Historical Fiction for High Schoolers

In 19th-century Atlanta, Jo Kuan works as a lady's maid while secretly penning a controversial advice column and attempting to learn the truth about her past.

Sixteen-year-old Melati must brave a riot and grapple with her obsessive-compulsive disorder as she attempts to reunite with her mother in 1969 Malaysia.

Based on the historical Mirabal sisters, this is a fictionalized account of why and how they decide to fight dictator Rafael Trujillo's oppressive regime in the Dominican Republic.

Marie-Laure is a blind French girl who flees the Nazi occupation of Paris. Werner Pfennig is a young orphan living in a German mining town. In this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, their lives intertwine in unexpected ways as they try to survive the havoc of war.

Christina Baker Kline's historical novel follows two young women searching for a sense of belonging: Molly, a teen navigating the foster system in 2011, and Niamh, an Irish immigrant orphaned on the cusp of the Great Depression. Discover how their lives intersect as you learn these words from Orphan Train.

Growing up in Renaissance Italy, Artemisia becomes a talented painter — but her father gets credit for her work. This novel in verse tells the story of how Artemisia finds her voice, both as an artist and as a young woman.

An acclaimed science-fiction classic, Kindred tells the story of Dana, an African-American woman in 1970s California who time-travels to the American South before the Civil War.

In this novel, a romance between a Mexican-American girl and an African-American boy in a segregated Texas town is set against the backdrop of a real historical event: the New London School explosion, which killed around 300 people in 1937.

This Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, based on historical events, traces the harrowing story of two boys sent to a Florida reformatory school in the 1960s.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Morrison's novel tells the story of Sethe, a formerly enslaved woman who is haunted by her past.

In 1967, the Republic of Biafra declared independence from Nigeria, leading to civil war. This novel traces the lives of several characters who get caught up in turmoil of the Biafran War.

Following the Mexican-American War, Bishop Jean Latour and Father Joseph Vaillant work to build a new Roman Catholic dicoese in New Mexico.

In seventeenth-century Holland, Griet's life is changed when she poses for a portrait by the brilliant painter Johannes Vermeer.

Set during World War II, this novel tells the story of a pilot who attempts to find his way home after his plane is shot down.

In the shadow of World War II, a Japanese-American man is accused of murdering a fisherman, exposing long-buried secrets, animosity, and prejudice in the island community of San Piedro.

Forced to stay in the United States after the Communist takeover of China, Ralph Chang and his sister Theresa are torn between retaining their cultural traditions and assimilating into their new home.

Eighteen-year-old Hằng makes a difficult journey to America to find the brother from whom she was separated during the Vietnam War.

Based on real-life events, this courtroom drama explores what happens when a Tennessee schoolteacher is put on trial for teaching evolution.

When 15-year-old Samantha, a Chinese-American girl living in Missouri in the mid-19th-century, finds herself on the wrong side of the law, she and her best friend embark on a journey westward, following the Oregon Trail.

Growing up in Chicago in the 1960s, Sam is a witness to both racism and the growing Civil Rights Movement. But when his father and brother embrace conflicting tactics for confronting prejudice and violence in their community, Sam must figure out where his loyalties lie.

Set in the early 1980s, this coming-of-age novel explores underlying tensions and turmoil in a seemingly quiet English village.

After finishing high school, aspiring writer Richard Perry does not have the money for college, so he decides to enlist in the army and ends up fighting for his life in Vietnam.

Cowritten by one of Malcolm X's daughters, this novel presents a fictionalized account of the activist's troubled youth.

A young activist, an Iranian immigrant, and a flamboyant fashionista navigate love and friendship in New York City in 1989.

Growing up on a remote fishing island in the 1940s, Sara Louise attempts to escape the shadow of her talented and favored twin sister.

Sisters Frankie and Toni struggle to survive on their own in the shadow of World War II.

When war breaks out, Daisy and her cousins find themselves isolated at a farm in the English countryside. Their bond becomes unbreakable, but nothing can stop the terrible reality of the war from seeping in.

This Pulitzer Prize-winning novel explores the four turbulent days of the Battle of Gettysburg, a decisive moment in the American Civil War.

Tayo is a World War II veteran and former prisoner of war who struggles to find peace when he returns to the Laguna Pueblo Reservation.

The only member of her family to survive the Nazi concentration camps, Gerta struggles to rebuild her life and rekindle her passion for music.

Set in a British country house, this award-winning play shifts between the early 19th century and the late 20th century and explores science, truth, and the relationship of past and present.

In this international bestseller, four Chinese mothers and their American-born daughters try to understand each other.

In this historical novel-in-verse, German teenager Sophie Scholl joins a secret resistance group called the White Rose in order to oppose the Nazi regime.

Loosely based on the author, the narrator sets out to write a book about his experiences during World War II, but ends up telling about Billy Pilgrim, a soldier who gets "unstuck in time" and travels throughout moments of his life both on Earth and the planet Tralfamadore.

In this award-winning work of historical fiction, a teenager from Galilee seeks vengeance against the Romans who killed his father.

A Japanese-American boy and a French girl become unlikely pen pals during World War II.

In the late 19th century, a mysterious man comes to live and work on the Starrett's Wyoming farm.

In this graphic novel, which draws on the author's family history, a teenage girl is transported back in time to a World War II incarceration camp for Japanese Americans.

This powerful book examines the legacy of the slave trade as it follows the divergent paths of two sisters and their descendants from Africa to the United States.

In the 1950s, a Chinese-American teenager falls in love while members of her San Francisco community face threats of deportation.

In feudal Japan, a puppeteer's apprentice attempts to figure out the identity of a notorious bandit.

After being liberated from a Nazi concentration camp, a teenager embarks on a quest to find her brother.

Based on a real-life events, this novel tells the story of Dita Kraus, who secretly ran a small lending library while imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp.

An enslaved woman in ancient Egypt works as a spy in order to gain her freedom.

In the final book of the Logan Family Saga, Cassie Logan, now a young woman, overcomes prejudice and heartbreak as she tries to find her place in the world.

As protests and unrest rock Los Angeles, teenager Ashley Bennett deals with family turmoil and prejudice in her community.

This award-winning novels traces the lives of several Native American families over six decades.

In this twist on the musical My Fair Lady that was inspired by George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion, Helena Higgins and Penelope Pickering, students at 19th-century London's Royal Academy of Culinaria Artisticus, disagree on whether transforming street vendor Elijah Little into a gentleman chef is a worthwhile project.

Based on a true World War II story, this novel details how, as a teenager, Stefania Podgórska managed to take care of her younger sister, while hiding and supporting Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland.

Based on the classic novel The Great Gatsby, this work follows the story of Nicolás Caraveo, a seventeen-year-old transgender boy who moves to New York and meets his mysterious neighbor Jay Gatsby, another transgender boy with an extravagant and decadent lifestyle.

Ahead of the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, Jewish teenage boys begin to disappear from the city's streets. After his best friend goes missing, Alter must race to solve the mystery before he becomes the killer's next victim.

Set in Spain during the 1950s, this novel tells the story of how Daniel, an eighteen-year-old American tourist, falls in love with a local girl, Ana, who lost her family during the Spanish Civil War.

In the 1960s, an Iñupiaq boy is sent to a boarding school where he is forbidden from acknowledging his native language and customs.

The daughter of Jewish circus performers, fifteen-year-old Lillia Kaczka must flee 1940 German-occupied Warsaw and help her family survive in war-torn Shanghai.