Historical Fiction

* = book containing characters who really lived

Ancient History

The Courtesan’s Daughter - 1193-1184 B.C., Greece

Escape from Egypt - Hebrew Slavery

Goddess of Yesterday - Sparta

The Lantern Bearers - Roman Britain

Outcast - Roman Britain

Troy - Trojan War. Ithaka is the sequel to Troy

Back to Top

500 -1066 AD

The King’s Shadow - 1066, England

Raven of the Waves - Vikings

Sword Song - 700-900 AD, Scandinavia

Middle Ages and Renaissance

Anna of Byzantium - 1083, Byzantium

Blood Red Horse - The Crusades

*The Book of the Lion - 1100s, England

Catherine Called Birdy - Middle Ages, England

Crispin: The Cross of Lead - 1300s, England. Crispin: At the Edge of the World continues the story

Daughter of Venice - 1500s, Italy

Doomed Queen Anne - early 1500s, England

The Dungeon - Feudal Scotland

Enter Three Witches - 11th Century, Scotland

Freedom Beyond the Sea - 1492, Spain

Henry V: the Graphic Novel - 1413-1422, England

Mary, Bloody Mary - 1500s, England

Midwife’s Apprentice - Middle Ages, England

Pagan’s Vows - 1100s Monastic Life

The Ramsay Scallop - 1300, England, Spain

The Samurai’s Tale - 1500s, Japan

Back to Top

Colonial Times

A Break with Charity - 1692, Salem

Calico Bush - 1700s, Maine

Copper Sun - 1700s, South

Hang a Thousand Trees With Ribbons : the story of Phillis Wheatley - 1700s

Trouble’s Daughter - 1643, Delaware

Year of Wonders - Europe, Great Plague

Witch Child - 1659 Massachusetts

Back to Top

Revolutionary Times

Early Thunder - Salem, MA

Fever, 1793 - Philadelphia

The Fifth of March - Boston Massacre

Fighting Ground - Young soldier’s story

*Finishing Becca - Am. Rev., Philadelphia

My Brother Sam Is Dead - American Revolution

Pox Party - African Americans

Sarah Bishop - 1776, America

*The Secret of Sarah Revere - Am. Rev., Massachusetts

A Tale of Two Cities - 1789-1799 France

Time Enough for Drums - 1776, Battle of Trenton NJ

The Winter People - 1755-1763, Quebec

Wolf by the Ears - late 1700s, Virginia

Year of the Hangman - 1777, various colonies

Back to Top

Growth of a Nation

The Big Burn - 1910 wildfires

Blood Gold - 1849 California Gold Rush

The Blue Door - late 1800s, New England

Boston Jane - 1854, Washington Territory

Broken Days - 1811, Salem, MA

*The Coffin Quilt - 1880s, KY, WV

Fire in the Hills - 1918, Oklahoma

Fortune’s Journey - 1853, California

A Gathering of Days - 1830-1832, NH

Giants in the Earth - mid-1800s, Dakotas

*Miss Spitfire: Reaching Helen Keller - 1887, people with disabilities

Rockbuster - 1915, Utah

Rodzina - 1800s, Frontier

*Second Bend in the River - 1798, Ohio Territory

The Shakeress - 1820s, New England

A Stitch in Time - late 1700s, NW Territory

Streets of Gold - 1901, NY City

Back to Top

Slavery, Civil War, Reconstruction, and Race Relations

The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman - 1864-1960

Braving the Fire - Civil War

The Color of Fire - 1741 Great New York Conspiracy

Copper Sun - 1700s, South

Day of Tears - slavery and families

Evvy’s Civil War - 1860 Virginia

I Dred Scott - Slavery 1850’s

The Land - Reconstruction

Legend of Buddy Bush - 1947 North Carolina

Let the Circle Be Unbroken - 1930s, Miss

Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy - 1911 Maine

Mississippi Trial, 1955 - Mississippi

Nightjohn - 1800s, South

North by Night - mid-1800s

Numbering All the Bones - 1864, Georgia

Pox Party - American Revolution

Red Badge of Courage - Civil War, VA

Ring of the Slave Prince - 1600s slave trade

The River Between Us - Civil War New Orleans

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry - 1930s, South

Sing Down the Moon - 1864, SC

Sonny’s House of Spies - 1940s-1950s Alabama

Stealing Freedom - Underground Railroad

*Soldier’s Heart - 1860s, Minn

Trouble Don’t Last - Underground Railroad

Underground Man - 1850s, Kentucky

We Look Like Men of War - Civil War, South

Witness - 1920, Vermont Ku Klux Klan

Back to Top

World War I

All Quiet on the Western Front - WWI, Germany

Countess Below Stairs - Russia, England

Kipling’s Choice - WWI, France

The Night of the Burning: Devorah’s Story - 1920 Poland, South Africa

Tree by Leaf - WWI, America

Back to Top

Great Depression

Al Capone Does My Shirts - 1935 Alcatraz Prison

Dust - 1930s

The Grapes of Wrath - 1930s, OK, CA

Let the Circle Be Unbroken - 1930s, Mississippi

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry - 1930s, South

*Someday - 1938, Massachusetts

Back to Top

World War II

Aleutian Sparrow - American Internment Camp

The Bomb - 1945, Japan

Book Thief - WWII, Germany

The Boy who Dared - WWII, Germany

The Boys From St. Petri - WWII, Netherlands

Brothers in Valor - WWII, Germany

The Devil in Vienna - 1938, Vienna

The Entertainer and the Dybbuk - WWII, Germany

Flames of the Tiger - 1860 Virginia

For Freedom - 1940, France

Friedrich - WWII, Germany

The Kingdom by the Sea - WWII, England

Lisa’s War - WWII, Denmark

London Calling - 1940 London

Morning is a Long Time Coming (sequel) - WWII, Arkansas

Milkweed - WWII, Poland

Private Peaceful - British Army

Shadow of the Wall - WWII, Poland

Soldier Boys - WWII, Europe

Stones in Water - WWII, Europe

Summer of My German soldier - WWII, Arkansas

A Time Too Swift - WWII, San Diego

Yellow Star - Poland’s Lodz ghetto

When My Name Was Keoko - WWII, Korea

Back to Top

Vietnam War

Come in from the Cold - 1960s, Minnesota

Little Cricket - Hmong refugees

Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood - 1969 New Mexico

Back to Top

Various Events in History

Ask Me No Questions - New York 9/11

Before We Were Free - 1960s, Dominican Republic

Climbing the Stairs - 1941, India

Distant Land of My Father - 1930s, China

The Forgotten Fire - 1923, Turkey

Hurricane Song: A Novel of New Orleans - Hurricane Katrina

Ivy: A Novel - mid 1800s, London

Killing Sea - 2004 Tsunami

Nory Ryan’s Song - 1845-1846, Ireland

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - 1940s, Soviet Union

Rebels of the Heavenly Kingdom - 1850s, China

Smiling For Strangers - 1991, Yugoslavia

Sunrise over Fallujah - 2003, Iraq War

Tiger in the Well - 1881, London

Back to Top


Derry Public Library