Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan. Harper Collins, 1985, 58 pages.

The Year of Miss Agnes by Kirkpatrick Hill. Aladdin paperbacks, 128 pages, 2002

Year of Wonders: a novel of the plague by Geraldine Brooks. Penguin Books, 2002, 308 pages

The Great Trouble: A Mystery of London, The Blue Death, and a Boy Called Eel, by Deborah Hopkinson. Alfred A. Knopf, 2013, 249 pages.

The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. Puffin, 2015, 318 pages.

I Survived the Attacks of September 11, 2001 by Lauren Tarshis. Scholastic Inc. 2012, 82 pages

Popular Scholastic series fiction based on real life disasters. Each book follows a youngster experiencing a famous disastre. The child deals with real life issues-- parents, sickness, school, etc., against the back drop of the disastre. No kids are hurt or killed but the reader gets to understand a little of what it was like to live during that event. End pages include non fiction materials and information.

I Survived: The Attacks of September 11, 2001 by Lauren Tarshis. Scholastic, 2012, 82 pages.

Great series--realistic disaster historic fiction- famous disasters through out history are the background for stories about a child who lived through the disaster--no children are harmed--
-- Also the kids have a back story too.
Lucas's Dad and Uncle are NYC firefighters. Lucas get especially close to his uncle when his dad gets hurt on the job. Lucas loves football, just like his uncle, but gets a concussion, and when his parents tell him no more football, he goes to NYC to find the Uncle at the firestation to ask him to intervene.
Realistic without being too graphic--end pages provide more history. Light over all. A winner with younger and middle grade readers. 3rd and 4th i would think.

Burn Baby Burn by Meg Medina. Candlewick, 2016. 356 pages.

Summer of 1977, NYC, hot and gritty. Son of Sam is on the loose and Nora is poor and street smart and seventeen. I love the tension of the hot-son of sam- background and I love Meg Medina's female characters. The men do not measure up though. Still, a very strong enjoyable read. Quick one too.

Dragonwings by Lawrence Yep. HarperTrophy, 1975, 248 pages.

Recommended to me by both an 8th grader (who reads for assignments but not for pleasure) and another librarian, I loved it. My first Laurence Yep since Spring Pearl of the American Girls -girls of many lands-series. Wonderful historic fiction, San Francisco, 1904, Chinese immigrants. Little known on this coast, great storytelling and a real sense of what was true for many many families. I love historic fiction.

LIncoln and His Boys by Rosemary Wells. Candlewick Press, 2009. 96 pages.

A lovely little book by Rosemary Wells. Based on an actual letter written to Lincoln by one of his sons, the story is diary like, told in alternating voices over a span of just a few years, we get an insiders view of Lincoln and the family life told from the boys as he is running for office, arriving in DC and then again near the end of the war. A lot happens to the country and to this family in this very short time. An intimate and moving view of the man not widely known but well documented. Reminiscent in style and fell of Kate DiCamillo's work,  Lincoln and His Boys is slim, but rich and deep.

Friedrich by Hans Peter Richter. Puffin Books, 1987. 149 pages.

School room classic tale of the holocaust translated from the German and told from the point of view of Friedrich's best friend and neighbor, an Aryan youth, whose first name we never learn. A chronological listing of memories, vingnettes, of the life of Friedrich and his family from 1930 through 1942, told in a factual, reporter style. We see as things turn to bad and worse for the jewish family, but the narrator only reports what happens- leaving it to us to guess the meaning or to feel the emotion. A quick read, a classic and very well done. great for discussion and to recommend. A chronological listing of historical events at back. 12+

Sylvia & Aki by Winifred Conkling.Tricycle Press, 2011. 150 pages.

A fascinating story based on true life; Aki Munemitsu and Sylvia Mendez were two young girls living in California during World War II. Aki's family, Japanese American farmers, were forceably relocated to internment and prisoner of war camps for virtually the entire war. During that time, while Sylvia's family, Mexican Americans, leased and worked the Munemitsu farm, Sylvia and her siblings were  denied a seat in school because they were not white. While Sylvia's family fought for and eventually won the right for every child to attend every school, ending school segregation in California, Aki's family were the victims of anti Japanese racism. Both two girls showed incredible courage in the face of unfairness and adversity and remain friends even today.  Epilogue gives additonal historical fact and context. Highly recommend.

Captain Alatriste by Arturo Pérez-Reverte. G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2005. 253 pages.

Romantic and swashbuckling, the first in a series, Captain Alatriste was recommended to me by a homeless man in the library--and he was right. Set in 17th century Spain, Diego Alatriste, veteren of the 30 years war, is hired by the Grand Inquisitor to kill a traveler who turns out to be the Prince of Wales...and the plot thickens! Pérez-Reverte is a master storyteller-- weaving a tale of intrigue and adventure and romance-- with Alatriste he creates a hero who every man wants to be and every woman wants to be with. Pérez-Reverte deftly adds plenty of historic detail that enhances the tale, but never overwhelms. I haven't loved an adult series like this in a long time. A great book from a phenomenal writer. Read it.

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia. Amistad, 2010. 218 Pages

Alchemy and Meggy Swann by Karen Cushman. Clarion Books, 2010. 176 pages.

"Ye toads and vipers," the girl said, as her granny often had, "ye toads and vipers," and she snuffled a great snuffle that echoed in the empty room."
It is 16th Century Elizabethan London and 13 year old Meggy Swann, with her deformed legs and walking sticks, has just arrived from the country to live with the cold and distant father she has never met. But once this father, the odd and unfriendly Alchemist, realizes she is both deformed and female, Meggy is left to fend for herself-- virtually and then literally abandoned-- her only friend the equally bad tempered goose named Louise. But Karen Cushman's hallmark is the strong female character and Meggy is at the top of the list. She makes her way-- finding friends and allies and creating a life for herself that is both positive and believable within her historic context. I love Cushman-- for her strong female characters, clever and likable as well as for the beautiful and luscious language she employs to carry us away. Great for girls and anglophiles and lovers of Shakespearean insults.

Mississippi Bridge by Mildred D. Taylor. Puffin Books, 1990, 62 pages.

Taylor states she got the idea for this short story from a story her father told of an event from his own childhood. 1930s-segregated south at the Mississippi River. Casual small town racism as seen through the eyes of a 10 year old white boy--a child afraid of and bullied by his own father--Taylor tells the facts mostly, without editorializing. She does not say how the young black girl felt being told she could not try on a hat in the store or why the black townsfolk spoke easily to each other but clammed up when the little white boy started hanging around. She leaves it to us to decide what to think. A well written and powerful short story.

The Jumping-Off Place by Marian Hurd McNeely. South Dakota Historical Press, 2008 (1929) 321 pages

After the death of their beloved uncle, four orphaned siblings settle a homesteading claim in South Dakota in 1910. Led by their older teen sister, Becky, they spend their first year on the prairie. Originally published in 1929, this is definitely an old fashioned children's book, and it is very reminiscent of the Little House series. The book starts off a little slowly, but Hurd McNeely develops her characters very well-- quietly but quickly--and i found my self pulled deeper into a story that is quiet but consistent-- chronicling events --not adventures, exactly-- that occur during the family's first year on the claim. The story ends when the year finishes, and while the ending is certainly predictable, it is also satisfying-- and in keeping with the quiet nature of the work itself. I really enjoyed the book --- it is very well written and full of subtleties that enhance the story without hitting you over the head-- for example, the seasonal weather on the prairie mirrors the mood of the narrative as it progresses. i knew little about South Dakota or the prairie experience before The Jumping-Off Place and i did not expect to like the book anywhere near as much as i did, and i have a new found understanding for the settler experience. When i talk about this book and this period, however, I do feel compelled to point out that this was the last of the large native american land thefts, and this land ----that the Linville kids and other prairie families so loved-- was stolen from native people as part of US policy to decimate the Indian population, separate the people from their ancestral lands and destroy native culture. I believe the book's afterward, by Jean L. S. Patrick, should have made this point more clearly. So....that being said, I clearly liked the book quite a bit, and while it is not for every child, i think that for upper elementary and middle school kids with a taste for the Little House series, or A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, or Secret Garden, etc. I would recommend it. Also, a great Read-A-Loud for a younger group. Recommended-with historical notes--

Catherine Called Birdy by Karen Cushman. HarperTrophy, 1994. 212 pages

Although it sounds deadly--one year in the life of Birdy, the13 year old daughter of a minor knight in 11th century England, as told through her diary entries--it is, instead, brilliant. Birdy is irreverent, manipulative, modern, lively, funny, thoughtful, moody, anxious, headstrong and thoroughly alive--she is Anne of Green Gables, Hermoine Granger, Jo March, Charlotte Doyle-- a strong adolescent female character coming of age and trying to make sense of her world. Birdy, as the daughter of a poor and minor knight, hates lots of things about her life--killing fleas, cleaning rushes, her older brother, endless needle work--and she fights against the social constraints put on women of her era-- sometime actually longing for the imagined greener grass life of the peasantry. In the course of the year she loses her best friend to a less than happy marriage and is herself facing the very real prospect of being married off to the highest bidder--which she decides to fight with every tool in her limited power. The details of daily life are certainly realistic--the actual character of Birdy--i'm not so sure--but that does not diminish the story at all--the character is one many girls (and boys) will identify with and while the ending is a bit convenient (yes, i 'll give you that) it is historic fiction and a great story and one that kids love. This is Karen Cushman doing what she does best.

Witness by Karen Hesse. Scholastic Press (2001), Hardcover, 161 pages

It’s Vermont, 1924 and the Ku Klux Klan comes to a small town in Vermont and recruits. Written in verse and told in the voices of different people in the town, Witness tells the story of how the Klan affected a small Vermont town; an aimless 18 yr. old Melvin joins the KKK to feel he is a part of something bigger than himself; 12 yr. old Leonora Sutter, the only African American girl in town, watches as life slowly gets more frightening; Sara Chickering who cares for and loves 6 yr. old Ester Hirsch, a motherless Jewish girl, and has no use for the Klan at all. As the KKK begins to assert more power over the town, things begin to get dangerous for Esther and Leanora. After the Sutters are threatened and someone shoots at Mr. Hirsch, many people in the town come out against the Klan. This is a quiet story with a very positive message. I enjoyed it and found the telling of the tale from the points of view of different townsfolk to be very effective.