Clapp, Patricia. The Tamarack Tree.
An eighteen-year-old English girl finds her loyalties divided and all her resources tested as she and her friends experience the terrible physical and emotional hardships of the forty-seven day siege of Vicksburg in the spring of 1863.

Collier, James Lincoln. With Every Drop of Blood.
While trying to transport food to Richmond, Virginia, during the Civil War, fourteen-year-old Johnny is captured by a black Union soldier.

Crane, Stephen. The Red Badge of Courage.
The story of a young man fighting in the Civil War.

Crist-Evans, Craig. Moon Over Tennessee.
A thirteen-year-old boy sets off with his father from their farm in Tennessee to join the Confederate forces on their way to fight at Gettysburg. Told in the form of diary entries.

Donahue, John. An Island Far from Home.
The twelve-year-old son of a Union army doctor killed during the fighting in Fredericksburg comes to understand the meaning of war and the fine line between friends and enemies when he begins corresponding with a young Confederate prisoner of war.

Ernst, Kathleen. Retreat from Gettysburg.
In 1863, during the tense week after the Battle of Gettysburg, a Maryland boy faces difficult choices as he is forced to care for a wounded Confederate officer while trying to decide if he himself should leave his family to fight for the Union.

Fleischman, Paul. Bull Run.
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.

Forman, James D. Becca's Story.
A Civil War romance concerning a Michigan girl and the two soldiers who are rivals for her hand.

Frazier, Charles. Cold Mountain.
A love story set during the Civil War in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Hansen, Joyce. Which Way Freedom?
Obi escapes from slavery during the Civil War, joins a black Union regiment, and soon becomes involved in the bloody fighting at Fort Pillow, Tennessee.

Houston, Gloria. Mountain Valor.
With her father and brothers gone to serve in the Civil War and her mother sick, teenage Valor ignores what is proper behavior for a girl and fights to defend her North Carolina mountain farm.

Hunt, Irene. Across Five Aprils.
Young Jethro is forced to take over the responsibilities for the family farm in Illinois when the older men are sent to fight in the Civil War.

Kirkpatrick, Katherine. The Voyage of the Continental.
In 1866, young orphan Emeline McCullough leaves her mill job in Lowell, Massachusetts, to head for Seattle, Washington, aboard the steamship Continental, writing in her diary about the intrigue, danger, and romance she encounters on her journey.

Lasky, Kathryn. True North: A Novel of the Underground Railroad.
Because of the strong influence which her grandfather, an abolitionist, has in her life, fourteen-year-old Lucy assists a fugitive slave girl in her escape.

Mitchell, Margaret. Gone With the Wind.
The sweeping saga of Scarlett O'Hara's life and loves during the Civil War.

Paulsen, Gary. Soldier's Heart.
Eager to enlist, fifteen-year-old Charley has a change of heart after experiencing both the physical horrors and mental anguish of Civil War combat.

Peck, Richard. River Between Us.
During the early days of the Civil War, the Pruitt family takes in two mysterious young ladies who have fled New Orleans to come north to Illinois.

Pinkney, Andrea Davis. Silent Thunder: A Civil War Story.
In 1862 eleven-year-old Summer and her thirteen-year-old brother Rosco take turns describing how life on the quiet Virginia plantation where they are slaves is affected by the Civil War.

Rinaldi, Ann. An Acquaintance with Darkness.
When her mother dies and her best friend's family is implicated in the assassination of President Lincoln, fourteen-year-old Emily Pigbush must go live with an uncle she suspects of being involved in stealing bodies for medical research.

Rinaldi, Ann. Amelia's War.
When a Confederate general threatens to burn Hagerstown, Maryland, unless it pays an exorbitant ransom, twelve-year-old Amelia and her friend find a way to save the town.

Rinaldi, Ann. The Last Silk Dress.
During the Civil War, Susan finds a way to help the Confederate Army and uncovers a series of mysterious family secrets.

Rinaldi, Ann. Mine Eyes Have Seen.
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.

Severance, John B. Braving the Fire: A Civil War Novel.
Jem joins the Union Army but is not sure of his motives or what he hopes to accomplish, particularly since the Civil War has divided his family and caused much violence and confusion in his life.

After the Civil War

Bonner, Cindy. Lily: A Novel.
Lily DeLony falls in love with Marion Beatty, of the notorious Beatty brothers, which stirs up the town of McDade, Texas in 1883.

Burks, Brian. Wrango.
When young George McJunkin leaves his home in Texas and joins a cattle drive along the Chisholm Trail, he experiences the hardships of being a Black cowboy after the Civil War.

Calvert, Patricia. Bigger.
When his father disappears near the Mexican border at the end of the Civil War, twelve-year-old Tyler decides to go after him and bring him home, acquiring on the journey a strange dog which he names Bigger.

Carbone, Elisa. Storm Warriors.
In 1895, after his mother's death, twelve-year-old Nathan moves with his father and grandfather to Pea Island off the coast of North Carolina, where he hopes to join the all-black crew at the nearby lifesaving station, despite his father's objections.

Hardman, Ric Lynden. Sunshine Rider: The First Vegetarian Western.
In the late 1800s while on a cattle drive which takes him north from Texas, seventeen-year-old Wylie learns that it is no longer necessary to run from the father he never knew.

Miller, Sarah.  Miss Spitfire: Reaching Helen Keller      
At age twenty-one, partially-blind, lonely but spirited Annie Sullivan travels from Massachusetts to Alabama to try and teach six-year-old Helen Keller, deaf and blind since age two, self-discipline and communication skills.

Paulsen, Gary. Canyons.
Finding a skull on a camping trip in the canyons outside El Paso, Texas, Brennan becomes involved with the fate of a young Apache Indian who lived in the late 1800s.

Peck, Richard. Fair Weather.
In 1893, thirteen-year-old Rosie and members of her family travel from their Illinois farm to Chicago to visit Aunt Euterpe and attend the World's Columbian Exposition which, along with an encounter with Buffalo Bill and Lillian Russell, turns out to be a life-changing experience for everyone.

Reaver, Chap. A Little Bit Dead.
In 1876, after interfering with the attempted lynching of a young Yahi Indian named Shanti, eighteen-year-old Reece finds his own life in danger and becomes intimately involved in the future of Shanti's people.

Robinet, Harriette. Forty Acres and Maybe a Mule.
Born with a withered leg and hand, Pascal, who is about twelve years old, joins other former slaves in a search for a farm and the freedom which it promises.

Taylor, Mildred. The Land.
After the Civil War in 1880s Mississippi, Paul, the son of a white father and a black mother, finds himself caught between the two worlds of colored folks and white folks as he pursues his dream of owning land of his own.

1900-1929 & World War I

Dreiser, Theodore. Sister Carrie.
The story of a young woman striving to improve her lot in life in Chicago at the beginning of the century.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby.
A mysterious American millionaire tries to recapture the sweetheart of his youth resulting in tragedy.

Hesse, Karen. Witness
A series of poems express the views of various people in a small Vermont town, including a young black girl and a young Jewish girl, during the early 1920s when the Ku Klux Klan is trying to infiltrate the town

Hoh, Diane. Titanic: The Long Night.
Recounts the last night aboard the Titanic.

Ingold, Jeanette. Pictures, 1918.
Coming of age in a rural Texas community in 1918, fifteen-year-old Asia assists in the local war effort, contemplates romance with a local boy, and expands her horizons through her pursuit of photography.

Levine, Gail Carson. Dave at Night.
When orphaned Dave is sent to the Hebrew Home for Boys where he is treated cruelly, he sneaks out at night and is welcomed into the music- and culture-filled world of the Harlem Renaissance.

Peck, Richard. The Dreadful Future of Blossom Culp.
Blossom, not the most popular member of her freshman class in 1914, travels ahead seventy years, and returns in time to make Halloween a memorable night for her classmates and teachers.

Peck, Richard. Ghosts I Have Been.
Blossom Culp's gift of second sight, which she discovers gradually, leads her into some unusual adventures.

Peck, Robert Newton. A Day No Pigs Would Die.
To a thirteen-year-old Vermont farm boy whose father slaughters pigs for a living, maturity comes early as he learns "doing what's got to be done," especially regarding his pet pig who cannot produce a litter.

Ritter, John H. Choosing Up Sides.
In 1921 thirteen-year-old Luke finds himself torn between accepting his left-handedness or conforming to the belief of his preacher-father that such a condition is evil and must be overcome.

Rostkowski, Margaret. After the Dancing Days.
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.

Sinclair, Upton. The Jungle.
New immigrants struggle to make it in America working the slaughterhouses, becoming involved in politics, and protesting.

Skurzynski, Gloria. The Tempering.
The summer of 1911 is a decisive one for three young men in a Pennsylvania steel town as they find and lose jobs, fall in love, and begin to shape their adult lives.

Sturm, James.  Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow    
Satchel Paige began his baseball career in the Negro Leagues in Alabama in the 1920s. For years, Jim Crow laws, which segregated blacks and whites, kept him out of the major leagues. But they couldn't stop him from becoming a world-class athlete. This is a fictionalized account of a real-life sports hero.

Webster, Jean. Daddy Long-Legs.
After having grown up in an orphanage, Judy, at 17, finds herself the recipient of a generous grant to attend college. Her benefactor chooses to remain anonymous and they fall in love.

Wilson, John. And In the Morning
Jim Hay is fifteen, thinks war is a glorious adventure and cannot wait for his turn to fight. But as his father boldly marches off to battle in August, 1914, Jim must be content to record his thoughts and dreams in his journal. After his father dies he too joins up and is sent to fight in France. There he loses his romantic notions about war.

Yep, Laurence. Dragonwings.
Moon Shadow comes from China to join his father in San Francisco's Chinatown.

1930s & The Great Depression

Ayres, Katherine. Macaroni Boy
In Pittsburgh in 1933, sixth-grader Mike Costa notices a connection between several strange occurrences, but the only way he can find out the truth about what's happening is to be nice to the class bully. Includes historical facts.

Gee, Maurice. The Fat Man.
In 1933, Herbert Muskie returns to his rundown hometown of Loomis, New Zealand, and uses a combination of cunning and psychological threats to take control of the lives of twelve-year-old Colin Potter and his family as part of a plan to get even for the mistreatment he suffered as a schoolboy.

Hesse, Karen. Out of the Dust
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.

Ingold, Jeanette. Airfield.
In 1933 fifteen-year-old Beatty hangs around a small Texas airport waiting for visits from her pilot-father from whom she longs to learn about her deceased mother.

LaFaye, A. The Strength of Saints.
In 1936, fourteen-year-old Nissa takes a stand against racial prejudice and for her own integrity and independence, drawing on the support of her individualistic mother, her father, stepmother, and some of the inhabitants of their Louisiana town.

Peck, Richard. A Long Way from Chicago: A Novel in Stories.
A boy recounts his annual summer trips to rural Illinois with his sister during the Great Depression to visit their larger-than-life grandmother.

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath.
The story of the Joads, set during the Great Depression, as they struggle to make ends meet.

1940s, World War II, & The Holocaust

Bunin, Sherry. Dear Great American Writers School.
Fourteen-year-old Bobby Lee's letters to a correspondence school describe her life in a small Kentucky town during World War II and her growth as a person and as a writer.

Cormier, Robert. Heroes.
After joining the army at fifteen and having his face blown away by a grenade in a battle in France, Francis returns home to Frenchtown hoping to find--and kill--the former childhood hero he feels betrayed him.

Elliott, L.M. Under a War-Torn Sky.
After his plane is shot down by Hitler's Luftwaffe, nineteen-year-old Henry Forester of Richmond, Virginia, strives to walk across occupied France, with the help of the French Resistance, in hopes of rejoining his unit.

Gaeddert, LouAnn. Friends and Enemies
In 1941 in Kansas, as America enters World War II, fourteen-year-old William finds himself alienated from his friend Jim, a Mennonite who does not believe in fighting for any reason, as they argue about the war.

Gwaltney, Doris. Homefront
For as long as she can remember, Margaret Ann has longed for a room of her own. When her older sister leaves for college, she finally gets her dream until her cousin from England leaves London because of the blitz and moves to America. Not only does she get part of Margaret Ann's room, but her boyfriend too. Then Margaret's brother enlists in the Navy and she has to come to grips with the war in Europe.

Gee, Maurice. The Champion.
In 1943 twelve-year-old Rex sees his quiet New Zealand village dramatically changed by the arrival of a black American soldier on leave from the war.

Heller, Joseph. Catch-22.
The classic tale of pilots stationed in Italy during World War II.

Hertenstein, Jane. Beyond Paradise.
Within months of arriving in the exotic Philippines from Upper Sandusky, Ohio, to live with her missionary parents on the island of Panay, fourteen-year-old Louise finds herself a prisoner of war in an internment camp when the Japanese invade her new country in 1941.

Hesse, Karen. Aleutian Sparrow
An Aleutian Islander recounts her suffering during World War II in American internment camps designed to "protect" the population from the invading Japanese.

Kerr, M.E. Slap Your Sides
Life in their Pennsylvania hometown changes for Jubal Shoemaker and his family when his older brother witnesses to his Quaker beliefs by becoming a conscientious objector during World War II.

Mazer, Harry. A Boy at War: A Novel
While fishing with his friends off Honolulu on December 7, 1941, teenaged Adam is caught in the midst of the Japanese attack and through the chaos of the subsequent days tries to find his father, a naval officer who was serving on the U.S.S. Arizona when the bombs fell.

Mazer, Norma Fox. Good Night, Maman.
After spending years fleeing from the Nazis in war-torn Europe, twelve-year-old Karin Levi and her older brother Marc find a new home in a refugee camp in Oswego, New York.

Naylor, Phyllis Renolds. Blizzard's Wake.
In March of 1941, when a severe blizzard suddenly hits Bismarck, North Dakota, a girl trying to save her stranded father and brother inadvertently helps the man who killed her mother four years before.

Oughton, Jerrie. The War in Georgia.
Living in Georgia during World War II, thirteen-year-old Shanta sometimes feels that her family and neighborhood are more hopeless battlefields that those in foreign lands.

Rylant, Cynthia. I Had Seen Castles.
Now an old man, John is haunted by memories of enlisting to fight in World War II, a decision which forced him to face the horrors of war and changed his life forever.

Salisbury, Graham. Under the Blood Red Sun
Tomikazu Nakaji's biggest concerns are baseball, homework, and a local bully, until life with his Japanese family in Hawaii changes drastically after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941.

Taylor, Theodore. The Bomb.
In 1945, when the Americans liberate the Bikini Atoll from the Japanese, fourteen-year-old Sorry Rinamu does not realize that the next year he will lead a desperate effort to save his island home from a much more deadly threat.

1950s & The Korean War

Hobbs, Valerie. How Far Would You Have Gotten If I Hadn't Called You Back?
After moving with her family from New Jersey to California in the late 1950s, sixteen-year-old Bron discovers the world of drag racing.

Holt, Kimberly Willis. My Louisiana Sky.
Growing up in Saitter, Louisiana, in the 1950s, twelve-year-old Tiger Ann struggles with her feelings about her stern, but loving grandmother, her mentally slow parents, and her good friend and neighbor, Jesse.

Johnston, Tony.  Bone by Bone by Bone    
In a small Tennessee town in the 1950s, David and Malcolm are blood brothers, best friends.  But David’s father may be a member of the Ku Klux Klan and refuses to allow David to associate with Malcolm who is black.

Lasky, Kathryn. Pageant.
Sarah Benjamin, a Jewish teenager, wonders if she can endure four more years at an exclusive, very Christian and impossibly stuffy girls school.

White, Ruth. Belle Prater's Boy.
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.

1960s & The Vietnam Conflict

Hobbs, Valerie. Sonny's War.
In the late 1960s, fourteen-year-old Cori's life is greatly changed by the sudden death of her father and her brother's tour of duty in Vietnam.

Jones, Adrienne. Long Time Passing: A Novel.
In the turbulence of the late 1960s, while his father is serving as a Marine officer in Vietnam, seventeen-year-old Jonas falls in love with a free-spirited flower child active in the peace movement and begins to question his own attitude toward the Vietnamese War.

Krisher, Trudy. Kinship.
In 1961 fifteen-year-old Pert, who lives with her mother in Kinship, Georgia, meets her long-absent father and discovers the true meaning of home.

Krisher, Trudy. Spite Fences.
As she struggles with her troubled relationship with her mother during the summer of 1960, a young girl is also drawn into the violence, hatred, and racial tension in her small Georgia town.

Myers, Walter Dean. Fallen Angels.
Seventeen-year-old Richie Perry, just out of his Harlem high school, enlists in the Army in the summer of 1967 and spends a devastating year on active duty in Vietnam.

Nelson, Theresa. And One for All.
Geraldine's close relationship with her older brother Wing and his friend Sam changes when Wing joins the Marines and Sam leaves for Washington to join a peace march.

Pennebaker, Ruth. Don't Think Twice.
Seventeen years old and pregnant, Anne lives with other unwed mothers in a group home in rural Texas where she learns to be herself before giving her child up for adoption.

Tillage, Leon. Leon's Story.
The son of a North Carolina sharecropper recalls the hard times faced by his family and other African Americans in the first half of the twentieth century and the changes that the civil rights movement helped bring about.

1970s & The Vietnam Conflict

Antle, Nancy. Lost in the War.
Twelve-year-old Lisa Grey struggles to cope with a mother whose traumatic experiences as a nurse in Vietnam during the war are still haunting her.

Ho, Minfong. The Clay Marble.
In the late 1970s twelve-year-old Dara joins a refugee camp in war-torn Cambodia and becomes separated from her family.

Holt, Kimberly Willis. When Zachary Beaver Came to Town.
During the summer of 1971 in a small Texas town, thirteen-year-old Toby and his best friend Cal meet the star ofa sideshow act, 600-pound Zachary, the fattest boy in the world.

Lafaye, A. Strawberry Hill.
During the summer of 1976, twelve-year-old Raleia Pendle feels like a misfit with her hippie parents and begins a friendship with the town recluse.

Lewis, Catherine. Postcards to Father Abraham.
When sixteen-year-old Meghan loses her leg to cancer and her brother to Vietnam, she expresses intense anger in postcards which she writes to her idol, Abraham Lincoln.

Shoup, Barbara. Stranded in Harmony.
While struggling with the changes he faces during his senior year in a small Indiana town, Lucas gains insight through a unique friendship with a former Vietnam war protester.

White, Ellen Emerson. The Road Home.
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.

1980s

Cottonwood, Joe. Quake! A Novel.
With their parents away at the 1989 World Series, fourteen-year-old Franny, her younger brother, and their cousin try to cope with the frightening events following an earthquake that destroys their home on Loma Prieta mountain.

Peck, Richard. The Dreadful Future of Blossom Culp.
Blossom, not the most popular member of her freshman class in 1914, travels ahead seventy years, and returns in time to make Halloween a memorable night for her classmates and teachers.

1990s & The Gulf War

Cooney, Caroline B. Operation: Homefront.
With their mother and wife shipped off to the Persian Gulf to serve in Desert Storm, the Herrick children and their father must learn to get by without her.

Kerr, M.E. Linger.
When his older brother suddenly joins the army and is sent to the Persian Gulf, sixteen-year-old Gary begins to take a new look at the restaurant that has been the focal point of his family and their small Pennsylvania town.

Qualey, Marsha. Hometown.
Just before the 1991 Gulf War begins, sixteen-year-old Border Baker moves to a small town with his father, a Vietnam War draft resister.

Comments or Suggestions?
Contact Cathy Lichtman, Teen Librarian