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The Carnival at Bray by Jessie Ann Foley

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The Carnival at Bray by Jessie Ann Foley

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Hist Fic/Real/ 8+
It's 1993, and Generation X pulses to the beat of Kurt Cobain and the grunge movement. Sixteen-year-old Maggie Lynch is uprooted from big-city Chicago to a windswept town on the Irish Sea. Surviving on care packages of Spin magazine and Twizzlers from her rocker uncle Kevin, she wonders if she'll ever find her place in this new world. When first love and sudden death simultaneously strike, a naive but determined Maggie embarks on a forbidden pilgrimage that will take her to a seedy part of Dublin and on to a life- altering night in Rome to fulfill a dying wish. Through it all, Maggie discovers an untapped inner strength to do the most difficult but rewarding thing of all, live.

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Hist Fic/
The beloved American classic about a young girl's coming-of-age at the turn of the century, Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a poignant and moving tale filled with compassion and cruelty, laughter and heartache, crowded with life and people and incident. The story of young, sensitive, and idealistic Francie Nolan and her bittersweet formative years in the slums of Williamsburg has enchanted and inspired millions of readers for more than sixty years. By turns overwhelming, sublime, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the daily experiences of the unforgettable Nolans are raw with honesty and tenderly threaded with family connectedness -- in a work of literary art that brilliantly captures a unique time and place as well as incredibly rich moments of universal experience.

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Div/Hist Fic/7-12
Pretty as a peacock, twelve-year-old Leela has been spoiled all her life. She doesn't care for school and barely marks the growing unrest between the British colonists and her own countrymen. Why should she? Her future has been planned since her engagement at two and marriage at nine.

Leela's whole life changes, though, when her husband dies. She's now expected to behave like a proper widow: shaving her head and trading her jewel-toned saris for rough, earth-colored ones. Leela is considered unlucky now, and will have to stay confined to her house for a year—keep corner—in preparation for a life of mourning a boy she barely knew.

When her schoolteacher hears of her fate, she offers Leela lessons at home. For the first time, despite her confinement, Leela opens her eyes to the changing world around her. India is suffering from a severe drought, and farmers are unable to pay taxes to the British. She learns about a new leader of the people, a man named Gandhi, who starts a political movement and practices satyagraha—non-violent protest against the colonists as well as the caste system. The quiet strength of satyagraha may liberate her country. Could she use the same path to liberate herself?

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Myst/Hist/6+
Two teenaged German refugees in WWII England are recruited for a secret mission: remove nine-year-old Angelika (Hitler's possible daughter) from a convent in Bavaria and bring her to Switzerland. Cinematically crafted scenes provide non-stop action and an explosive ending. Over-the-top characterizations of heroic adolescents flying planes, shooting machine guns, and dodging ammunition result in a historical adventure that is less than realistic.Horn Book Guide (Spring 2014)

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Murder Is Bad Manners (Murder Most Unladylike Mysteries #1,2,3)

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Murder Is Bad Manners (Murder Most Unladylike Mysteries #1,2,3)

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Myst/Hist/5-8.
Here’s a mystery import, set in the 1930s, that does justice to its British roots. Hazel Wong has come from Hong Kong to attend Deepdean boarding school. An outcast until she is accepted by upper-crust Daisy Wells, Hazel is happy to be half of a two-girl detective agency. The crimes they solve are silly—until Hazel discovers the body of their dead science teacher in the gym. By the time she gets Daisy, the body is gone. The situation grows more complicated as the girls dash around Deepdean, learning secrets about teachers (including a hint of a same-sex relationship), picking up clues, and getting in all sorts of mischief (such as drinking ipecac to make themselves ill). Then another murder occurs. This is a delightfully designed book, from the throwback cover to the school map inside. Hazel makes a good narrator, and while the mystery plods a bit and has too many teachers—though a cast list helps—not every reader will guess the ending. Nancy Drew, meet Wells and Wong.Booklist (May 1, 2015 (Vol. 111, No. 17))

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Myst/Hist/ 5-9
Avi returns to the 19th century in this novel of traitors, spies, family, and even love. John Huffam's father works as a clerk in the Naval Ordinance Office in London, and he is suspected of trying to sell a secret about a new weapon to pay his gambling debts. When he is arrested as a debtor, 14-year-old John, the sensible member of his family, must seek financial help from a distant relative, leave school for employment, and unravel the mystery surrounding his father and try to find out why so many people are spying on the Huffams. The novel perfectly captures John's passage from naive boy to disillusioned young man, as his world crumbles when he sees his father more clearly. He develops an unlikely friend, partner, and even romance with the slippery orphan, Sary the Sneak, whose motives sometimes seem as suspect as the many other characters involved. This is a Victorian tale charmingly told in Victorian fashion. Avi's love of the period is evident in how vividly, and without romanticizing, he brings London, teeming with eccentric characters, smells, and sounds, to life. Indeed, the city becomes a central character. School Library Journal (May 1, 2007)

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Hist/Bully/ 5-8-
In 1943 rural Pennsylvania, Annabelle is plagued by intense and violent bullying by new girl Betty-until Betty goes missing. The prime suspect is a local World War I vet and resident oddball, Toby. Annabelle knows Toby is innocent and sets out to prove it. Prejudice is not sugarcoated; Wolk displays deep respect for readers and trusts them to grapple with complex moral themes. A middle grade novel distinguished for its stark honesty and unflinching exploration of injustice. School Library Journal (December 1, 2016)

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The apothecary by Meloy, Maile (Apprentices, After-Room)

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The apothecary by Meloy, Maile (Apprentices, After-Room)

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Myst/Hist/Fant 6-9
Janie, 14, has been living happily with her screenwriter parents in Hollywood. But it’s 1952, and blacklisting makes it imperative that the family moves to London, where a TV job awaits. Janie is not happy about this, but a startling adventure opens to her as she becomes friends with Benjamin Burrows, whose father is an apothecary, and not just any apothecary. Mr. Burrows is part of a small, international group of scientists who are trying to contain the destructive results of the atomic bomb, including a weapon that is being tested off the coast of Russia. Booklist (September 1, 2011 (Vol. 108, No. 1))

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Nightjohn by Paulsen, Gary (Sequel Sarny)

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Nightjohn by Paulsen, Gary (Sequel Sarny)

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Hist Fic/Gr 6-12
He tells the story in the voice of 12-year-old Sarny, born a slave, the property of Clel Waller, whom Sarny and the other slaves are forced to call "master." Sarny's mother had been sold when the child was four "because she was a good breeder, and Waller he needed the money." In quiet, simple words, Sarny tells of daily atrocity: public whippings, unbroken labor, animal-like living conditions, and, for a woman, constant rape. Sarny tries to keep secret the fact that she's started menstruating, because it means she will be sent to the breeding shed. Booklist (Vol. 89, No. 8 (December 15, 1992))

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Hist Fic/Gr 4-7
After their life-changing summer in Oakland with their poet-activist mother, related in One Crazy Summer sisters Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern find it difficult to readjust to life in Brooklyn. In addition to their grandmother's strict expectations, the girls must navigate the return of their uncle from Vietnam, their father's new romantic relationship, and their own uncontrollable love for the Jackson Five. Delphine finds some solace in corresponding with her mother, who reminds her not to take on too much or try to grow up too fast; instead she should remember to be 11. But each adult in Delphine's life has a different idea of what that means. School Library Journal (June 1, 2013)

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River runs deep by Bradbury, Jennifer; illustrated by Britton, R. H

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River runs deep by Bradbury, Jennifer; illustrated by Britton, R. H

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Hist Fic/Gr 4-6
Twelve-year-old Elias is sent from his Virginia home to Dr. Crogan's experimental hospital located within the Mammoth Caves of Kentucky, in the hopes that he can be cured of consumption (tuberculosis). In this pre-Civil War setting, patients are served by slaves, who also lead cave tours. When Elias surreptitiously follows a slave named Stephen into a tunnel, he discovers a network of secret tunnels that house a hidden community of runaway slaves. When a patient and former boat crew member, Pennyrile, gets suspicious and begins investigating, the runaway slaves must quickly hide their existence. Descriptions of Dr. Croghan's primitive medical treatments, such as intentional bleeding, forced vomiting, and homemade instruments, illustrate the painful and fruitless state of health care for tuberculosis patients at that time. School Library Journal (May 1, 2015)

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Hist Fic/Div
The first science fiction written by a black woman, Kindred has become a cornerstone of black American literature. This combination of slave memoir, fantasy, and historical fiction is a novel of rich literary complexity. Having just celebrated her 26th birthday in 1976 California, Dana, an African-American woman, is suddenly and inexplicably wrenched through time into antebellum Maryland. After saving a drowning white boy there, she finds herself staring into the barrel of a shotgun and is transported back to the present just in time to save her life. During numerous such time-defying episodes with the same young man, she realizes the challenge she’s been given: to protect this young slaveholder until he can father her own great-grandmother.

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Hist FicGr 5-8. "This is your box of femininity,"reads 10-year-old Leah when a rose-patterned case arrives on her birthday. Along with silk and jewelry, there are train tickets for Leah, younger sister Ruth, and their mother to travel from Sulphur, Louisiana, to Los Angeles, to visit long-estranged Aunt Olivia. It's 1953, and Leah is amazed by California. There are no Jim Crow laws, and Aunt Olivia and her husband live in a home as luxurious as the rose box. Still, Leah misses what's familiar. Later, when the girls visit their aunt and uncle on their own, a tragic event takes their home and their parents, and the girls move permanently to Los Angeles. Booklist (June 1, 2002 (Vol. 98, No. 19))

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Hist Fic/6-10

In Chicago in 1968, Sam, 14, obeys his father, an eloquent civil-rights leader who is close with Dr. King and is passionately committed to nonviolent protest. But after King is assassinated and Sam witnesses police brutality toward a friend, Sam follows his rebellious older brother, Stephen (Stick), and joins the Black Panthers, whose revolutionary platform is the opposite of the nonviolent philosophy that Sam has been taught at home. Then Sam’s father is stabbed. Will the brothers retaliate with violence? Booklist starred (2009 (Vol. 105, No. 11))

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Taking liberty : the story of Oney Judge, George Washington's runaway slave by Rinaldi, Ann

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Taking liberty : the story of Oney Judge, George Washington's runaway slave by Rinaldi, Ann

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Hist Fic/12+

In this swiftly paced historical novel, Rinaldi (Girl in Blue) chronicles the life of Oney Judge, favorite "servant (they were never called slaves)" to Lady Martha Washington. By Oney's own admission in the prologue, as Lady Washington's "pet," she enjoyed "a life of comparative ease and even luxury." Oney surreptitiously learns to read (and though this violates the law, Lady Washington keeps her secret), wears fine clothes and accompanies the General's family to New York and Philadelphia. Rinaldi seamlessly weaves history and strong characters, from the mansion house to the servants' quarters, to offer a balanced portrait of their complex and contradictory interactions. Publishers Weekly (December 2, 2002)

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Ashes (Seeds of America #3)by Laurie Halse Anderson

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Ashes (Seeds of America #3)by Laurie Halse Anderson

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Booklist starred (July 2016 (Vol. 112, No. 21))

Grades 7-10. Co-protagonists Isabel and Curzon (Chains, 2008, and Forge, 2010) return in this long-awaited third and final volume in Anderson’s award-winning Seeds of America trilogy. The year is now 1781, and the two teenage fugitives are 12 miles from Charleston, South Carolina, in search of Isabel’s younger sister, Ruth, stolen away from her many years before. To Isabel’s great joy, find her they do, but, inexplicably, Ruth refuses to return Isabel’s affection, remaining cold and distant, even when the three, along with farm-boy Aberdeen, set off to walk to Rhode Island and freedom. Will they reach their destination? Perhaps, but in the meantime, they arrive in Williamsburg, Virginia, where, to Isabel’s great distress, Curzon reenlists in the Continental Army. The action then moves to the siege of Yorktown, even as Isabel and Curzon’s often stormy relationship continues to evolve. But to what end? The plot-rich text makes for compelling reading, and the well-developed characters continue to invite reader empathy. Anderson demonstrates a particular talent for verisimilitude, bringing history to compelling life while she continues to develop her theme of the quest for liberty and the cruel irony that, during a war for freedom, there should remain slavery. Yes, readers, it was worth the wait. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Chains and Forge are considered highlights of an author career packed with highlights, and this final installment comes with a book tour, floor displays, and more.

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Forge (Seeds of America #2)by Laurie Halse Anderson

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Forge (Seeds of America #2)by Laurie Halse Anderson

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Booklist (September 15, 2010 (Vol. 107, No. 2))

Grades 5-8. Anderson follows her searing, multi-award-winning novel Chains (2008) with this well-researched sequel, also set during the Revolutionary War and narrated by a young African American. This time, though, her central character is male, and the heartbreaking drama shifts from Chains’ domestic town houses to graphically described bloody battlefields. After a narrowly successful escape from Manhattan, former slaves Isabel and Curzon separate, and Curzon is once again on the run. He finds necessary food and shelter as a private with the Continental army, and through Curzon’s eyes, Anderson re-creates pivotal historical scenes, including the desperate conditions at Valley Forge. Curzon isn’t as fully realized here as Isabel was in Chains, resulting in a less-cohesive and -compelling whole. Once again, though, Anderson’s detailed story creates a cinematic sense of history while raising crucial questions about racism, the ethics of war, and the hypocrisies that underlie our country’s founding definitions of freedom. Chapter heads excerpted from historical documents and a long appendix that offers research suggestions and separates fact and fiction add further curricular appeal.

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Chains (Seeds of America #1)by Laurie Halse Anderson 

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Chains (Seeds of America #1)by Laurie Halse Anderson 

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Booklist starred (November 1, 2008 (Vol. 105, No. 5))

Grades 7-10. In the spring of 1776, Isabel, a teenage slave, and her sister, Ruth, are sold to ruthless, wealthy loyalists in Manhattan. While running errands, Isabel is approached by rebels, who promise her freedom (and help finding Ruth, who has been sent away) if she agrees to spy. Using the invisibility her slave status brings, Isabel lurks and listens as Master Lockton and his fellow Tories plot to crush the rebel uprisings, but the incendiary proof that she carries to the rebel camp doesn’t bring the desired rewards. Like the central character in M. T. Anderson’s Octavian Nothing duet, Isabel finds that both patriots and loyalists support slavery. The specifics of Isabel’s daily drudgery may slow some readers, but the catalogue of chores communicates the brutal rhythms of unrelenting toil, helping readers to imagine vividly the realities of Isabel’s life. The story’s perspective creates effective contrasts. Overwhelmed with domestic concerns, Isabel and indeed all the women in the household learn about the war from their marginalized position: they listen at doors to rooms where they are excluded, and they collect gossip from the streets. Anderson explores elemental themes of power (“She can do anything. I can do nothing,” Isabel realizes about her sadistic owner), freedom, and the sources of human strength in this searing, fascinating story. The extensive back matter includes a documented section that addresses many questions about history that readers will want to discuss.

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One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

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One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

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Historical Fic/4-7

Booklist starred (2010 (Vol. 106, No. 11))

Eleven-year-old Delphine has only a few fragmented memories of her mother, Cecile, a poet who wrote verses on walls and cereal boxes, played smoky jazz records, and abandoned the family in Brooklyn after giving birth to her third daughter. In the summer of 1968, Delphine’s father decides that seeing Cecile is “something whose time had come,” and Delphine boards a plane with her sisters to Cecile’s home in Oakland. Set during a pivotal moment in African American history, this vibrant novel shows the subtle ways that political movements affect personal lives; but just as memorable is the finely drawn, universal story of children reclaiming a reluctant parent’s love.

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If I ever get out of here by Gansworth, Eric L

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If I ever get out of here by Gansworth, Eric L

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1970's/ 6-9
Through an exquisite use of Beatles music, Gansworth connects with readers on multiple levels in this story of Lewis, an Onondaga teen, as he develops a friendship with George, a white teen from a nearby Air Force base. The family and community of both characters figure prominently throughout. (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
School Library Journal (November 1, 2013)