For February you will be reading one of these Historical Fictions. This Book Review will be due Feb 28, 2006.

The book review should include title (in italics) and the author's name.

The book review shall be typed. Use 12 point Times Roman, double space.

Your Name                      Date
Class, Period                  Mr Nellen
Assignment:

               Your Title

Your title should reflect theme of your book review and may not be just the title of the book you read.

The book report shall be a minimum of 250 words.

Be sure to include quotes from the book to support your thesis of how the book tells you more about yourself. Provide at least two examples from the book to support your thesis.

Write a critical essay in which you discuss the novel you have read from the particular perspective of the statement that is provided for you in the "critical lens". In your essay, provide a valid interpretation of the statement, agree or disagree with the statement as you have interpreted it, and support your opinion using specific references to appropriate literary elements from the novel.

Critical Lens: "We should not look back unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors, and for the purpose of profiting by dearly bought experience." George Washington

* Provide a valid interpretation of the critical lens that clearly establishes the criteria for analysis

* Indicate whether you agree or disagree with the statement as you have interpreted it

* How does the book you have read best support your opinion

* Use the criteria suggested by the critical lens to analyze the novel you have chosen

* Do not summarize the plot but use specific references to appropriate literary elements (for example, theme, characterization, structure, language, point of view) to develop your analysis

* Organize your ideas in a unified and coherent manner

* Specify the title and author of the novel you read

* Follow the conventions of standard written English

Jump to: Early America & the Revolutionary War | Between the Revolution & the Civil War | The Civil War | After the Civil War | 1900-1929 & World War I | 1930s & the Great Depression | 1940s, World War II, & the Holocaust | 1950s & The Korean War | 1960s & The Vietnam Conflict | 1970s & The Vietnam Conflict | 1980s | 1990s & The Gulf War

Early America & the Revolutionary War

Blackwood, Gary. The Year of the Hangman. In 1777, having been kidnapped and taken forcibly
from England to the American colonies, fifteen-year-old Creighton becomes part of developments
in the political unrest there that may spell defeat for the patriots and change the course of
history.

Collier, James Lincoln. My Brother Sam Is Dead. 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.

Myers, Walter Dean. The Glory Field. Follows a family's two hundred forty-one year history,
from the capture of an African boy in the 1750s through the lives of his descendants, as their
dreams and circumstances lead them away from and back to the small plot of land in South
Carolina that they call the Glory Field.

O'Dell, Scott. Sarah Bishop. Left alone after the deaths of her father and brother who take
opposite sides in the War for Independence, and fleeing from the British who seek to arrest
her, Sarah Bishop struggles to shape a new life for herself in the wilderness.

Paulsen, Gary. The Rifle. A priceless, handcrafted rifle, fired throughout the American
Revolution, is passed down through the years until it fires on a fateful Christmas Eve of
1994.

Rinaldi, Ann. A Break with Charity: A Story about the Salem Witch Trials. While waiting for a
church meeting in 1706, Susanna English, daughter of a wealthy Salem merchant, recalls the
malice, fear, and accusations of witchcraft that tore her village apart in 1692.

Rinaldi, Ann. Cast Two Shadows: The American Revolution in the South. In South Carolina in
1780, fourteen-year-old Caroline sees the Revolutionary War take a terrible toll among her
family and friends and comes to understand the true nature of war.

Rinaldi, Ann. The Fifth of March: A Story of the Boston Massacre. Fourteen-year-old Rachel
Marsh, an indentured servant in the Boston household of John and Abigail Adams, is caught up
in the colonists' unrest that eventually escalates into the massacre of March 5, 1770.

Rinaldi, Ann. Finishing Becca: A Story about Peggy Shippen and Benedict Arnold.
Fourteen-year-old Becca takes a position as a maid in a wealthy Philadelphia Quaker home and
witnesses the events that lead to General Benedict Arnold's betrayal of the American forces
during the Revolutionary War.

Rinaldi, Ann. A Ride into Morning: The Story of Tempe Wick. When unrest spreads at the
Revolutionary War camp in Morristown, New Jersey, under the command of General Anthony Wayne,
a young woman cleverly hides her horse from the mutinous soldiers who have need of it.

Between the Revolution & the Civil War

Auch, Mary Jane. Frozen Summer. In 1816, twelve-year-old Mem's new home in the wilderness of
western New York is disrupted when the birth of another baby sends her mother into "spells"
that disconnect her from reality.

Paulsen, Gary. Call Me Francis Tucket. Having separated from the one-armed trapper who taught
him how to survive in the wilderness of the Old West, fifteen-year-old Francis gets lost and
continues to have adventures involving dangerous men and a friendly mule.

Paulsen, Gary. Mr. Tucket. In 1848, 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.

Paulsen, Gary. Tucket's Gold. Fifteen-year-old Francis and the two children he has adopted
travel across the Old West, evade Comancheros, discover a treasure, and wind up rich beyond
their wildest dreams.

Paulsen, Gary. Tucket's Home. Francis, Lottie, and Billy survive a series of hair-raising
adventures while on their way west to the Oregon Trail, where they hope to find the Tucket
family.

Paulsen, Gary. Tucket's Ride. When fifteen-year-old Francis and two younger children lose
their way in the wilderness of the Southwest, they face capture at the hands of dangerous men.

Rinaldi, Ann. The Second Bend in the River. In 1798 Rebecca, a young settler in the Ohio
territory, meets the Shawnee called Tecumseh and later develops a deep friendship with him.

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.

Spooner, Michael. Daniel's Walk. With little more than a bedroll, a change of clothes, and a
Bible, fourteen-year-old Daniel LeBlanc begins walking the Oregon Trail in search of his
father who, according to a mysterious visitor, is in big trouble and needs his son's help.

Wood, Frances. Becoming Rosemary. The summer twelve-year-old Rosemary makes her first true
friend is also a time of great change in her North Carolina community. It is 1790, and rumors
of witchcraft and evil have begun to spread through the serene farming village. To protect her
family and her dear new friend, Rosemary will be the first to take action.

Alphin, Elaine M. The Ghost Cadet. Twelve-year-old Benjy, in Virginia visiting the grandmother
he has never met, meets the ghost of a Virginia Military Institute cadet who was killed in the
Battle of New Market in 1864 and helps him recover his family's treasured gold watch.

Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. No Man's Land. Because he had been unable to fight off the gator
which injured his father, fourteen-year-old Thrasher joins the Confederate Army hoping to
prove his manhood.

Beatty, Patricia. Eben Tyne, Powdermonkey. A thirteen-year-old powdermonkey in the Confederate
navy joins the crew of the ironclad Merrimack in a mission to break the Union blockade of
Norfolk harbor.

Beatty, Patricia. Jayhawker. In the early years of the Civil War, 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.

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.

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.

Fritz, Jean. Brady. Brady and his parents aid runaway slaves in the Underground Railroad.

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.

Keith, Harold. Rifles for Watie. Jeff Bussey, a young Union soldier during the Civil War,
tries to find out where General Watie is getting his weapons. A Newbery Medal Winner.

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.

Lunn, Janet. The Root Cellar. Twelve-year-old orphan Rose, sent to live with unknown relatives
on a farm in Canada, ventures into her aunt's root cellar and finds herself making friends
with people who lived on the farm more than a century earlier.

Lyon, George Ella. Here and Then. Through ghostly visitation and a diary that seems
mysteriously to write itself with twelve-year-old Abby's hands, a Civil War nurse asks for
help with medical supplies across an abyss of 133 years.

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

Nixon, Joan Lowery. A Dangerous Promise. After being taken in by Captain Taylor and his wife
in Kansas, twelve-year-old Mike Kelly and his friend Todd Blakely join the Union army as
musicians and see the horrors of war firsthand in Missouri.

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.

Polacco, Patricia. Pink and Say. Say Curtis describes his meeting with Pinkus Aylee, a black
soldier, during the Civil War, and their capture by Southern troops.

Reeder, Carolyn. Across the Lines. Edward, the son of a white plantation owner, and his black
house servant and friend Simon witness the siege of Petersburg during 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.

Sappey, Maureen Stack. Letters from Vinnie. A fictionalized account of the Washington, D.C.,
Civil War years experienced by Vinnie Ream the sculptress, best known for the statue of
Abraham Lincoln that is in the Capitol building.

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.

Wisler, G. Clifton. The Drummer Boy of Vicksburg. In this fact-based story, fourteen-year-old
drummer boy Orion Howe displays great bravery during a Civil War battle at Vicksburg,
Mississippi.

After the Civil War

Beatty, Patricia. Be Ever Hopeful, Hannalee. In 1865 with the war recently over,
fourteen-year-old Hannalee and her recently reunited family decide to start a new life in
Atlanta where, because of the need to rebuild the devastated city, jobs are plentiful. Sequel
to "Turn Homeward, Hannalee."

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.

Calvert, Patricia. Snowbird. Following the murder of her parents Willanna faces an uncertain
future as she and her younger brother move from Tennessee in 1883 to the Dakota Territory
where she trains her first horse.

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.

Durbin, William. The Journal of Sean Sullivan: A Transcontinental Railroad Worker: Nebraska
and Points West, 1867. In 1867, fifteen-year-old Sean experiences both hardships and rewards
when he joins his father in working on the building of the Transcontinental Rairoad.

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.

Irwin, Hadley. Jim Dandy. Living after the Civil War on a Kansas homestead with his stern
stepfather, thirteen-year-old Caleb raises a beloved colt and becomes involved in General
Custer's raids on the Cheyenne.

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.

Nelson, Theresa. Devil Storm. A brother and sister living off the Texas Gulf Coast befriend
Tom the Tramp who becomes a hero during the Great Storm of 1900.

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.

Peck, Robert Newton. Justice Lion. Fifteen-year-old Muncie Bolt thinks he's lost Hem Lion's
friendship forever when his father prosecutes Hem's father for operating a still in Liberty,
Vermont during the days of Prohibition.

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.

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.

Corcoran, Barbara. The Sky Is Falling. In Boston during the early days of the Great
Depression, Annah's affluent lifestyle comes to an abrupt end when her father loses his
banking job and Annah is sent to live with her aunt on a New Hampshire island where she meets
a destitute but spunky girl named Dodie.

Crew, Linda. Fire on the Wind. The summer before her fourteenth birthday, a fierce forest fire
rages throughout northwestern Oregon and threatens the logging camp where Storie and her
family live.

DeFelice, Cynthia. Nowhere to Call Home. When her father kills himself after losing his money
in the stock market crash, twelve-year-old Frances, now a penniless orphan, decides to hop
aboard a freight train and live the life of a hobo.

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.

Hunt, Irene. No Promises in the Wind. A fifteen-year-old boy struggles to survive and come to
terms with inner conflicts in the desperate world 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.

Denenberg, Barry. The journal of Ben Uchida, citizen #13559, Mirror Lake internment camp
Twelve-year-old Ben Uchida keeps a journal of his experiences as a prisoner in a Japanese
internment camp in Mirror Lake, California, during World War II.

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.

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.

Pausewang, Gudrun. The Final Journey. During World War II, eleven-year-old Alice, whose life
has been sheltered and comfortable, discovers some important things about herself and the
people she meets when she and her grandfather board a train and begin an increasingly
intolerable journey to an unknown destination.

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.

Thesman, Jean. Rachel Chance. When Rachel's illegitimate baby brother is kidnapped by a
travelling band of revivalists in 1940, she sets out with her grandfather, a hired hand, and
an eccentric neighbor in a desperate attempt to steal him back.

Back to top
top

1960s & The Vietnam Conflict

Freeman, Suzanne T. The Cuckoo's Child. Eleven-year-old Mia refuses to believe that her
parents are not coming back after they're reported lost at sea.

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.

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.