Stories about America’s Past for Middle School Readers
at the Elmhurst Public Library
These books can be found in the fiction (J F) section of the Kids' Library,
shelved alphabetically by the authors' last names.
Lost in the War by Nancy Antle
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. 137 pages.
Eight Mules from Monterey by Patricia Beatty
The madcap escapades of a librarian’s daughter in early 1900s California are turned here into a joyfully inventive novel.
Wait for Me, Watch for Me, Eula Bee by Patricia Beatty
With Pa fighting in the Civil War, Lewallen Collier and his little sister are captured in a Comanche raid. Admiring Lewallen’s courage, the Indians give him the name Sings His War Song and try to teach him the ways of a young brave. But Lewtie dreams only of escape – and of the day he can return for his little sister.
Runs With Horses by Brian Burks
Sixteen years old in 1886, Runs With Horses trains to become a warrior with Geronimo’s band of Apaches in the American Southwest.
Wrango by Brian Burks
When young George McJunkin leaves his home in Texas and joins a cattle drive along the Chisholm Trail, he experiences the hardships of being a Black cowboy after the Civil War. 118 pages.
Nellie Bishop by Clara Gillow Clark
Nellie is thirteen – just the right age for marriage, according to her selfish and cruel mother. Nellie has no intention of being sold to a rough canal man, but her gambling, drinking father and her greedy, abusive mother are difficult foes. Set in the late 1800s in a Pennsylvania canal town. The sequel, Willie and the Rattlesnake King, is about Nellie’s brother Willie, who runs away to join a traveling medicine show.
Jump Ship to Freedom by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
Daniel and his mother are slaves in the house of Captain and Mrs. Ivers – though by law they should be free, since Daniel’s father fought in the Revolutionary army and earned enough money to buy his family’s freedom. But now Daniel’s father is dead, and Mrs. Ivers has stolen the money from Daniel’s mother.
My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
Tragedy strikes the Meeker family during the Revolutionary War when one son joins the rebel forces while the rest of the family tries to stay neutral in a Tory town. A Newbery Honor book.
My Daniel by Pam Conrad
A Nebraska farm girl tells an adventurous tale of love and treachery, during the days of the great dinosaur rush when paleontologists vied for bones, and of the terrible loss of her older brother. Another book for older readers by Pam Conrad is Prairie Songs.
The Great American Elephant Chase by Gillian Cross
In this hair-raising adventure set in 1881, 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.
Now, Ameriky by Betty Sue Cummings
A young Irish woman, whose family is driven from their land during the potato famine in the 1840’s, is sent to America to earn enough money to enable the rest of her family to join her.
The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis
Enter the hilarious world of the Weird Watsons of Flint, Michigan. When Mamma and Dad decide it’s time for a visit to Grandma, the Watsons head south toward one of the darkest moments in America’s history. By turns comic, tragic and touching.
The Ballad of Lucy Whipple by Karen Cushman
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. 195 pages.
The Apprenticeship of Lucas Whitaker by Cynthia DeFelice
After his family dies of consumption in 1849, twelve-year-old Lucas becomes a doctor’s apprentice.
Bull Run by Paul Fleischman
Northerners, Southerners, generals, couriers, dreaming boys and worried sisters describe the glory, the horror, the thrill and the disillusionment of the first battle of the Civil War.
Saturnalia by Paul Fleischman
In 1681 in Boston, fourteen-year-old William, a Narraganset Indian captured in a raid six years earlier, leads a productive and contented life as a printer's apprentice but is increasingly anxious to make some connection with his Indian past. 113 pages.
Becca’s Story by James Forman
In this Civil War romance, two soldiers are rivals for the hand of Becca Case.
The Cow Neck Rebels by James Forman
Two brothers march off to the Battle of Long Island on an August day in 1776.
Hope’s Crossing by Joan E. Goodman
When kidnapped by English Loyalists during the Revolutionary War, thirteen-year-old Hope draws on every ounce of courage within her to respond to the ordeal. 212 pages.
Summer of My German Soldier by Betty Greene
Sheltering an escaped German prisoner of war is the beginning of some shattering experiences for a 12-year-old Jewish girl in Arkansas. Sequel: Morning Is a Long time Coming.
The Gentleman Outlaw and Me – Eli: A Story of the Old West by Mary Downing Hahn
In 1887 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.
The Captive by Joyce Hansen
Kofi’s safe world in Africa is suddenly shattered by ghostly white men who steal his people to sell into slavery in New England, shortly after the American Revolution.
Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
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. A Newbery Medal book.
Shipwreck Season by Donna Hill
In 1880, forced to work with his uncle at a lifesaving station on Cape Cod, sixteen-year-old Daniel finds himself maturing as he encounters unexpected comradeship, challenges, and danger.
Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt
Young Jethro Creighton grows from a boy to a man when he is left to take care of the family farm in Illinois during the difficult years of the Civil War.
World’s Apart by Kathleen Karr
In 1670, soon after arriving in the Carolinas with a group of colonists from England, fifteen-year-old Christopher West befriends a young Sewee Indian, Asha-po, and learns some hard lessons about survival, slavery, and friendship. 196 pages.
I Am Regina by Sally M. Keehn
In 1755, as the French and Indian War begins, ten-year-old Regina is kidnapped by Indians in western Pennsylvania, and she must struggle to hold onto memories of her earlier life as she grows up under the name of Tskinnak and starts to become Indian herself.
Where the Great Hawk Flies by Liza Ketchum
Years after a violent New England raid by the Redcoats and their Revolutionary War Indian allies, two families, one that suffered during that raid and one with an Indian mother and Patriot father, become neighbors and must deal with past trauma and prejudices before they can help each other in the present. 264 pages.
Trouble’s Daughter: The Story of Susanna Hutchinson, Indian Captive
by Katherine Kirkpatrick
When her family is massacred by Lenape Indians in 1643, nine-year-old Susanna, daughter of Anne Hutchinson, is captured and raised as a Lenape. Based on a true story.
Keeping the Good Light by Katherine A. Kirkpatrick
Bored with living in a New York lighthouse at the turn of the twentieth century, sixteen-year-old Eliza seeks a teaching position away from home.
Edith Shay by A. LaFaye
Leaving her home in Wisconsin in 1865, sixteen-year-old Katherine sets out for Chicago to prove to her family that she can make a life for herself.
Beyond the Burning Time by Kathryn Lasky
When, in the winter of 1691, accusations of witchcraft surface in her small New England village, twelve-year-old Mary Chase fights to save her mother from execution.
Beyond the Divide by Kathryn Lasky
In 1849, a fourteen-year-old Amish girl defies convention by leaving her secure home in Pennsylvania to accompany her father across the continent by wagon train.
Roanoke: A Novel of the Lost Colony by Sonia Levitin
The story of the lost colony of Roanoke is one of the great mysteries of American history. A colony of men, women and children were left to build a settlement on Roanoke Island while their leader, John White, went back to England for supplies. When White returned, the colony was gone. None of the people were ever found. Based on a true story.
I Am Lavina Cumming by Susan Lowell
On September 16, 1905, Lavina travels by train to her aunt’s house in Santa Cruz, California, leaving behind everything that is familiar. Armed with the family motto, “Courage,” she deals with new school, homesickness and an earthquake.
Drift by William Mayne
Rafe’s mother doesn’t want him to talk to the “heathen” Indian girl, Tawena, who lives in the encampment of tents and cabins at the outskirts of the village. But Rafe longs to know what Tawena means by “looking at bear” and follows her one day onto the headland and into disaster.
Boy with a Pack by Stephen W. Meader
Seventeen-year-old Bill Crawford refused to be licked by the hard times of 1837. Putting every cent he owned into a tin trunk of “Yankee notions,” he set out afoot to sell them in the Ohio country. “Flavored with the racy pungence of stagecoaches and tavern stables, the brawl and bustle of the old Erie Canal, the excitement of backwoods trotting-tracks and the dusty plodding of westward migration.
Freedom Songs by Yvette Moore
In the 1960’s, when Sheryl’s Uncle Pete joins the Freedom Riders down South, she organizes a gospel concert in Brooklyn to help him.
The Legend of Buddy Bush by Shelia P. Moses
In 1947, twelve-year-old Pattie Mae is sustained by her dreams of escaping Rich Square, North Carolina, and moving to Harlem when her Uncle Buddy is arrest for attempted rape of a white woman and her grandfather is diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor. 216 pages. Followed by: The Return of Buddy Bush.
Fire in the Hills by Anna Myers
After her mother’s death, sixteen-year-old Hallie faces changes in her life in the hills of eastern Oklahoma in 1918, as she takes over caring for her seven siblings and deals with the effects of World War I on her family.
The Glory Field by Walter Dean Myers
This story follows a family's two hundred forty-one year history, from the capture of an African boy in the 1750s through the lives of his descendants, as their dreams and circumstances lead them away from and back to the small plot of land in South Carolina that they call the Glory Field.
The King of Mulberry Street by Donna Jo Napoli
In 1892, Dom, a nine-year old stowaway from Naples, Italy, arrives in New York and must learn to survive the perils and horrors of street life in the big city. 245 pages.
A Dangerous Promise by Joan Lowery Nixon
After being taken in by Captain Taylor and his wife in Kansas, twelve-year-old Mike Kelly and his friend Todd Blakely join the Union army as musicians and see the horrors of war firsthand in Missouri. Part of The Orphan Train Adventures, which begins with A Family Apart and continues with Caught in the Act, In the Face of Danger and A Place to Belong
Land of Promise by Joan Lowery Nixon
In 1902 fifteen-year-old Rose travels from Ireland to join family members in Chicago, where she must use all her resources to deal with her father's drinking and her brothers' dangerous involvement in politics. This book is second in the series Ellis Island, which begins with Lord of Hope.
Sarah Bishop by Scott O’Dell
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.
The Serpent Never Sleeps by Scott O’Dell
In the early 17th century, Serena Lynn, determined to be with the man she has loved since childhood, travels to the New World and comes to know the hardships of colonial life and the extraordinary Princess Pocahontas.
Streams to the River, River to the Sea by Scott O’Dell
Sacagawea, 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.
Music from a Place Called Half Moon by Jerrie Oughton
In 1956 in Half Moon, North Carolina, thirteen-year-old Edie Jo comes to terms with her own prejudice when she meets an Indian boy named Cherokee Fish, and they share their secrets and dreams.
Lyddie by Katherine Paterson
Impoverished Vermont farm girl Lyddie Worthen is determined to gain her independence by becoming a factory worker in Lowell, Massachusetts, in the 1840’s.
Soldier’s Heart by Gary Paulsen
Eager to enlist, fifteen-year-old Charley has a change of heart after experiencing both the physical horrors and the mental anguish of Civil War combat.
Fair Weather by Richard Peck
In 1893, thirteen-year-old Rosie and members of her family travel from their Illinois farm to Chicago 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. 139 pages.
A Long Way from Chicago: A Novel in Stories by Richard Peck
A boy recounts his annual summer trips to rural Illinois with his sister during the Great Depression to visit their larger-than-life grandmother. A very funny book. 148 pages. Followed by: A Year Down Yonder.
Across the Lines by Carolyn Reeder
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. Also by this author: Shades of Gray.
Captain Kate by Carolyn Reeder
Determined to take her father's coal-carrying barge on the C & O Canal from Cumberland, Maryland, to Georgetown in D.C., twelve-year-old Kate learns hurtful truths about herself.
Lightning Time by Douglas Rees
Sixteen-year-old Theodore joins John Brown in his attack on the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry in 1859.
The Staircase by Ann Rinaldi
In 1878, after her mother's death on the way West, thirteen-year-old Lizzy Enders is left by her father at a convent school in Sante Fe, where she must deal with being the only non-Catholic student and where she plays a part in what some consider a miracle. 230 pages. 230 pages.
A Stitch in Time by Ann Rinaldi
An “adventurous, heart-catching” novel, first installment in The Quilt Trilogy, which follows three generations of a New England family. Followed by Broken Days, which depicts the struggle of a Shawnee girl caught between two worlds, and The Blue Door, about fourteen-year-old Amanda who encounters the exploitation of women in the textile mills.
The Bet’s On, Lizzie Bingman by Rhea Beth Ross
Fourteen-year-old Lizzie’s bet with her older brother about women deserving equal rights kicks off a summer of unprecedented adventure for her as she experiences things a young lady of 1914 rarely does.
Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan
Esperanza and her mother are forced to leave their life of wealth and privilege in Mexico to go work in the labor camps of Southern California, where they must adapt to the harsh circumstances facing Mexican farm workers on the eve of the Great Depression. 262 pages.
Under the Blood-Red Sun by Graham Salisbury
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.
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
In 1687 Connecticut, a high-spirited young girl rebels against bigotry and is regarded by her fellow colonist with suspicion that turns into a terrifying witch hunt and trial.
Last Child by Michael Spooner
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. 230 pages.
The Star-Spangled Banner: The Thrilling Story of a Boy Who Lived the Words of Our National Anthem by Neil H. Swanson and Anne Sherbourne Swanson
During the War of 1812, fourteen-year-old Lex leaves home to fight the British and look for his father. This is also the story of a young American prisoner named Francis Scott Key and the song he wrote.
Sister to the Wolf by Maxine Trottier
A fifteen-year-old girl goes on a journey of self-discovery as she travels through the wilderness of Michigan/French Canada in the early 1700's. 348 pages.
Second Daughter: The Story of a Slave Girl by Midred Pitts Walter
Aissa, the teen-age fictional sister of Elizabeth Freeman, struggles against a system which declares that she is property and that she is to remain silent. This book was inspired by the 1781 case of Mum Bett, a slave who sued her owner for freedom under the Massachusetts Constitution and won.
Jamestown Adventure by Manly Wade Wellman
Young James Rickard, fictional cousin of Captain John Smith, is sent by him to live as a hostage-guest among the Algonquin Indians, led by Chief Powhattan, at the time of Virginia’s beginnings in 1608-1609.
Once on This Island by Gloria Whelan
Twelve-year-old Mary and her older brother and sister tend the family farm on Michigan's Mackinac Island while their father is away fighting the British in the War of 1812.
Titanic Crossing by Barbara Williams
In 1912, thirteen-year-old Albert considers his younger sister a pest, but things change when they travel with their mother and uncle aboard the Titanic and are caught up in its tragic sinking. 167 pages.
The Confederate Fiddle by Jeanne Williams
In 1863, while helping to get a wagon trail full of cotton from Missouri to an open port in Texas, Vin envies his older brother in the Confederate Army but finds that his unglamorous task involves thrills and courage.
Danger Along the Ohio by Patricia Wills
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.
Bat 6 by Virginia Euwer Wolff
In small town, post-World War Oregon, twenty-one 6th grade girls recount the story of an annual softball game, during which one girl's bigotry comes to the surface. 230 pages.
Prudence Crandall: Woman of Courage by Elizabeth Yates
In 1833, a young Quaker teacher opens her school to “young Ladies and little Misses of color” – and roused her town of Canterbury, Connecticut to unreasoning fury. Based on a true story, The Horn Book called this “the very moving account of one woman’s belief, and her single-hearted devotion to it.”
Dragonwings by Laurence Yep
Moon Shadow was eight when he sailed from China to join a father he had never seen, who lived in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Inspired by a true story of a Chinese immigrant who made a flying machine in 1909, this portrays the rich traditions of the Chinese community as it made its way in a hostile new world.
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