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Reading Lists: American Historical Fiction
All of the stories on this list are set in the United States. For stories set in Europe and elsewhere, please look at our World War II Fiction list.
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Avi. Who Was That Masked Man Anyway? 1992. 170p. In the early 1940s when nearly everyone else is thinking about the war, 6th grader Frankie gets in trouble at home and at school because of his preoccupation with his favorite radio programs. |
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Banks, Sara H. Under the Shadow of Wings. 1997. 145p. During 1944, life in rural Alabama brings changes for eleven-year-old Tattnall as she realizes she can't always protect her older, brain-damaged cousin. |
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Barrie, Barbara. Lone Star. 1990. 182p. Moving from Chicago to Corpus Christi, Texas, in 1944, a young Jewish girl copes with her parents' problems and adopts a new lifestyle which alienates her Orthodox grandfather. |
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Burch, Robert. Hut School and the Wartime Home-Front Heroes. 1974. 140p. Describes the reactions of a 6th grade class in Georgia to World War II and its effect on their lives. |
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Chaikin, Miriam. Friends Forever. 1988. 119p. As news of German victories on the battlefields and Nazi atrocities against the Jews comes over the radio, Molly faces important decisions as she and her Brooklyn friends prepare to enter junior high school. |
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Cormier, Robert. Other Bells For Us To Ring. 1990. 36p. When her father is transferred to an army camp in Massachusetts during the Second World War, Darcy feels isolated in her French-Canadian neighborhood until she meets the vivacious Kathleen Mary O'Hara and learns about Catholicism. |
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Cutler, Jane. My Wartime Summers. 1994. 153p. Over four memorable summers, Ellen and her friends follow the war that's taking place far away but still touches their lives. |
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Giff, Patricia Reilly. Lily's Crossing. 1997. 180p. During a summer spent at Rockaway Beach in 1944, Lily's friendship with a young Hungarian refugee causes her to see the war and her own world differently. |
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Hahn, Mary Downing. Stepping on the Cracks. 1991. 216p. In 1944, while her brother is overseas fighting in World War II, eleven year old Margaret gets a new view of the school bully Gordy when she finds him hiding his own brother, an army deserter, and decide to help him. |
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Hotze, Sollace. Summer Endings. 1991. 165p. In the summer of 1945 in Chicago, 12-year-old Christine anxiously awaits, along with her mother and sister, news of the political activist father they had to leave behind when they emigrated from Poland six years before. Best for 5th grade and up. |
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Lord, Bette. In the year of the boar and Jackie Robinson. 1984. 169p. In 1947, a Chinese child comes to Brooklyn, where she starts to feel at home and make friends when she discovers baseball and the Brooklyn Dodgers. |
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Manley, Joan B. She Flew No Flags. 1995. 269p. In early 1944, as the war rages around them, an American family travels from India to the United States by ship, under blackout conditions, through the enemy waters of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. |
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Mazer, Norma Fox. Good Night, Maman. 1999. 185p. Taken to Fort Ontario in Oswego, New York, the only refugee camp on American soil during World War II, Karin is overwhelmed with longing for her mother, yet intrigued by the fascinating world she's entered. Struggling to build a new life, forging a friendship with an American girl, and learning, day by day, to rely on herself, Karin discovers her own strength and independence. |
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Oughton, Jerrie. The War in Georgia. 1997. 183p. Living in Georgia during World War II, thirteen year old Shanta sometimes feels that her family and neighborhood are more hopeless battlefields than those in foreign lands. |
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Paulsen, Gary. The Cookcamp. 1991. 115p. During World War II, a little boy is sent to live with his grandma, a cook in a camp for workers building a road through the wilderness. |
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Ray, Deborah Kogan. My Daddy Was a Soldier: a World War II Story. 1990. 40p. While Daddy's away fighting in the Pacific, Jeannie plants a victory garden, collects scrap, and sends letters to her father as she anxiously awaits his return. |
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Reeder, Carolyn. Foster's war. 1998. 267p. When his older brother joins the army during World War II in order to escape the rages of an authoritarian father, eleven-year-old Foster fights his battle on the home front. |
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Rock, Gail. The House Without a Christmas . 1976. 83p. In 1946, a ten year old girl tries to understand and overcome her stern father's objections to having a Christmas tree in the house. |
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Rock, Gail. The Thanksgiving Treasure. 1974. 90p. Addie's Thanksgiving gesture toward a crochety old man enriches both lives. |
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Steiner, Barbara. Tessa. 1988. 218p. Turning 14 in 1946 brings several unwanted changes for Tessa as her long-standing friendship with a black boy is threatened and her parents' separation forces her to choose between living with her mother in the city or staying with her father in the Arkansas woods and hunting for Indian relics. Best for ages 12 and up. |
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Taylor, Mildred. The Road to Memphis. 1990. 290p. Sadistically teased by three white boys in 1940s rural Mississippi, a Black youth severely injures one of the boys with a tire iron and enlists Cassie's help in trying to flee the state. Best for ages 12 and up. |
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Taylor, Theodore. The Cay. 1969. 137p. When the freighter on which they are travelling is torpedoed by a German sub during World War II, a 12 yr-old white boy, blinded by a blow to the head, and an old black man are stranded on a small desert island in the Caribbean where the boy acquires a new kind of vision, courage, and love from his old companion. |
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Thesman, Jean. Molly Donnelly. 1993. 186p. Twelve-year-old Molly, who lives next door to a Japanese American family and whose cousin is a nurse in the Philippines, experiences many changes in her life when World War II breaks out. |
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Tripp, Valerie. Meet Molly, an American Girl. 1986. 58p. While her father is away fighting in World War II, Molly finds her life full of changes as she eats terrible vegetables from the victory garden and plans revenge on her brother for ruining her Halloween. |
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Tunis, John R. Keystone Kids. 1943. 239p. When two young brothers join the Brooklyn Dodgers, one becomes team manager and is faced with the task of uniting a team rife with dissension and prejudice against the new Jewish rookie catcher. Best for ages 12 and up. |
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Uchida, Yoshiko. The Bracelet. 1993. 30p. Emi, a Japanese American in the second grade, is sent with her family to an internment camp during World War II, but the loss of the bracelet her best friend has given her proves that she does not need a physical reminder of that friendship. During World War II, the author and her family were forced to live in West Coast internment camps. It is on this experience that this story is based. This is a good introduction to a less-than-pleasant part of American history. The watercolor illustrations by Joanna Yardley are not to be missed. |
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Uchida, Yoshiko. Journey Home. 1978. 131p. After their release from an American concentration camp, a Japanese-American girl and her family try to reconstruct their lives amidst strong anti-Japanese feelings which breed fear, distrust and violence. |
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Willis, Patricia. A Place to claim as home. 1991. 166p. Thirteen-year-old Henry, hired by the strangely unfriendly Miss Morrison to be summer help on her farm in 1943 while most of the men in the area are overseas in the war, discovers that her gruff hardness conceals hurt over a secret in her past. |
| If you enjoyed reading these books at the library, you may enjoy looking for the following books! |
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Branscum, Robbie. Johnny May . 1975. 135p. A nine-year-old girl recounts her experiences growing up in the Arkansas hill country in the late 40's. If you like this story, read the other stories about Johnny May. |
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Branscum, Robbie. Spud Tackett and the angel of doom. 1983. 124p. An evil evangelical preacher disrupts life in an Arkansas farm community during World War II, affecting 15 year old Spud, his grandmother, and cousin Leroy. |
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Chaikin, Miriam. Finders Keepers. 1980. 120p. When Molly first finds the small golden ring on the playground, she is delighted. She slips it onto her finger, and things begin to sour: Molly's best friend becomes ill, her baby brother's asthma worsens; and-worst of all-Molly discovers that the ring was lost by Hanna, a young refugee from Hitler's Germany. It had been a present from her now-dead father. Molly tries to get the ring off her finger to return it to Hanna, but the ring won't come off... |
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Glassman, Judy. The Morning Glory War. 1996. 119p. Jeannie, a 5th grader during World War II, supports the war effort at home and writes to a soldier overseas while enduring the dislike of her harsh teacher. |
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Green, Connie Jordan. The War at Home. 1989.136p. Living in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where her father is involved in a secret government project in the final months of World War II, 13 year old Mattie carries on a constant debate with her 12 year-old cousin Virgil about the relative merits of boys versus girls. |
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Green, Phyllis. Wild Violets. 1977. 104p. A poor and friendless nine-year-old witnesses the changes in her life and herself during the early days of World War II. |
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Hallman, Ruth. Secrets of a Silent Stranger. 1976. 75p. Clint believes summer at the North Carolina coast will be dull now that World War II is over until he discovers a young German sailor hiding in the marshes. |
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Henry, Marguerite. Misty of Chincoteague. 1946. 175p. Maureen and Paul are determined to own Phantom and her foal, two wild ponies from Assateague Island. |
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Poynter, Margaret. A Time Too Swift. 1990. 216p. Living in San Diego on the verge of World War II, fifteen-year-old Marjorie is confused by her romantic feelings for a handsome serviceman and her changing attitude toward the Japanese neighbors she has known all her life. Recommended for 7th graders and up. |
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Todd, Leonard. The Best Kept Secret of the War. 1984. 165p. During the summer of 1944, ten year old Cam Reed fights a few important battles of his own in Pinehill, NC while his daddy is in Europe fighting the Germans. |
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Young, Ronder Thomas. Moving Mama to town. 1997. 219p. In 1947, his head filled with the advice and wisdom of his runaway father, thirteen-year-old Freddy moves his mother from their Georgia farm into town and takes on the challenge of holding his family together. Best for ages 12 and up. |
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