 p.

          Despite a warm relationship with her mother, stepfather, and half brother, sixteen-year-old Kim feels the need to find answers about the Japanese American father she never knew.

Jaramillo, Ann.  La Linea.   125 p.

          When fifteen-year-old Miguel's time finally comes to leave his poor Mexican village, cross the border illegally, and join his parents in California, his younger sister's determination to join him soon imperils them both.

Kadohata, Cynthia.  Kira-Kira.  244 p.

          Chronicles the close friendship between two Japanese-American sisters growing up in rural Georgia during the late 1950s and early 1960s, and the despair when one sister becomes terminally ill.

Kadohata, Cynthia.  Weedflower.  257 p.

            After twelve-year-old Sumiko and her Japanese-American family are relocated from their flower farm in southern California to an internment camp on a Mojave Indian reservation in Arizona, she helps her family and neighbors, becomes friends with a local Indian boy, and tries to hold on to her dream of owning a flower shop.

Kaplow, Robert.  Me and Orson Welles.  269 p.

          A coming-of-age novel about a seventeen-year-old New Jersey boy who falls in love and stumbles into a bit part in Orson Welles's debut production on Broadway, all in the same week.

Karr, Kathleen.  Gilbert & Sullivan Set Me Free.  230 p.

          Libby Dodge, the youngest inmate at Sherborn Women's Prison in Massachusetts in the early 1900s, gains insights into her past and future after she becomes a member of the prison choir and participates in the production of the operetta "The Pirates of Penzance."

Kadohata, Cynthia.  Cracker!: The Best Dog in Vietnam.  308 p.

            A young soldier in Vietnam bonds with his bomb-sniffing dog.

Kadohata, Cynthia.  Kira-Kira.  244 p.

          Chronicles the close friendship between two Japanese-American sisters growing up in rural Georgia during the late 1950s and early 1960s, and the despair when one sister becomes terminally ill.

Kelly, Thomas.  Empire Rising.  390 p.

          Set in the backdrop of the Empire State Building in 1930, Irish-born construction worker Michael Briody is torn between making a living in America and his loyalty for the Irish Republican cause and finds himself caught in the middle of the Tammany Hall political machine within the New York underworld.

Kidd, Ronald.  Monkey Town: The Summer of the Scopes Trial.  250 p.

          When her father hatches a plan to bring publicity to their small Tennessee town by arresting a local high school teacher for teaching about evolution, the resulting 1925 Scopes trial prompts fifteen-year-old Frances to rethink many of her beliefs about religion and truth, as well as her relationship with her father.

Kluger, Steve.  Last Days of Summer.  353 p.

          Joey Margolis, a young boy whose father has deserted the family, begins writing baseball player Charlie Banks and forms a relationship with the third baseman that changes both their lives for the better.

L’Amour, Louis.  The Haunted Mesa.  313 p.

          Internationally renowned investigator of unexplained phenomena, Mike Raglan, receives a desperate letter from an old friend. When Mike goes to the desert, he learns the astonishing legacy of the Anasazi.

Laskas, Gretchen Moran.  The Miner’s Daughter.  250 p.

            Sixteen-year-old Willa, living in a Depression-era West Virginia mining town, works hard to help her family, experiences love and friendship, and finds an outlet for her writing when her family becomes part of the Arthurdale, West Virginia, community supported by Eleanor Roosevelt.

Lavender, William.  Just Jane.  275 p.

          Fourteen-year-old Jane Prentice, orphaned daughter of an English earl, arrives in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1776 to find her family and her loyalties divided over the question of American independence.

Lawson, Mary.  The Other Side of the Bridge.  294 p.

Lee, Edward Jae-Suk.  The Good Man: a Novel.  248 p.

          Gabriel Guttman retreats to his childhood home in southwest Montana to try and regain some of the memory he lost in a suicide attempt and to deal with the pain of his activities while a soldier in Korea.

Lester, Julius.  Time’s Memory.  230 p.

          Ekundayo, a Dogon spirit brought to America from Africa, inhabits the body of a young African American slave on a Virginia plantation, where he experiences loss, sorrow, and reconciliation in the months preceding the Civil War.

Levine, Gail Carson.  Dave at Night.  281 p.

          When orphaned Dave is sent to the Hebrew Home for Boys where he is treated cruelly, he sneaks out at night and is welcomed into the music- and culture-filled world of the Harlem Renaissance.

Lisle, Janet Taylor.  Black Duck. 249 p.

          Years afterwards, Ruben Hart tells the story of how, in 1929 Newport, Rhode Island, his family and his best friend's family were caught up in the violent competition among groups trying to control the local rum-smuggling trade.

McCaughrean, Geraldine.  Stop the Train.  287 p.

          Despite the opposition of the owner of the Red Rock Runner Railroad in 1893, the new settlers of Florence, Oklahoma, are determined to build a real town.

McKernan, Victoria.  Shackleton’s Stowaway.  312 p.

          A fictionalized account of the adventures of eighteen-year-old Perce Blackborow, who stowed away for the 1914 Shackleton Antarctic expedition and, after their ship Endurance was crushed by ice, endured many hardships, including the loss of his toes to frostbite, during the nearly two-year return journey across sea and ice.

McNair, Don.  The Long Hunter.  294 p.

          After Indians kill his parents and kidnap his sister, fourteen-year-old Matt searches for her, gaining along the way survival skills from his experiences and a yearning for a true home and family.

Malamud, Bernard.  The Assistant.  242 p.

          Frank, a troubled, somewhat desperate, Italian American, works long hours in the grocery store of a struggling Jewish family in a Brooklyn neighborhood where he develops a secret passion for his employer's attractive daughter.

Mazer, Harry.  A Boy at War.  104 p.

          While fishing with his friends off Honolulu on December 7, 1941, teenaged Adam is caught in the midst of the Japanese attack and through the chaos of the subsequent days tries to find his father, a naval officer who was serving on the U.S.S. Arizona when the bombs fell.

Mazer, Harry.  Heroes Don’t Run: A Novel of the Pacific War.  113 p.

          To honor his father who died during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, seventeen-year-old Adam eagerly enlists in the Marines in 1944, survives boot camp, and faces combat on the tiny island of Okinawa.

Montes, Marisa.  A Circle in Time.  261 p.

          In 1996, a fourteen-year-old girl in a coma is forced back in time by a girl who died in 1906, and who needs help in righting a series of terrible wrongs.

Morrison, Toni.  Jazz.  229 p.

          A mysterious voice weaves the story of an African-American door-to-door salesman of beauty products who shoots his young lover, and his wife who tries to disfigure the corpse with a knife in the winter of 1926.

Moses, Shelia P.  I, Dred Scott.  96 p.

          A fictional chronicle of Dred Scott's life in slavery and his eleven-year fight for freedom in the nineteenth-century American courts, presented from Scott's point of view.

Moses, Shelia P.   The Legend of Buddy Bush.  211 p.

Moses, Shelia P.   The Return of Buddy Bush.   139 p.

          Following her grandfather's death in rural North Carolina in 1947, twelve-year-old Pattie Mae learns more about her family after reading her grandmother's collection of obituaries and traveling to Harlem, New York, to find her uncle who has escaped from the Ku Klux Klan.

Mosley, Walter.  47.  232 p.

          Number 47, a fourteen-year-old slave boy growing up under the watchful eye of a brutal master in 1832, meets the mysterious Tall John, who introduces him to a magical science and also teaches him the meaning of freedom.

Murphy, Jim.  Desperate Journey.  268 p.

          In the mid-1800s. with both her father and her uncle in jail on an assault charge, Maggie, her brother, and her ailing mother rush their barge along the Erie Canal to deliver their heavy cargo or lose everything.

Murphy, Jim.  The Journal of Brian Doyle: A Greenhorn on an Alaskan Whaling Ship.  186 p.

          A fictional diary in which young Brian Doyle records how he ran away from his home in San Francisco in 1784, joined the crew of a whaling ship, and endured storms, hostile shipmates, and being stranded in the Arctic.

Myers, Anna.  Assassin.  212 p.

          In alternating passages, a young White House seamstress named Bella and the actor John Wilkes Booth describe the events that lead to the latter's assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

Myers, Anna.  Tulsa Burning.  152 p.

          In 1921, fifteen-year-old Noble Chase hates the sheriff of Wekiwa, Oklahoma, and is more than willing to cross him to help his best friend, a black man, who is injured during race riots in nearby Tulsa.

Myers, Walter Dean.  Fallen Angels.  309 p.

          Seventeen-year-old Richie Perry, just out of his Harlem high school, enlists in the Army in the summer of 1967 and spends a devastating year on active duty in Vietnam.

Myers, Walter Dean.  Harlem Summer.  165 p.

            In 1920s Harlem, sixteen-year-old saxophonist Mark Purvis struggles to advance his jazz career while working as a gopher for the new Africa-American magazine, "The Crisis," and becoming involved with mobster Dutch Schultz.

Nolan, Han.  A Summer of Kings.  334 p.

          Over the course of the summer of 1963, fourteen-year-old Esther Young discovers the passion within her when eighteen-year-old King-Roy Johnson, accused of murdering a white man in Alabama, comes to live with her family.

Noyes, Deborah.  Angel and Apostle.  289 p.

            Follows the story of Pearl, the daughter of Hester Prynne, as she grows into adulthood, out of the shadow of her mother's "crime" and into her own sexual awakening and complicated marriage.

Paulsen, Gary.  The Legend of Bass Reeves.  137 p.

          The story of Bass Reeves who was born a slave and later became one of the most respected federal marshals in Oklahoma and Texas.

Peck, Richard.  Fair Weather.  140 p.

          Rosie and members of her family travel from their Illinois farm to Chicago in 1893 to visit Aunt Euterpe and attend the World's Columbian Exposition which, along with an encounter with Buffalo Bill and Lillian Russell, turns out to be a life-changing experience for everyone.

Peck, Richard.  The River Between Us.  164 p.

          During the early days of the Civil War, the Pruitt family takes in two mysterious young ladies who have fled New Orleans to come north to Illinois.

Proulx, E. Annie.  Postcards.  308 p.

          Loyal Blood inalterably changes the course of his life and the fortunes of his family members when he deserts the family's New England farm after accidentally killing his lover.

Qualey, Marsha.  Too Big a Storm. 246 p.

            When serious worrier Brady Callahan meets vivacious Sally Cooper, daughter of a wealthy Minnesota family, they develop a close friendship that helps them both grow and survive during the turbulent Vietnam War era.

Rees, Celia.  Witch Child.  261 p.

          In 1659, fourteen-year-old Mary Newbury keeps a journal of her voyage from England to the New World and her experiences living as a witch in a community of Puritans near Salem, Massachusetts.

Rinaldi, Ann. An Acquaintance with Darkness.  374 p.

            When her mother dies and her best friend's family is implicated in the assassination of President Lincoln, fourteen-year-old Emily Pigbush must go live with an uncle she suspects of being involved in stealing bodies for medical research.

Rinaldi, Ann. The Color of Fire.  196 p.

          Phoebe, a slave in the Philipse household in colonial New York, must decide on the right course of action when her friend Cuffee is implicated in a reputed slave uprising.

Rinaldi, Ann.  Numbering the Bones.   169 p.

          Thirteen-year-old Eulinda, a house slave on a Georgia plantation in 1864, turns to Clara Barton, the eventual founder of the American Red Cross, for help in finding her brother Neddy who ran away to join the Northern war effort and is rumored to be at Andersonville Prison.

Rinaldi, Ann.  Or Give Me Death.  223 p.

          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.

Ritter, John H.  Choosing Up Sides.  166 p.

          In 1921 thirteen-year-old Luke finds himself torn between accepting his left-handedness or conforming to the belief of his preacher-father that such a condition is evil and must be overcome.

Salisbury, Graham.  Eyes of the Emperor.  229 p.

            Following orders from the United States Army, several young Japanese American men train K-9 units to hunt Asians during World War II. 

Salisbury, Graham.  Under the Blood-Red Sun.  246 p.

            Tomikazu Nakaji's biggest concerns are baseball, homework, and a local bully, until life with his Japanese family in Hawaii changes drastically after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941.

Schmidt, Gary D.   Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy.  217 p.

          In 1911, Turner Buckminster hates his new home of Phippsburg, Maine, but things improve when he meets Lizzie Bright Griffin, a girl from a poor, nearby island community founded by former slaves that the town fathers--and Turner's--want to change into a tourist spot.

Shaara, Michael. The Killer Angels.  345 p.

          A fictional account of four days in July, 1863 at the Battle of Gettysburg discussing tactics, plans, and preparations for battle from both the Northern and Southern points of view.

Shefelman, Janice.  Comanche Song.  252 p.

          A young Comanche boy experiences his tribe's conflicts with the Tejanos in 1840s Texas.

Skurzynski, Gloria.  Rockbuster.  253 p.

          In 1915, after being asked to sing at the funeral of executed songwriter and member of the international union, Industrial Workers of the World, Joe Hill, eighteen-year-old Utah coal miner Tommy Quinlan begins to accept his past and make decisions about his future.

Spooner, Michael.  Last Child.  226 p.

          Caught between the worlds of the her Scottish father and her Mandan mother in what is now North Dakota, Rosalie fights to survive both the 1837 smallpox epidemic and the actions of a vengeful trader.

Stein, Harry.  Hoopla.  366 p.

          When eight members of the Chicago White Sox were accused of throwing the 1919 World Series, the team became known as the "Black Sox." Hoopla blends the narrative of team member George Weaver with the view of Luther Pond, who exposed the scandal.

Stephenson, Lynda.  Dancing with Elvis.  323 p.

          In Clover, Texas, in the late 1950s, high-schooler Frankilee deals with a devious and manipulative, not to mention prettier and more talented, foster sister, a boyfriend she does not want, and a community divided over school integration.

Tademy, Lalita.  Cane River.  522 p.

          A fact-based novel in which the author draws upon her own family history to trace four generations of African-American women from slavery on a Creole plantation to the pre-civil rights South.

Taylor, Mildred.  The Land. (Prequel to Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry)  366 p.

          Paul-Edward, the son of a part-Indian, part-African slave mother and a White plantation owner father, finds himself caught between the two worlds of his parents as he pursues his dream of owning land in the aftermath of the Civil War.

Trottier, Maxine.  Three Songs for Courage.  321 p.

          Sixteen-year-old Gordon Westley comes of age in the summer of 1956 as he must learn to handle some of the sweetest and saddest moments life has to offer.

Tocher, Timothy.  Chief Sunrise, John McGraw, and Me.  154 p.

          In 1919, fifteen-year-old Hank escapes an abusive father and goes looking for a chance to become a baseball player, accompanied by a man who calls himself Chief Sunrise and claims to be a full-blooded Seminole.

Townley, Roderick.  The Red Thread. 294 p.

Trevanian. The Crazyladies of Pearl Street.  367 p.

          Presents a novel about Six-year-old Jean-Luc LaPointe, his little sister, and mother who move into the Irish slum district of Albany, New York after his father abandons them and their struggles to survive amidst the unemployment and poverty of the depression and war years.

Walker, Alice.  The Color Purple.  295 p.

          Tells the story of two African-American sisters: Nettie, a missionary in Africa, and Celie, a child-wife living in the south, in the medium of their letters to each other and in Celie's case, the desperate letters she begins, "Dear God."

Wells, Rosemary.  Red Moon at Sharpsburg.  236 p.

Welsh, T. K. The Unresolved.  150 p.

          In 1904 New York City, the spirit of a deceased German American teenage girl searches for the person responsible for the Slocum steamboat fire that claimed her life and the lives of more than 1000 other passengers.

Whitmore, Arvella.  Trapped: Between the Lash and the Gun.  184 p.

          Presents a novel about Six-year-old Jean-Luc LaPointe, his little sister, and mother who move into the Irish slum district of Albany, New York after his father abandons them and their struggles to survive amidst the unemployment and poverty of the depression and war year.

Yep, Laurence.  Mountain Light.  281 p.

          Swept up in one of the local rebellions against the Manchus in China, nineteen-year-old Squeaky loses his home and travels to America to seek his fortune among the gold fields of California.

Youmans, Marly.  Catherwood: a novel.  165 p.

          Seventeenth-century New York  - Catherwood, a young mother, finds herself after a perilous beginning in England. Through flashback and letters across the Atlantic to her adopted brother, readers learn how Catherwood had been plucked from a homeless existence as a child and brought to live in a caring and privileged environment. After marrying a man of her adopted mother's choice, she leaves a familiar and easy life for that of the unknown in New York Colony. Returning home after a visit with friends in the widely scattered primitive community, the young woman and her infant daughter become lost.