Historical Fiction for 4th-6th Grades
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Historical Fiction for 4th-6th Grades |
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Note: All books are located in the children's fiction section (XF) unless otherwise noted.
Ancient Civilizations
A fictionalized account of the life of Hatshepsut, a queen in ancient Egypt who declared herself king and ruled as such for more than twenty years.
While her father is in hiding after attempts on his life, twelve-year-old Cleopatra records in her diary how she fears for her own safety and hopes to survive to become queen of Egypt someday.
After his mother dies, Damon, a young medical student living in Alexandria, makes a perilous journey to Spain to locate his father who is serving in the Roman army led by Julius Caesar.
Roman Empire (200 BC - 500 AD)
A group of children from very different backgrounds work together to discover who beheaded a pet dog – and why. First in a series.
Daniel bar Jamin lives to avenge his parents' death by taking revenge on the Romans, but he is torn by his loyalty to two men who claim to have the answer.
Anglo-Saxon & Viking Era (50 - 1199)
The life of Boadicea (Boudicca), queen of Iceni, who led them and other British tribes in a valiant but futile revolt against the Romans in 62 AD.
Fifteen-year-old Aethelflaed, daughter of King Alfred of West Saxony, finds she must assume new responsibilities much sooner than expected when she is betrothed to Ethelred of Mercia in order to strengthen an alliance against the Danes.
13th, 14th & 15th Centuries
A boy learns his own strength when he saves the castle and discovers there is more than one way to serve his king.
England searching for his missing father, a minstrel, and his stolen red spaniel, Nick.
In 1302, two cousins of the nomadic Beni Khalid tribe who are betrothed become separated by political intrigue between warring tribes.
Upon joining a group of minstrels who roam the countryside of 13th-century England, young Pearl discovers how much she loves to sing.
16th Century / Elizabethan Era (1492-1603)
A young orphan boy is ordered by his master to infiltrate Shakespeare’s acting troupe in order to steal the script of “Hamlet.”
Morning Girl, who loves the day, and her younger brother Star Boy, who loves the night, take turns describing their life on an island in Pre-Columbian America.
While awaiting trial for murder, Esteban, a seventeen-year-old cartographer, recalls his adventures with a band of conquistadors.
17th & Early 18th Centuries
Excited at the prospect of coming to work at her sister’s candy shop, teenaged Hannah is unconcerned about rumors of the Plague until she finds herself trapped in the city with no means of escape.
A girl, brought from her native Barbados to be a slave in 17th century Salem, is suspected by the villagers of practicing witchcraft.
A high-spirited teenage girl rebels against the narrow-minded ways of Puritan Connecticut and befriends a lonely old woman who is then accused of being a witch.
Left alone to guard the family’s wilderness home in 18th century Maine, a boy is hard-pressed to survive until local Indians teach him their skills.
American Revolution / Independence (1774-1781)
Recounts the tragedy that strikes the Meeker family during the Revolution when one son joins the rebel forces while the rest of the family tries to stay neutral in a Tory town.
Connecticut is caught up in the horror of the Revolutionary War and the danger of being returned to slavery when her patriot father is killed by the British and her mother disappears.
Phoebe Olcott gets involved in a dangerous mission when, after her cousin is hanged for being a spy, she decides to deliver a message to the British in order to save a group of Loyalist families from harm.
Late 18th Century (1782-1799)
A fourteen-year-old slave, anxious to buy freedom for himself and his mother, escapes from his dishonest master and tries to find help in cashing the soldier’s notes received by his father for fighting in the Revolution.
Ten-year-old Ann overcomes loneliness and learns to appreciate the importance of her role in settling the wilderness of western Pennsylvania.
Early 19th Century (1800-1860)
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.
Twelve-year-old Annyrose relates her adventures with Joaquín Murieta and his band of outlaws in the California gold-mining region during the mid 1800s.
A fictionalized account of the life of Harriet Jacobs, told in the form of letters she might have written during her slavery in No. Carolina and as she prepared to escape to the North.
Left alone on a beautiful but isolated island, a young Indian girl spends 18 years, not only merely surviving, but also finding a measure of happiness in her solitary life. Also, ZIA.
While on a wagon train headed for Oregon, fourteen-year-old Francis Tucket is kidnapped by Pawnee Indians and then falls in with a one-armed trapper who teaches him how to live in the wild. First in a series.
After the United States wins the war with Mexico in 1848, life on her Mexican family’s ranch in California is greatly changed for thirteen-year-old Cesa.
American Civil War (1861-1865)
Teenage Kansan farm boy Lije Tulley becomes a Jayhawker, an abolitionist raider freeing slaves from the neighboring state of Missouri and then goes undercover there as a spy. Also, TURN HOMEWARD, HANNALEE and CHARLIE SKEDADDLE.
Late 19th Century (1866-1899)
Twelve-year-old Rodzina, after losing her family, boards the orphan train towards the West and unexpectedly forms friendships with fellow travelers, giving her hope that somewhere out there a special family has enough room for her.
Traveling around the frontier towns of the West leads the Hackett family, a troupe of roving magicians, from one exciting adventure to another, including the capture of a notorious bandit. Also, JIM UGLY.
When their father invites a mail-order bride to come live with them in their prairie home, Caleb and Anna are captivated by their new mother and hope that she will stay. Also, SKYLARK, CALEB’S STORY, and MORE PERFECT THAN THE MOON.
When he accidentally kills a Manchu, a fifteen-year-old Chinese boy is sent to America to join his father and other Chinese men working to build a tunnel for the transcontinental railroad.
Early 20th Century & WWI (1900-1919)
In letters to her cousin, a young Jewish girl chronicles her family’s flight from Russia and her own experiences when she must be left behind in Belgium when the others immigrate to America.
Sent with her governess to live with the dreadful Carter family in Brazil, Maia endures many hardships before fulfilling her dream of exploring the Amazon River.
A novel in diary form in which the youngest daughter of Czar Nicholas II describes the privileged life her family led up until the time of World War I and the tragic events that befell them.
Between the World Wars / The Great Depression (1919-1937)
Ten-year-old Bud, a motherless boy living in Flint, MI during the Great Depression, escapes a bad foster home and sets out in search of the man he believes to be his father – renowned bandleader H.E. Calloway.
In a series of poems, fifteen-year-old Billie Jo relates the hardships of living on her family’s wheat farm in Oklahoma during the dust bowl years of the Depression.
A black family living in the South is faced with prejudice and discrimination which the children do not understand.
World War II (1938-1946)
A young Korean girl survives the oppressive Japanese and Russian occupation of North Korea during the 1940s, to later escape to freedom in South Korea.
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.
During WWII, a Jewish boy is left on his own for months in a ruined house in the Warsaw Ghetto, where he must learn all of the tricks of survival under constantly life-threatening conditions.
A fictionalized autobiography in which eleven-year-old Yoko escapes from Korea to Japan with her mother and sister at the end of WWII.
Hannah resents the traditions of her Jewish heritage until time travel places her in the middle of a small Jewish village in Nazi-occupied Poland.
After World War II (1947-1965)
The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watsons, an African-American family living in Flint, MI, are drastically changed after they go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963.
Ten-year-old Fred (short for Frederika) narrates the story of school and village life among the Athapascans in Alaska when Miss Agnes arrives as the new teacher.
A Chinese child comes to Brooklyn where she becomes Americanized at school, in her apartment building, and by her love for baseball. Also, look at three historical fiction series – AMERICAN GIRLS, DEAR AMERICA and ROYAL DIARIES. October 2004 (sj) |
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= Newbery Medal Award Winner
= Newbery Honor Book 
Carter, Dorothy Sharp. HIS MAJESTY, QUEEN HATSHEPSUT (Egypt – 1500 BC) 
