Historical Stories

Winston Churchill wrote: "Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Find stories that travel back in time to see what life and trials were like before you were born with some of our favorite historical fiction for school-age children.


Compiled by:
Children's Services Staff
Picture Books and Younger Elementary
Gittel's Journey: An Ellis Island Story

Lesléa Newman
(Juvenile Picture Books - Ej New)

Gittel and her mother are planning to immigrate to the United States from Poland. When her mother is stopped by a health inspector, Gittel must continue the journey alone and find safety in this strange new land. Recommended for ages 6-9.


Hello Lighthouse

Sophie Blackall
(Juvenile Picture Books - Ej Bla)

Explores the life of one lighthouse as it beams its message out to sea through shifting seasons, changeable weather, and the tenure of its final keeper. Recommended for ages 6-9.


Hidden Figures: The True Story of Four Black Women and the Space Race

Laura Freeman
(Juvenile Nonfiction - J 920 She)

Explores the previously uncelebrated but pivotal contributions of NASA's African American women mathematicians to America's space program, describing how Jim Crow laws segregated them despite their groundbreaking successes. Recommended for ages 6-9.


Love in the Library

Maggie Tokuda-Hall
(Juvenile Picture Books - Ej Tok)

Tama is sent to live in a Japanese internment camp in the United States during World War II. Despite the harsh conditions and unfair treatment, she finds solace in her job at the library and in George, who waits at the library every morning with an arm full of books. Recommended for ages 6-9+.


Overground Railroad

Lesa Cline-Ransome
(Juvenile Picture Books - Ej Cli)

Looking for a better life than the sharecropping farm, Ruth and her parents journey into the unknown with thousands of other African Americans seeking better opportunities via northbound train. Written in short, but expressive, poetic lines, this tale of the Great Migration is engaging and rich. Recommended for ages 6-9.


Sarah, Plain and Tall

Patricia MacLachlan
(Juvenile Fiction - J Maclach)
Series: MacLachlan, Patricia. Sarah, plain and tall ; 1.

When Papa advertises for a new wife to join his prairie family, Sarah appears from Maine. The children, Caleb and Anna, grow to love her very much but fear she is too homesick and will soon leave them. Recommended for ages 6–9.


Older Elementary
The Blackbird Girls

Anne Blankman
(Juvenile Fiction - J Blankma)

Valentina and Oksana have always been enemies. When the nuclear power plant where their fathers work, Chernobyl, explodes they must work together to create a new future. Recommended for ages 9-12.


Esperanza Rising

Pam Muñoz Ryan
(Juvenile Fiction - J Ryan)

Esperanza and her mother are forced to leave their life of wealth and privilege in Mexico to go work in the labor camps of Southern California, where they must adapt to the harsh circumstances facing Mexican farm workers on the eve of the Great Depression. Recommended for ages 9-12+.


Finding Langston

Lesa Cline-Ransome
(Juvenile Fiction - J Clinera)

Discovering a book of Langston Hughes' poetry in the library helps Langston cope with the loss of his mother, relocating from Alabama to Chicago as part of the Great Migration, and being bullied. Recommended for ages 9-12.


Freewater

Amina Luqman-Dawson
(Juvenile Fiction - J Luqmand)

Homer and his little sister Ada flee in the night in search of freedom, leaving behind their beloved mother behind on the plantation. They find refuge in a hidden community deep in the swamp with others who have escaped slavery. When Homer's new community and his mother are in threat of danger, he must make a plan to save the ones he loves. Recommended for ages 9-12.


The Legend of Auntie Po

Shing Yin Khor
(Juvenile Graphic Novels - J GN Khor Legend of Auntie Po)

Despite the racial tumult in the years after the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act, Mei tries to remain focused on her job in the Sierra Nevada logging camp, her close friendship with the camp foreman's daughter, and telling stories about the legend Auntie Po. Recommended for ages 9-12+.


The Night Diary

Veera Hiranandani
(Juvenile Fiction - J Hiranan)

The 12-year-old daughter of a refugee family forced to flee their home in the aftermath of the 1947 separation of Pakistan and India embarks on a treacherous journey that she records in a series of letters written to her late mother. Recommended for ages 9-12.


Number the Stars

Lois Lowry
(Juvenile Fiction - J Lowry)

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. Recommended for ages 9-12.


One Crazy Summer

Rita Williams-Garcia
(Juvenile Fiction - J Williams)
Series: Gaither Sisters; 1

In the summer of 1968, eleven-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters travel from New York to California to spend a month with the mother they barely know. They arrive to a cold welcome, discovering that their mother, a dedicated poet and printer, is resentful of the intrusion of their visit and wants them to attend a nearby Black Panther summer camp. Recommended for ages 9–12.


Prairie Lotus

Linda Sue Park
(Juvenile Fiction - J Park)

Hanna travels with her father to start fresh with other settlers in Dakota territory. She works on getting an education, becoming a dressmaker in her father's shop, and making at least one friend while also navigating racism and prejudice in the small settler town for being half Chinese. Recommended for ages 9-12.


Salt: A Story of Friendship in a Time of War

Helen Frost
(Juvenile Fiction - J Frost)

Twelve-year-olds Anikwa, of the Miami village of Kekionga, and James, of the trading post outside Fort Wayne, find their friendship threatened by the rising fear and tension brought by the War of 1812. Recommended for ages 9-12+.


Show Me a Sign

Ann Clare LeZotte
(Juvenile Fiction - J Lezotte)

Mary lives on Martha's Vineyard in 1805 where everyone knows sign language and a quarter of the population is also Deaf. When an outsider scientist comes into the community searching for the reason why so many of the island's inhabitants are Deaf, Mary soon finds herself in the middle of his heinous plans. Recommended for ages 9-12. 


The War that Saved My Life

Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
(Juvenile Fiction – J Bradley)

A young disabled girl and her brother are evacuated from London to the English countryside during World War II, where they find life to be much sweeter away from their abusive mother. Recommended for ages 9-12+.


We Dream of Space

Erin Entrada Kelly
(Juvenile Fiction - J Kelly)

Three siblings alternate narration of their anxieties, hopes, and fears as they await the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger. Recommended for ages 9-12. 


We Were the Fire: Birmingham 1963

Shelia Moses
(Juvenile Fiction - J Moses)

Rufus is determined to stand up and fight for civil rights. While his parents risk getting fired for attending marches, Rufus realizes he can still attend them and decides to join the Children's Crusade despite being met with police dogs and fire hoses at the marches. Recommended for ages 9-12.