Popular YA Historical Novels

• Time Enough for Drums by Ann Rinaldi
  Sixteen-year-old Jem longs for freedom on every level as she struggles to maintain the status quo at home in Trenton, New Jersey, when the men of the family join the war for independence. The signs of rebellion are flashing all over the country and Jem is caught in a struggle trying to understand how her tutor, John Reid can oppose freedom. When the war of 1776 begins, Jem discovers that John Reid loves freedom as much as she does, and he would risk his life to defend it.
  
  
• Sarah Bishop by Scott O'Dell
  It was unlucky to be a Tory when the War for Independence began. Sarah's father was killed for his loyalties for the King, her patriot brother died on a prison ship, and Sarah was left all alone. When her house is burned down, she is persued by the law and moves to a cave to evade capture. Occasionally she went to town for supplies, but she learned to survive on her own with a little help from some Indians, and a Quaker named Isaak Morton. A boy of her own age with whom she attends a Quaker meeting, and is quickly assumed to be a witch.
  
  
• Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson
  This novel is based on an actual epidemic of yellow fever in Philadelphia that wiped out 5,000 people in three months. At the end of the 18th century, Philadelphia was the bustling capital of the United States but during the hot mosquito-infested summer of 1793, the dreaded yellow fever spread like fire, killing people overnight. Reminiscent of the Middle Ages, gravediggers pulled carts through the streets crying "Bring out your dead!" Many fled the city, leaving it to the dead bodies and looters and the few who stayed. Mattie Cook, whose mother and grandfather own a popular coffee house on High Street is left behind when her mother is killed by the fever, leaving Mattie and her grandfather to flee the city. When the return, they find a shell of a town and their former cook, a freed slave, who joined up with the African Free Society, a group who assisted the sick and saved many lives.
  
  
• The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi
  Charlotte Doyle, a thirteen year old girl of fine upbringing was was given orders by her father to board the brig Seahawk on June 16, 1832. Everyone warned her not to get on that ship, that it would only be trouble, she would not dare disobey her father's orders. Once upon the sea, Charlotte finds herself alone among dozens of hardened sailors and crewmen. She's the only passenger on a voyage from Liverpool, England, to Providence, Rhode Island. The only person who does not seem to resent her presence is the old cook, Zachariah, who gives her a dagger, for her own protection of course. All too soon she learns the need for the dagger, but also learns that it's a weapon to be used against her as she is accused of murder.
  
  
• Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt
  Jethro Creighton is only 9 when the Civil War began. Jethro comes from a poor farm family in southern Illinois--a border state which is divided between the Confederation and the Union, over issues such as Slavery and Secession. When the disatrous events of the war come into the Pro-Union town, Jethro's childhood is rent asunder when the community gets wind that one of his brothers has joined the Rebel Cause.
  
  
• The Last Silk Dress by Ann Rinaldi
  Susan Chilmark a high-spirited girl of fourteen, vows to do something meaningful to support the Confederacy when the Civil War breaks out. Against the wishes of her mother, Susan and her friend Connie help collect silk dresses from the finest ladies in Richmond, in order to make a balloon that will be used to spy on the Union Troops. In her ignorance, Susan believes that the issues behind the war are obvious, it isn't untill she meets her scandalous older brother, who was banished from the family that she begins to rethink the the laws and life she was born into.
  
  
• After the Dancing Days by Margaret Rostkowski
  How can you forget about a war? Annie doesn't know, but her mother is trying, trying to forget about the war and all the pain it caused. She wants Annie to forget as well, but is war something you can forget about? Annie cannot forget the death of her favorite uncle, who was killed in France, or Andrew, the angry young veteran she meets at the hospital where her father works. Can Annie find it in herself to help Andrew? And will she ever be able to make sense of a war that took so much from so many?
  
  
• The Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
  When her small hometown in Arkansas becomes the site of a camp housing German prisoners during World War II, 12-year-old Patty Bergen learns what it means to open her heart. although she's Jewish, she begins to see a prison escapee, Anton, not as a Nazi--but as a lonely, frightened young man with feelings not unlike her own, who understands and appreciates her in a way her parents never will. And Patty is willing to risk losing family, friends--even her freedom--for what has quickly become the most important part of her life.