 | Title: Stepping on the Cracks Author: Hahn, Mary Downing Summary: 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, and decides to help him. |
 | Title: The art of keeping cool Author: Lisle, Janet Taylor Summary: In 1942, Robert uncovers long hidden family secrets while staying in his grandparents' Rhode Island town. He and his cousin become involved with a German artist who is suspected of being a spy |
 | Title: Number the Stars Author: Lowry, Lois Summary: 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. |
 | Title: Run, boy, run Author: Orlev, Uri Summary: Based on the true story of a nine-year-old boy who escapes the Warsaw Ghetto and must survive throughout the war in the Nazi-occupied Polish countryside. |
 | Title: When my name was Keoko Author: Park, Linda Sue Summary: With national pride and occasional fear, a brother and sister face the increasingly oppressive occupation of Korea by Japan during World War II, which threatens to suppress Korean culture entirely. |
 | Title: Thin wood walls Author: Patneaude, David Summary: When the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, Joe Hamada and his family face growing prejudice, eventually being torn away from their home and sent to a relocation camp in California, even as his older brother joins the United States Army to fight in the war. |
 | Title: Lost in the war Author: Antle, Nancy Summary: 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. |
 | Title: Park's Quest Author: Paterson, Katherine Summary: Eleven-year-old Park makes some startling discoveries when he travels to his grandfather's farm in Virginia to learn about his father who died in the Vietnam War. |
 | Title: Dar and the spear thrower Author: Cowley, Marjorie Summary: A young Cro-Magnon boy living 15,000 years ago in southeastern France is initiated into manhood by his clan and sets off on a journey to trade his valuable fire rocks for an ivory spear thrower. |
 | Title: Pankration: The ultimate game Author: Blacklock, Dyan Summary: Having been kidnapped from a ship leaving plague-ridden Athens in 430 B.C., twelve-year-old Nic attempts to escape his captors and keep his promise to meet his friend at the Olympic games. |
 | Title: Crispin: The cross of lead Author: Avi, Summary: Falsely accused of theft and murder, an orphaned peasant boy in fourteenth-century England flees his village and meets a larger-than-life juggler who holds a dangerous secret. |
 | Title: Matilda Bone Author: Cushman, Karen Summary: Fourteen-year-old Matilda, an apprentice bonesetter and practitioner of medicine in a village in medieval England, tries to reconcile the various aspects of her life, both spiritual and practical. |
 | Title: The door in the wall Author: De Angeli, Marguerite Summary: A crippled boy in fourteenth-century England proves his courage and earns recognition from the King. |
 | Title: A single shard Author: Park, Linda Sue Summary: Tree-ear, a thirteen-year-old orphan in medieval Korea, lives under a bridge in a potters' village, and longs to learn how to throw the delicate celadon ceramics himself. |
 | Title: The Shakespear Stealer Author: Blackwood, Gary L Summary: A young orphan boy is ordered by his master to infiltrate Shakespeare's acting troupe in order to steal the script of Hamlet, but he discovers instead the meaning of friendship and loyalty. |
 | Title: Blue Fingers: A ninja's tale Author: Whitesel, Cheryl Aylward Summary: Having failed apprenticeship as a dye maker, Koji is captured and forced to train as a ninja, where he remains disloyal until he discovers samurai have burned his former village. |
 | Title: Virginia Bound Author: Butler, Amy Summary: Thirteen-year-old orphaned beggar Rob Brackett is kidnapped from the streets of London and taken to the New World for a cruel tobacco farmer master, who also owns a Pamunkey Indian girl named Mattoume. |
 | Title: Red Cap Author: Wisler, G. Clifton Summary: A young Yankee drummer boy displays great courage when he's captured and sent to Andersonville Prison. |
 | Title: January 1, 1905 Author: Boling, Katherine Summary: In a 1905 mill town, eleven-year-old twin sisters, Pauline, who goes to work with the rest of the family, and Arlene, whose crippled foot keeps her home doing the cooking, cleaning, and washing, are convinced that the other sister has an easier life until a series of incidents helps them see each other in a new light. |
 | Title: The Watsons go to Birmingham 1963 Author: Curtis, Christopher Paul Summary: The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watsons, an African American family living in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963. |
 | Title: Escape to West Berlin Author: Dahlberg, Maurine Summary: In 1961 East Berlin, thirteen-year-old Heidi copes with the stress of a crisis with her best friend, government pressure on her father to leave his West Berlin job, her mother's pregnancy, and the ever-present threat of the closing of the border with West Berlin. |
 | Title: Grape Thief Author: Franklin, Kristine L. Summary: In 1925, in a small Washington State community made up of families from different ethnic backgrounds, twelve-year-old Cuss tries to stay in school as he watches those around him struggle with various financial difficulties. |
 | Title: Walking to the Bus Rider Blues Author: Robinet, Harriette Summary: Twelve-year-old Alfa Merryfield, his older sister, and their grandmother struggle for rent money, food, and their dignity as they participate in the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott in the summer of 1956. |
 | Title: Lord of the Nutcracker Men Author: Lawrence, Iain Summary: An English boy during World War I comes to believe that the battles he enacts with his toy soldiers control the war his father is fighting on the front. |
 | Title: After the dancing days Author: Rostkowski, Margaret Summary: 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. |
 | Title: Nory Ryan's song Author: Giff, Patricia Reilly Summary: When a terrible blight attacks Ireland's potato crop in 1845, twelve-year-old Nory Ryan's courage and ingenuity help her family and neighbors survive. |
 | Title: Trouble don't last Author: Pearsall, Shelley Summary: Samuel, an eleven-year-old Kentucky slave, and Harrison, the elderly slave who helped raise him, attempt to escape to Canada via the Underground Railroad. |
| Title: Fair Weather Author: Peck, Richard Summary: 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. |
 | Title: Wintering Well Author: Wait, Lea Summary: Fifteen-year-old Will Ames and his sister Cassie go to stay with their sister in nearby Wiscasset, Maine, after a disabling accident ruins Will's plans for a career in farming. |
 | Title: When the circus came to town Author: Yep, Laurence Summary: An Asian cook and a Chinese New Year celebration help a ten-year-old girl at a Montana stage coach station to regain her confidence after smallpox scars her face. |
 | Title: Charlotte's Rose Author: Cannon, A.E. Summary: As a twelve-year-old Welsh immigrant carries a motherless baby along the Mormon Trail in 1856, she comes to love the baby as her own and fear the day the baby's father will reclaim her. |
 | Title: Worth Author: LaFaye, A. Summary: 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. |
 | Title: Sarah, Plain and Tall Author: MacLachlan, Patricia Summary: When their father invites a mail-order bride to come live with them in their prairie home, Caleb and Anna are captivated by their new mother and hope that she will stay. |
 | Title: Sing down the moon Author: O'Dell, Scott Summary: A young Navajo girl recounts the events of 1864 when her tribe was forced to march to Fort Sumner as prisoners of the white soldiers. |
 | Title: The Singing Tree Author: Seredy, Kate Summary: Life changes drastically for a Hungarian family when World War I upsets their peaceful, contented existence and the children are left in charge of the farm. |
 | Title: Macaroni Boy Author: Ayres, Katharine Summary: 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. |
| Title: Al Capone does my shirts Author: Choldenko, Gennifer Summary: A twelve-year-old boy named Moose moves to Alcatraz Island in 1935 when guards' families were housed there, and has to contend with his extraordinary new environment in addition to life with his autistic sister. |
 | Title: Saving Grace Author: Cummings, Priscilla Summary: When Grace's family is evicted from their Washington, D.C., apartment just before Christmas 1932, and she and her younger brothers are sent to the Mission, Grace wonders what will become of her sick older brother, her pregnant mother, and her out-of-work father. |
 | Title: Bud, not Buddy Author: Curtis, Christopher Paul Summary: Ten-year-old Bud, a motherless boy living in Flint, Michigan, during the Great Depression, escapes a bad foster home and sets out in search of the man he believes to be his father--the renowned bandleader, H.E. Calloway of Grand Rapids. |
 | Title: Nowhere to call home Author: DeFelice, Cynthia C. Summary: 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. |
 | Title: A long way from Chicago: A novel in stories Author: Peck, Richard Summary: A boy recounts his annual summer trips to rural Illinois with his sister during the Great Depression to visit their larger-than-life grandmother. |
 | Title: Don't you know there's a war on Author: Avi, Summary: In wartime Brooklyn in 1943, eleven-year-old Howie Crispers mounts a campaign to save his favorite teacher from being fired. |
 | Title: A killing in Plymouth Colony Author: Hurst, Carol Otis Summary: In Plymouth Colony in the 1630s, John continually disappoints his father, Governor William Bradford, during a difficult time as the colony faces its first murder and subsequent trial. |
 | Title: Escape across the wide sea Author: Kirkpatrick, Katherine Summary: After escaping religious persecution in France in 1686, a young Huguenot boy and his parents travel on a slave ship to West Africa, then to the Caribbean, and finally to New York, where they help found the town of New Rochelle. |
 | Title: Fever, 1793 Author: Anderson, Laurie Halse Summary: In 1793 Philadelphia, sixteen year old Matilda Cook copes with the horrors of the yellow fever epidemic. |
 | Title: The Winter People Author: Bruchac, Joseph Summary: As the French and Indian War rages in October of 1759, Saxso, a fourteen-year-old Abenaki boy, pursues the English rangers who have attacked his village and taken his mother and sisters hostage. |
 | Title: The Ravenmaster's secret: Escape from the Tower of London Author: Woodruff, Elvira Summary: The eleven year old son of the Ravenmaster at the Tower of London befriends a Jacobite rebel being held prisoner there. |
| Title: The fighting ground Author: Avi, Summary: Thirteen-year-old Jonathan goes off to fight in the Revolutionary War and discovers the real war is being fought within himself. |
 | Title: My brother Sam is dead Author: Collier, James Lincoln Summary: The story of a Connecticut family divided in loyalty between the Whigs and the Tories during the Revolutionary war. |
 | Title: Johnny Tremain Author: Forbes, Esther Summary: After his plans to become a silversmith are ruined, Johnny joins the American Revolution as a messenger for the Sons of Liberty. |
 | Title: The Keeping room Author: Myers, Anna Summary: Left in charge of the family when his father leaves their South Carolina home to fight in the Revolutionary War, thirteen-year-old Joey Kershaw finds all his resources tested when General Cornwallis comes to town and chooses the Kershaw house as his headquarters. |
 | Title: The Broken Blade Author: Durbin, William Summary: When Pierre LaPage's father has an accident, thirteen-year-old Pierre must quit school and paddle a canoe 2400 miles as a voyageur for the North West Company in order to earn money for his family. |
 | Title: The sign of the Beaver Author: Spear, Elizabeth George Summary: Twelve year old Matt, left behind to tend his family's land in the Maine wilderness, learns skills from a boy of the Beaver tribe. |
| Title: Grasshopper summer Author: Turner, Ann Warren Summary: In 1874 eleven-year-old Sam and his family move from Kentucky to the southern Dakota Territory, where harsh conditions and a plague of hungry grasshoppers threaten their chances for survival. |
 | Title: Wilder, Laura Ingalls Author: Little house in the big woods Summary: A year in the life of two young girls growing up on the Wisconsin frontier, as they help their mother with the daily chores, enjoy their father's stories and singing, and share special occasions with relatives and neighbors. |
 | Title: Retreat from Gettysburg Author: Ernst, Kathleen Summary: 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. |
 | Title: Bull Run Author: Fleischman, Paul Summary: 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. |
| Title: Which way Freedom? Author: Hansen, Joyce Summary: 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. |
 | Title: Anna Sunday Author: Keehn, Sally M. Summary: In 1863 twelve-year-old Anna, disguised as a boy and accompanied by her younger brother Jed, leaves their Pennsylvania home and makes the difficult journey to join their wounded father in Winchester, Virginia, where they find themselves in danger from Confederate troops. |
 | Title: How I found the strong: A civil war story Author: McMullan, Margaret Summary: Frank Russell wishes he could have gone with his father and brother to fight for the Confederacy, but his thinking gradually changes |
 | Title: Shades of Gray Author: Reeder, Carolyn Summary: At the end of the Civil War, twelve-year-old Will, having lost all his immediate family, reluctantly leaves his city home to live in the Virginia countryside with his aunt and the uncle he considers a traitor because he refused to take part in the war. |