Here are our favorite historical fiction books for middle grade readers. These titles are classified as Teen Middle School (TM) and can be found in the Teen section of the library. |
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The (Mostly) True Story of Cleopatra's Needle
by Dan Gutman
This historical fiction account of Cleopatra's Needle that resides in Central Park, New York, is narrated by five kids who watched the Needle at each phase of its history, recounting the daring story of how something that seemed impossible succeeded against all odds.
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Tenmile
by Sandra Dallas
In 1880 Tenmile, Colorado, a rough gold mining town, 12-year-old Sissy Carlson, who is assisting her local doctor father, sees firsthand the personal and not-always-private struggles of his patients and starts thinking of a world outside of this place where she might fit in.
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The Plot to Kill a Queen: A Royal Spy Story in Three Acts
by Deborah Hopkinson
Accidentally uncovering a plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I, aspiring playwright Emilia Bassano and her friends, including Will Shakespeare, set out to foil the plans of a disguised murderer on the loose.
Also includes the Princess Saves the Cakes, a one act play to perform with a company of friends.
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Heroes
by Alan Gratz
Aboard the battleship the USS Utah with their Navy pilot fathers during WWII when the ship is attacked by the Japanese, Frank and Stanley find their friendship—and dreams—in jeopardy when Stanley is seen as the“enemy” because his mother is Japanese American.
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Remember Us
by Jacqueline Woodson
It seems like Sage's whole world is on fire the summer before she starts seventh grade. As house after house burns down, her Bushwick neighborhood gets referred to as "The Matchbox" in the local newspaper. And while Sage prefers to spend her time shooting hoops with the guys, she's also still trying to figure out her place inside the circle of girls she's known since childhood. Sage meets Freddy, a new kid who truly gets her, and together they reflect on missing the things that get left behind as time moves on, living in the moment and supporting each other in times of need.
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The Star That Always Stays
by Anna Rose Johnson
In 1914, Norvia moves from the country to the city, where her mother forces her to pretend she's not Native American, and when faced with numerous changes and the looming threat of world war, Norvia must find the courage to reveal who she truly is.
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Death Cloud
by Andy Lane
In 1868, with his army officer father suddenly posted to India, and his mother mysteriously "unwell," fourteen-year-old Sherlock Holmes is sent to stay with his eccentric uncle and aunt in their vast house in Farnham, where he uncovers his first murder and a diabolical villain.
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The Witch of Blackbird Pond
by Elizabeth George Speare
In 1687 in Connecticut, Kit Tyler, feeling out of place in the Puritan household of her aunt, befriends an old woman considered a witch by the community and suddenly finds herself standing trial for witchcraft.
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The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963
by Christopher Paul Curtis
The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watsons, an African American family living in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963.
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Fever, 1793
by Laurie Halse Anderson
In 1793 Philadelphia, sixteen-year-old Matilda Cook, separated from her sick mother, learns about perseverance and self-reliance when she is forced to cope with the horrors of a yellow fever epidemic.
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Spineless
by Samantha San Miguel
Staying at a health resort in the wilds of Gilded Age in South Florida due to his asthma, 12-year-old budding naturalist Algie stumbles upon a brand-new species that he must protect from a famous collector of exotic animals in a place where evil is lurking.
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Lines of Courage
by Jennifer A. Nielsen
As World War I stretches across Europe, five young people face the awful challenges of war as they fight for their dreams, their families and their very survival.
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Louisa June and the Nazis in the Waves
by Laura Elliott
In 1941, after Hitler declares war on the United States, unleashing U-boat submarines to attack American ships, thirteen-year-old Louisa June, with the waves outside her house carrying dangerous enemies, must help her mother after her father and brother are caught in the crossfire
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A Night Divided
by Jennifer A Nielsen
When the Berlin Wall went up, Gerta, her mother, and her brother Fritz were trapped on the eastern side, while her father, and her other brother Dominic were in the West, and now four years later, Gerta sees her father and realizes he wants her to risk her life trying to tunnel to freedom.
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Moonwalking
by Zetta Elliott
When punk rock-loving JJ Pankowski and graffiti artist Pie Velez stumble into an unlikely friendship, they use their love of music and art to get through a tough semester until a run-in with the police changes everything.
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Peacemaker
by Joseph Bruchac
A twelve-year-old Iroquois boy rethinks his calling after witnessing the arrival of a mystical figure with a message of peace in this historical novel based on the creation of the Iroquois Confederacy.
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Letters from Cuba
by Ruth Behar
A young Jewish girl flees her home in Poland on the eve of World War II before establishing a new life for herself in Cuba, where she works to rescue the other members of her family.
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Amber & Clay
by Laura Amy Schlitz
A novel in verse relates the story of Rhaskos and Melisto, one a common slave and the other a spoiled aristocrat, who are bound together by fate and form an unlikely friendship that crosses the boundary of life and death.
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A Place to Belong
by Cynthia Kadohata
Reeling from the treatment they endured in the internment camps of World War II America, a Japanese-American family renounces their American citizenship to move back to Hiroshima, unaware of the devastation inflicted by the atomic bomb.
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A Ceiling Made of Eggshells
by Gail Carson Levine
Excitedly joining her stern grandfather on a journey across 15th-century Spain, a clever young Jewish girl meets King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella while discovering how dangerous the world is for people of Jewish heritage.
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