For Readers 10 and up:
Historical Fiction1377Crispin: The Cross of Lead by
Avi: Falsely accused of theft and murder, an orphaned peasant boy in fourteenth-century England flees his village and meets a larger-than-life juggler who holds a dangerous secret.
1687The Witch of Blackbird Pond by
Elizabeth George Speare: After her parents and grandfather die, Kit must go to live with her aunt in the Connecticut Colony, where she must learn about the Puritan ways of her aunt and uncle.
1768Night Journeys by
Avi: Twelve-year-old Peter, living with his Quaker guardian near the Pennsylvania-New Jersey border, joins in the search for two runaway indentured servants.
Encounter at Easton (sequel to Night Journeys) by
Avi: The doomed flight of two young indentured servants from their unkind master brings together an unlikely assortment of people in a Pennsylvania town.
American RevolutionThe Fighting Ground by
Avi: Thirteen-year-old Jonathan goes off to fight in the Revolutionary War and discovers the real war is being fought within himself.
1832The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by
Avi: As the only passenger, and the only female, on a transatlantic voyage, thirteen-year-old Charlotte finds herself caught between a murderous captain and a mutinous crew.
1843Lyddie by
Katherine Paterson: Impoverished Vermont farm girl Lyddie Worthen is determined to gain her independence by becoming a factory worker in Lowell, Massachusetts.
1848The Man Who Was Poe by
Avi: In Providence, R.I., Edgar Allan Poe reluctantly investigates the problems of eleven-year-old Edmund, whose family has mysteriously disappeared and whose story suggests a new Poe tale with a ghastly final twist.
1849The Ballad of Lucy Whipple by
Karen Cushman: Twelve-year-old California Morning Whipple, who renames herself Lucy, is distraught when her mother moves the family from Massachusetts to a rough California mining town.
1855-1856Jip, His Story by
Katherine Paterson: While living on a Vermont poor farm, Jip learns his identity and that of his mother and comes to understand how he arrived at this place.
1881Rodzina by
Karen Cushman: A twelve-year-old Polish American girl is boarded onto an orphan train in Chicago with fears about traveling to the West and a life of unpaid slavery.
1899Preacher's Boy by
Katherine Paterson: Ten-year-old Robbie, son of a preacher in a small Vermont town, gets himself into all kinds of trouble when he decides to give up being Christian in order to make the most of his life before the end of the world.
1926Egyptology: Search for the Tomb of Osiris: Being the Journal of Miss Emily Sands by
Dugald Steer and the "Ology World" team1927Call Me Heller, That's My Name by
Stella Pevsner: Young Heller debates how to handle the intrusion of an aunt into her family life and activities.
1941Jacob Have I Loved by
Katherine Paterson: Feeling deprived all her life of schooling, friends, mother, and even her name by her twin sister, Louise finally begins to find her identity.
1968Itch by
Michelle D. Kwasney: After the death of her beloved Gramps, Delores "Itch" Colchester and her grandmother move from Florida to an Ohio trailer park, where she meets new people and, when she learns that a friend is being abused by her mother, tries her best to emulate her plain-spoken grandfather.
HistoryThe American Family Album series by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler: Ten books (so far) spotlighting America's African, Chinese, Cuban, German, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Jewish, Mexican, and Scandinavian immigrants.
Contemporary FictionPlaying Dad's Song by D. Dina Friedman: While wrestling with memories of his father, who died when the Twin Towers fell on September 11, 2001, eleven-year-old Gus, born into a family of musicians, starts taking oboe lessons, begins to compose music, and joins his sister in auditioning for a school musical.
Katherine Paterson - Bridge to Teribithia
Nancy Hope Wilson - Becoming Felix
HumorThe Penguins of Doom by Greg R. Fishbone: In a series of letters to various interested parties, including teachers, the school psychologist, a police lieutenant, and others, triplet Septina Nash reveals the complicated tale of her sister Sexta’s disappearance, and how penguins and mathematics are involved. A Class of 2k7 book!MysteriesBlue Mystery by Margot Benary-Isbert: Young Annegret tries to find out who stole a priceless blue gloxinia is stolen from her father's greenhouse.
Fantasy, Ghost Stories, and Weird TalesAvi - Something Upstairs
James M. Barrie - Peter Pan
Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson - Peter and the Starcatchers (a prequel to Peter Pan)
L. Frank Baum & W.W. Denslow - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Michael Ende - The Neverending Story
J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter series
William Sleator - Among the Dolls
Dugald Steer - Dr. Ernest Drake's Dragonology
For Young Adult Readers:
Historical FictionPre-historic timesPeter Dickinson - A Bone from a Dry Sea
The Middle AgesThe Midwife's Apprentice by
Karen Cushman: A nameless, homeless girl becomes the apprentice to a village midwife. (1996 Newbery Award Winner)
1290Catherine, Called Birdy by
Karen Cushman: The thirteen-year-old daughter of an English country knight keeps a journal in which she records the events of her life, particularly her longing for adventures beyond the usual role of women and her efforts to avoid being married off. (A Newbery Honor Book, 1995)
14th CenturyMatilda Bone by
Karen Cushman: The orphaned Matilda is sent to Blood and Bone Alley to be assistant to Red Peg the Bonesetter.
The Ramsay Scallop by Frances Temple
16th CenturyElizabeth Marie Pope - The Perilous Gard
17th CenturyCelia Rees - Witch Child
Celia Rees - Sorceress
American RevolutionElizabeth Marie Pope - The Sherwood Ring
1793Fever, 1793 by
Laurie Halse Anderson: In 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.
1830sTrudy Krisher - Uncommon Faith
1880sRose Wilder Lane - Free Land
Rose Wilder Lane - Let the Hurricane Roar
1910sWalter D. Edmonds - The South African Quirt
World War IRuth Elwin Harris - Sisters of the Quantock Hills series
1917Hattie Big Sky by
Kirby Larson: After inheriting her uncle’s homesteading claim in Montana, sixteen-year-old orphan Hattie Brooks travels from Iowa in 1917 to make a home for herself and encounters some unexpected problems related to the war being fought in Europe.
1920sRobert Newton Peck - A Day No Pigs Would Die
Robert Newton Peck - A Part of the Sky
Virginia Frances Schwartz - Messenger
1930sTony Earley - Jim the Boy
World War IIEscaping into the Night by
D. Dina Friedman: Thirteen-year-old Halina Rudowski narrowly escapes the Polish ghetto and flees to the forest, where she is taken in by an encampment of Jews trying to survive World War II.
1949The Loud Silence of Francine Green by
Karen Cushman: It is 1949. Russia has just tested its first atomic weapon. Communists are in power in Russia and China and, some say, in Hollywood. And quiet, shy Francine turns thirteen.
1950sMaxine Clair - Rattlebone
1976Baby Blue by
Michelle Kwasney: Still grieving and guilt-ridden over her father’s drowning, twelve-year-old Blue is dealt another blow when her older sister, Star, runs away to escape their stepfather’s violence against their mother.
Contemporary FictionAnn Brashares - The Sister of the Traveling Pants series
Martha Freeman - 1,000 Reasons Never to Kiss a Boy
Mark Haddon - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Judith Jaeger - The Secret Thief
Tips on Having a Gay (ex) Boyfriend by Carrie Jones: Belle, a high school junior, expects to marry her long-term boyfriend one day until he tells her and their entire small Maine town that he is gay, and both face prejudice and violence even as they enter new relationships and try to remain friends. (A Class of 2k7 book!)
Fantasy and Speculative FictionJ.V. Hart - Capt. Hook: The Adventures of a Notorious Youth
Lois Lowry - The Giver
Lois Lowry - Gathering Blue
Philip Pullman - His Dark Materials series
ClassicsThomas Bailey Aldrich - The Story of a Bad Boy
Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen - Sense and Sensibility
Charlotte Bronte - Jane Eyre
Charles Dickens - Oliver Twist
Conrad Richter - The Light in the Forest
Conrad Richter - A Country of Strangers
J.D. Salinger - The Catcher in the Rye
(Note: Most book descriptions are from Library of Congress catalog.)
