Historical Fiction
Historical fiction presents a story set in the past, often during a significant time period. In historical fiction, the time period is an important part of the setting and often of the story itself. Historical fiction may include fictional characters, well-known historical figures or a mixture of the two.
Refugee
by Alan Gratz
Josef is a Jewish boy in 1930s Nazi Germany. With the threat of concentration camps, he and his family board a ship bound for the other side of the world. Isabel is a Cuban girl in 1994. With riots plaguing her country, she and her family set out on a raft, hoping to find safety in America. Mahmoud is a Syrian boy in 2015. With his homeland torn by violence, he and his family begin a trek to Europe. All will go on journeys in search of refuge and face dangers–from drownings to bombings to betrayals.
Code Name Verity
by Elizabeth E. Wein
Oct. 11th, 1943 - A British spy plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France. Its pilot and passenger are best friends. One of the girls has a chance at survival. The other has lost the game before it's barely begun. When "Verity" is arrested by the Gestapo, she's sure she doesn't stand a chance. As a secret agent captured in enemy territory, she's living a spy's worst nightmare. Her Nazi interrogators give her a simple choice: reveal her mission or face a grisly execution.
The War That Saved My Life Series
by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
10-year-old Ada has never left her apartment. Her mother is too humiliated by Ada’s twisted foot to let her outside. When her little brother Jamie is shipped out of London to escape the war, Ada sneaks out to join him. So begins an adventure for Ada, and for Susan Smith, who is forced to take the two kids in. Soon, Ada begins to trust Susan—and Susan begins to love Ada and Jamie. In the end, will their bond be enough to hold them together? Or will Ada and her brother fall back into the cruel hands of their mother?
A Long Walk to Water
by Linda Sue Park
A girl in Sudan in 2008 and a boy in Sudan in 1985. The girl, Nya, is fetching water from a pond that is two hours from her home: she makes two trips to the pond every day. The boy, Salva, becomes one of the "lost boys" of Sudan, refugees who cover Africa on foot as they search for their families and a safe place to stay. Enduring every hardship from loneliness to attack by armed rebels to contact with lions and crocodiles, Salva is a survivor, and his story goes on to intersect with Nya’s in an astonishing way.
The Power of One
by Bryce Courtenay
*MATURE CONTENT*
In 1939, as Hitler casts his enormous, cruel shadow across the world, the seeds of apartheid take root in South Africa. There, a boy called Peekay is born. His childhood is marked by humiliation and abandonment, yet he vows to survive and conceives heroic dreams, which are nothing compared to what life actually has in store for him. He embarks on an epic journey through a land of tribal superstition and modern prejudice where he will learn the power of words, the power to transform lives and the power of one.
The Kingdom of Back
by Marie Lu
Born with a gift for music, Nannerl Mozart has a wish: to be remembered forever. Even as she delights audiences, she doubts she'll become the composer she longs to be. She's a young woman in 18th-century Europe, so composing is forbidden to her. She'll perform until she can marry-her father's made that clear. As her hope dims, her little brother, Wolfgang's, brilliance begins to eclipse her own, until a boy from a magical land appears with an offer. He can make her wish true, but his help may cost her everything.
All the Light We Cannot See
by Anthony Doerr
Marie-Laure lives in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where her father works. When she is 12, the Nazis occupy Paris and she and her father flee to Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s great uncle lives. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel. In a mining town in Germany, Werner Pfennig grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a radio they find. Werner becomes an expert at building them and is enlisted to track the resistance.