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History:
AMERICAN REVOLUTION
FICTION
Avi – The Fighting Ground
13-year-old Jonathan goes off to fight in the Revolutionary War
and discovers the real war is being fought within himself.
Bailey – Major Andre
Major Andre was the British officer whose capture prevented
Benedict Arnold's betrayal of the West Point garrison. Arnold
fled safely to a British ship, but Andre was tried as a spy,
convicted, and hanged.
Blackwood – The Year of the Hangman
In 1777, having been kidnapped and taken forcibly from England
to the American colonies, 15-year-old Creighton becomes part of
developments in the political unrest there that may spell defeat
for the patriots and change the course of history.
Clapp – I’m Deborah Sampson: a Soldier in the War of the
Revolution
Relates the experiences of the woman who disguised herself as a
man in order to enlist and fight in the American Revolution.
Collier – My Brother Sam is Dead
Recounts the tragedy that strikes the Meeker family during the
Revolution when one son joins the rebel forces while the rest of
the family tries to stay neutral in a Tory town.
Collier –War Comes to Willy Freeman
A free 13-year-old black girl in Connecticut is caught up in the
horror of the Revolutionary War and the danger of being returned
to slavery when her patriot father is killed by the British and
her mother disappears.
Denenberg – The Journal of William Thomas Emerson, a
Revolutionary War Patriot (My Name is America)
William writes of his experiences in pre-Revolutionary War
Boston where he joins the cause of the patriots.
Forbes – Johnny Tremain
This story of a tragically injured young silversmith who ends up
hip-deep in the American Revolution is inspiring, exciting, and
sad. Winner of the Newbery Award in 1944.
Garvie – George Johnson’s War
George Johnson has always led a privileged life as the son of
one of the richest & most powerful men in the colonies, but when
the War begins, George learns that his family's wealth and
social position are not enough to save them from the reality of
war.
Goodman – Hope’s Crossing
When kidnapped by English Loyalists during the Revolutionary
War, 13-year-old Hope draws on every ounce of courage within her
to respond to the ordeal.
Gregory – Five Smooth Stones: Hope’s Diary (Dear America)
In her diary, a young girl writes about her life and the events
surrounding the beginning of the American Revolution in
Philadelphia in 1776.
Gregory – The Winter of Red Snow: The Revolutionary War Diary
of Abigail Jane Stewart (Dear America)
11-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.
Keehn – Moon of Two Dark Horses
At the beginning of the Revolutionary War, hoping to keep
bloodshed away from their valley, a 12-year-old Delaware Indian
boy and his white friend search sacred land for the bones of a
legendary beast.
Lawrence – A Spy in Williamsburg
A blacksmith's son uncovers the identity of a British spy in
Williamsburg, Virginia, in the days preceding the Revolution.
Lawson - Mr. Revere and I : Being an Account of Certain
Episodes in the Career of Paul Revere
An account of the life of the Revere family and the activities
of the Sons of Liberty as told from the point of view of Paul
Revere's horse.
Lee–The Secret of Van Rink’s Cellar
While searching for the ghost that haunts the house in which
their mother is a maid and dressmaker for an English officer's
wife, Sarah and Stephen become secretly involved in the
Revolutionary War effort.
Lunn – The Hollow Tree
15-year-old Phoebe Olcott, distraught when her beloved cousin
Gideon is hanged as a British spy, becomes caught up in the
turmoil of war when she decides to deliver the secret message
Gideon was carrying to the British general at Fort Ticonderoga.
Myers – The Keeping Room
Left in charge of the family by his father who joins the
Revolutionary War effort, 13-year-old Joey undergoes such great
changes that he fears he may be betraying his beloved parent.
O’Dell – Sarah Bishop
Left alone after the deaths of her father and brother who take
opposite sides in the War, and fleeing from the British who seek
to arrest her, Sarah Bishop struggles to shape a new life for
herself in the wilderness.
Paulsen – The Rifle
A priceless, handcrafted rifle, carried throughout the American
Revolution, is passed down through the years until it fires on
the fateful Christmas Eve of 1994.
Reit – Guns for General Washington: a Story of the American
Revolution
Colonel Henry Knox conceived a plan to take desperately needed
cannons and ammunition from New York's Fort Ticonderoga to
Boston. The huge, ungainly guns had to be moved during the
winter over hundreds of miles of mountainous wilderness.
Rinaldi – Cast Two Shadows: the American Revolution in South
Carolina
In S Carolina in 1780, 14-year-old Caroline sees the
Revolutionary War take a terrible toll among her family &
friends & comes to understand the true nature of war.
Rinaldi – Finishing Becca: a Story about Peggy Shippen and
Benedict Arnold
While working as a maid in a wealthy Philadelphia Quaker home,
14-year-old Becca witnesses the events leading to Gen Benedict
Arnold's betrayal of the American forces during the
Revolutionary War.
Rinaldi – Or Give Me Death: a Novel of Patrick Henry’s Family
With their father away most of the time advocating independence
for the American colonies, the children of Patrick Henry try to
raise themselves, manage the family plantation, and care for
their mentally ill mother.
Rinaldi – A Ride into Morning: the Story of Tempe Wick
When unrest spreads at the Revolutionary War camp in Morristown,
New Jersey, under the command of Gen Anthony Wayne, a young
woman cleverly hides her horse from the mutinous soldiers who
need it.
Rinaldi – The Secret of Sarah Revere
Paul Revere's daughter describes her father's "rides" and the
intelligence network of the patriot community prior to the
American Revolution.
Rinaldi – Time Enough for Drums
16-year-old Jem and her servant struggle to keep things going at
home in Trenton, New Jersey, when the family men join the war
for independence from the British king.
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CIVIL WAR FICTION
Pre-Civil War
- De Angeli – Thee, Hannah!
- Fritz - Brady
- Henry – San Domingo: the Medicine Hat
Stallion
- Kassem – Listen for Rachel
- Reeder – Before the Creeks Ran Red
Civil War
- Armstrong – The Dreams of Mairhe Mehan
- Beatty – Turn Homeward, Hannalee
- Brick – Yankees on the Run
- Burchard – Jed the Story of a Yankee Soldier and a
Southern Boy
- Collier – With Every Drop of Blood
- Crane – The Red Badge of Courage
- Crisp – Private Captain: a Story of Gettysburg
- Ernst – The Bravest Girl in Sharpsburg
- Fleischman – Bull Run
- Forrester – Sound the Jubilee
- Johnson – My Brother’s Keeper: a Civil War Story
- Miers – We Were There… When Grant Met Lee At
Appomattox
- Mrazek – Stonewall’s Gold
- Nixon – A Dangerous Promise
- Nixon – Keeping Secrets
- Paulsen – A Soldier’s Heart
- Reeder – Captain Kate
- Rinaldi – An Acquaintance with Darkness
- Rinaldi – Amelia’s War
- Rinaldi – The Last Silk Dress
- Rinaldi – Numbering All the Bones
- Sappey – Letters from Vinnie
- Stolz – A Ballad of the Civil War
- Wisler – Mr Lincoln’s Drummer
- Wisler – Red Cap
Time Travel/Civil War Ghosts
- Alphin – Ghost Soldier
- Lawson – The Spring Rider
Stories
- Bierce – Civil War Stories
- Fenner – Brother Against Brother: Stories of the War
Between the States
- Slavery/Underground Railroad/Prejudices
- Forrester – My Home is Over Jordan
- Houston – Bright Freedom’s Song: a Story of the
Underground Railroad
- Matas – The War Within
- Paulsen – Sarny, a Life Remembered
- Pinkney – Silent Thunder
- Taylor – The Land
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NEW YORK STATE
FICTION
Click here to view an Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) version of the list.
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WORLD WAR II
FICTION
American Soldiers
- Bruchac – Code Talker: a Novel about the Navajo
Marines in World War II
After being taught in a boarding school run by whites
that Navajo is a useless language, Ned Begay and other
Navajo men are recruited by the Marines to become Code
Talkers, sending messages during ww II in their native
tongue.
- Hughes – Soldier Boys
Two boys, one German and one American, are eager to join
their respective armies during WW II, and their paths cross
at the Battle of the Bulge.
- Mazer – The Last Mission
In 1944 a 15-year-old Jewish boy tells his family he
will travel in the West but instead, enlists in the United
States Air Corps and is subsequently taken prisoner by the
Germans.
- Myers – The Journal of Scott Pendleton Collins, a
World War II Soldier (My Name is America series)
A seventeen-year-old soldier from central Virginia
records his experiences in a journal as his regiment takes
part in the D-Day invasion of Normandy and subsequent
battles to liberate France.
- Rylant – I Had Seen Castles
Now an old man, John is haunted by memories of enlisting
to fight in WW II, a decision which forced him to face the
horrors of war and changed his life forever.
Espionage
- Bradley – For Freedom: the Story of a French Spy
A novel based on the experiences of Suzanne David Hall,
who, as a teenager in Nazi-occupied France, worked as a spy
for the French Resistance while training to be an opera
singer.
- Nolan – The Spy Who Came in From the Sea
A fourteen-year-old moves to Florida at the height of WW
II to join his father, a Navy seaman, and soon develops such
a reputation for exaggeration that when he announces having
seen an enemy spy land on the beach, no one believes him.
- Taylor – The Children’s War
When the Japanese invade the isolated Alaskan outpost
where he lives and take all the men prisoners, a
twelve-year-old boy helps an Army spy gather information on
the enemy.
- Zindel – The Gadget
A fourteen-year-old moves to Florida at the height of WW
II to join his father, a Navy seaman, and soon develops such
a reputation for exaggeration that when he announces having
seen an enemy spy land on the beach, no one believes him.
German Soldiers
- Forman - Horses of Anger
In the closing days of WW II a fifteen-year-old German
soldier begins to question the Nazi philosophy as he sees
more and more discrepancies between the facts he knows and
official statements.
- Grund – Never to Be Free
A young German soldier describes his increasing
disillusionment with war after being recruited into Hitler's
army at age sixteen.
- Hughes – Soldier Boys
Two boys, one German and one American, are eager to join
their respective armies during WW II, and their paths cross
at the Battle of the Bulge.
- Maguire – The Good Liar
Now an old man living in the United States, Marcel
recalls his childhood in German-occupied France, especially
the summer that he and his older brother Rene befriended a
young German soldier.
- Wulfsson – Soldier X
In 1943 16-year-old Erik experiences the horrors of war
when he is drafted into the German army and sent to fight on
the Russian front.
Historic Battles
- Bonham – The Ghost Front
Alternate chapters describe the experiences of
eighteen-year-old twins, separated by an error in an English
training camp, who both meet their first taste of WW II
military activity in the Battle of the Bulge.
- Knight – We Were There at the Normandy Invasion
- McAuliffe – We Were There at the Battle of the Bulge
Hitler Youth
- Degens – The Visit: a Novel
At a family gathering in Berlin years after WW II, Kate
relives some of the events described in the diary of a dead
aunt who once was a member of the Hitler Youth.
Pearl Harbor
- Denenberg – Early Sunday Morning: The Pearl Harbor
Diary of Amber Billows
In her diary, 12-year-old Amber describes moving to
Hawaii in 1941 and experiencing the horror of the bombing of
Pearl Harbor.
- Mazer – A Boy at War: a Novel of Pearl Harbor
While fishing with his friends off Honolulu on December
7, 1941, teenaged Adam is caught in the midst of the
Japanese attack and through the chaos of the subsequent days
tries to find his father, a naval officer who was serving on
the U.S.S. Arizona when the bombs fell.
- Salisbury – 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.
Resistance Movements
- Lowry – Number the Stars
In 1943, during the German occupation of Denmark,
ten-year-old Annemarie learns how to be brave and courageous
when she helps shelter her Jewish friend from the Nazis.
- Reuter – The Boys from St Petri
In 1942, a group of young men begin a series of
increasingly dangerous protests against the German invaders
of their Danish homeland.
- VanSteenwyk – A Traitor Among Us
In occupied Holland in 1944, thirteen-year-old Pieter
becomes increasingly involved in the work of the Dutch
Resistance even though he knows the risk of being discovered
by the Nazi informer who lives in his village.
- Wuorio – Code: Polonaise
A group of Polish children risk their lives and narrowly
escape detection by the Nazis while publishing an
underground newspaper in occupied Poland.
War in Japan - Atom Bomb
- Bruckner – The Day of the Bomb
The effects of war on Japan and the world are seen
through the experiences of one family that survived the
bombing of Hiroshima.
- Taylor – The Bomb
In 1944, when the Americans liberate Bikini Atoll from
the Japanese, fourteen-year-old Sorry Rinamu does not
realize that in two years he will lead a desperate effort to
save his island home from a much more deadly threat.
- Yep – Hiroshima: a Novella
Describes the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima,
Japan, particularly as it affects Sachi, who becomes one of
the Hiroshima Maidens.
War in Russia
- Haar – Boris
Twelve-year-old Boris struggles for survival during the
German siege of Leningrad in WW II.
- Wilson – Four Steps to Death
It is 1942. The Battle of Stalingrad, one of the
bloodiest in history, is underway. Three participants -- two
fighters and a boy -- are caught in its horrors. Their story
is told over seven days of fierce and deadly
street-by-street fighting
War in Scandinavia
- Fife – North of Danger
Twelve-year-old Arne undertakes a two-hundred-mile trip
on skis to warn his father of a German invasion of their
town on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard.
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Great Reads: History