Historical Fiction

The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed

FIC-HISTORICAL HAM

Ashley is a rich Black girl going to an exclusive High School in LA during the 1992 Rodney King riots. She's very conflicted - even though it's close to home, it doesn't directly affect her - that's not her neighborhood - but there's always been a difference between her and her white friends. She's known them for her whole life, and they're her best friends, but there's always a little 'something' off. She's always shook it off, but lately she doesn't want to.  Ashley slowly comes to the realization that maybe she shouldn't be putting up with the little digs from her 'friends' and maybe she should be standing up for herself.

Historical Fiction

Read this if you liked:  Punching the Air, Dear Martin, Stamped, The Hate U Give, Dear Martin, Black Enough

They Went Left by Monica Hess

FIC HES

Few books tell the story of what happened right after liberation from the Nazi death camps. This is the story of Zofia, an 18 year old girl who is searching for her 12 year old brother. When she first makes her way to her former home, she still encounters prejudice from neighbors and townspeople. Following a lead, she travels to a displaced persons camp in the hopes of finding her brother. There, she finds a community, friends, and even romance with Josef, a fellow displaced person. Zofia has many holes in her memory, a coping mechanism, and so she has a hard time distinguishing memories as either fact or fiction, and is often unsure of herself. I had a great deal of empathy for Zofia, especially in light of all of her uncertainty, which she tried to keep from people so they didn't think she was 'crazy'. She went through unspeakable horrors, and the only thing that was keeping her going was the idea of finding her brother again.

Historical Fiction

Read this if you liked: The Book Thief, Between Shades of Gray, Sarah's Key, Salt to the Sea

My Calamity Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, Jodi Meadows

FIC HAN

In this version of the wild west, werewolves are running around and Calamity Jane, Annie Oakley, Wild Bill Hickok are hunting them. The book follows history pretty accurately.  There's a love story between Annie and Bill's son, another between Jane and a woman and their time in Deadwood, Bill's murder at the poker table, and many other little tidbits about the Wild West. Women feature predominately in this book, and they are the true hero-eens of the West!

Historical Fiction, Humor

Read this if you liked:  Dread Nation, Gentleman's Guide to Vice & Virtue, And I Darken, Alex & Eliza, Wolf by Wolf

Lovely War by Julie Berry

FIC-HISTORICAL

Aphrodite, Ares, Apollo, and Hades tell the story of two couples who fall in love during WWI. It's actually very ingenious - told in each of their voices, from each of their points of view, how these two couples met and fell in love while the war raged around them. Aphrodite pushed them together, Ares tried to kill them, Hades ushered them to death. James and Hazel, both shy and timid, and Audbry and Colette, one Black, the other suffered tragedies. While it was primarily a love story, it was also the story of how Blacks were treated during the war and how they were not only discriminated against, but beaten and even killed by racist soldiers. 

Historical Fiction, Mythology

Read this if you liked:  Fountains of Silence, Circe, The Downstairs Girl, Giver of Stars, Antigoddess, Abandon

American Royals by Katharine McGee

FIC-HISTORICAL MCG

Alternate reality book showing what the US would be like if Washington had declared himself king instead of President. Told from multiple POVs, we get a look at the life of Beatrice, next in line from the throne, her sister Sam, who is the spare heir, Nina, Sam's best friend and girlfriend to Jeff, third in line, and Daphne, Jeff's ex girlfriend who is the stereotypical social climber who will do anything at all to get Jeff back. It's all very contrived and predictable, but cute in its own way. Beatrice has to be perfect, Sam is wild, and Jeff is gorgeous and all the girls want him. All the love stories are forbidden and hidden, and the ending leads right into the sequel. 

Historical Fiction - Alternate History, Romance

Read this if you liked: Red, White, and Royal Blue, The Selection, Princess Diaries

The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee

FIC LEE

We often read about the way African Americans were treated at the turn of the century when they had no rights. But we don't often read about the way Asian Americans were treated, and if this book is any indication, they were treated like they didn't even exist. Jo Kuan works as a milliner until she is fired because people found her 'disturbing'. But she soon finds work as a lady's maid, with a family she spent time with while she was younger, until one day when she was dismissed for no reason at all. Jo also stumbles into writing a newspaper advice column which ends up being the talk of Atlanta - it's funny and progressive, and but she can't let anyone know she's written it because she's Chinese and she has no rights. This books has a lot going on - race relations and segregation, her feelings for the newspaper man she sends her columns to, and a HUGE surprise when she finds out who her real mother is. 

Historical Fiction

Read this if you liked:  Fountains of Silence, Out of the Easy, Belle Epoque, Luxe 

Where the World Ends by Geraldine McCaughrean

FIC MCC

Based on a true story about a group of villagers who are left on an island to hunt birds for their town's supplies. After they've been dropped off, a plague of sorts runs through their village and kills most of its inhabitants. No one comes to pick them up and they are left on the island for almost a year. With few supplies, they have to work to survive. Their troupe starts off with 3 adults and 7 kids.  They have to figure out how to live, how to govern, who is going to lead, what are the rules. One of the adults appoints himself a self-proclaimed preacher, frightening the boys into being 'good, Christian souls'. The other adults didn't seem to do a good enough job taking control of the situation and let things get out of control.

Historical Fiction

Read this if you liked:  Lord of the Flies, Wilder Girls, Beauty Queens, Life of Pi, I Am Still Alive

Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys

FIC SEP

Set in 1950s Spain, this book was many things - a historical fiction, a romance, a mystery, and at its heart was the story of how children were stolen from their parents are put into orphanages and sold for astronomical amounts of money. These children were taken from parents who were deemed anti-Franco and placed with 'proper parents' for an astronomical amount of money. The book follows Daniel, a rich 18 year old from Texas in Madrid with his parents. He meets Ana, a maid in the hotel where he is staying, and falls in love. He sees Madrid through the lens of his camera, hoping to understand the country and its people while trying to make a life for himself. 

Historical Fiction

Read this if you liked:  Before We Were Yours,  Orphan Train, All The Light We Cannot See

Girls Like Us by Randi Pink

FIC PIN

Set in 1972, it's the story of 4 girls, told in each of their voices, going through unwanted pregnancies. In the 70's, young girls were sent away to have their babies, usually so no one actually knew they were pregnant and they could come home 'unscathed' after putting their child up for adoption. Some decided to keep them, and that usually came with strings, like being forced into a loveless marriage. One girl was raped by an uncle, one was a carefree rich girl who, one was a silly, poor girl from Alabama whose sister was trying to help her 'get rid of it'. It told of the friendships made, the fears of these girls, and the difficult decisions they had to make when they were just kids having kids.

Historical Fiction, Feminism, Realistic Fiction

Read this if you liked: Watch Us Rise, Girls on the Verge, Ask Me How I Got Here, Girls on the Line 

Kindred by Octavia Butler

FIC BUT

Dana, a Black woman from the 1970's, is transported back in time to the early 1800's when slavery was still legal in the United States. She is 'called back' by an ancestor, Rufus, because he was in trouble. Dana and Rufus never figure out why this is happening, but Dana goes back and forth in time every time Rufus is in danger and she helps him. Rufus is the White son of a slave owner, with the mentality and prejudices of the time. Although Dana is somewhat safe from Rufus, she's still a Black woman living in the South and is treated as one.  Kindred is the first Science Fiction book written by a Black woman.  

Science Fiction, Historical Fiction

Read this if you liked:  Beloved, Underground Railroad, The Water Dancer, Homegoing

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

FIC WHI 

Based on the true story of a reform school for boys in Florida. Elwood is a good boy. He studies hard, stays out of trouble, and lives with his grandmother after his mother and father took off. His teacher recommends him for a special accelerated program to take courses at the local college, but in order to get there he has to hitchhike. But when the car is pulled over by the cops and it's discovered to be stolen, they send Elwood to the Nickel School. A black boy in 1960s Florida in a stolen car must have done something wrong. Life was very hard at Nickel. There were beatings and rapes, the food was terrible, and the black boys were treated worse than the white boys. Soon after getting there, Elwood was beaten badly and ended up in the infirmary. There he met Turner who showed him the ropes and helped get him an easy assignment doing 'community service,' which was essentially free labor for the rich people in town, which was better than working in the fields at the school. The book has a very surprising ending.

Historical Fiction

Read this if you liked: The Underground Railroad, American Dirt, Before We Were Yours, The Topeka School, Monster, Lockdown, Yummy

We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter

FIC HUN

This is the true story of the Kurcs, a large, very close family of Polish Jews living happily at the brink of WWII. When the war starts, the family does all it can to stay together, but that of course is impossible. They do the next best thing and try to survive apart, doing everything that they can to stay in touch and support one another. For the most part, they do lose touch, but they never lose hope. It is a horrendous, but the family perseveres.  

Historical Fiction  

Read this if you liked:  The Tattooist of Auschwitz, The Girl in the Blue Coat, The Boy Who Dared

Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan

FIC SUL

Based on a true story, Pino Lella is 17 years old and living in Italy when he is asked to help transport families of Jews across the Alps and into Switzerland.  He then joins the German army, becomes a spy, and drives a car for General Leyers, Hitler's right hand man in Italy.  Driving Leyers, Pino learns many of the secrets of the Third Reich and is instrumental in helping Italy and the resistance during WWII. 

Historical Fiction

Read this if you liked:  The Nightingale, All the Light We Cannot See, Unbroken, Before We Were Yours

Mapping the Bones by Jane Yolen

FIC YOL

Chaim and Gittel escape from the Polish ghetto only to be captured and sold into a forced labor camp. Chaim, from the time he was a baby, hardly spoke, but instead wrote poetry. Gittel was the spokesperson for the two and protected her brother at all costs. Chaim vows to write and remember his poetry as testimony to the atrocities of their time in captivity. While together at the camp, a doctor discovers they are twins, and in an effort to impress Mengele, starts a series of evil experiments on them. 

Historical Fiction

Read this if you liked:  Paper Hearts, The Devil's Arithmetic, Salt to the Sea, Number the Stars

Refugee by Alan Grantz

FIC GRA

Told from three different points of view during three different times in history, this is the story of three families who are refugees looking for new lives. Josef is running from the Nazis, Isabel is fleeing from Castro's Cuba in the 90's, and Mahomoud is leaving Syria in 2015. All three face life and death situations and encounter atrocities no child should see. Their lives converge in the end in a very believable way.

Historical Fiction

Read this if you liked: Salt to the Sea, Girl in the Blue Coat, Bitter Side of Sweet, Never Fall Down 

The Orphan's Tale by Pam Jenoff

FIC JEN

Set during WWII, Noa, a pregnant teenager, has disgraced her family and is cast out. Her baby is taken from her, and while living on the streets, she finds a train car full of Jewish babies destined for a concentration camp. She takes one and runs. Noa ends up in a camp of circus workers and they take her in, but she must learn to become a trapeze artist in order to hide. She learns from Astrid, a Jewish woman who was married to a German solider until her marriage was deemed illegal. Together, they protect one another and try to survive the war. Based on a true story.

Historical Fiction

Read this if you liked:  Water for Elephants, Before We Were Yours, Code Name Verity, Nightingale, Orphan Train

Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate

FIC WIN

Based on real events, children in Tennessee from the 20's to the 50's were very likely to be kidnapped and sold to the highest bidder in an orphanage. Georgia Tann would steal children from their homes, tell mothers at the hospital that their babies were stillborn, or make them sign their children away with the promise of caring for them. In reality, they were abused, beaten, starved, and separated from their families. This is the story of 5 siblings who were taken. The oldest sister, Rill, tries her best to protect her brother and sisters but they are separated. Fast forward to the present, and Avery gets a mysterious letter which implicates her grandmother, in some way, to the orphanage. She digs deeper and deeper and finally finds the connection.

Historical Fiction

Read this if you liked:  We Were the Lucky Ones, Orphan Train, Ordinary Grace

The Memory of Things by Gae Polisner

FIC POL

It's the morning of 9/11, and Kyle is trying to make his way home over the Brooklyn bridge.  On the bridge he sees a girl his age that looks like she's going to jump and takes her home, but she's lost her memory and can't remember anything.  Kyle's father is a cop who is at Ground Zero, and he's terrified about what is happening.  His mother and sister are in LA and can't get home, so he has to take care of his Uncle who is in a wheelchair and living with them.  He and the girl spend the next few days together, hoping she will remember something and get home to her family.  It's a sad story about what happened that day, what happened the days after, and how people reacted to it all.

Historical Fiction

Read this if you liked:  Extremely Close and Incredibly Loud, City Love, Love is the Higher Law, All We Have Left

All We Have Left by Wendy Mills

FIC MIL

This novel takes place in two different time periods and is from two different perspectives. Jess takes place in 2017 and she is still dealing with her brother's death in the twin towers on 9/11. No one knows why he was in the towers, all they know is that he was, permanently scarring the family. She finds herself in the wrong crowd, causing her to get in trouble for a hate crime. Alia, takes place on 9/11. She is a Muslim who is proud of it. On 9/11, she finds herself in the twin towers to talk to her father after being grounded for a stupid mistake. However, when the towers fall, she meets a boy and together they try to navigate their way through the towers and survive. The book flips back and forth from present to past, giving insight as to what it was actually like in the towers that day. ~ Reviewed by Sarah Basenese

Genre: Historical Fiction, Realistic Fiction

Read this if you liked: The Memory of Things, Towers Falling, The Sun is Also a Star

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

FIC HOS

Water for Elephants by Sara Greun

FIC GRE

To Stay Alive by Skila Brown

FIC BRO

Told in verse, this is a moving first-person narrative as experienced by a young survivor of the tragic Donner Party of 1846.  The journey west by wagon train promises to be long and arduous for nineteen-year-old Mary Ann Graves and her parents and eight siblings. Yet she is hopeful about their new life in California: freedom from the demands of family, maybe some romance, better opportunities for all. But when winter comes early to the Sierra Nevada and their group gets a late start, the Graves family, traveling alongside the Donner and Reed parties, must endure one of the most harrowing and storied journeys in American history. 

Novels in Verse, Historical Fiction

Read this if you liked:  The Watch That Ends the Night, Salt to the Sea, Audacity, Paper Hearts

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

FIC WHI

Cora is a slave and runs away from a cruel master with Caesar, who knows about the Underground Railroad.  They make their escape but are being hunted by a tenacious bounty hunter who wants to find them at any cost.  The Underground Railroad isn't the network of homes as we know it, but an actual railroad, dug under the earth, with stationmasters and engineers.  At each stop, these men help Cora and Caesar adjust to free life, but they are constantly on the run.  Even when freedom seems close, it seems that hatred and death are always there for black people in America.

Historical Fiction

Read this if you liked:  Beloved, The Color Purple, The Last Runaway, Henry's Freedom Box

And I Darken by Kirsten White

FIC WHI

Lada is the daughter of Vlad Dracul, King of Transylvania. She is everything a daughter should not be - fierce, independent, and smart. She wants to be recognized, and not treated as a girl. She learns to ride and fight, and tries desperately to have her father notice her. When her father leaves her and her gentle brother, Radu, at the Ottoman courts as hostages, she tries to survive any way she can. They befriend the son of the Sultan, Memhed, and their lives become better. But the court and politics and scheming are ever present, and Lada and Radu do what they can to shield Memhed from assassination, while each of them fall in love.

Historical Fiction

Read this if you liked:  Ember in the Ashes, Court of Mist and Fury, The Winner's Curse, The Rose Society, Legacy of Kings

Freedom Summer Murders by Don Mitchell

323 MIT

In June of 1964, three idealistic young men (one black and two white) were lynched by the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi. They were trying to register African Americans to vote as part of the Freedom Summer effort to bring democracy to the South. Their disappearance and murder caused a national uproar and was one of the most significant incidents of the Civil Rights Movement, and contributed to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 

Non Fiction

Read this if you liked:  Port Chicago 50, They Called Themselves the KKK, 10 Days the Unexpectedly Changed America

Most Dangerous:  Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War

By Steve Sheinkin

BIO ELL

True story of Daniel Ellsberg, and his part in exposing lies and coverups during the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations.  After working for the government and being privy to top secret documents and memos, he became increasingly opposed to the Vietnam War and the politics behind it.  He set out to expose the politicians who were keeping the war going for their own gain.  He was arrested and tried for treason for passing these documents onto the press so the American people could see for themselves the corruption of the government.

Historical

Read this if you liked: Symphony of the City of the Dead, Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom, Beyond Courage

Paper Hearts

FIC WIV

Based on a true story, this novel in verse is the story of two friends who survived the Auschwitz concentration camps through sheer will and determination.  Zlatia made a paper heart for Farnia's birthday, which she kept through the marches and through liberation, and for her entire life.  It meant the world to her and she donated it to the Montreal Holocaust Memorial museum as testimony.

Novel in Verse, Historical Fiction

Read this if you liked:  Audacity, Then, The Boy who Dared, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas,  Milkweed

Symphony for the City of the Dead by M. T. Anderson

940.542 AND

The true story of the 3 year siege of Leningrad during WWII.  Although the people were virtually prisoners in the city, Dmitri Shostakovich continued to write his symphonies, often at the request of the Soviet government, as a way of rousing the moral of the people.  Conditions were so bad, that in order to survive, the people of Leningrad eventually became cannibalistic.  But Soviets valued the arts and his music had a tremendous affect on the people and the war effort.

Non Fiction, World War II

Read this if you liked:  The Family Romanov, The Boys who Challenged Hitler, any World War II book

A Little in Love by Susan Fletcher

FIC FLE

Eponine, the street girl from Les Misérables, tells the story of her life and her unrequited love for Marius, which ultimately leads to her death on the barricades during the short-lived rebellion of June 1832. - novelist

Historical Fiction, Romance

Read this if you liked:  Les Miserables, Belle Epoque, Tiger Lilly

Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse

FIC HES

In 1943 Nazi-occupied Amsterdam, teenage Hanneke--a 'finder' of black market goods--is tasked with finding a Jewish girl a customer had been hiding, who has seemingly vanished into thin air, and is pulled into a web of resistance activities and secrets as she attempts to solve the mystery and save the missing girl"--.Novelist

Historical Fiction

Read this if you liked:  Book Thief, Milkweed, Between Shades of Grey, Sarah's Key

Burn Baby Burn by Meg Medina

FIC MED

Nora Lopez is seventeen during the infamous New York summer of 1977, when the city is besieged by arson, a massive blackout, and a serial killer named Son of Sam who shoots young women on the streets. Nora's family life isn't going so well either: her bullying brother, Hector, is growing more threatening by the day, her mother is helpless and falling behind on the rent, and her father calls only on holidays. All Nora wants is to turn eighteen and be on her own. And while there is a cute new guy who started working with her at the deli, is dating even worth the risk when the killer likes picking off couples who stay out too late?--Amazon.com

Historical Fiction

Read this if you liked:  Exit, Pursued by Bear, Out of Darkness, Unbecoming

The Inventor's Secret by Andrea Cremer

FIC CRE

In an alternate nineteenth-century America that is still a colony of Britain's industrial empire, sixteen-year-old Charlotte and her fellow refugees' struggle to survive is interrupted by a newcomer with no memory, bearing secrets about a terrible future - goodreads

Steampunk, Historical Fiction

Read this if you liked:  Etiquette and Espionage, Clockwork Scarab, Expiration Day, Masque of the Red Dead 

Audacity by Melanie Crowder

FIC CRO

Audacity is inspired by the real-life story of Clara Lemlich, a spirited young woman who emigrated from Russia to New York at the turn of the twentieth century and fought tenaciously for equal rights. - goodreads

Novels in Verse, Historical Fiction

Read this if you liked:  A Northern Light, Riot, Enchanted Air, Paper Hearts, Out of Darkness

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

FIC HAN

Vianne is left behind when her husbnd heads for the Front.  When the Nazis invade  her little town, they come in droves of marching soldiers, with trucks and tanks, and dropping bombs on the innocent. When a German captain requisitions Vianne's home, she and her daughter must live with the enemy or lose everything. Without food or money or hope, as danger escalates all around them, she is forced to make one impossible choice after another to keep her family alive.

Historical Fiction 

Read this if you liked:  The Girl You Left Behind, The Boys in the Boat, Unbroken, Code Name Verity

The Family Romanov by Candance Fleming

947.08 FLE

This is the tumultuous, heartrending, true story of the Romanovs—at once an intimate portrait of Russia's last royal family and a gripping account of its undoing. Using captivating photos and compelling first person accounts, award-winning author Candace Fleming (Amelia Lost; The Lincolns) deftly maneuvers between the imperial family’s extravagant lives and the plight of Russia's poor masses. - goodreads

Non Fiction

Read this if you liked:  Port Chicago 50, The Boys who Challenged Hitler, Drowned City

Skyscraping by Cordelia Jensen

FIC JEN

Mira is just beginning her senior year of high school when she discovers her father with his male lover. Her world–and everything she thought she knew about her family–is shattered instantly. Unable to comprehend the lies, betrayal, and secrets that–unbeknownst to Mira–have come to define and keep intact her family’s existence, Mira distances herself from her sister and closest friends as a means of coping. - Amazon

Novels in Verse, Historical Fiction

Read this if you liked:  Glass, A Northern Light, Shark Girl

Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Tolley

FIC TOL

In 1959 Virginia, Sarah Dunbar is one of the first black students to attend the previously all-white Jefferson High School. An honors student at her old school, she is put into remedial classes, spit on and tormented daily.  Linda Hairston is the daughter of one of the town's most vocal opponents of school integration. She has been taught all her life that the races should be kept separate but equal.  Forced to work together on a school project, Sarah and Linda must confront harsh truths about race, power and how they really feel about one another.

Historical Fiction, LGBTQ

Read it if you liked:  The Help, Freedom Walkers, I Have a Dream, The Lions of Little Rock

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

FIC DOE

Marie-Laure is a young girl who is blind and must learn to navigate the streets of Paris.  She has a wonderful father who works in the Museum of Natural History and he makes that her schoolhouse.  Werner is a German who grows up in an orphanage who is incredibly bright and becomes an expert at radios.  The book follows their paths until they meet during the war and Werner falls instantly in love.  

Historical Fiction, Romance

Read this if you liked:  The Nightingale, The Goldfinch, The Light Between the Oceans, Book Thief

The Boy Who Dared by Susan Bartoletti

FIC BAR

In October, 1942, seventeen-year-old Helmuth Hubener, imprisoned for distributing anti-Nazi leaflets, recalls his past life and how he came to dedicate himself to bring the truth about Hitler and the war to the German people. - Novelist

Historical Fiction

Read this if you liked:  The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The Book Thief, Sarah's Key

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

FIC ATK

Ursula Todd is born but dies over and over again just to be reincarnated into her own life.  As she lives her life, there are times that she senses de je vue and can alter her life.  Sometimes corrects the tragedies, but there are times she does not.  

Historical Fiction

Read this if you liked:  The Time Traveler's Wife, The Night Circus, All the Light we Cannot See