Children's Book List: Historical Fiction

During these Interesting Times, the Children's Department has been hard at work updating our book lists. Whether you're looking for a book on a particular topic (like feeling different) or want to read something similar to that series that you just finished up (and now have that empty, lost feeling), we've probably got a book list for that. You can find the full list of our children's book lists on our website. We've also put all of these awesome lists on Beanstack. If you haven't had a chance to check out Beanstack, you really should. It makes signing up for and monitoring summer reading a breeze! We'll be highlighting some of our book lists in these blog posts throughout the summer. Happy reading!


We've got almost a thousand years of historical fiction on our book list. Organized by year, it's got books from Korea in the 1170s (A Single Shard) to San Francisco in 2001 (Shooting Kabul). Here are a few of our favorites.

The Witch of Blackbird Pond
by Elizabeth Speare

Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1958

In 1987, sixteen year old Katherine 'Kit' Tyler arrives in Connecticut from sunny Barbados. Fleeing a marriage to a much older man after her grandfather dies, she hopes to find refuge with her aunt, uncle, and two cousins, none of whom she's met before. Puritanical New England is in stark contrast to the Caribbean, and Kit swiftly finds herself the subject of gossip and scorn. After she befriends Hannah, an elderly Quaker who lives on the outskirts of town, gossip swiftly turns to suspicion of witchcraft. 

I Survived the Great Molasses Flood

by Lauren Tarshis
New York: Scholastic Paperbacks, 2019

Carmen and her father moved from Italy to Boston four years ago. She's doing well in school, her neighbor Tony is her best friend, and she rides a horse named Rosie around the neighborhood. A popular spot with the local kids is a huge metal tank that hold millions of gallons of molasses. It's always leaking, and the kids are able to take samples of the tasty syrup. But the leaking seems to be getting worse. On the afternoon of January 15, 1919, a horrible noise shakes the city. The tank has burst! A wave of molasses 20 feet high is sweeping through the city! Will Carmen and Tony be able to make it to safety?

Number the Stars
by Lois Lowry
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcout, 1989

It is 1943 and Annemarie Johansen is ten years old and lives in Copenhagen, Denmark. Nazi soldiers have occupied her city and country for several years now, but have rarely bothered her or her best friend Ellen Rosen. But now there is talk of 'relocation' and Annemarie must be very brave to help Ellen and her family escape to safety.