Historical fiction books—whether they are picture books, transitional books, or novels—may have characters who are either imaginary or who actually lived during the time period. Settings also may be real or imaginary. The plot events may be documented historical events or they may be fictional. If they are fictional, it means that the author created the events for the telling of the story. The fictional characters, settings, and plot events must be portrayed authentically as if they actually could have happened.
Written by: Aaron Reynolds
Illustrated by: Floyd Cooper
Publisher: Philomel Books, p2010.
ISBN13: 978-0-399-25091-0
Fiction
Interest Level: K-3/Reading Level: 2.2
Lexile Level:720
Description: From the back of the bus, an African American child watches the arrest of Rosa Parks.
Abbie in Stitches*
Illustrated by: Beth Peck
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux, p2006.
ISBN13: 978-0-374-30004-3
Fiction
Interest Level: K-3/Reading level: 2.7
Lexile Level: 710
Description: Abbie, a girl growing up in western New York in the early 1800s, would much rather read than stitch, but her fingers begin to fly when she comes up with just the right picture and words to embroider on her sampler. Includes biographical references.
Written by: Angela Johnson
Illustrated by: Eric Velasquez
Publisher:Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, p2005.
ISBN13: 978-0-689-83252-9
Fiction
Interest Level: K-3/Reading Level: 3.4
Lexile Level: 710
Description: Two young girls participate in a freedom march and listen to Dr. Martin Luther King speak during the Civil Rights movement.
Written by: Eve Bunting
Illustrated by: C.F. Payne
Publisher: Harcourt, p2006.
ISBN13: 978-0-15-204773-3
Fiction
Interest Level: K-3/Reading Level: 3.4
Lexile Level: 630
Description: Robert and his friend Charlie are proud of their fathers, who are working on the construction of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge.
Written by: Dianna Hutts Aston
Illustrated by: Jerry Pickney
Publisher: Dial Books for Young Readers, p2008.
ISBN13: 978-0-8037-3107-3
Fiction
Interest Level: K-3/Reading Level: 4.8
Description: On her family's farm in the town of Star, eight-year-old Mae eagerly follows the progress of the 1969 Apollo 11 flight and moon landing and dreams that she might one day be an astronaut, too.
Books for Grade 3 - Grade 5
Written by: Mary Ann Hoberman
Illustrated by: Wendy Anderson Halperin
Publisher: Little, Brown and Co. Books for Young Readers, p2009.
ISBN-13: 978-0-316-04136-2
Fiction
Interest Level: 3-6/Reading Level:3.8
Lexile Level: 610
Description: Ten-year-old Allie's family moves from urban New Haven to rural Stamford, Connecticut, in the midst of the Great Depression.
Penny from Heaven*Written by: Jennifer L. Holm
Publisher: Random House, p2006.
ISBN-13: 978-0-375-93687-6
Fiction
Interest Level: 3-6/Reading Level: 4.0
Lexile Level: 730
Description: As she turns twelve during the summer of 1953, Penny gains new insights into herself and her family while also learning a secret about her father's death. Includes biographical references.
Written by: Elizabeth Winthrop
Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books, p2006.
ISBN13: 978-0-385-74644-1
Fiction
Interest Level: 3-6/Readig Level: 4.4
Lexile Level: 760
Description: Twelve-year-old Grace Forcier and her friend Arthur, taken out of school and put to work in a Vermont textile mill in 1910, are championed by their teacher who urges them to write the National Child Labor Committee, an action only Grace seems to realize will have serious repercussions. Includes biographical references.
Tumbleweed Skies*Written by: Valerie Sherrard
Publisher: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, p2010.
ISBN-13: 978-1-55455-113-2
Fiction
Interest Level: 3-6/Reading level: 5.4
Lexile Level: 810
Description: Ellie must stay at her grandmother's farm in Saskatchewan when her father takes a temporary job as a traveling salesman, but Ellie has a difficult time adjusting to her new life and her grandmother's abrasive personality.
The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg *
Publisher: Blue Sky Press, p2009.
ISBN13: 978-0-439-66818-7
Fiction
Interest Level: 3-6/Reading Level: 5.6
Lexile Level: 950
Description: Homer P. Figg escapes from his wretched home in Pine Swamp, Maine, and sets out to find his beloved older brother, Harold, who has been illegally sold into the Union Army.
Books for Grade 6 - Grade 9
Written by: Deborah Wiles
Publisher: Scholastic Press, p2010.
ISBN-13: 978-0-545-10605-4
Fiction
Interest Level: 5-8/Reading level: 4.4
Lexile Level: 800
Description: As eleven-year-old Franny Chapman deals with drama at home and with her best friend in 1962, she tries to understand the larger problems in the world after President Kennedy announces that Russia is sending nuclear missiles to Cuba. Features historic quotations and photographs. Includes bibliographical references.
Black Duck*
Publisher: Sleuth/Puffin, p2007.
ISBN13: 978-0-14-240902-2
Fiction
Interest Level: 5-8/Reading Level: 5.0
Lexile Level: 790
Description: Ruben Hart tells the story of how, in 1929 Newport, Rhode Island, his family and his best friend's family were caught up in the violent competition among groups trying to control the local rum-smuggling trade.
Yellow Star*
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish, p2006.
ISBN13: 978-0-7614-5277-5
Fiction
Interest Level: 5-8/Reading Level: 5.2
Description: The story of a Jewish girl and her family struggling to survive in Poland's Lodz ghetto during the Nazi occupation from 1939 when Syvia is four and a half years old, to 1945 when she has just turned ten. (In verse)
Written by: Irene Watts
Publisher: Tundra Books of Northern New York, p2010.
Fiction
Interest Level: 5-8/Reading Level: 5.4
Description: Fourteen-year-old Louisa Gardener, a nursemaid to the daughters of a wealthy family in London, is forced to confront her fear of the ocean and the memories of when her two-year-old brother drown and decide whether she will accompany the family when they make plans to set sail aboard the RMS "Titanic" to New York.
Written by: Zilpha Keatley Snyder
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, p2010.
ISBN-13: 978-1-41696-764-4
Fiction
Interest Level: 5-8/Reading Level: 5.6
Lexile Level: 980
Description: In 1938, twelve-year-old William has already decided to leave home when his younger sister informs him that she and their brother and sister are going as well, but complications arise as they try to make their way to their Aunt Fiona's house.
