Resource for your new school year — list of historical fiction by time period

by | Children's Books, History, Reading Aloud | 3 comments

Ancient History (4000 B.C. – 400 A.D.)

Luke’s Quest by Caroline Dale Snedeker

The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare

The Golden Goblet by Eloise Jarvis McGraw

God King: A Story in the Days of King Hezekiah by Joanne Williamson and Daria M. Sockey

The Cat of Bubastes: A Tale of Ancient Egypt by G.A. Henty

Adam and His Kin: The Lost History of Their Lives and Times by Ruth Beechick

Twice Freed by Patricia St. John

The True Story of Noah’s Ark by Tom Dooley

Pharaoh’s Boat by David L. Weitzman

The Trojan Horse by Emily Little

Aesop’s Fables

Martyr of the Catacombs: A Tale of Ancient Rome by James De Mille

The Last Days of Pompeii by Sir Edward G. Buller-Lytton

The Lost Queen of Egypt by Lucile Morrison

Theras and His Town by Caroline Dale Sneaker

Ben-Hur by Lew Wallace

Medieval/Early Renaissance (400 – 1600)

The Black Arrow by Robert Lewis Stevenson

The White Stage by Kate Seredy

Kenilworth by Sir Walter Scott

Quentin Durward by Sir Walter Scott

The Talisman by Sir Walter Scott

The King’s Fifth by Scott O’Dell

By Pike and Dyke by G.A. Henry

By Right of Conquest by G.A. Henty

The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli

The Apple and the Arrow by Conrad Buff

Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray

The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly

Hawk That Dare Not Hunt by Day by Scott O’Dell

Ink on His Fingers by Louise A. Vernon

The Minstrel in the Tower by Gloria Skurzynski

A Medieval Feast by Aliki

A Year in a Castle by Rachel Coombs

The Story of Rolf and the Viking Bow by Allen French

Son of Charlemagne by Barbara Willard

The King’s Shadow by Elizabeth Alder

Master Skylark by John Bennett

Twice Queen of France: Anne of Brittany by Mildred Allen Butler

Black Fox of Lorne by Marguerite de Angeli

Lost Baron: A Story of England in the Year 1200 by Allen French

The Red Keep: A Story of Burgundy in 1165 by Allen French

St. George for England by G.A. Henry

Judith of France by Margaret Leighton

Journey for a Princess by Margaret Leighton

The Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter

Otto of the Silver Hand by Howard Pyle

Men of Iron by Howard Pyle

Later Renaissance/Early Modern (1600-1850)

The Little Marquise: Madame Lafayette by Hazel Hutchins Wilson

Waverly by Sir Walter Scott

Rob Roy by Sir Walter Scott

Peveril of the Peak by Sir Walter Scott

The Wreck of the Grosvenor by W. Clark Russell

John Holdsworth, Chief Mate by W. Clark Russell

Daughter of the Mountains by Louise Rankin

Within the Capes by Howard Pyle

The Rose of Paradise by Howard Pyle

Tom Brown’s School Days by Thomas Hughes

Calico Bush by Rachel Field

Soft Rain by Cornelia Cornelissen

The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper

The Deerslayer by James Fenimore Cooper

Five Bushel Farm by Elizabeth Coatsworth

The Far-Off Land by Rebecca Caudill

Drums by James Boyd

Toliver’s Secret by Esther Wood Brady

Madeleine Takes Command by Ethel C. Brill

The Courage of Sarah Noble by Alice Dalgliesh

Benjamin Franklin by Ingri and Edgar Parin d’Aulaires

The Fourth of July Story by Alice Dalgliesh

Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims by Clyde Robert Bulla

The Pilgrims of Plymouth by Marcia Sewall

The Matchlock Gun by Walter D. Edmonds

A Lion to Guard Us by Clyde Robert Bulla

The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare

Johnny Tremain by Esther Hoskins

Amos Fortune, Free Man by Elizabeth Yates

Peter the Great by Diane Stanley

Mr. Revere and I: Being an Account of certain Episodes in the Career of Paul Revere,Esq. as Revealed by his Horse by Robert Lawson

Brady by Jean Fritz

If You Lived With the Iroquois by Ellen Levine

If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620 by Ann McGovern and Anna DiVito

The Story of the Pilgrims by Katharine Ross and Carolyn Croll

The Lewis and Clark Expedition by Richard L. Neuberger

Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham

Ben and Me: An Astonishing Life of Benjamin Franklin by His Good Mouse Amos by Robert Lawson

The Cabin Faced West by Jean Fritz

George Washington’d World by Joanna and Genevieve Foster

The Landing of the Pilgrims by James Daugherty

The Great Little Madison by Jean Fritz

Tree of Freedom by Rebecca Caudill

A Dog of Flanders by Louise de la Ramee

I, Juan De Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino

The Hoosier Schoolmaster by Edward Eggleston

Treasure of the Revolution by Mary Virginia Fox

The Colonials by Allen French

The Mutineers by Charles Hawes

The Dark Frigate by Charles Hawes

Wreck Ashore by Basil Heatter

Justin Morgan Had a Horse by Marguerite Henry

Head to the West by Carol Hoff

The Story of Grizel by Elizabeth Kyle

This Dear-Bought Land by Jean Lee Latham

The Wreckers by Iain Lawrence

The Smugglers by Iain Lawrence

The Buccaneers by Iain Lawrence

Martin Hyde by John Masefield

The Two Arrows by Cornelia Meigs

Wind in the Chimney by Cornelia Meigs

Captured by the Mohawks by Sterling North

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy

The Elusive Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy

Eldorado by Baroness Orczy

The Oregon Trail by Francis Parkman

Thaddeus of Warsaw by Jane Porter

Calico Captive by Elizabeth George Speare

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

Modern (1850-present)

Laddie: A True Blue Story by Gene Stratton-Porter

Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz

Long Wharf by Howard Pease

Shipwreck by Howard Pease

In Ole Virginia by Thomas Nelson Page

Two Little Confederates by Thomas Nelson Page

Red Rock: A Chronicle of Reconstruction by Thomas Nelson Page

Gay-Neck by Dhan Gopal Mukerji

The Golden Name Day by Jennie Lindquist

The Little Silver House by Jennie Lindquist

The Crystal Tree by Jennie Lindquist

The Victory Garden by Lee Kochenderfer

Big Red by Jim Kjelgaard

Mary Ellen by May Justus

The Other Side of the Mountain by May Justus

Hitty: Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field

Winter Journey by Elsa Falk

The Terrible Wave by Marden Dahlstedt

Twenty and Ten by Clare Huchet Bishop

The Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan

Wagon Wheels by Barbara Brenner

By the Great Horn Spoon! by Sid Fleischman

Rifles for Watie by Harold Keith

Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson

Bound for Oregon by Jean Van Leeuwen

Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two by Joseph Bruchac

Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor

The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze by Elizabeth Foreman Lewis

The Little Riders by Margaretha Shemin

A Long Walk to Water: Based on a True Story by Linda Sue Park

I Want My Sunday, Stranger by Patricia Beatty

Wait for Me, Watch for Me, Eula Bee by Patricia Beatty

The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan

Schoolroom in the Parlor by Rebecca Caudill

Thee, Hannah! by Marguerite de Angelo

The House of 60 Fathers by Meindert De Jong

Ironhead by Mel Ellis

Prairie Winter by Elsie Kimmell Field

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell

The Man Without a Country by Edward Everett Hale

Katrina: The Story of a Russian Child by Helen Eggleston Haskell

Song of the Pines: A Story of Norwegian Lumbering in Wisconsin by Walter Havighurst

Kon-Tiki:Across the Pacific by Raft by Thor Heyerdahl

North to Freedom by Anne Holm

Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt

Lucinda, a Little Girl of 1860 by Mabel Leigh Hunt

Smoky the Cowhorse by Will James

Trapped by Roderick Jeffries

Komantcia by Harold Keith

Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon

Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski

Shoo-Fly Girl by Lois Lenski

When the Typhoon Blows by Elizabeth Foreman Lewis

The Open Range Men by Lauran Paine

Elli of the Northland by Margaret Ruthin

The Good Master by Kate Seedy

The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier

The Little Riders by Margaretha Shemin

All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor

3 Comments

  1. Hélène

    Laddie is an absolute treasure! Would that we could live so again!! I want to revise it. I have an old copy and the chapter breaks make no sense. For one thing, most are way too long lol Reading this outloud leads to SO MANY conversations.
    The Pearl Maiden is a good book too; it opens w/Agrippa dying suddenly. The author wrote King Solomon’s Mines.

    Reply
  2. Pamela

    The Cat of Bubastes by G.A. Henty is fun historical fiction, but Henty makes a grave, if understandable, error in his historical framework. Moses and the Exodus belong to the 18th Dynasty of Egypt, not the 19th, and those who want to avoid confusion about Biblical chronology and ancient world history should be aware of this before using The Cat as a supplement to their history lessons.

    Reply
  3. Megan Volmer

    Thank you for posting this. I have The Hand that rocks the cradle floating around on a bookshelf somewhere (or perhaps loaned to a friend, but I can’t find it and was wanting to get the info from it.

    Reply

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