Historical Fiction booklist: Piscataway Public Library Children's Services

K=Kennedy Library W=Westergard Library B=Bookmobile

When Mack Came Back, by Brad Strickland/ grades 3-6/ K
When ten-year old Maury discovers a sick and starving dog lying amidst a tangle of vines, he's convinced that it's Mack, a young pup that his older brother Ben gave away to a friend when he enlisted in the service. Now Maury is determined to keep Mack, despite his father's insistence that he is just another mouth to feed, and times are tough.

Love You Soldier, by Amy Hest/ grades 3-5/ K
"The war came and my father left in a uniform," begins this first-person narrative of the many changes that take place within seven year old Katie's family during World War II.

EXPLORERS

The Captain's Dog: My Journey with the Lewis & Clark Tribe, by Roland Smith/ grades 5+/ K,W
Join Seamann, a massive Newfoundland dog who accompanied Lewis & Clark on their journey, as he tells the events of the exploration through his eyes.

IRISH POTATO FAMINE

Nory Ryan's Song, by Patricia Reilly Giff/ grades 5+/ K,W
Times are never easy in Maidin Bay, but this year, a terrible blight attacks potatoes. No crop means starvation. Twelve-year-old Nory must summon the courage and ingenuity to find food, hope, and a way to help her family survive.

Under the Hawthorn Tree, by Marita Conlon-McKenna/ grades 4-6/ K,W
During the Great Famine in Ireland in the 1840s, three children left alone and in danger of being sent to the workhouse set out to find the great-aunts they remember from their mother's stories.

REVOLUTIONARY WAR

Hannah's Winter of Hope, by Jean Van Leeuwen/ grades 2-4/ K,W,B
It's the winter of 1780, and 10-year-old Hannah's family has been living in a one-room shed since the British burned down their house. As the family works to rebuild their home, news comes that Hannah's brother, Ben, a soldier, has been captured by the British, and Hannah can't help but worry about him...until a stranger arrives with unexpected news.
See also Hannah of Fairfield & Hannah's Helping Hands

Thomas 1778: Patriots on the Run, by Bonnie Pryor/grades 4-6/K,W
Thomas believes the Revolutionary War will never come to his peaceful Pennsylvania valley. But, all too soon, he and his family are running for their lives to escape the war's danger, all without the help of their father, who is off fighting in the war himself.
See also Thomas in Danger 1779

OREGON TRAIL

Rachel's Journal: The Story of a Pioneer Girl, by Marissa Moss/ grades 3-5/ K,W
In her handwritten journal with cherished "pasted-in" mementos, Rachel chronicles her family's adventures traveling by covered wagon from Illinois to California on the Oregon Trail.

I'm Sorry, Almira Ann, by Jane Kurtz/ grades 2-4/ W
Eight-year-old Sarah's high spirits help make her family's long journey from Missouri to Oregon more bearable, though they do cause both her and her best friend Almira Ann some problems.

How I Survived the Oregeon Trail: The Journal of Jesse Adams/ grades 3-5/ K
A young boy keeps a journal describing his family's five month journey across the country in a covered wagon. Each entry includes a game, recipe, or related activity.

1950s

Walking to the Bus-Rider Blues, by Harriette Gillem Robinet/ grades 4-6/ K
Things haven't been the same in Montgomery, Alabama since Rosa Parks, a black woman, refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white person, and the black community began boycotting the bus system. But, doing his part to participate in the boycott is hard for twelv-year-old Alfa, who needs to get to work to pay for his family's rent and food.

Brooklyn, Busgy & Me, by Lynea Bowdish/ grades 2-4/ K
It's the summer of 1953 and nine-year-old Sam has many problems: he's moved from West Virginia to Brooklyn, his grandfather seems to hate him, and his mother talks constantly to his dead father's ashes. With no friends, and no place to fish, Sam faces a teenaged gang, unfamiliar food, and a strange new game called stickball

POST CIVIL-WAR/RECONSTRUCTION

The Heart Calls Home, by Joyce Hansen/ grades 6+/ K
After the Civil War, former slave Obi Booker tries to make a new life as a free man on a South Carolina Island.

Forty Acres and Maybe a Mule, by Harriette Gillem Robinet/ grades 4-6/ K
12-year-old Pascal, a former slave, joins other former slaves in a quest for the "forty acres and a mule" they have heard that slaves will be given, and the freedom which these things promise.

FRONTIER/PIONEER LIFE

The Great Railroad Race: The Transcontinental Diary of Libby West, by Kristiana Gregory/ grades 4-6/ K,B
14-year-old Libby recounts the creation of the Transcontinental Railroad as she accompanies her reporter father to the construction sites.

Bluestem, by Frances Arrington/ grades 4-6/ K
With their father away and their mother's sanity slowly slipping away to "prarie madness," eleven-year-old Polly and her younger sister are left to take care of themselves and their prarie homestead.

NATIVE AMERICANS

Miranda's Last Stand, by Gloria Whelan/ grades 4-6/ K,W
Because the Sioux killed her Papa at the Battle of Little Bighorn, 11-year-old Miranda struggles with her mama's prejudices for and her own experiences with the Indians in the Wild West Show her mama works for.

The Birchbark House, by Louise Erdrich/ grades 5+/ K
7-year-old Omakayas and her family and tribe, the Ojibwa Indians, live peacefully on a Lake Superior island until 1871, when an ailing white man brings smallpox to their settlement

Standing in the Light: The Captive Diary of Catherine Carey Logan, Delaware Valley, Pennsylvania 1763, by Mary Pope Osborne/ grades 4-6/ K,W,B
Carey, a Quaker girl, reflects in her diary about her experiences growing up in the Delaware River Valley of Pennsylvania and her capture by the Lenape Indians in 1763.

MEDIEVAL TIMES

The Making of a Knight: How Sir James Earned his Armor, by Patrick O'Brien/ grades 2-4/ K,W,B
Follow young Sir James into knighthood in this informative picture book, including his journey at age 7 as a page, his work to become a squire in his teens, and that battle that proved him to be a knight at 21.

Castle Diary: The Journal of Tobias Burgess, Page, by Richard Platt/ grades 4-6/ K
In this oversizes, illustrated diary, Tobias Burgess, an 11-year-old page, describes daily life in a castle during the course of a year, including such incidents as a jousting tournament, a friend being knighted, and his own illness that results in bloodletting by a "physician."

BATTLE OF THE ALAMO

I Remember the Alamo, by D. Anne Love/ grades 5+/ K
12-year-old Jessie resents her father's decision to move his family to San Antonio, especially when they are caught up in the revolution of 1835-1836, including the seige of the Alamo.

WORLD WAR I

Ruthie's Gift, by Kimberley Brubaker Bradley/ grades 3-5/ K
8-year-old Ruthie hates being an "only"--as in the only girl in the middle of her six brothers and the only third-grade student in her one room schoolhouse. But, when twin girls move the the farm just down the road, suddenly Ruthie has friends and fellow classmates.

CIVIL WAR

Joseph 1861: A Rumble of War, by Bonnie Pryor/ grades 4-6/ K
After his stepfather becomes an abolitionist, 10-year-old Joseph struggles with his own thoughts about slavery as he sees its divisive power in his small Kentucky town.
See also Joseph's Choice:1861

A Ballad of the Civil War, by Mary Stolz/ grades 4-6/ K
Tom, a Union lietenant, recalls his life with his twin brothe, Jack, on their family's Virginia plantation, and the events that led them to fight on different sides in the Civil War.

TITANIC

Voyage on the Great Titanic: The Diary of Margaret Ann Brady, HMS Titanic, 1912, by Ellen Emerson White/ grades 5+/ K,W,B
In her diary in 1912, 13-year-old Margaret Ann describes how she leaves her lonely life in a London orphanage to become a companion to a wealthy American woman, sails on the Titanic, and experiences its sinking.

HOME

Piscataway Public Library
Children's Services

KidsKapers Home	Homework Helpers	Library Programs for Kids
Websites for Kids	Websites for Parents	Games on the Web