Historical Fiction for Third and Fourth Graders

Bibliography created by the Schaumburg Township District Library

FICTION BEARD, D.	*Operation Clean Sweep* by Darleen Bailey Beard. In 1916, just four years after getting the right to vote, the women of Umatilla, Oregon band together to throw the mayor and other city officials out of office, replacing them with women.
FICTION BROOME, E.	*Gracie and the Emperor* by Errol Broome. Gracie’s simple life on St. Helena dramatically changes when Napoleon Bonaparte is brought to the island after his exile.
FICTION CARRIER, E.	Pa's Harvest a true story told by Ephrem Carrier to Jan Andrews. Set during the Great Depression, this is the true story of one family that reaches the point of near total loss and despair.
FICTION CHAIKIN, M.	*Alexandra's Scroll: the Story of the First Hanukkah* by Miriam Chaikin. Alexandra, a young Jewish girl from Jerusalem, describes her life and the creation of Hanukkah, more than 2000 years ago.
FICTION CHENG,A.	*Eclipse* by Andrea Cheng. In Cincinnati, Ohio, in the summer of 1952, eight-year-old Peti gives up his room to his Hungarian relatives, including a twelve-year-old cousin who bullies him, and worries about his grandfather who cannot escape from behind the Iron curtain.
FICTION DELL, P.	Historical Fiction for Third and Fourth Graders by Pamela J. Dell. Twelve-year-old Liam and his family must flee their home when a fire rages through Chicago in 1871.
FICTION EUBANK, P.	*Seaman’s Journal: on the Trail with Lewis and Clark* by Patricia Reeder Eubank. Seaman, the Newfoundland dog belonging to Meriwether Lewis, keeps an account of their adventures during the journey to the Pacific.
FICTION FRAUSTINO, L.	*I Walk in Dread: the Diary of Deliverance Trembley, Witness to the Salem Witch Trails* by Lisa Rowe Fraustino. Twelve-year-old Deliverance Trembley writes in her diary about the fears and doubts that arise during the 1692 witch hunt and trials in Salem Village, Massachusetts, especially when her pious friend, Goody Corey, is condemned as a witch.
FICTION GIFF, P.	*Willow Run* by Patricia Reilly Giff. During World War II, after moving with her parents to Willow Run, Michigan, when her father gets a job in the B-24 bomber-building factory, eleven-year-old Meggie learns about different kinds of bravery from all of the people around her.
FICTION GUTMAN, D.	*Abner & Me: a Baseball Card Adventure* by Dan Gutman. With his ability to travel through time using baseball cards and photographs, thirteen-year-old Joe and his mother go back to 1863 to ask Abner Doubleday whether he invented baseball, but instead find themselves in the middle of the Battle of Gettysburg.
FICTION HART, A.	*Gabriel’s Horses* by Alison Hart. In Kentucky, during the Civil War, the twelve-year-old slave Gabriel, contends with a cruel new horse trainer and skirmishes with Confederate soldiers as he pursues his dream of becoming a jockey.
FICTION HASELEY, D.	*The Amazing Thinking Machine* by Dennis Haseley. During the Great Depression, while their father is away looking for work, eight-year-old Patrick and thirteen-year-old Roy create a machine to help their mother make ends meet, even as she is helping tramps.
FICTION HOPKINSON, D.	*From Slave to Soldier: Based on a True Civil War Story* by Deborah Hopkinson. A boy who hates being a slave joins the Union Army to fight for freedom, and proves himself brave and capable of handling a mule team when the need arises.
FICTION HUGO, V.	*Les Miserables* by Victor Hugo. Trying to forget his past and live an honest life, escaped convict Jean Valjean risks his freedom to take care of a motherless young girl during a period of political unrest in Paris.
FICTION HULME, J.	*Climbing the Rainbow* by Joy N. Hulme. In this sequel to The Other Side of the Door, ten-year-old Dora makes a quilt to record her experiences as she finally starts school and her Mormon family’s efforts to secure homestead rights for their farm in New Mexico.
FICTION KETCHUM, L.	*Orphan Journey Home* by Liza Ketchum. In 1828, while traveling from Illinois to Kentucky, twelve-year-old Jesse and her two brothers and sister lose their parents to the milk sickness and must try to finish the dangerous journey alone.
FICTION KINSEY-WARNOCK, N.	*Lumber Camp Library* by Natalie Kinsey-Warnock. Ruby wants to be a teacher, but after her father's death in a logging accident, she must quit school to care for her ten brothers and sisters, until a chance meeting with a lonely old blind woman transforms her life.
FICTION LAFAYE, A.	*Worth* by A. LaFaye. After breaking his leg, eleven-year-old Nate feels useless because he cannot work on the family farm in nineteenth-century Nebraska, so when his father brings home an orphan boy to help with the chores, Nate feels even worse.
FICTION LAWLOR, L.	*The School at Crooked Creek* by Laurie Lawlor. Living on the 19th-century Indiana frontier with his parents and irritable older sister Louise, six-year-old Beansie dreads his first day of school, but his resilience surprises even his sister.
FICTION LYONS, M.	*Letters from a Slave Boy: the Story of Joseph Jacobs* by Mary Lyons. A fictionalized look at the life of Joseph Jacobs, son of a slave, told in the form of letters that he might have written during his life in pre-Civil War North Carolina, on a whaling expedition, in New York, New England, and finally in California during the Gold Rush.
FICTION MACLACHLAN, P.	*More Perfect than the Moon* by Patricia MacLachlan. Eight-year-old Cassie Witting is upset when she finds out that her mother, Sarah, is expecting a baby, but writing in the journal that belonged to her brother Caleb helps her sort out her feelings and understand that Sarah will always love her.
FICTION MCKISSACK, P.	*A Friendship for Today* by Patricia C. McKissack. In 1954, when desegregation comes to Kirkland, Missouri, ten-year-old Rosemary faces many changes and challenges at school and at home as her parents separate.
FICTION MORROW, B.	*A Good Night for Freedom* by Barbara Olenyik Morrow. Hallie discovers two runaway slaves hiding in Levi Coffin’s Home and must decide whether to turn them in or help them escape to freedom.
FICTION NELSON, V.	*Almost to Freedom* by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson. Tells the story of a young girl’s dramatic escape from slavery via the Underground Railroad, from the perspective of her beloved rag doll.
FICTION NOBLE, T.	*The Scarlet Stockings Spy* by Trinka Hakes Noble. In 1777 Philadelphia, young Maddy Rose spies for General Washington’s army by using an unusual code to communicate with her soldier brother.
FICTION PARKINSON, S.	*Kathleen: the Celtic Knot* by Siobhan Parkinson. Twelve-year-old Dubliner Kathleen Delaney is given the chance to take Irish dancing lessons in 1937 and discovers she has a talent for it.
FICTION PECK, R.	*On the Wings of Heroes* by Richard Peck. A boy in Illinois remembers the homefront years of World War II, especially his two heroes—his brother in the air Force and his father, who fought in the previous war.
FICTION PRYOR, B.	*Joseph's Choice, 1861* by Bonnie Pryor. In the early days of the Civil War, Joseph must decide whether to defend his stepfather's abolitionist and pro-Union beliefs or side with the slave owners and Southern rights supporters in his home town of Branson Mills, Kentucky.
FICTION RANSOM, C.	*Finding Day’s Bottom* by Candice Ransom. After her father dies, eleven-year-old Jane-Ery slowly finds healing through her relationship with her grandfather and their rural Virginia home.
FICTION RINALDI, A.	*An Unlikely Friendship: a Novel of Mary Todd Lincoln and Elizabeth Keckley* by Ann Rinaldi. Relates the lives of Mary Todd Lincoln, raised in a wealthy Virginia family, and Lizzy Keckley, a dressmaker born a slave, as they grow up separately then become best friends when Mary’s childhood dream of living in the White House comes true.
FICTION ROBERTSON, B.	*Marguerite Makes a Book* by Bruce Robertson. In medieval Paris, Marguerite helps her nearly blind father finish painting an illuminated manuscript for his patron, Lady Isabelle.
FICTION SOMMERDORF, N.	*Red River Girl* by Norma Sommerdorf. In a diary covering the years 1846 to 1848, a young Metis teenager describes her journey from St. Eustace, Quebec, to St. Paul, Minnesota, where she settles with her family and decides to become a teacher.
FICTION WEATHERFORD, C.	*Dear Mr. Rosenwald* by Carole Boston. Young Ovella rejoices as her community comes together to raise money and build a much-needed school in the 1920s, with matching funds from the president of Sears, Roebuck, and Company and support from Professor James of the Normal School.
FICTION WHELAN, G.	*The Wanigan: a Life on the River* by Gloria Whelan. In 1878, eleven-year-old Annabel and her parents survive a year of adventure which includes floating downriver in two shacks along with a group of Michigan lumbermen moving logs.
FICTION WHITE, R.	*Way Down Deep* by Ruth White. In the West Virginia town of Way Down Deep in the 1950s, a foundling called Ruby June is happily living with Miss Arbutus at the local boarding house when suddenly, after the arrival of a family of outsiders, the mystery of Ruby’s past begins to unravel.
FICTION WINTER, J.	*The 39 Apartments of Ludwig Van Beethoven* by Jonah Winter. Ludwig Van Beethoven and his five legless pianos keep having to move from one apartment to another when his neighbors complain about the noise.