Morris Gleitzman is an Australian author best known for writing children’s books that focus on adventure and are filled with humor. His seven-volume Once series details the life of a Jewish boy named Felix Salinger as he struggles to survive the Nazi occupation of Poland before, during, and after World War II. As the fourth installment in the series, After specifically concerns the events in Felix’s life in the winter and spring of 1945 as... Read After Summary

All the Broken Pieces is a novel in verse by Ann E. Burg, first published in 2009 and geared toward middle grade readers. The novel won the Jefferson Cup Award for children’s historical fiction and was named an IRA Notable Book for a Global Society, as well as a Booklist Editors’ Choice and YALSA Best Book for Young Adults. Burg was also nominated for a NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work. With a sparse... Read All the Broken Pieces Summary

All We Have Left is a historical novel written by Wendy Mills. The book was published in 2016, and was included on Best Book of the Year lists by Kirkus, Amazon and Bank Street. The work is based upon the impact of the terrorist bombings of the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11, 2001, and is directed at a young-adult audience. The story is told from the perspective of two teenaged... Read All We Have Left Summary

The middle-grade novel A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park follows the life of one of the Lost Boys from South Sudan during the Second Sudanese Civil War. Based on a true story, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt published the bestselling novel in 2010, and Park later wrote a companion picture book, Nya’s Long Walk. The story follows Salva Dut, based on a family friend of Park’s, who is chased from his village and family... Read A Long Walk to Water Summary

Written by Richard Peck in 1998 and told as a series of related short stories, A Long Way From Chicago is a novel about two siblings and their adventures with their grandmother over the span of six summers from 1929 to 1935. The work was a Newbery Honor book in 1999, and its sequel, A Year Down Yonder, won the Newbery Medal for children’s literature in 2001. Richard Peck (1934-2018) was the award-winning American novelist... Read A Long Way from Chicago Summary

Ashes (2016), a young adult historical novel by American author Laurie Halse Anderson, is the third and final book in the Seeds of America series. This guide refers to the 2016 Atheneum eBook edition.Plot SummaryIsabel Gardener and Curzon Smith, two black teenagers who escaped slavery during the American Revolution, have been on the run together for five years. After serving at Valley Forge, they’re travelling through the Eastern states, looking for Isabel’s little sister Ruth... Read Ashes Summary

A Young People’s History of the United States is based on author Howard Zinn’s acclaimed A People’s History of the United States, written for an adult audience and originally published in 1980. Rebecca Stefoff adapted Zinn’s text to suit a young audience of middle school to high school ages. This adaptation has been in print since 2007.SummaryThe key word in the title is “People’s.” Zinn (and Stefoff) deliver a history about the masses in the... Read A Young People's History of the United States Summary

When Julia Alvarez’s Before We Were Free (2002) begins, the life of Anita de la Torre, an 11-year-old girl in the Dominican Republic, is about to change forever. The novel investigates themes of family, government corruption, superstition, and the power of the written word, all set against the backdrop of the months before and after the assassination of a brutal dictator, Rafael Trujillo. This study guide uses the 2007 Laurel Leaf Reprint Edition.Plot SummaryDuring the... Read Before We Were Free Summary

Behind Rebel Lines: The Incredible Story of Emma Edmonds, Civil War Spy by Seymour Reit is a work of historical fiction and children’s literature based on the true story of a young woman who pretends to be a man so that she can join the Union army during the US Civil War. The book’s target audience is ages 10-14, and it uses a simple style to appeal to a young audience. It is categorized as... Read Behind Rebel Lines Summary

American author Karen Cushman’s middle grade novel, Catherine, Called Birdy, explores the life of a young woman in 13th-century England. Published in 1994, the book won the Newbery Honor the following year. It is currently being adapted for the screen by actor, writer, and director Lena Dunham. This detailed work of historical fiction immerses the reader in the very different world of medieval England, with its emphasis on religion as the organizing force behind daily... Read Catherine, Called Birdy Summary

Day of Tears: A Novel in Dialogue is a young adult book of historical fiction written by Julius Lester and published in 2005. It was the 2006 winner of the Coretta Scott King Award as well as numerous other YA awards. The book concerns the largest slave auction in American history, which took place on March 2 and 3, 1859, in Savannah, Georgia. Plantation owner Pierce Butler sells more than 400 persons to repay his... Read Day of Tears Summary

Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was issued on January 1, 1863, during the US Civil War. The order declared all enslaved people inside the Confederacy to be free, effective immediately. It promised them protection by the US military, and it invited them to join the Union Army in the fight against the Confederacy. The Emancipation Proclamation was widely celebrated as a major turning point in the movement for abolition, though the Union had no means of... Read Emancipation Proclamation Summary

Set during Philadelphia’s yellow fever outbreak, Fever 1793 is a young adult, historical fiction novel written by Laurie Halse Anderson and first published in 2000. Anderson is a recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for her contribution to young adult literature, and Fever 1793 is an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults and a New York Public Library Best Book for Teens. Other works by Anderson include Chains (2008), Wintergirls (2009), and... Read Fever 1793 Summary

Forge tells the story of Curzon Smith, a runaway slave who enlists in the Colonial Army during the American Revolution. A sequel to Anderson’s previous book,Chains, Forge begins in earnest after Curzon has been abandoned by Isabel, a fellow slave who has freed him from captivity at the end of the previous novel. Isabel has left in search of her lost sister, Ruth – an action Curzon has tried to prevent in order to keep... Read Forge Summary

Alan Gratz’s seventh novel, Grenade (2018), is a work of historical fiction set during the 1945 Battle of Okinawa, an infamously bloody battle that took place in the Pacific Theater of World War II (WWII). Gratz’s novel, which is aimed at middle-grade readers but may also appeal to adults and young adults, follows the journeys of a US Marine and an Okinawan boy. Grenade won numerous awards, including the 2019 Bank Street Best Children’s Book... Read Grenade Summary

Swiss author Johanna Spyri originally published the middle-grade fiction novel Heidi in German in two volumes in 1880. The novel quickly became a beloved classic children’s book that has since been adapted into 25 film and television versions, including a 1968 made-for-TV movie and a very popular anime series in 1974. It has sold more than 50 million copies worldwide. Spyri was born in Hirzel, a Zurich village that shares a border with the German... Read Heidi Summary

Cynthia Kadohata’s first novel, Kira-Kira (2004), is a historical coming-of-age novel for middle-grade readers. The novel tells the story of the Japanese American Takeshima family, who live in the Chesterfield, Georgia, in the 1950s. The protagonist and first-person narrator is the younger daughter, Katie. The narrative spans seven years, involving the family’s move from Iowa to the South, where Katie’s parents become workers in the poultry industry. The narrative follows Katie as she awakens to... Read Kira-Kira Summary

“Lift Every Voice and Sing” (1900) is a poem by NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, one of the architects of the Harlem Renaissance. Johnson composed the poem to be shared at a school celebration of the birthday of US President Abraham Lincoln, whose emancipation of enslaved Black Americans during and after the Civil War made him an important cultural figure for the Harlem Renaissance movement. When J. Rosamond Johnson, Johnson’s brother, composed music to accompany... Read Lift Every Voice and Sing Summary

Little Lord Fauntleroy is a children’s novel written in the sentimental style by Frances Hodgson Burnett, published serially from 1885-1886 and as a novel in 1886. Seven-year-old protagonist Cedric Errol lives with his mother in modest circumstances in New York after the death of his father. After he learns he’s heir to his grandfather’s earldom in England, he and his mother move there so that he can be trained to be Lord Fauntleroy. Cedric, with... Read Little Lord Fauntleroy Summary

Milkweed is a young adult historical fiction novel by Jerry Spinelli. Published in 2003, Milkweed won the 2004 Golden Kite Award and 2003 Carolyn W. Field Award in fiction. The novel follows a young, unnamed boy’s life in Warsaw, Poland, during the Holocaust. Orphaned at a young age, the unnamed protagonist runs wild in the streets of Warsaw, stealing bread from unsuspecting passersby. The boy identifies himself as “Stopthief,” but he remembers almost nothing about... Read Milkweed Summary