MCL's Historical Fiction For Young Adults Bibiliography

Call #	Title/Author/Description	Year
Y AND	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.	2000
Y ARM	The Dreams of Mairhe Mehan by Jennifer Armstrong Mairhe, who lives in an Irish slum in Washington D.C., in the 1860’s, struggles to come to grips with the impact of the Civil War on her family.	1996
Y BER	Ajeemah and His Son by James Berry A father and his eighteen-year-old son are each affected differently by their experiences as slaves in Jamaica in the early nineteenth century.	1992
Y BUE	The Wizard’s Tide by Frederick Buechner Gaining comfort from the words of a Christmas carol, Teddy struggles with family problems during the Depression.	1990
Y COL	With Every Drop of Blood by James Lincoln Collier While trying to transport food to Richmond, Virginia during the civil war, fourteen-year-old Johnny us captured by a black Union soldier.	1994
Y COR	Tunes for Bears To Dance To by Robert Cormier Eleven-year-old Henry escapes his family’s problems by watching the wood carving of Mr. Levine, an elderly Holocaust survivor, but when Henry is manipulated into betraying his friend he comes to know true evil.	1992
Y COV	Fortune’s Journey by Bruce Coville Sixteen-year-old Fortune Plunkett faces many challenges on a wagon-train journey to California in 1853 with the acting company that she inherited from her father.	1995
Y CUS	Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman Can a sharp-tongued, high-spirited, clever young maiden with a mind of her own actually lose the battle against an ill-mannered, piglike lord and an unimaginative greedy toad of a father who wants to marry her off.	1994
Y CUS	The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen Cushman In medieval England, a nameless, homeless girl is taken in by a sharp-tempered midwife and, in spite of obstacles and hardship, eventually gains the three things she most wants: a full belly, a contented heart, and a place in this world.	1995
Y EME	Welcome to Vietnam by Zack Emerson First in the “Echo Company” series. To Michael Jennings, Vietnam was just some faraway place where people were killing each other for reasons that weren’t very clear. Until he met the rest of the guys in Echo Company.	1991
Y FLE	Bull Run by Paul Fleischman Northerners, Southerners, generals, couriers, dreaming boys, and worried sisters describe the glory, the horror, the thrill, and the disillusionment of the first battle of the Civil War.	1993
Y GER	Troy by Adele Geras Told from the point of view of the women of Troy, portrays the last weeks of the Trojan War when women are sick of tending the wounded, men are tired of fighting, and bored gods and goddesses find ways to stir things up.	2001
Y GRE	Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene Sheltering an escaped German prisoner of war is the beginning of some shattering experiences for a 12-year-old Jewish girl in Arkansas.	1973
Y HER	The Unwritten Chronicles of Robert E. Lee by Lamar Herrin Behind the glory lay the psychological turmoil of command for Civil War generals Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee.	1989
Y HOH	Titanic: The Long Night by Diane Hoh This action-packed book focuses on the lives of several teenage passengers aboard the ill-fated "Titanic".	1998
Y HOT	A Circle Unbroken by Sollace Hotze Captured by a roving band of Sioux Indians and brought up as the chief’s daughter, Rachel is recaptured by her white family and finds it difficult to adjust, as she longs to return to the tribe.	1988
Y KEI	Rifles for Watie by Harold Keith Jeff, a Union soldier from Kansas, decides to join the Union army after his family is bushwhacked by two rebel soldiers.	1957
Y LEV	Escape from Egypt by Sonia Levitin When Moses comes to lead the Israelites to the promised land, Jesse, a Hebrew slave, finds his life changed by his growing faith in God and his attraction to the half-Egyptian, half-Syrian Jennat.	1993
Y MAG	Good Night, Mr. Tom by Michelle Margorian A battered child learns to embrace life when he is adopted by an old man in English countryside during the Second World War.	1981
Y MAR	Mary Reilly by Valerie Martin This fresh twist on the classic Jekyll and Hyde story is told from the perspective of Mary Reilly, Dr. Jekyll's dutiful and intelligent housemaid.	1990
Y MAS	In Country by Bobbie Ann Mason In the summer of 1984, the war in Vietnam comes home to Sam Hughes, whose father was killed there before she was born.	1985
Y MAT	The Burning Time by Carol Matas After her father’s sudden death, fifteen-year-old Rose Rives finds that sixteenth-century France is a dangerous place for women, when men charge her mother and others with being witches.	1994
Y MEY	Mary, Bloody Mary by Carolyn Meyer Mary Tudor, who would reign briefly as queen of England during the mid-sixteenth century, tells the story of her troubled childhood as daughter of King Henry VIII.	1999
Y NAP	Stones in Water by Donna Jo Napoli After being taken from a local movie theater – along with other Italian boys including his Jewish friend – by German soldiers, Roberto is forced to work for the German war effort until he escapes into the Ukranian winter.	1997
Y NEW	The Transformation by Mette Newthe On a journey to appease the Sea’s Mother, Navarana saves the life of a stranger who had come to Greenland to rescue the few Christians living there. Together, they find a way to end the suffering of Navarana’s people.	1997
Y OBR	The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien A collection of fictional stories about the experiences of soldiers in the Vietnam war.	1990
Y PEC	Fawn by Robert Newton Peck At the time of the Battle of Ticonderoga in 1758, an Indian boy, the son of a Jesuit priest, observes the savagery of the French, English, and Indians, and tries to save his father from what could be a terrible fate.	1975
Y POR	Treasures in the Dust by Tracey Porter Eleven-year-old Annie and her friend Violet tell of the hardships endured by their families when dust storms, drought, and the Great Depression hit Oklahoma.	1996
Y PUL	The Tiger in the Well by Philip Pullman In London in 1881, twenty-four-year-old Sally finds her young daughter and her possessions assailed by an unknown enemy, while a shadowy figure known as the Tzaddik involves her in his plot to defraud and exploit the hordes of Jewish immigrants pouring into the country.	1990
Y RAY	Daniel and Esther by Patrick RaymondIn 1936, while attending Darrington Hall, an English progressive school, thirteen-year-old Daniel meets Esther, a slightly younger classmate who, as the years go by, becomes the focus of his life.	1989
Y RAY	To Cross a Line by Karen Ray In 1938, after a minor traffic accident, seventeen-year-old Egon Katz joins an increasing number of German Jews desperately trying to find a way out of the country.	1994
Y RIN	In My Father’s House by Ann Rinaldi For two sisters growing up surrounded by the Civil War, there is conflict both outside and inside their house.	1992
Y RIN	The Last Silk Dress by Ann Rinaldi Susan and her best friend Connie do their part by gathering ladies silkdresses to use in making a balloon that will be used to spy on the Yankees. Meanwhile, Susan is torn between her mother, who is loyal to the Confederacy, and her older independent brother, who is sympathetic with the North.	1988
Y RIN	Mine Eyes Have Seen by Ann Rinaldi In the summer of 1859, fifteen-year-old Annie travels to the Maryland farm where her father, John Brown, is secretly assembling his provisional army prior to their raid on the United States arsenal at nearby Harpers Ferry.	1998
Y RIN	Wolf by the Ears by Ann Rinaldi Harriet Hemings, rumored to be the daughter of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, one of his black slaves, struggles with the problems facing her – to escape from the velvet cage that is Monticello, or to stay, and thus remain a slave.	1991
Y ROS	After the Dancing Days by Margaret I. Rostkowski A forbidden friendship with a badly disfigured soldier in the aftermath of World War I forces thirteen-year-old Annie to redefine the word “hero” and to question conventional ideas of patriotism.	1986
Y TAY	The Road to Memphis by Mildred D. Taylor On the eve of World War II, Cassie Logan is finishing high school and dreaming of college when a violent radical incident forcer her to help a good friend escape to the north.	1990
Y THE	Molly Donnelly by Jean Thesman 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.	1993
Y TWA	A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain A practical, no-nonsense New Englander of 1889, knocked unconscious in a fight, wakes up in old England of 528 where he eventually becomes the most unusual member of King Arthur’s Round Table.	1981
Y VAN	A Time of Troubles by Pieter Van Raven Having crossed the country with his father during the Depression to find work in California, fourteen-year-old Roy encounters cruel exploitation of the desperate, impoverished people pouring into the state by the Grower's Association.	1991
Y VOI	Tree by Leaf by Cynthia Voigt	1988
Y WAL	Second Daughter by Mildred Pitts Walter Aissa, the fictional teenage sister of Elizabeth Freeman, struggles against a system which declares that she is property and that she is to remain silent.	1995
Y WAT	My Brother, My Sister, and I by Yoko Kawashima Watkins Living as refugees in Japan in 1947 while trying to locate their missing father, thirteen-year-old Yoko and her older brother and sister must endure a bad fire, injury, and false charges of arson, theft, and murder.	1994
Y WES	Blitzcat by Robert Westall During World War II a black cat journeys all across war-ravaged England in an effort to track down her beloved master.	1989
Y WHI	The Road Home by Ellen Emerson White Rebecca, a young nurse stationed in Vietnam during the war, must come to grips with her wartime experiences once she returns home to the United States.	1995
Y WHI	Belle Prater’s Boy by Ruth White When Woodrow’s mother suddenly disappears, he moves to his grandparents’ home in a small Virginia town where he befriends his cousin and together they find the strength to face the terrible losses and fears in their lives.	1995
Y WIS	Red Cap by G. Clifton Wisler A young Yankee drummer boy displays great courage when he’s captured and sent to Andersonville Prison.	1991