YA/JUV Historical Fiction List

Angel Hill, sixteen, and Isaiah Wilson, seventeen, attend the same African American school in 1921 Tulsa, Oklahoma, but don't hang around in the same circles until a job working for a mobile library brings them together. As they collaborate for work, they bond over their knowledge of black civil rights authors and begin a tentative relationship. However, when a white mob attacks their community, the two realize they must put their civil rights theories...

Embarrassed about gathering watercress from a roadside ditch, a girl learns to appreciate her Chinese heritage after learning why the plant is so important to her parents.

"Joseph McCoy plans a secret project to help save an all-black Civilian Conservation Corps camp from being forced out of town in 1935 Elsinore, California"--

In the unique landscape of the Camargue in the South of France during WW2, a young autistic boy lives on his parents' farm among the salt flats and the flamingos that live there. There are lots of things he doesn't understand, but he does know how to heal animals. He loves routine and music too; every week he goes to market with his mother, to ride his special horse on the town carousel. But then the Germans come, with their guns, and take the town....

Liberated from Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp in 1945, sixteen-year-old Gerta tries to make a new life for herself, aided by Lev, a fellow survivor, and Michah, who helps Jews reach Palestine.

Seventh-grader Jerome is mistakenly shot by a white police officer, and as a ghost, observes the turmoil in his community as a result of his death. He then meets the ghost of Emmett Till, who helps Jerome understand how systemic racism led to his death, but also understand how far the effects of his death really go by introducing him to the grieving daughter of the police officer who struggles with her father's actions.

Rose Lee Carter, a thirteen-year-old African-American girl, dreams of life beyond the Mississippi cotton fields during the summer of 1955, but when Emmett Till is murdered and his killers are unjustly acquitted, Rose is torn between seeking her destiny outside of Mississippi or staying and being a part of an important movement.

Fifth-grader Billy must transfer from his all-white, Catholic school to a public school, where he becomes best friends with Foster, who is black, just before the Red Summer of 1919.

On the island of St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, twelve-year-old Caroline is known for her bad luck because she was born during a hurricane. A new student from Barbados named Kalinda arrives and becomes Caroline's only friend--and her first crush. As Caroline works through her feelings for Kalinda, the two set out in a hurricane to find Caroline's missing mother and are followed by a mysterious spirit.