Call Number

Title

Author

Summary

398.2 GAW

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Hastings, Selina

Sir Gawain is one of the legendary knights of King Arthur’s Round Table. In this story his courage and chivalry is challenged by the Green Knight, a giant adversary with superhuman powers.

EB

Wagon Wheels

Brenner, Barbara

Shortly after the Civil War a black family travels to Kansas to take advantage of the free land offered through the Homestead Act.

EB

The Little Ships: the heroic rescue at Dunkirk in World War II

Borden, Louise

A young English girl and her father take their sturdy fishing boat and join the scores of other civilian vessels crossing the English Channel in a daring attempt to rescue Allied and British troops trapped by Nazi soldiers at Dunkirk.

EB

Sleds on Boston Common: a story from 1774

Borden, Louise

Henry complains to the royal governor, General Gage, after his plan to sled down the steep hill at Boston Common is thwarted by the masses of British troops camped there.

EF

Boxes for Katje

Fleming, Candace

After a young Dutch girl writes to her new American friend in thanks for the care package sent after World War II, she begins to receive increasingly larger boxes.

EH

William’s House

Howard, Ginger

Arriving in New England in 1637, William is determined to recreate his home in England but realizes that the climate requires modifications to it.

EM

Good Children Get Rewards

Moore, Eva

As a brother and sister follow the directions in a rebus letter they discover in their father's shop, they are led to help people in various places throughout eighteenth-century Williamsburg.

EP

My Rotten Redhead Older Brother

Patricia, Polacco

After losing running, climbing, throwing, and burping competitions to her obnoxious older brother, a young girl makes a wish on a falling star.

ESOL

Wagon Wheels

Brenner, Barbara

Shortly after the Civil War a black family travels to Kansas to take advantage of the free land offered through the Homestead Act.

EU

The Bracelet

Uchida, Yoshiko

Emi, a Japanese American in the second grade, is sent with her family to an internment camp during World War II, but the loss of the bracelet her best friend has given her proves that she does not need a physical reminder of that friendship.

EV

Up in the Learning Tree

Vaughan, Marcia

A young slave boy risks his life to learn how to read, and with the unsuspecting help of a teacher from the North, begins to realize his dream.

F

AND

A Williamsburg Household

Anderson, Joan

Focuses on event in the household of a white family and its black salves in Colonial Williamsburg in the eighteenth century.

F

AND

Handel: Who Knew What He Liked

Anderson, M.T.

A man who would later compose some of the world’s most beautiful music is shown as a stubborn little boy with a mind of his own.

F

AVI

The Secret School

Avi

(No summary available.)

F

AVI

Who Was that Masked Man Anyway?

Avi

In the mid-forties when nearly everyone else is thinking about World Wart II, sixth-grader Franke Wattleson gets in trouble at home and at school because of his preoccupation with his favorite radio programs.

F

BAW

Carrie’s War

Bawden, Nina

Carrie and her younger brother spend World War II as evacuees in a small Welsh village where Carrie, upset by a family feud, commits an act that haunts her for thirty years.

F

BEA

Jayhawker

Beatty, Patricia

In the early years of the Civil War, teenage Kansas farm boy Lije Tulley becomes a Jayhawker, an abolitionist raider freeing slaves form the neighboring state of Missouri, and then goes undercover there as a spy.

F

BEA

Who Comes with Cannons?

Beatty, Patricia

In 1861 twelve-year-old Truth, a Quaker girl from Indiana, is staying with relatives who run a North Carolina station of the Underground Railroad, when her world is changed by the beginning of the Civil War.

F

BUL

Charlie’s House

Bulla, Clyde Robers

A poor, friendless English boy, shipped to America as an indentured servant in the early eighteenth century, runs away from a cruel master and dreams of building a house of his own.

F

BUN

SOS Titanic

Bunting, Eve

Fifteen-year-old Barry O'Neill, traveling from Ireland to America on the maiden voyage of the "Titanic", finds his life endangered when the ship hits an iceberg and begins to sink.

F

CRI

White Star: a dog on the Titanic

Crisp, Marty

Twelve-year-old Sam, a passenger on the Titanic's maiden sea voyage, volunteers to help care for the dogs in the ocean liner's kennel and becomes fast friends with the Irish setter of J. Bruce Ismay, the ship's owner.

F

COR

Players in Pigtails

Shana, Corey

Katie Casey, a fictional character helps start the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which gave women the opportunity to play professional baseball while World War 2.

F

DEJ

The House of Sixty Fathers

DeJong, Meindert

Young Tien Pao is alone on his family’s sampan when the boat breaks loose from its moorings and is caught by the rushing waters of the river. When the sampan finally lands, Tien Pao is in Japanese territory.

F

CUL

The Backyard Ghost

Cullen, Lynn

Elanor is beginning Seventh grade and is unhappy because no one will even speak to her. What’s worse, Charlie Ormsby starts hanging around because he says he’s found a Civil War ghost in her backyard. How will she get into the popular crowd now?

F

DEN

When Will This Cruel War Be Over? Diary of Emma Sim

Denenberg, Barry

The diary of a fictional fourteen-year-old girl living in Virginia, in which she describes the hardships endured by her family and friends during one year of the Civil War.

F

DEN

Early Sunday Morning: the Pearl Harbor Diary of Amber Billows

Denenberg, Barry

In her diary, twelve-year-old Amber describes moving to Hawaii in 1941 and experiencing the horror of the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

F

ELM

Far From the Storm

Elmer, Robert

After World War II, Peter and Elise seek to discover who is trying to destroy Uncle Morten for his work with the Danish Underground.

F

ELM

Into the Flames

Elmer, Robert

Their work delivering newspapers for the Danish underground lands twins Peter and Elise in a Nazi prison where they experience firsthand the importance of faith.

F

FIF

Destination Unknown

Fife, Dale

A twelve-year-old boy stows away on a Norwegian fishing smack during World War II and shares the harrowing experiences of its occupants as they cross the Atlantic to North America.

F

FIF

North of Danger

Fife, Dale

Twelve-year-old Arne undertakes a two-hundred-mile trip on skis to warn his father of a German invasion of their town on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard.

F

FLE

Bull Run

Fleischman, Paul

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.

F

GAR

The Lotus Seed

Garland, Sherry

A young Vietnamese girl saves a lotus seed and carriers it with her everywhere to remember a brave emperor and the homeland that she has to flee.

F

GIF

Lily’s Crossing

Giff, Patricia Reilly

During a summer spent at Rockaway Beach in 1944,  Lily's friendship with a young Hungarian refugee causes her to see the war and her own world differently.

F

HAH

Stepping on the Cracks

Hahn, Mary Downing

In 1944, while her brother is overseas fighting in World War II, eleven-year-old Margaret gets a new view of the school bully Gordy when she finds him hiding his own brother, an army deserter.

F

HAH

Time for Andrew: A Ghost Story

Hahn, Mary Downing

When he goes to spend the summer with his great-aunt in the family's old house, eleven-year-old Drew is drawn eighty years into the past to trade places with his great-great-uncle who is dying of diphtheria.

F

HAN

Out From this Place

Hansen, Joyce

A fourteen-year-old black girl tries to find a fellow ex-slave, who had joined the Union army during the Civil War.

F

HAN

I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly: the Diary of Patsy, a Free Girl

Hansen, Joyce

Twelve-year-old Patsy keeps a diary of the ripe but confusing time following the end of the Civil War and the granting of freedom to former slaves.

F

HER

Our Strange New Land: Elizabeth’s Diary, Jamestown, Virginia, 1609

Hermes, Patricia

Nine-year-old Elizabeth keeps a journal of her experiences in the New World as she encounters Indians, suffers hunger and the death of friends, and helps her father build their first home.

F

HES

A Light in the Storm: the Civil War Diary of Amelia Martin

Hesse, Karen

In 1860 and 1861, while working in her father's lighthouse on an island off the coast of Delaware, fifteen-year-old Amelia records in her diary how the Civil War is beginning to devastate her divided state.

F
HOO

Sally Bradford/Story of a Rebel Girl

Hoobler, Dorothy and Thomas

A young girl experiences the cruelty, danger, and destruction of the Civil War in Virginia.

F

JEN

Survivors: the Night the Tintanic Sank

Jenner, Caryn

Will and Lucy sail on the Titanic and are separated from their father when the ship hits an iceberg and begins to sink.

F

KAR

Spy in the Sky

Karr, Kathleen

When Northerner Thaddeus Lowe lands his huge balloon in South Carolina at the beginning of the Civil War, ten-year-old orphan Ridley Jones joins up with him and the two set out to find a way to use Lowe's balloon to help the North.

F

KAR

Surviving Jamestown, the Adventures of Young Sam Collier

Karwoski, Gail Langer

Sam Collier, a twelve-year-old, serves as page to John Smith during the relentless hardship experienced by the founders at the first permanent English settlement in the New World.

F

KEI

Rifles for Watie

Keith, Harold

A story about the lesser known part of the Civil War, the Western campaign, a part different in its issues and its problems.

F

LEV

Shadow-Catcher

Betty, Levin

Although he often fancied himself a detective, Jonathan must become a real sleuth when he attempts to solve a mystery while accompanying his grandfather.

F

LOV

Three Against the Tide

D. Anne, Love

After her father is called away from their plantation near Charleston, S.C., during the Civil War, twelve-year-old Susanna must lead her brothers on a difficult journey in hopes of being reunited with him.

F

LOW

Autumn Street

Lowry, Lois

When her father goes to fight in World War 2, Elizabeth goes with her mother and sister to her grandfather’s house where she learns to face up to the always puzzling and often cruel realities of the adult world.

F

LOW

Number the Stars

Lowry, Lois

In 1943, during the German occupation of Denmark, ten-year-old Annemarie learns how to be brave and courageous when she helps shelter her Jewish friend from the Nazis.

F

MOS

Emma’s Journal: the Story of a Colonial Girl

Moss, Marissa

From 1774 to 1776, Emma describes in her journal her stay in Boston, where she witnesses the British blockade and spies for the American militia. Features hand-printed text, drawings, and marginal notes.

F

MUR

Journal of James Edmond Pease/Civil War Union

Murphy, Jim

James Edmond Peace, a sixteen-year-old orphan, keeps a journal of his experiences and those of "G" Company, which he joined as a volunteer in the Union Army during the Civil War.

F

MYE

The Journal of Biddy Owens

Myers, Walter Dean

Teenager Biddy Owens’ 1994 journal about working for the Birmingham Black Barons includes the games and the players, racism the team faces from New Orleans to Chicago.

F

MYE

The Journal of Scott Pendleton Collins: a WWII Soldier

Myers, Walter Dean

A seventeen-year-old soldier from central Virginia records his experiences in a journal as his regiment takes part in the D-Day invasion of Normandy and subsequent battles to liberate France.

F

NAP

Stones in Water

Napoli, Donna Jo

After being taken by German soldiers from a local movie theater along with other Italian boys including his Jewish friend, Roberto is forced to work in Germany, escapes into the Ukrainian winter, before desperately trying to make his way back home to Venice.

F

NIX

A Dangerous Promise

Nixon, Joan Lowery

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.

F

NIX

Keeping Secrets

Nixon, Joan Lowery

Part of the Orphan Train Adventures. In 1863 11 year old Peg Kelly is drawn into the dangerous activities of a mysterious young woman who had come to her home in Missouri after fleeing the raid of William Quantrill and his raiders on Lawrence, Kansas.

F

NIX

Nancy’s Story

Nixon, Joan Lowery

In 1765, twelve-year-old Nancy worries about effect of the British Stamp Act on her father's silversmith business in Williamsburg and about how to get along with her new stepmother.

F

NIX

The Orphan Train Quartet: Caught in the Act

Nixon, Joan Lowery

Eleven-year-old Michael Patrick Kelly from New York City is sent to a foster home, a Missouri farm with a sadistic owner, a bullying son, and a number of secrets, one of which may be murder

F

OSB

Adaline Falling Star

Osborne, Mary Pope

Feeling abandoned by her deceased Arapaho mother and her explorer father, Adaline Falling Star runs away from the prejudiced cousins with whom she is staying and comes close to death in the wilderness, with only a mongrel dog for company.

F

OSB

Civil War on Sunday

Osborne, Mary Pope

Jack and Annie are transported by their magic tree house to the time of the Civil War where they meet Clara Barton.

F

OSB

My Brother’s Keeper: Virginia’s Diary

Osborne, Mary Pope

In 1863, as the Civil War approaches her quiet town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, nine-year-old Virginia records in a journal the horrible things she witnesses before, during, and after the Battle of Gettysburg.

F

OSB

My Secret War: the World War II Diary of Madeline Beck

Osborne, Mary Pope

Thirteen-year-old Madeline's diaries for 1941 and 1942 reveal her experiences living on Long Island during World War II while her father is away in the Navy.

F

OSB

Standing in the Light: the Captive Diary of Catherine Carey Logan, Delaware Valley, PA

Osborne, Mary Pope

A Quaker girl's diary reflects her experiences growing up in the Delaware River Valley of Pennsylvania and her capture by Lenape Indians in 1763.

F

OSB

Tonight on the Titanic

Osborne, Mary Pope

The magic tree house transports Jack and Annie to the deck of the Titanic to find a mysterious gift that will free a small dog from a magic spell.

F

OSS

Star without a Sky

Ossowski, Leonie

In the last days of World War II, five young Germans discover a Jewish boy hiding in a cellar and must decide whether or not to turn him over to the Nazi authorities.

F

PAN

Little Ship Under Full Sail

Panagopoulos, Janie Lynn

When her grandchildren arrive at her home, Grandmother Kinzie tells Eleanor and Juliette the story of their great-grandmother’s capture by the Seneca Indians in 1779.

F

PAU

The Cookcamp

Paulsen, Gary

During World War II, a little boy is sent to live with his grandma, a cook in a camp for workers building a road through the wilderness.

F

PEL

The Winter When Time Was Frozen

Pelgrom, Els

In Holland during the last months of World War II a 12-year-old girl and her father find shelter with a farm family who give sanctuary to all in need of it.

F

PIN

Silent Thunder

Pinkney, Andrea Davis

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.

F

POL

The Butterfly

Polacco, Patricia

During the Nazi occupation of France, Monique's mother hides a Jewish family in her basement and tries to help them escape to freedom.

F

POL

A Christmas Tapestry

Polacco, Patricia

A tapestry that is being used to cover a hole in a church wall at Christmas brings together an elderly couple who were separated during World War II.

F

POL

Pink and Say

Polacco, Patricia

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

F

POR

Addy Learns a Lesson, A School Story (American Girl)

Porter, Connie

After escaping from a plantation in North Carolina, Addy and her mother arrive in Philadelphia, where Addy goes to school and learns a lesson in true friendship.

F

POR

Addy’s Wedding Quilt

Porter, Connie Rose

Though her parents "jumped the broom" to get married when they were slaves, now that they are living free in Philadelphia after the Civil War they plan to have a church wedding and Addy works to complete a special quilt to give them as a wedding gift.

F

POR

Changes for Addy: a Winter Story

Porter, Connie Rose

After the Civil War ends, Addy desperately hopes that her family will be reunited in freedom in Philadelphia, but the future may hold both happiness and heartache.

F

REE

Across the Lines

Reeder, Carolyn

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.

F

REE

Captain Kate

Reeder, Carolyn

Determined to take her father's coal-carrying barge on the C & O Canal from Cumberland, Maryland, to Georgetown in D.C., twelve-year-old Kate learns hurtful truths about herself.

F

RIN

Amelia’s War

Rinaldi, Ann

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.

F

RIN

The Fifth of March: a Story of the Boston Massacre

Rinaldi, Ann

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.

F

SAL

Under the Blood-Red Sun

Delacorte, Pr

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.

F

SAY

Home of the Brave

Say, Allen

Following a kayaking accident, a man experiences the feelings of children interned during World War II and children on Indian reservations.

F

SPE

Sign of the Beaver

Speare, Elizabeth George

Left alone to guard the family's wilderness home in eighteenth-century Maine, a boy is hard-pressed to survive until local Indians teach him their skills.

F

TAN

On Board the Titanic

Tanaka, Shelley

Seventeen-year-old Jack Thayer explores the Titanic and forms a frief friendship with another passenger before experiencing the wreck of the giant ocean liner.

F

TAY

The Cay

Taylor, Theordore

When the freighter on which they are traveling is torpedoed by a German submarine during World War II, a white boy who is blinded and a Black man are stranded on an island.

F

TRI

Felicity Saves the Day: a Summer Story

Tripp, Valerie

During a visit to her grandfather's plantation in Virginia during the summer of 1775, Felicity's loyalty is torn between her father and Ben, her father's apprentice.

F

TRI

Happy Birthday Molly!: a Springtime Story

Tripp, Valerie

When an English girl comes to stay at Molly's during World War II, she and Molly learn to bridge their differences and to enjoy a wonderful birthday party.

F

VAN

The Cabin on Trouble Creek

Van Leeuwen, Jean

In 1803 in Ohio, two young brothers are left to finish the log cabin while their father goes back to Pennsylvania to fetch their mother and younger siblings.

F

VAN

The Bombers’ Moon

Vander Els, Betty

Ruth, Simeon, Anne, and Paul are evacuated from India and must make a dangerous journey to cross the Himalayan Mountains.

F

VOS

Hide and Seek

Vos, Ida

A young Jewish girl living in Holland tells of her experiences during the Nazi occupation.