Travel Back Through Time
Visit different times in United States history, by
reading ...
1989
Cottonwood, Joe.
Quake!
With their parents away at the 1989 World Series, fourteen-year-old
Franny, her younger brother, and their cousin try to cope with the
frightening events following an earthquake that destroys their home on
Loma Prieta mountain.
1975
Johnson, Angela.
Songs of Faith.
Living in a small town in Ohio in 1975 and desperately missing her divorced
father, thirteen-year-old Doreen comes to terms with disturbing changes in her
family life.
1971
Winsolow, Vicki.
Follow the Leader.
In 1971 in a small North Carolina town, eleven-year-old Amanda must deal with
being bussed to a newly integrated, formerly all-black school and being separated
from her best friend, who has chosen a private school.
1968
Antle, Nancy.
Tough Choices: A Story of the Vietnam War.
Samantha finds herself torn by her loyalty to her two brothers, one a
soldier recently returned from the war in Vietnam and the other a war
protester.
1964
Rogers, Jean.
Goodbye, My Island.
Twelve-year-old Esther Atoolik tells of the last winter her people spent
on King Island, Alaska.
1960
Lasky, Kathryn.
Pageant.
Sarah Benjamin, a Jewish teenager on the brink of Kennedy's New Frontier,
wonders if she can endure four more years of Stuart Hall, Indianapolis's
most exclusive, very Christian, and impossibly stuffy school for girls.
1955
Wilkinson, Brenda.
Ludell.
A young black girl experiences the pleasures and the pains of growing up
during the 1950's in a small Georgia town.
1953
Boutis, Victoria.
Looking Out.
Though pleased to be part of the "in" crowd at her new school, Ellen's
growing awareness of her parents' social concerns, expressed in their support
of the condemmed Rosenbergs, forces her to make a choice about what really matters
in life.
1952
Fleming, Susan.
Trapped on the Golden Flyer.
The train carrying Paul west through the Sierra Nevadas becomes frozen to the
tracks during a blizzard and the passengers are drawn together in a fight for
survival.
Weaver, Lydia. Close to Home: A Story of the Polio Epidemic.
In the summer of 1952, Betsy sees her vacation fun overshadowed by the
spreading polio epidemic, while her mother and other scientists work
frantically to develop a vaccine for the crippling disease.
1951
Strauch, Eileen Walsh.
Hey You, Sister Rose.
Arlene, a young girl growing up in Baltimore during the early 1950s, has
her worst nightmare come true when she gets the dreaded Sister Rose for
her sixth grade teacher.
1950
Taylor, Mildred D.
The Gold Cadillac.
Two black girls living in the North are proud of their family's beautiful
new Cadillac until they take it on a visit to the South and encounter
racial prejudice for the first time.
1949
White, Alana.
Come Next Spring.
In 1949, in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, Salina struggles to accept
the inevitability of change--a highway cutting through farmland, a
brother and sister starting their own lives, and nothing left in common
with her best friend.
1948
Slepian, Jan.
Risk n' Roses.
In 1948, newly-moved to the Bronx, eleven-year-old Skip longs to shed her
responsibility for her mentally handicapped older sister and give her
whole attention to her new friendship with the bold and daring girl who
seems to run the neighborhood.
1947
Blume, Judy.
Starring Sally J. Freedman As Herself.
While spending the winter of 1947-48 in Miami Beach with her family,
ten-year-old Sally makes up stories, casts herself in starring roles in
movies, and encounters a sinister stranger.
Cohen, Barbara. Thank You, Jackie Robinson.
A fatherless white boy, who shares with an old black man an enthusiasm
for the Brooklyn Dodgers and first baseman, Jackie Robinson, takes a ball
autographed by Jackie to his elderly friend's death bed.
Herman, Charlotte. Millie Cooper and Friends.
Millie, a fourth-grader in 1947, struggles with her feelings and choices when her
best friend seems to prefer the company of a new classmate.
Herman, Charlotte. Millie Cooper, Take a Chance.
In 1947, after trying two different ways to win a bicycle and forcing herself to
read a poem in front of her third grade class, Millie recognizes the importance of
taking chances to make her life more interesting and satisfying.
1946
Herman, Charlotte.
Millie Cooper, 3B.
The adventures of third grader Millie give a delightful sense of time and
place-1946, Chicago, the week before Thanksgiving.
Johnston, Julie. Hero of Lesser Causes.
In 1946 twelve-year-old Keely is devastated when her older brother Patrick
is paralyzed by polio, and she starts a campaign to reawaken his waning
interest in life.
World War II
Burch, Robert.
Hut School and the Wartime Home-Front Heroes.
Describes the reactions of a sixth grade class in Georgia to World War II
and its effect on their lives.
Campbell, Barbara. A Girl Called Bob and a Horse Called Yoki.
In St. Louis during the Second World War, Bob makes secret plans to save
the life of an old horse that pulls the milk delivery wagon.
Green, Connie Jordan. The War at Home.
Living in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where her father is involved in a secret
government project in the final months of World War II, thirteen-year-
old Mattie carries on a constant debate with her twelve-year-old cousin
Virgil about the relative merits of boys versus girls.
1945
Avi.
"Who Was That Masked Man, Anyway?"
In the early forties when nearly everyone else is thinking about World War
II, sixth-grader Frankie Wattleson gets in trouble at home and at school
because of his preoccupation with his favorite radio programs.
1944
Giff, Patricia Reilly.
Lily's Crossing.
During a summer spent at Rockaway Beach in 1944, Lily's friendship with a young
Hungarian refugee causes her to see the war and her own world differently.
Paulsen, Gary. The Cookcamp.
During World War II, a little boy is sent to live with his grandma, a cook
in a camp for workers building a road through the wilderness.
Tripp, Valerie. Molly Learns a Lesson.
During World War II, nine-year-old Molly tries to aid the war effort with
her friends at school.
1943
Marko, Katherine McGlade.
Hang Out the Flag.
In 1943, as she waits for her father to come home on leave, a sixth-grade
girl in a midwestern town tries to find something special to do for the
war effort, such as catching a German spy.
1942
Uchida, Yoshiko.
Journey to Topaz.
After the Pearl Harbor attack an eleven-year-old Japanese-American girl
and her family are forced to go to an aliens camp in Utah.
1941
Branscum, Robbie.
Old Blue Tilley.
Orphaned, fourteen-year-old Hambone accompanies the circuit-riding
preacher, Old Blue Tilley, on his rounds high up in Ozark mountains on the
eve of war with Germany.
Kudlinski, Kathleen V. Pearl Harbor Is Burning!
Frank is miserable when his family moves to Hawaii in 1941 unitl he meets
Kenji, a Japanese-American boy who might become his friend. Then Pearl
Harbor is bombed by the Japanese, raising questions of trust and loyalty
in their growing friendship.
Salisbury, Graham. Under the Blood-Red Sun.
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.
Thesman, Jean. Molly Donnelly.
12 year-old Molly, who lives next door to a Japanese American family and
whose cousin is a nurse in the Philippines, experiences many changes when
World War II breaks out.
1938
Hamilton, Virginia.
Willie Bea and the Time the Martians Landed.
In October of 1938, on their farm homestead in Ohio, a black family is caught
up in the fear generated by the Orson Welles "Martians have landed"
broadcast.
The Great Depression
Arrington, Frances.
Stella's Bull.
Mary Wilson hears tales of a fearsome bull and blows the stories up in her
mind until she finally meets the bull face to face.
Burch, Robert. Ida Early Comes Over the Mountain.
Tough times in rural Georgia during the Depression take a lively turn when
spirited Ida Early arrives to keep house for the Suttons.
1936
Robinet, Harriette.
Mississippi Chariot.
In Mississippi, twelve-year-old Shortning Bread Jackson tries to help his
falsely convicted father while dealing with the troubled racial climate in
his town.
1935
Stewart, Sarah.
The Gardener.
A series of letters relating what happens when, after her father loses his job,
Lydia Grace goes to live with her Uncle Jim in the city but takes her love for
gardening with her.
Uchida, Yoshiko. A Jar of Dreams.
A young girl grows up in a closely-knit Japanese American family in
California during the 1930's, a time of great prejudice.
1933
Antle, Nancy.
Hard Times: a Story of the Great Depression.
When drought and the Depression lay waste to their native Oklahoma, fifth
grader Charlie and his family are forced to leave their home and search
for a new way of life.
Whelan, Gloria. That Wild Berries Should Grow.
Elsa dreads spending the summer at her grandparents' house on Lake Huron,
but she discovers the excitement of nature and the richness of
friendship.
1931
Taylor, Mildred D.
Mississippi Bridge.
During a heavy rainstorm in 1930s rural Mississippi, a ten-year- old white boy
sees a bus driver order all the black passengers off a crowded bus to make room
for late-arriving white passengers and then set off across the raging Rosa Lee
River.
1926
Selznick, Brian.
The Houdini Box.
A chance encounter with Harry Houdini leaves a small boy in possession of a
mysterious box--one that might hold the secrets to the greatest magic tricks ever
performed.
1924
Green, Connie Jordan.
Emmy.
When her father is disabled in a coal mining accident, eleven-year-old
Emmy and the others in her family do what they can to help, with her
fourteen-year-old brother taking Pa's place in the mines.
1923.
Buchanan, Jane.
Gratefully Yours.
In 1923, nine-year-old Hattie rides the Orphan Train from New York to Nebraska
where she must adjust to a strange new life with a farmer and his wife, who is
despondent over the loss ofher two children.
Clifford, Eth. The Summer of the Dancing Horses.
The summer when Bessie is eight and her brother and friend twelve, is a
special one of sacrifices, fulfilled desires, and heartbreak too.
1919
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.
1918
Estes, Eleanor.
Rufus M.
The further adventures of the Moffat family in which seven-year-old Rufus attempts
to rescue the family from financial distress. Sequel to "The Middle Moffat."
1917
Oneal, Zibby.
A Long Way to Go.
An eight-year-old girl deals with the women's suffrage movement that
rages during World War I.
Skurzynski, Gloria. Goodbye, Billy Radish.
In 1917, as the United States enters World War I, ten-year-old Hank sees
change all around him in his western Pennsylvania steel mill town and
feels his older Ukrainian friend Billy drifting apart from him.
1915
Armstrong, Jennifer.
Patrick Doyle Is Full of Blarney.
Nine-year-old Patrick promises his buddies that his baseball hero will
come to their playground in Hell's Kitchen, bat for him, and chase the
Copperheads out.
1914
Ross, Rhea Beth.
The Bet's On, Lizzie Bingman!
Fourteen-year-old Lizzie's bet with her oldest brother about women's
deserving equal rights kicks off a summer of unprecedented adventure for
her as she experiences things a young lady of 1914 rarely does.
1912
Taylor, Sydney.
All-of-a-Kind Family.
The adventures of five sisters growing up on New York's East Side in the
early twentieth century.
1911
Goldin, Barbara Diamond.
Fire! the Beginnings of the Labor
Movement.
In 1911 Rosie becomes involved in the struggle for better working
conditions in factories when fire rips through the Triangle Shirtwaist
factory, where her older sister Freyda is employed.
1910
Constant, Alberta Wilson.
The Motoring Millers.
Relates the life of the Miller girls when their widower father marries
Miss Kate and keeps the new 1911 Great Smith polished and rolling about
the country.
Harvey, Brett. Immigrant Girl: Becky of Eldridge Street.
Becky, whose family has emigrated from Russia to avoid being persecuted as
Jews, finds growing up in New York City in 1910 a vivid and exciting
experience.
Ross, Lillian Hammer. Sarah, Also Known As Hannah.
When twelve-year-old Sarah leaves the Ukraine for America in her sister's
place, she must use her sister's passport and her sister's name,
Hannah.
1909
Wyman, Andrea.
Red Sky at Morning.
In Indiana in 1909, Callie finds that she must grow up quickly when death
and other hardships leave her alone on the family farm with her ailing
grandfather Opa.
1908
Pellowski, Anne.
Winding Valley Farm: Annie's Story.
A young girl shares pleasures and disappointments with the other members of a
large Wisconsin farm family in the early twentieth century.
1907-1908
Snyder, Zilpha Keatley.
And Condors Danced.
The year Carly turns eleven, 1907, is filled with playing detective, watching
condors, observing a fierce feud involving her family's Southern California ranch,
and coping with unexpected tragedies.
1907
Andrus, Vera.
Black River.
Two sisters enjoy escapades growing up until disaster strikes their father's
Wisconsin creamery.
1906
Blos, Joan W.
Brooklyn Doesn't Rhyme.
At the request of her sixth grade teacher, Edwina Rose Sachs records
events in the lives of her Polish immigrant family and their friends
living in Brooklyn in the early 1900s.
Kudlinski, Kathleen V. Earthquake!: a Story of Old San Francisco.
In 1906, after the devastating earthquake hits San Francisco,
twelve-year-old Phillip struggles to save the horses in his family's
livery stable.
1904
Adler, Susan S.
Meet Samantha, an American Girl.
Nine-year-old Samantha, an orphan living with her wealthy grandmother, and
her servant friend Nellie have a midnight adventure when they try to find
out what has happened to the seamstress who suddenly left her job.
1902
Perez, Norah A.
Breaker.
After his father's death, fourteen-year-old Pat is forced to go to work in the
coal mines that dominate his Pennsylvania town and becomes involved in the big
mine workers' strike of 1902.
1901
Partridge, Elizabeth.
Clara and the Hoo Doo Man.
Clara always seems to find ways to worry her mother in their home near Red
Owl Mountain, Tennessee, but when her younger sister is near death, Clara
risks seeking the help of the herbal healer her mother calls a hoodoo
man.
1900
McGugan, Jim.
Josepha: A Prairie Boy's Story.
Josepha, an immigrant boy, leaves school to begin working and says good-bye to
his best friend.
1899
Riskind, Mary.
Apple Is My Sign.
A 10-year-old boy returns to his parents' apple farm for the holidays
after his first term at a school for the deaf in Philadelphia.
1898
Beatty, Patricia.
Behave Yourself, Bethany Brant.
A preacher's daughter with lots of curiosity and a penchant for getting
into trouble has an eventful year and a half, as all the predictions of a
fortune-teller at a Texas county fair in 1898 come true.
DeClements, Barthe. The Bite of the Gold Bug: A Story of the Alaskan
Gold Rush.
Bucky and his father, prospecting for gold in Alaska, must overcome
storms, dangerous mountain trails, and wilderness predators before
confronting the final challenge of human treachery.
1896
Fitzgerald, John D.
The Great Brain.
The exploits of the Great Brain of Adenville, Utah are described by his
younger brother, frequently the victim of the Great Brain's schemes for
gaining prestige or money.
1894
McNamara, Brooks.
The Merry Muldoons and the Brighteyes Affair.
Two children and their father must hastily abandon their vaudeville act in
the Bowery when a dangerous thug chases them across the New York
countryside to recover a cache of diamonds.
189-
Sawyer, Ruth.
Roller Skates.
The discoveries and adventures of ten-year-old Lucinda, who spends a
wonderful year exploring the New York City of the 1890's.
1889
Antle, Nancy.
Beautiful Land: A Story of the Oklahoma Land Rush.
After a two-year wait during which her mother died, twelve-year-old Annie
Mae and her family join thousands of hopeful settlers as they race to
claim land in the newly-opened Oklahoma Territory.
Gross, Virginia T. The Day It Rained Forever: A Story of the Johnstown
Flood.
When the rains came, the dam that held Lake Conemaugh burst, unleashing a
wall of water 125 feet high and rushing down the narrow valley at 50 miles
an hour toward the town.
1887
Emerson, Kathy Lynn.
Julia's Mending.
When her missionary parents go to China without her, snobbish
twelve-year-old Julia is sent to a farm in upstate New York where she
breaks a leg, while it mends learns to love and accept her country cousins
and heal her anger.
Hahn, Mary Downing. The Gentleman Outlaw and Me -- Eli.
Twelve-year-old Eliza, disguised as a boy and traveling towards Colorado
in search of her missing father, falls in with a Gentleman Outlaw and
joins him in his illegal schemes.
Whelan, Gloria. Hannah.
Hannah, a blind girl living in Michigan in the late nineteenth century,
doesn't go to school until a new teacher comes to board at their house.
1886
Clark, Clara Gillow.
Nellie Bishop.
Nellie struggles to survive in the rough and tumble world of a
Pennsylvania canal town.
1885
Welch, Catherine A.
Danger at the Breaker.
Because of family need, an eight-year-old coal miner's son leaves school
to work at the mines, where he learns about the dangers of a coal mine on
his first day on the job.
1884
Beatty, Patricia.
Bonanza Girl.
A widow and her two children head for gold rush territory in Idaho, hoping
to find jobs and a new life.
1883
Lawlor, Laurie.
Addie Across the Prairie.
Unhappy to leave her home and friends, Addie reluctantly accompanies her
family to the Dakota Territory and slowly begins to adjust to life on the
prairie.
1882
Beatty, Patricia.
By Crumbs, It's Mine!.
While stranded in the Arizona territory in the 1880's a thirteen-year-old
girl finds herself the owner of a traveling hotel.
1881
Cross, Gillian.
The Great American Elephant Chase.
Fifteen-year-old Tad helps a girl in her attempt to get a mighty Indian
elephant to friends in Nebraska, while pursued by two unscrupulous
villains who wish to take the elephant from her.
1880
Kudlinski, Kathleen V.
Shannon: A Chinatown Adventure, San Francisco,
1880.
Newly arrived in Victorian San Francisco from Ireland, Shannon plans the daring
rescue of a young Chinese slave.
1879-1885
Matthaei, Gay and Jewel Grutman.
The Ledgerbook of Thomas
Blue-Eagle.
A Sioux boy attends school in the East to learn about the world of the
white man.
1878
Myers, Anna.
Graveyard Girl.
During the yellow fever epidemic in Memphis in 1878, twelve-year-old Eli
and Addie, a young child he befriends, struggle to survive with the help
of a girl who works at the busy graveyard.
1877
O'Dell, Scott and Elizabeth Hall.
Thunder Rolling in the
Mountains.
A young Nez Perce girl relates how her people were driven off their land
by the U.S. Army and forced to retreat north until their eventual
surrender.
1876
Burks, Brian.
Soldier Boy.
A boy who grew up in the slums of late nineteenth-century Chicago runs away, joins
the cavalry, and fights with General Custer in the battle of Little Big Horn.
Ericson, Stig. Dan Henry in the Wild West.
A young Swede who arrives in Minnesota hoping to homestead yields to the
call of the West and sets out to seek his fortune.
Pellowski, Anne. First Farm In the Valley: Anna's Story.
Anna, the American-born daughter of Polish immigrants, longs to escape to rigors
of Wisconsin farm life to visit the romanticized Poland of her dreams.
1873
Beatty, Patricia.
Just Some Weeds From the Wilderness.
In an attempt to change the family's failing fortune, Lucinda's aunt goes
into the business of producing a patent medicine.
1870
Avi.
Punch With Judy.
An outcast eight-year-old boy, orphaned by the Civil War, is taken in by
the owner of a traveling medicine show and, despite the doubts of others,
years later he confirms the man's faith in him.
Eckert, Allan W. Incident at Hawk's Hill.
A shy, lonely six-year-old wanders into the Canadian prairie and spends a
summer under the protection of a badger.
1869
Uchida, Yoshiko.
Samurai of Gold Hill.
Seeking a new life in nineteenth-century California with his samurai
father, a young Japanese finds it difficult to adjust to the idea of being
a farmer and not a samurai.
1868
Goldin, Barbara Diamon.
Red Means Good Fortune.
Twelve-year-old Jin Mun, working for his father's laundry in San
Francisco's Chinatown, is shocked to discover that one of his neighbors is
a slave girl, forbidden to leave her house.
1865
Beatty, Patricia.
Be Ever Hopeful, Hannalee.
In 1865 with the war recently over, fourteen-year-old Hannalee and her recently
reunited family decide to start a new life in Atlanta where, because of the need
to rebuild the devastated city, jobs are plentiful.
Calvert, Patricia. Bigger.
When his father disappears near the Mexican border at the end of the Civil
War, twelve-year-old Tyler decides to go after him and bring him home,
acquiring on the journey a strange dog which he names Bigger.
Conrad, Pam. My Daniel.
Julie, now a grandmother, recounts to her grandchildren the events during the
summer her brother discovered dinosaur bones on their Nebraska farm.
Porter, Connie Rose. Changes for Addy.
After the Civil War ends, Addy desperately hopes that her family will be
reunited in freedom in Philadelphia, but the future may hold both
happiness and heartache.
1864 (Civil War)
Patricia Beatty.
Turn Homeward, Hannalee.
Twelve-year-old Hannalee Reed, forced to relocate in Indiana along with other
Georgia millworkers during the Civil War, leaves her mother with a promise to
return home as soon as the war ends.
Collier, James Lincoln. With Every Drop Of Blood.
While trying to transport food to Richmond, Virginia, during the Civil War,
fourteen-year-old Johnny is captured by a black Union soldier.
Donahue, John. An Island Far from Home.
The twelve-year-old son of a Union army doctor killed during the fighting
in Fredericksburg comes to understand the meaning of war and the fine line
between friends and enemies when he begins corresponding with a young
Confederate prisoner of war.
Hansen, Joyce. Which Way Freedom?
Obi escapes from slavery during the Civil War, joins a black Union
regiment, and soon becomes involved in the bloody fighting at Fort Pillow,
Tennessee.
Reeder, Carolyn. Across the Lines.
Edward, the son of a white plantation owner, and his black house servant and
friend Simon witness the siege of Petersburg during the Civil War.
Wisler, G. Clifton. Winter of the Wolf.
In charge of the family's Texas homestead during the Civil War,
14-year-old T.J. saves the life of a Comanche boy during an Indian raid
and they subsequently hunt a large, silver wolf purported to be the
devil.
1864
Brink, Carol Ryrie.
Caddie Woodlawn.
The adventures of an eleven-year-old tomboy growing up on the Wisconsin
frontier in the mid-nineteenth century.
O'Dell, Scott. Sing Down the Moon.
A young Navajo girl recounts the events of 1864 when her tribe was forced
to march to Fort Sumner as prisoners of the white soldiers.
Patrick, Denise Lewis. The Adventures of Midnight Son.
After his parents help him escape from slavery on a cotton plantation,
fourteen-year-old Midnight finds freedom in Mexico and becomes a cowboy on a
cattle drive to Kansas.
Yep, Laurence. The Mark Twain Murders.
A teen-age boy meets reporter Mark Twain in San Franciso after a murder,
and agrees to help him get the story.
1863 (Civil War)
Clapp, Patricia.
The Tamarack Tree.
An eighteen-year-old English girl finds her loyalties divided and all her
resources tested as she and her friends experience the terrible physical and
emotional hardships of the forty-seven day siege of Vicksburg.
Miers, Earl Schemck. The Guns of Vicksburg.
Eb's assignments on Ulyssess S. Grant's staff range from the dangerous to the
ridiculous in the time leading up to and during the siege of Vicksburg.
Tolliver, Ruby. C. Muddy Banks.
A twelve-year-old runaway slave is torn between desire for freedom and
affection for the woman who has protected him, as the impending Battle of
Sabine Pass threatens to engulf their part of Texas.
1862 (Civil War)
Burchard, Peter.
The Deserter: A Spy Story of the Civil War.
A youth volunteers for spy activity in the Civil War and is instructed to
get information about Island Number Ten, a Confederate strongpoint in the
Mississippi.
Wisler, G. Clifton. Redcap.
A young Yankee drummer boy displays great courage when he's captured and
sent to Andersonville Prison.
1861
Beatty, Patricia.
Who Comes With Cannons?.
In 1861 twelve-year-old Truth, a Quaker girl from Indiana, is staying
with relatives who run a North Carolina station of the Underground
Railroad, when her world is changed by the beginning of the Civil War.
Beatty, Patricia and Phillip Robbins. Eben Tyne, Powdermonkey.
A thirteen-year-old powdermonkey in the Confederate navy joins the crew of
the ironclad Merrimack in a mission to break the Union blockade of Norfolk
harbor.
Keith, Harold. Rifles for Watie.
The Civil War in the Far West is the backdrop of this story of young Jefferson
Davis Bussey who becomes a Yankee spy behind the Rebel Lines.
1860's
Klass, Sheila Solomon.
A Shooting Star: A Novel About Annie Oakley .
As one who prefers hunting over sewing, Annie Oakley breaks free from conventional
behavior for girls and goes on to develop her talent as a sharpshooter and
entertainer.
Wisler, G. Clifton. The Raid.
When his little brother is carried off by raiding Comanches,
fourteen-year-old Lige disguises himself as an Indian and joins a former
slave in a bold rescue attempt.
1859
Lottridge, Celia Barker.
The Wind Wagon.
Sam Peppard, a blacksmith in 1860s Kansas, builds a prairie schooner that
sails to Denver, Colorado, powered by wind.
McKissack, Pat. A Picture of Freedom: The Diary of Clotee, a Slave
Girl.
In 1859 twelve-year-old Clotee, a house slave who must conceal the fact that she
can read and write, records in her diary her experiences and her struggle to
decide whether to escape to freedom.
Wisler, G. Clifton. Caleb's Choice.
While living in Texas in 1858, fourteen-year-old Caleb faces a dilemma in deciding
whether or not to assist fugitive slaves in their run for freedom.
1858
Beatty, Patricia.
Jayhawker.
In the early years of the Civil War, teenage Kansan farm boy Lije Tulley
becomes a Jayhawker, an abolitionist raider freeing slaves from the
neighboring state of Missouri, and then goes undercover there as a spy.
1856
Berleth, Richard.
Mary Patten's Voyage.
A sailor recalls how the eighteen-year-old wife of Captain Joshua Patten
took charge of the clipper ship Neptune's Car during a race from New York
to San Francisco in 1856.
1855
Armstrong, Jennifer.
Steal Away.
Two thirteen-year-old girls, one white and one black, run away from a
southern farm and make the difficult journey north to freedom, living to
recount their story forty-one years later to two similar young girls.
Avi. The Barn.
In an effort to fulfill their dying father's last request, nine-year-old
Ben and his brother and sister construct a barn on their land in the
Oregon Territory.
Hopkinson, Deborah. Birdie's Lighthouse.
The diary of a ten-year-old girl who moves with her family in 1855 from a town on
the Maine coast to rugged Turtle Island where her father is to be the lighthouse
keeper.
Karr, Kathleen. Gideon and the Mummy Professor.
In 1855, twelve-year-old Gideon and his ne'er-do-well father work their way down
the Mississippi in a second-rate vaudeville act about life in ancient Egypt
accompanied by a mummy with a very special secret.
Turner, Glennette Tilly. Running For Our Lives.
A family of fugitive slaves becomes separated while traveling to freedom
aboard the Underground Railroad.
Paterson, Katherine. Jip: His Story.
While living on a Vermont poor farm during 1855 and 1856, Jip learns his
identity and that of his mother and comes to understand how he arrived at
this place.
1854
Shaw, Janet Beeler.
Meet Kirsten, an American Girl.
Nine-year-old Kirsten and her family experience many hardships as they
travel from Sweden to the Minnesota frontier in 1854.
1853
Coville, Bruce.
Fortune's Journey.
Sixteen-year-old Jenny faces many challenges on an overland journey to California
in 1853 with the acting company that she inherited from her father.
1852
Van Leeuwen, Jean.
Bound For Oregon.
A fictionalized account of the journey made by nine-year-old Mary Ellen
Todd and her family from their home in Arkansas westward over the Oregon
Trail.
Wisler, G. Clifton. Jericho's Journey.
As his family makes the long and difficult journey from Tennessee to their
new home in Texas, twelve-year-old Jericho Wetherby, teased by his sister
and brothers about his size, learns there are many ways to grow.
Moeri, Louise. Save Queen of Sheba.
After miraculously surviving a Sioux raid on the trail to Oregon, a
brother and sister set out with few provisions to find the rest of the
settlers.
1851
Clark, Ann Nolan.
Summer Is For Growing.
Lala is a young girl growing up in a hacienda in the new United States
territory of New Mexico.
Liles, Maurine Walpole. Kitty of Blossom Prairie.
In the mid-1800s, twelve-year-old Kitty and her family demonstrate a
pioneer spirit and bold courage as they struggle to create a homestead on
the prairie in northeast Texas.
Woodruff, Elvira. Dear Levi: Letters From the Overland Trail.
Twelve-year-old Austin Ives writes letters to his younger brother describing his
three-thousand-mile journey from their home in Pennsylvania to Oregon in 1851.
1850
Conlon-McKenna, Marita.
Wildflower Girl.
Thirteen-year-old Peggy O'Driscoll sets out alone from Ireland for
America, hoping to make a better life for herself.
Putnam, Alice. Westering.
Traveling with his family in a wagon train from Missouri to Oregon in
1850, ten-year-old Jason finds a stray dog that proves useful during the
dangerous journey.
1849
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.
DeFelice, Cynthia C. The Apprenticeship of Lucas Whitaker.
After his family dies of consumption in 1849, twelve-year-old Lucas becomes a
doctor's apprentice.
1848
Avi.
The Man Who Was Poe.
In Providence, R.I., Edgar Allan Poe reluctantly investigates the problems
of 11 year-old Edmund, whose family has mysteriously disappeared and whose
story suggests a new Poe tale with a ghastly final twist.
1845
Hilts, Len.
Timmy O'Dowd and the Big Ditch: A Story of the Glory Days
on the Old Erie Canal.
Young Timmy O'Dowd and his "city boy" cousin must forget their differences
and pool their energies when the Erie Canal is damaged by storms.
1848
Clements, Bruce.
I Tell a Lie Every So Often.
In 1848 a fourteen-year-old Missourian, although not a habitual liar, tells two
lies that start off an unusual chain of events.
Paulsen, Gary. Call Me Francis Tucket.
Having separated from the one-armed trapper who taught him how to survive
in the wilderness of the Old West, fifteen-year-old Francis gets lost and
continues to have adventures involving dangerous men and a friendly
mule.
1843
Paterson, Katherine.
Lyddie.
Impoverished Vermont farm girl Lyddie Worthen is determined to gain her
independence by becoming a factory worker in Lowell, Massachusetts, in the
1840s.
1842
Brill, Marlene Targ.
Allen Jay and the Underground Railroad.
Recounts how Allen Jay, a young Quaker boy living in Ohio during the
1840s, helped a fleeing slave escape his master and make it to freedom
through the Underground Railroad.
Curry, Jane Louise. What the Dickens!
Eleven-year-old twins, whose father runs a boat on the Juniata Canal in
Pennsylvania, learn of a Harrisburg bookseller's plan to steal Charles Dickens's
newly finished novel while Dickens himself is touring the U.S.
1840
Clifford, Eth.
Search for the Crescent Moon.
In 1840, fifteen-year-old Tobias accompanies his grandfather on yet another
search for the old man's twin sister kidnapped as a child by the Indians.
Kudlinski, Kathleen V. Night Bird: A Story of the Seminole
Indians.
In 1840 Night Bird, whose clan of Seminole Indians is fighting to preserve
its traditional way of life in Florida, must decide whether to seek land
and an unknown future in distant Oklahoma.
Whelan, Gloria. Night of the Full Moon.
When she sneaks away to visit her friend, a young girl living on the
Michigan frontier is caught up in the forced evacuation of a group of
Potawatomi Indians from their tribal lands.
1838
Stewart, Elisabeth J.
On The Long Trail Home.
Meli and her brother Tahlikwa escape from the Cherokee people being herded
westward on the Trail of Tears, determined to return to their beloved
mountain home.
1835
O'Dell, Scott.
Island of the Blue Dolphins.
Left alone on a beautiful but isolated island off the coast of California,
a young Indian girl spends eighteen years, not only merely surviving
through her enormous courage and self-reliance, but also finding a measure
of happiness in her solitary life.
1834
Johnson, Dolores.
Seminole Diary: Remembrances of a Slave.
Libbie, a young African-American slave, escapes from a plantation and is
taken south to Florida to join Seminole Indians.
1833
Yates, Elizabeth.
Prudence Crandall: Woman of Courage.
A novel of the Quaker teacher who in 1833 opened a school for African-American
women and girls.
1830-32
Blos, Joan W.
A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal,
1830-32.
The journal of a 14-year-old girl, kept the last year she lived on the
family farm, records daily events in her small New Hampshire town, her
father's remarriage, and the death of her best friend.
1827
Bowen, Gary.
My Village, Sturbridge.
Wood engravings and accompanying descriptions highlight Sturbridge,
Massachusetts, as seen by an apprentice ina printing office.
Lyons, Mary E. The Poison Place: A Novel.
A former slave named Moses reminisces about his famous owner, Charles Willson
Peale, and the intrigue surrounding Peale's son's suspicious death.
1826
McCall, Edith S.
Message from the Mountains.
In the frontier town of Franklin, Missouri, in 1826, teenage friends Jim
Matthews and Kit Carson share the dream of running away to a life of
adventure on the Santa Fe Trail.
1825
Lyons, Mary.
Letters from a Slave Girl: The Story of Harriet
Jacobs.
A fictionalized version of the life of Harriet Jacobs, told in the form
of letters that she might have written during her slavery in North
Carolina beginning in 1925 and going on to her escape to the North in
1842.
1823
McClung, Robert M.
Hugh Glass, Mountain Man.
A fictionalized biography of the legendary hero of the Old West, who as a
fur trapper in 1823, survived an attack by a grizzly bear.
1815
Auch, Mary Jane.
Journey to Nowhere.
In 1815, while traveling by covered wagon to settle in the wilderness of western
New York, eleven-year-old Mem experiences a flood and separation from her family.
1814
Greeson, Janet.
An American Army of Two.
During the War of 1812, Rebecca and Abigail Bates save their town's ships from
the British by playing "Yankee Doodle" on a fife and drum to simulate
the approach of American troops.
Minahan, John A. Abigail's Drum.
During the War of 1812, when British soldiers threaten the town of
Scituate, Massachusetts, young Rebecca Bates and her sister Abigail,
daughters of the local lighthouse keeper, find a way to save both him and
the town.
1804
Bohner, Charles.
Bold Journey: West with Lewis and Clark.
Private Hugh McNeal relates his experiences accompanying Captains Lewis
and Clark on their 1804-1806 expedition in search of a northwest passage
to the Pacific Ocean.
1801
O'Dell, Scott.
Streams to the River, River to the Sea.
A young Indian woman, accompanied by her infant and cruel husband,
experiences joy and heartbreak when she joins the Lewis and Clark
Expedition seeking a way to the Pacific.
West, Tracey. Mr. Peale's Bones.
An eleven-year-old boy living in New York State joins the expedition of
nineteenth-century artist and scientist Charles Willson Peale to dig for mammoth
bones on a nearby farm.
1800
Durbin, William.
The Broken Blade.
When an injury prevents his father from going into northern Canada with fur
traders, thirteen-year-old Pierre decides to take his father's place as a
voyageur.
1797
Shub, Elizabeth.
Cutlass in the Snow.
Sam and his grandfather explore the wild and uninhabited Fire Island, just
missing a band of pirates but finding a cutlass and buried treasure.
1793
Willis, Patricia.
Danger Along the Ohio.
Lost in the Ohio River Valley in May 1793, twelve-year-old Clare and her two
brothers struggle to survive in the wilderness and to avoid capture by the Shawnee
Indians.
1788
Hansen, Joyce.
The Captive.
Kofi's safe world is shattered by ghostly white men who are stealing his people to
sell into slavery. Kofi's family in Africa owns a slave who betrays them and Kofi
ends up on a cold, somber New England farm owned by Puritans.
1784
Fritz, Jean.
The Cabin Faced West.
Ann finds herself the only girl in the settlement and long to return to
her former home in the East.
1780
Beatty, John Louis and Patricia Beatty.
Who Comes to King's
Mountain?
Living in the South Carolina hills in 1780, a young Scottish boy, whose
own family is divided between Loyalist and rebel, must decide for himself
which side he will follow.
1779
Greene, Jacqueline Dembar.
The Leveller.
In a Massachusetts village during 1779, Tom Cook robs from the rich to
give to the poor. Some thought him a child of the devil, others thought of
him as the Leveller.
1778
Gregory, Kristiana.
The Winter of Red Snow: the Revolutionary War Diary of
Abigail Jane Stewart.
Eleven-year-old Abigail presents a diary account of life in Valley Forge from
December 1777 to July 1778 as General Washington prepares his troops to fight the
British
1777
Finlayson, Ann.
Rebecca's War.
Left in charge of her brother and sister in occupied Philadelphia in 1777,
fourteen-year-old Rebecca's life is complicated further when two British
soldiers are billeted in her house.
1776
Berleth, Richard J.
Samuel's Choice.
Samuel, a fourteen-year-old slave in Brooklyn in 1776, faces a difficult choice
when the fighting between the British and the colonists reaches his doorstep and
only he can help the rebels.
DeFord, Deborah H. And Harry S. Stout. An Enemy Among Them.
A young Hessian soldier questions his loyalty to his king after fighting
with the British in America during the Revolutionary War and spending time
as a prisoner in the home of a German American family from
Pennsylvania.
1775
Bothwell, Jean.
The Mystery Candlestick.
During the summer of 1775 an eleven-year-old boy becomes involved in the
espionage work of the Colonial underground.
Forman, James D. The Cow Neck Rebels.
Two brothers march off to the Battle of Long Island, not a battle particularly
important to the outcome of the Revolution, but a decisive factor in the lives of
the brothers.
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.
1774
Tripp, Valerie.
Meet Felicity, an American Girl.
In Williamsburg, nine-year-old Felicity rescues a beautiful horse who is
being beaten and starved by her cruel owner.
1773
Albrecht, Lillie.
The Grist Mill Secret.
When her family moves from their comfortable village home to live in the country,
Tabitha becomes involved in secret Revolutionary War activities.
1772
Finalyson, Ann.
Greenhorn on the Frontier.
Just before the Revolutionary War, nineteen-year-old Harry and his
twenty-three-year-old sister, Sukey, move their few possessions by hand cart to
start their own farm on the western Pennsylvania frontier.
1768
Avi.
Night Journeys.
Two young indentured servants escape into Pennsylvania in the late 1700's
and receive help from an unexpected source.
Speare, Elizabeth George. The Sign of the Beaver.
Left alone to guard the family's wilderness home in eighteenth-century
Maine, a boy is hard-pressed to survive until local Indians teach him
their skills.
1745
Lawson, Robert.
Ben and Me.
Banjamin Franklin's companion, Amos the mouse, recounts how he was
responsible for Franklin's inventions and discoveries.
1734
Krensky, Stephen.
The Printer's Apprentice.
In New York City, a young printer's apprentice learns about the importance of
freedom of speech when the printer Peter Zenger is arrested and tried for writing
articles criticizing the government.
1702
Hays, Wilma Pitchford.
Siege! The Story of St. Augustine in
1702.
The Spanish colonists in St. Augustine withdraw to the fort as the
English approach the town hoping to claim it and subsequently all Florida
for England.
1692
Hildick, E. W.
Hester Bidgood, Investigatrix of Evill Deedes.
Thirteen-year-old Hester Bidgood and her fourteen-year-old friend Rob
Macgregor investigate the stoning and branding of a kitten in a New
England town caught in the grip of witchcraft rumors during the year
1692.
1687
Speare, Elizabeth George.
The Witch of Blackbird Pond.
Raised in easy-going Barbados, Kit finds it difficult to adjust to Puritan
life. After she befriends a Quaker outcast, she find herself accused of
witchcraft.
1680
Anderson, Lonzo.
Zeb.
An accident leaves Zeb alone to survive winter in the wilderness west of
the Delaware River without gun or food.
1636
Christian, Mary Blount.
Goody Sherman's Pig.
In Massachusetts in 1636, Goody Sherman begins a legal battle over her pig
that ends up dividing the legislative department of the colony into two
independent branches.
1632
Dillon, Eilis,
The Seekers.
Sixteen-year-old Edward sails with friends from England to the New World
in 1632 and joins the colony founded by the Pilgrims at Plymouth,
discovering the perils and hardships of colonial life.
1621
Dorris, Michael.
Guests.
Moss and Trouble, an Algonquin boy and girl, struggle with the problems of
growing up in the Massachusetts area during the time of the first
Thanksgiving.
1620
Clapp, Patricia.
Constance.
The journal of a young girl tells of her daily life, hardships, romances
and marriage during the first years of the Pilgrim settlement at
Plymouth.
Lasky, Kathryn. A Journey to the New World: the Diary of Remember
Patience Whipple .
Twelve-year-old Mem presents a diary account of the trip she and her
family made on the Mayflower in 1620 and their first year in the New
World.
1554
Marvin, Isabel R.
Shipwrecked on Padre Island.
In this fictionalized account of a 1554 shipwreck off Padre Island, Texas,
a thirteen-year-old survivor loses a treasured gold bracelet which links
her to present-day visitors to the island.
1552
Spinka, Penina Keen.
White Hare's Horses.
A young Chumash Indian, White Hare, must find the courage to save her
people from Aztec invaders with their frightening horses.
1541
O'Dell, Scott.
The King's Fifth.
A map-maker accompanying a ruthless band of Coronado's soldiers in their
search for gold must battle against his own sudden greed.
1534
Baker, Betty.
Walk the World's Rim.
Chakoh, a 14 year old Avavare Indian, joins four survivors from an
ill-fated Spanish expedition as they attempt to find the fabled seven
golden cities of Antilia.
1400's
Bruchac, Joseph.
Children of the Longhouse.
Eleven-year-old Ohkwa'ri and his twin sister must make peace with a
hostile gang of older boys in their Mohawk village during the late
1400s.
1052
Spinka, Penina Keen.
Mother's Blessing.
A Chumash Indian girl, rejected by her father, follows the call of her
spirit guide and seeks to fulfill an old seer's prophecy that she will
become an important leader of her people.
Compiled by Virginia Richey for MCPL Children's Services
(1/97).
