Recommended Historical Fiction Books

Based around the real life tragedy of the fire at the Triangle Waist Company, this novel follows three girls with very different cultures and perspectives. Through the alternating viewpoints, readers will learn about life during the Industrial Revolution and how it impacted children.

Echo is one part fantasy and three parts historical fiction. Spanning decades and multiple countries, Pam Munoz Ryan takes readers on a musical journey where each character faces daunting challenges. From Nazis in Germany, to an orphanage in New York, and to a Southern California where segregation still exists and the effects of Japanese Internment camps are strong, readers will want to turn the page to figure out how all these stories intertwine.

Stella by Starlight follows the Stella's struggles to find her voice and help her community in the face of racism. While this book is fictional, it is based on the real life experiences of the author's grandmother.

A Long Walk to Water is based on a true story and follows two children in the Sudan in 1985. Nya is a girl, who must trek two hours a day to fetch water from a pond. Salva is a refugee looking for his family. Facing many challenges, the two children's stories intersect in a surprising way.

Dead End in Norvelt is the winner of the 2012 Newbery Medal and the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction! Melding the entirely true and the wildly fictional, Dead End in Norvelt is a novel about an incredible two months for a kid named Jack Gantos, whose plans for vacation excitement are shot down when he is "grounded for life" by his feuding parents. But plenty of excitement (and shocks) are coming Jack's way once his mom loans him out to help a fiesty, old neighbor with a most unusual chore—typewriting obituaries filled with stories about the people who founded his town. As one obituary leads to another, Jack is launched on a strange adventure involving molten wax, Eleanor Roosevelt, twisted promises, a homemade airplane, Girl Scout cookies, a man on a trike, a dancing plague, voices from the past, Hells Angels . . . and possibly murder.

Though he thinks of himself as a cowboy, Tommy is really a bully. He's always playing cruel jokes on classmates or stealing from the store. But Tommy has a reason: life at home is tough. His abusive mother isn't well. In fact, she may be mentally ill. His sister, Mary Lou, is in the hospital, badly burned from doing a chore it was really Tommy's turn to do. To make amends, Tommy takes over Mary Lou's paper route. But the paper route also becomes the perfect way for Tommy to investigate his neighbors after stumbling across a copy of The Daily Worker, a communist newspaper. Tommy is shocked to learn that one of his neighbors could be a communist, and soon fear takes hold of the tight-knit community when Tommy uses the paper to frame a storeowner, Mr. McKenzie. As Mr. McKenzie's business slowly falls apart and Mary Lou doesn't seem to get any better, Tommy's mother's abuse gets worse—and Tommy reaches his breaking point.

This graphic memoir follows the authors experiences living behind barbed wire in the United States. Set in a Japanese Internment Camp, this book shares Takei's childhood experiences under legalized racism.

March is John Lewis' first hand account of his experiences in the Civil Rights Movement. Beautiful in images, content, and message, Lewis' personal story shares the highs and lows of the civil rights movement.

Set during the Revolutionary War, Chains tells the story of Isabel, who was supposed to be freed upon the death of her owner. Instead, she and her sister become the property of a New York couple who are anti-revolution. The plot thickens when Isabel is asked to become a spy for the Patriots. This is the first book of an amazing trilogy.