Guide to children’s and YA historical novels for 2019

The Historical Novel Society lists mainstream and small press titles for readers aged 4 – 18. Details are compiled by Fiona Sheppard. The publisher recommended age category is represented as Pic (Picture Book 4/5+), Chap or ER (Chapter Book or Easy Reader), Mid-grd (Middle-Grade 8-12), YA (Young Adult 13+).

Other than short excerpts, please link to this page rather than copying the entries – thank you!

For newer titles, check out of lists of forthcoming adult historical novels for 2021 and for children and YA for 2021.

January 2019

Avi, The End of the World and Beyond, Algonquin YR, Mid-grd (sequel to The Unexpected Life of Oliver Cromwell Pitts)

Tonya Bolden, Inventing Victoria, Bloomsbury YA, YA (poetic novel about a young black woman’s self-discovery in 1880s Savannah)

Roshani Chokshi, The Gilded Wolves, Wednesday Books, YA (Paris 1889: an engineer with a debt to pay, a historian who can’t go home – together they hunt an artifact through the dark heart of Paris)

Carrie Clickard, illus. Nancy Carpenter, Thomas Jefferson and the Mammoth Hunt, Paula Wiseman, Pic (how Jefferson tried to disprove a French theory that people in the New World are puny and cowardly by searching for mammoth hunt)

Rachel Dewoskin, Someday We Will Fly, Viking BfYR, YA (coming-of-age story set during World War II in Shanghai, one of the only places Jews without visas could find refuge)

Dee Garretson, All Is Fair, Swoon Reads, YA (1918 ― a young lady is pulled out of school and into a secret wartime Mission with a dashing American spy)

Patricia Reilly Giff, Genevieve’s War, Holiday House, Mid-grd (Alsace, France, 1939― brings the war in occupied France vividly to life)

Heidi Smith Hyde, illus. Elisa Vavouri, Pavel and the Tree Army, Kar-Ben, Pic (follows a young Jewish immigrant who joins the Civilian Conservation Corps and plants trees)

Maureen Johnson, The Vanishing Stair (Truly Devious Bk 2), Katherine Tegen, YA (contemporary mystery adventure based on 1936 Albert Ellingham affair)

Emmy Laybourne, Ransacker (Beserker 2), Feiwel & Friends, YA (conclusion to YA duology – Montana late 1800s)

Gill Lewis, The Closest Thing to Flying, Oxford Univ, Mid-grd 10 + (two girls, a century apart; together they’ll find freedom)

Ann Malaspina, illus. Merrilee Liddiard, A Scarf for Keiko, Kar-Ben, Pic (in 1942 Sam and Keiko work together with their classmates to knit socks for German and Japanese soldiers overseas)

Kate Messner, Ranger in Time #9: Disaster on the Titanic, Scholastic, Mid-grd (it’s a race against time for Ranger & his friends to get as many passengers & themselves off the ship before it’s too late)

Mary Pope Osborne, illus. AG Ford, Warriors in Winter: Magic Treehouse 31, RandomHouse BfYR, Pic 6+ (travel back in time and meets the Romans, the greatest warriors of all)

James E Ransome (author and illus.), The Bell Rang, Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy, Pic (young slave girl sees the heartbreak & hopefulness of her family & community when her brother escapes to freedom)

Susan Robeson, illus. Rob Brown, Grandpa Stops a War, Triangle Square, Pic (true story of Paul Robeson’s visit to the front lines of the Spanish Civil War―told by his granddaughter)

Danielle Rollins, Stolen Time, HarperTeen, YA (multi-period time-travel romance – Seattle 1913 and New Seattle 2077)

Tamar Sachs, illus. Yossi Abolafia, The Golden Bell, Kar-Ben, Pic (a bell from a High Priest’s robe goes missing in biblical times and turns up in a contemporary archeological site )

Tara Sim, Timekeeper 3: Firestarter, Sky Pony Press, YA (3rd in series set in an alternate Victorian world controlled by clock towers)

Lauren Tarshis, I Survived the Battle of D-Day, 1944, Scholastic, Mid-grd (I Survived series #18)

Brenda Woods, The Unsung Hero of Birdsong, USA, Nancy Paulsen, Mid-grd 10+ (story of the friendship between a white boy & a black WWII veteran recently returned to the unwelcoming Jim Crow South)

Jane Yolen, Mapping the Bones, Philomel, YA (1942, Poland ― a story in which a brother and sister lose everything except each other)

February 2019

Salima Alikhan, illus Alessia Trunfio, Emmi in the City: A Great Chicago Fire Survival Story (Girls Survive), Stone Arch, Mid-grd (Chicago 1871 – graphic novel format)

Hanna Alkaf, The Weight of Our Sky, Salaam Reads, YA (a music loving teen does everything she can to find her way back to her mother during the historic race riots in 1969 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)

Ruth Ashby, The Amazing Mr. Franklin: Or the Boy Who Read Everything, Peachtree, Mid-grd (fictionalised story of the man who started the first public library in America)
Also: Rocket Man (Feb 1962 – fictionised story of John Glenn when he became the first man to orbit the earth)

Becky Citra, Murder at the St. Alice, Coteau Books, YA (a young adult murder mystery set in a hotel in 1908)

Melanie Dickerson, The Warrior Maiden, Thomas Nelson, YA (reimagining of the classic Mulan tale)

Margarita Engle, Soaring Earth, Atheneum BfYR, YA (the author tells the story of her teenage years during the turbulent 1960s)

Alison Hart, illus. Michael G. Montgomery, Leo, Dog of the Sea, Peachtree, Mid-grd (tale of adventure and loyalty about Leo, a hardened old sea dog on Magellan’s Journey to Spice Island)

Deborah Hopkinson, How I Became a Spy: A Mystery of WWII London, Knopf BfYR, Mid-grd (1944 London ― a story of espionage, survival and friendship during a time of war)

Deborah Hopkinson, illus. Don Tate, Carter Reads the Newspaper, Peachtree, Pic (story of Carter G. Woodson, who read the newspaper to his illiterate father every day and went on to develop Negro History Week in 1926)

Matt Killeen, Orphan Monster Spy, Viking Children’s, YA (after her mother is shot at a checkpoint, 15-yr-old Sarah finds herself on the run from the Nazis in Third Reich-ruled Germany)

Robin LaFevers, Courting Darkness (His Fair Assassin, Bk 4), HMH Books for YR, YA (4th book in historical fantasy series set in 15th century Paris and Brittany)

Matthew Lasley, illus. Jacob Souva, Pedro’s Pan: A Gold Rush Story, Alaska North West, Pic (debut picture book about a prospector, told from the perspective of his gold pan)

Elizabeth Letts, The Perfect Horse, Delacorte BfYR, Mid-grd (one American troop will save the world’s most precious horses in a daring rescue, during the final stretch of WWII)

Maureen Doyle McQuerry, Between Before and After, Blink, YA (coming-of-age told in dual narratives during the flu epidemic in 1918 NYC and 1955 San Jose, California)

Carolyn Meyer, Girl with Brush and Canvas, Calkins Creek, Mid-grd 10+ (fictionalised biographical life of artist Georgia O’Keeffe—from childhood to her eventual rise to fame in the American Southwest)

Vaunda Micheaux Nelson, illus. Gordon C. James, Let ’Er Buck! George Fletcher, the People’s Champion, Carolrhoda, Mid-grd (African-American cowboy Fletcher earned a new title when a white man unfairly won a 1911 championship)

Lesléa Newman, illus. Amy June Bates, Gittel’s Journey, Abrams Books for YR, Pic (a child immigrates all alone to a new life in America. Based on true events)

Anne Patton, Trial by Winter: Crisis in the Barr Colony, Coteau, Mid-grd (conclusion of the Barr Colony Adventure series, based on the true story of one resilient girl and her family)

Mayumi Shimose Poe, illus. Matt Forsyth, Alice on the Island: A Pearl Harbor Survival Story, Stone Arch, Mid-grd (a Girls Survive series graphic novel)

Danielle Rollins, Stolen Time, Harper Teen, YA (first of multi-period time-travel romance trilogy―Seattle 1913 and New Seattle 2077)

Jo Shaffer, Stanley & Hazel: The Winnowing, Book 2, Month9Books, LLC, YA (murder mystery set in Depression era St Louis, mid 1930s)

Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch, Stolen Girl, Scholastic, Mid-grd (story of a Ukrainian girl who was kidnapped as a child to be raised by a Nazi family and her determination to search for the truth)

Nikki Shannon Smith, illus. Alessia Trunfio, Ann Fights For Freedom: An Underground Railroad Survival Story, Stone Arch, Mid-grd (a Girls Survive series graphic novel)

Ronald L. Smith, The Mesmerist, HMH Books for YR, Mid-grd 10+ (dark historical fantasy set in Victorian London’s supernatural underworld)

Addie Thorley, An Affair of Poisons, Page Street Kids, YA (historical fantasy debut in which a 17-year-old alchemist unwittingly helps her mother poison King Louis XIV in 17th-century France)

Gita Trelease, Enchantée, Flatiron, YA (impoverished Camille uses magic to impersonate an aristocrat at Palace of Versailles in Paris, 1789)

Eugene Yelchin, Spy Runner, Henry Holt & Co. (BYR), Mid-grd (a noir mystery novel in which a boy stumbles upon a secret that jeopardizes American national security)

Jodie Lynn Zdrok, Spectacle, Tor Teen, YA (in which a young reporter must use her supernatural visions to help track down a killer targeting the young women of Paris―1887)

March 2019

Jennifer Robin Barr, Goodbye, Mr. Spalding, Calkins Creek, Mid-grd (1930s Philadelphia―a 12-yr-old boy & his best friend attempt to stop a wall from being built that would block the view of the baseball field from their rooftops)

Julie Berry, Lovely War, Viking BfYR, YA (multi-layered romance with a divine twist, set in the perilous days of World Wars I and II)

Jennifer Bradbury, A Moment Comes, Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books, YA (India 1947 a muslim finds himself caught between his forbidden interest in a Sikh girl & a British girl who can help with his dream to study at Oxford)

Elisa Carbone, Poison in the Colony: James Town 1622, Viking BfYR, Mid-grd (sequel to Blood on the River, takes place after John Smith establishes trade, after Pocahontas befriends colonists……)

John Chambers, Mucking About, Little Island Books, Mid-grd (humorous adventure in early Christian Ireland about a boy whose mother wants him to be a monk, but he’d rather sing songs & go fishing)

Alexandra Davis, illus. Katie Hickey, Lumber Jills: The Unsung Heroines of WWII, Albert Whitman, Pic (story of home front heroism and female friendship)

Sharon Dogar, Monsters, Andersen Press, YA (1814: Mary Godwin, daughter of radical socialist writers, runs away with a dangerously charming young poet – Percy Bysshe Shelley)

Bill Doyle, illus. Sarah Sax, Escape this Book: Titanic, Random House BfYR, Mid-grd (a new series that invites readers to doodle their way through different perspectives of a historical event)à

Katharine Duckett, Miranda in Milan, Tor/Forge (dark fantasy reimagines the consequences of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, casting Miranda into a Milanese pit of vipers. LGBTQ)

David Elliott, Voices, HMH Books for Young Readers, YA (told through medieval poetic forms, Voices offers a new perspective on the life and death of Joan of Arc)

Michael Garland, Two Men and a Car, Tilbury, Mid-grd (the armored car that carried President Roosevelt to Congress for his declarations of war might once have belonged to the gangster Al Capone)

Daphne Greer, Finding Grace, Nimbus Publishing, YA (an emotional look into the lives of girls in the strict world of convents in the 1940s and 1970s)

Philippa Gregory, Fred van Deelen, Dark Tracks, Simon Pulse, YA (Luca and Isolde continue investigating for the ‘Order of Darkness’, in book 4 of the series)

Karen Hesse, Witness, Scholastic, Mid-grd (an unforgettable cast inhabits a small Vermont town in 1924―a town that turns against its own when the Ku Klux Klan moves in)

Mary Ann Hoberman, illus. Michael Emberley, Very Short Tales to Read Together, Pic (series features well-known figures like Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed, Annie Oakley)

Rik Hoskin, illus. Aadil Khan, The Taj Mahal: An Incredible Love Story, Campfire, Mid-grd (relates the tale of how Emperor Shah Jahan constructed the iconic building to house his great love’s remains)

Kathy Kacer, Masters of Silence, Annick Press, Mid-grd (desperate to save them from Nazis, a mother takes her 2 children from their home in 1940s Germany & leaves them with strangers in France)

Padraig Kenny, Tin, Chicken House, Mid-grd (1930s alternative England―where laws of mechanics govern talented engineers, a mismatched group of mechanicals that just wants to feel human)

Alisa Kwitney, Corpse & Crown, Inkyard Press, YA (sequel to Cadaver & Queen ― a reimagining of Oliver Twist taking place in an alternative Victorian London)

Irene Latham, illus. John Holyfield, Meet Miss Fancy, G P Putnam’s Sons BfYR, Pic (story set prior to Civil Rights Movement about a boy who finds a way to challenge segregation laws)

Diane Magras, The Hunt for the Mad Wolf’s Daughter, Kathy Dawson, Mid-grd (conclusion and sequel to The Mad Wolf’s Daughter; locale Medieval Scotland 1210)

Penny Matthews, The Ruby Stories: 4 Books in One, Penguin Random House Australia, Mid-grd (Adelaide, 1930 – Ruby Quinlan prepares for her 12th birthday party)

Nico Medina, illus. Jake Murray, What Was Stonewall?, Penguin Workshop, Mid-grd (story of the Stonewall riots of 1969 and the LGBTQ+ rights movement they inspired)

Joy McCullough, Blood Paint Water, Dutton Children’s, YA (a story of strength and persistence in the aftermath of sexual assault, based on the life of the 17th-c painter, Artemisia Gentileschi

A. M. Morgen, The Inventors at No. 8, Little, Brown BfYR, Mid-grd (19th-c England – story woven around George, 3rd Lord of Devonshire and his friend, Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace)

Stephanie Morrill, Within These Lines, Blink, YA (set in WWI era this novel tells the love story of teens battling the worst their country has to offer)

Barbara Nickel, The Mozart Girl, Second Story, Mid-grd (can Nanneri defy everyone’s expectations and capture some of the spotlight that shines on her brilliant younger brother?)

Karyn Parsons, How High the Moon, Little, Brown BfYR, Mid-grd (South Carolina, 1944; a girl’s journey to reconnect with her mother & learn the truth about her father in the tumultuous Jim Crow South)

Ana Sender, The Cottingley Fairies, NorthSouth, Pic (Elsie and Frances feel sad for adults who can’t see the magic in the forests around them. ‘If only they could see what we see! . . . .’ )

Angie Smibert, Bone’s Gift: Ghosts of Ordinary Objects, Boyds Mills, Mid-grd (southern Virginia, 1942―in this trilogy of supernatural historical mysteries, twelve-year-old Bone possesses a Gift that allows her to see the stories in everyday objects)
Also: Lingering Echoes: Ghosts of Ordinary Objects

Meagan Spooner, Sherwood, HarperTeen, YA (Robin of Locksley is dead. Marian makes the choice to walk in her hero’s footsteps)

Nhung N. Tran-Davies, A Grain of Rice, Tradewind Books, YA (a story about a young refugee’s courage and inner strength as she escapes from Vietnam during the war)

Andrea Wang, illus. Kana Urbanowicz, Magic Ramen: The Story of Ando Momofuku, Little Bee, Pic (a new kind of ramen noodle soup for all the hungry people Ando had seen following WW II)

Cat Winters, Odd & True, Amulet Paperbacks, YA (two sisters with a dark past face their demons in this novel set in early 20th-century)

April 2019

William Augel, Young Mozart, Humanoids, Mid-grd (a playful glimpse into the childhood of the world’s greatest musical genius – graphic novel format)

Cindy Anstey, The Hummingbird Dagger, Swoon Reads, YA (1833 – after a near-fatal carriage accident, ‘Beth’ wakes with no memory except a nightmare of a hummingbird, its steel beak dripping blood)

Claire Eliza Bartlett, We Rule the Night, Little, Brown BfYR, YA (historical fantasy inspired by the Night Witches, an all-female Russian WWII flight unit that flew daring missions in fragile planes)

Eric Bower, The Tremendous Baron Time Machine, Amberjack, Mid-grd (historical time-travel fantasy adventure)

Nadine Brandes, Romanov, Thomas Nelson, YA (“the history books say I died ― they don’t know the half of it” ― a retake on the Anastasia story)

Susan Kaplan Carlton, In the Neighborhood of True, Algonquin YR, YA (a Jewish girl in 1950s Atlanta hides her religion to try to fit into her segregationist surroundings)

Robert Cochran, The Sword and the Dagger, Tor Teen, YA (during the Crusades—a Christian princess, her affianced prince, and a Muslim assassin—embark on a quest to the court of Genghis Khan)

Emily Conolan, Break Your Chains, Allen & Unwin, Mid-grd (interactive adventure London, 1825)

Melissa de la Cruz, All for One, G P Putnam’s Sons BfYR, YA (conclusion to the Alexander and Elizabeth Hamilton trilogy)

Heidi Daniele, The House Children, SparkPress (1937― a young girl raised in an Irish industrial school learns that the woman she spends an annual summer holiday with is her birth mother)

Emily Duncan, Wicked Saints: Something Dark and Holy Book #1, Wednesday, YA (in this Joan of Arc inspired debut, a peasant girl who can speak to the gods must find a way to work with a deadly adversary to turn the tide of the war)

Michael Forman, Stubby: A True Story of Friendship, Andersen Press USA, Pic 7+ (true story of the dog who served bravely during WW I)

Miriam Halahmy, Saving Hanno, Holiday House, MG, (9-year-old Rudi and his beloved dog Hanno, escape from Nazi Germany)

Veera Hiranandani, The Night Diary, Puffin, Mid-grd (1947 – hopeful tale of India’s partition, and of one girl’s journey to find a new home in a divided country)

Joyce Moyer Hostetter, Aim: Bakers Mountain Stories, Calkins Creek, Mid-grd (WW II looms over the US while 14-yr-old Junior Bledsoe struggles with anger & identity after his father’s death)

Paul Jennings, A Different Boy, Allen & Unwin, Mid-grd (when he finds himself in a cruel orphanage, Anton escapes and hides on an ocean liner where other passengers have secrets of their own)

Tony Lee, illus. Sam Hart, Pirate Queen: The Legend of Grace O’Malley, Candlewick, Mid-grd (story of Grace O’Malley, Pirate Queen of Ireland, and her struggle to protect the friends, family, and country that she loved. Graphic novel format)

Barbara Lowell, illus. Dan Andreasen, Sparky & Spike, Cameron Kids, Pic (picture book story based on childhood of cartoonist Charles Schulz & his dog Spike)

Sarah MacLean, The Season, Scholastic, YA 12+ (Regency romance)

Molly MacPherson, illus. Teresa Martinez, Robert the Bruce: The King and the Spider, Kelpies, Pic

Melinda McCracken, Penelope Jackson, Papergirl, Roseway Publishing, Mid-grd (10-yr-old Cassie volunteers for the strike committee in Winnipeg, 1919)

A.M. Morgen, The Inventors and the Lost Island, Little, Brown BfYR, Mid-grd (sequel to The Inventors at No. 8)

Rosanne Parry, Last of the Name, Carolrhoda, Mid-grd 10+ (New York City, 1863 – the Civil War draft is stoking tensions between the Irish and free black populations)

Andrea Davis Pinkney, With the Might of Angels (Dear America), Scholastic, Mid-grd (fictional account of school desegregation in the Civil Rights Era)

Tom Ryan, illus. Christopher Hoyt, A Giant Man from a Tiny Town, Nimbus, Pic (tells the remarkable story of Cape Breton giant Angus MacAskill)

Whitney Sanderson, illus. Ruth Sanderson, Horse Diaries #16: Penny, Random House BfYR, Mid-grd (meet Penny, a palomino paint mare who grows up in Wild West of California during Gold Rush!)

Lucy Strange, Our Castle by the Sea, Chicken House, Mid-grd (story of a girl who is afraid & unnoticed; who freezes with fear at the enemy planes ripping across the cliffs of her light house home)

Todd Strasser, Summer of ’69, Candlewick, YA (revisits a tumultuous era and takes readers on a psychedelically-tinged trip of a lifetime)

James Sturm, illus. Rich Tommaso, Satchel Paige, Hyperion, Mid-grd (Leroy “Satchel” Paige (1906 – 1982) changed the face of the game in a career that spanned five decades. Graphic novel)

Ailsa Wild, Jeremy Barr, Gregory Crocetti, illus. Ben Hutchings, The Invisible War, Graphic Universe, YA (In France of 1916, battlefield nurse Sister Annie Barnaby encounters a strain of lethal bacteria)

Jesse Wiley, The Oregon Trail: Alone in the Wild, HMH Books for Young Readers, Mid-grd (a choose-your-own-adventure on the Oregon Trail in 1850)
Also: The Oregon Trail: The Wagon Train Trek

Kip Wilson, White Rose, Versify, YA (a tribute to a brave hero of the German resistance during World War II)

Cat Winters, The Raven’s Tale, Amulet Books, YA (meet the Muse who inspired Edgar Allan Poe!)

May 2019

Jeannette Armstrong, illus. Barbara Marchand, Neekna and Chemai, Theytus Books, Mid-grd (Neekna and Chemai are two little girls growing up in the Okanagan Valley in the time before European contact)

Camille DeAngelis, The Boy from Tomorrow, Amberjack, Mid-grd (children meet through a hand-painted talking board-Josie in 1915, Alec in 2015-and form a friendship across the century that separates them)

Julia Donaldson, illus. Thomas Docherty, Bombs and Blackberries, Hachette Children’s, Pic (short illustrated play set in WW II)

Jennifer Donnelly, A Northern Light, HMH BfYR, YA (the story of a young woman’s coming-of-age and the murder that rocked turn-of-the-century America)

Anna Fargher, illus. Sam Usher, The Umbrella Mouse, Macmillan, Pic (story of one mouse’s fight for survivial during WW II)

Kallie George, illus. Abigail Halpin, Anne’s Kindred Spirit, Tundra, ER Chap (inspired by Anne of Green Gables)
Also: Anne Arrives

Lynne Jonell, Time Sight, Henry Holt and Co (BYR), Mid-grd (Scotland, centuries ago – ancient castles, family folklore & a Magic Eye Book are at the centre of this middle-grade travel adventure)

Cynthia Kadohata, illus. Julia Kuo, A Place to Belong, Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy, Mid-grd 10+ (Japanese-American family gives up their American citizenship to move back to Hiroshima)

Paul Kor, The Hawk and the Dove, Kids Can Press, Pic (provides an accessible look at the concepts of war and peace)

Sheilah Lukins, illus. Laurel Keating, Flying Ace: Errol’s Gander Adventure, Breakwater, Mid-grd (1940 – Errol’s 2nd adventures takes him on a mission across the Atlantic in a Hudson bomber)

Dylan Meconis, Queen of the Sea, Walker, YA (a historical graphic novel in which Queen Eleanor of Albion is banished to a tiny island when her sister seizes the throne)

Nina Moreno, Don’t Date Rosa Santos, Disney-Hyperion, YA (author’s debut tale featuring three generations of cursed women in a Cuban-American family)

Jacqueline Morley, Greek Myths (Volume Two), Scribblers, Mid-grd (retold in a way that will engage young readers)

Jacqueline Morley, Viking Myths (Volume Two), Scribblers, Mid-grd (retold in a way that will engage young readers)

Pierre-Jacques Ober, illus. Jules Ober & Felicity Coonan, The Good Son: A Story from the First World War, Told in Miniature, Candlewick, YA (a young WWI soldier’s unauthorized visit home has dire consequences

Daniel José Older, Freedom Fire (Dactyl Hill Squad #2), Arthur A Levine, Mid-grd (with the Civil War raging and the Union on the brink of collapse, how can Magdalys choose between the army that needs her help and the brother she risked everything to save?)

Monika Schröder, The Dog in the Wood, Boyds Mills, Mid-grd (10-yr-old Fritz’s life on the family farm is about to end—Hitler is dead, & known Nazi sympathizers brace for the Bolsheviks to take over their town)

Marcus Sutter, illus. Andie Tong Wai Lum, Soldier Dogs #4: Victory at Normandy, HarperFestival, Mid-grd (a boy helps a parachute dog reunite with his paratrooper handler)

Eve Titus, Cathy Hapka, illus. David Mottram, Basil and the Royal Dare, Aladdin, Mid-grd (with Sherlock Holmes away on a case, Basil and Dr Dawson are at loose ends until an urgent message arrives)

June 2019

Sam Angus, School for Skylarks, Pan Macmillan (after her evacuation from London in 1939, Lyla finds out that friends come in all shapes and sizes)

Serena Blasco, Nancy Springer, Enola Holmes: The Case of the Left-Handed Lady, IDW, YA (2nd vol of adventures with Sherlock’s brilliant younger sister. Graphic novel)

Emma Carroll, The Sky Chasers, Chicken House, Mid-grd (Paris 1780s – Magpie, Pierre are in a race against time to get the Montgolfier’s into the air before the King and Queen)

Jan Coates, illus. Josee Bisaillon, Dancing with Daisy, Running the Goat, Pic (when he finds a photograph of his grandfather as a young man in 1962, Liam is full of questions)

Graeme Davis, The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, Pegasus (collection of seventeen classic mystery stories, dating from 1837 to 1914)

Timothée de Fombelle, (trans. Sam Gordon) illus. Isabelle Arsenault, Captain Rosalie, Candlewick, Mid-grd (captures the heart-wrenching cost of war for one small girl)

Stephanie Hemphill, The Language of Fire, Balzer + Bray, YA (reimagines the life of Joan of Arc, who as a teen girl in the fifteenth century commanded an army and helped crown a king of France)

Tracy Holczer, Everything Else in the Universe, Puffin, Mid-grd (a young girl struggles to embrace change in this family story set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War)

Keely Hutton, Secret Soldiers, Farrar, Strauss & Giroux (BYR), Mid-grd (historical adventure about a crew of young British soldiers on a deadly underground mission during WWI)

Dawn Kurtagich, Teeth in the Mist, Little, Brown BfYR, YA (set in 1583, 1851 & present day – genre-bending horror-fantasy, inspired by the legend of Faust)

Matthew Loux, The Time Museum, Volume 2, First Second, Mid-grd (Delia and her fellow time travelers head to Versailles, 1778 to save a historic alliance between the US and France)

Helen Moss, illus. Misa Saburi, Time Dogs: Balto and the Race Against Time, Henry Holt and Co (BYR), Chap (time-traveling dogs go to Alaska in 1925 to help deliver diphtheria medicine)
Also: Time Dogs: Seaman and the Great Northern Adventure (1803-Lewis & Clark’s dog needs help)

Leah Pileggi, Prisoner 88, Charlesbridge, Mid-grd 10+ (inspired by a true account of a prisoner in the Idaho Territorial Penitentiary in 1885)

Mary Roberts Rinehart, Miss Pinkerton, American Mystery Classics (after a suspicious death at a country mansion, a brave nurse joins the household to see behind closed doors)

Steve Sheinkin, illus. Neil Swaab, Amelia Earhart and the Flying Chariot, Roaring Brook Press, Chap (two youngsters must un-twist history after Amelia Earhart changes course)

Also: Abigail Adams, Pirate of the Caribbean (Abigail Adams decides there’s more to life than doing chores in the White House)

Also: Abraham Lincoln, Pro Wrestler (when Abraham Lincoln overhears a classroom of kids tell his history is boring, he decides to teach them a lesson)

Also: Neil Armstrong and Nat Love, Space Cowboys

July 2019

Robert Beatty, Serafina and the Seven Stars, Hyperion, Mid-grd (4th in series)

Katrina Charman, Survival Tails: World War II, Little, Brown BfYR, Mid-grd (a brave messenger pigeon enlists a group of heroic zoo animals to help him complete his mission during WW II)

Karen Cushman, Catherine, Called Birdy, HMH Books for YR, Mid-grd (Catherine, a spirited and inquisitive young woman of good family, narrates story of her 14th year—the year 1290)

Also: The Ballad of Lucy Whipple (In 1849 a twelve-year-old girl who calls herself Lucy is distraught when her mother moves the family from Massachusetts to a small California mining town)

Also: The Loud Silence of Francine Green (explores the nature of friendship and growing up Catholic in an era when the House Committee on Un-American Activities is blacklisting people)

Also: The Midwife’s Apprentice (a poor girl in medieval England gains a name, a purpose, and a future)

Carole Estby Dagg, Sweet Home Alaska, Puffin, Mid-grd (pioneering story, based on actual events, when FDR set up a New Deal colony in Alaska to give loans and land to families struggling during the Great Depression)

Samantha Hastings, The Last Word, Swoon Reads, YA (London 1861―after her favorite author dies before finishing her novel, a young woman tries to track down the ending with help from a childhood friend)

Eleanor Herman, Dawn of Legends, Inkyard Press, YA (tale of royalty, magic, danger and betrayal, spanning the years before young Prince Alexander became Alexander the Great)

Jennifer L. Holm, Our Only May Amelia, HarperCollins, Mid-grd (novel about a spunky young girl coming of age on the Washington frontier in 1899)

Kate Messner, illus. Kelley McMorris, Ranger in Time #10: Night of Soldiers and Spies, Scholastic, Mid-grd (Ranger travels to Colonial America to help the patriot cause!)

Michael Morpurgo, The Day the World Stopped Turning, Feiwel & Friends, Mid-grd (set during WW II, a story about an extraordinary boy who sees the world differently)

Donna Jo Napoli, Hunger, S&S/Paula Wiseman, Mid-grd (Ireland 1846― story gives insight into and understanding of the Irish potato famine)

Mary Pope Osborne, illus. AG Ford, To The Future, Ben Franklin, Random House BfYR, Mid-grd (Magic Treehouse time travel adventures #32)

Tom Palmer, illus. Tom Clohosy Cold, D-Day Dog, Barrington Stoke, mid-grd (celebration of the heroic paratroopers of WWII and their parachuting canine companions)

Randall Platt, Professor Renoir’s Collection of Oddities, Curiosities, and Delights, HarperCollins, Mid-grd (historical novel set in the world of a traveling carnival in 1896, two fourteen-year-old girls—one a giant and the other a dwarf—start out as enemies but soon become friends)

August 2019

Aharon Appelfeld, trans. Jeffrey Green, illus. Vali Mintzi, Long Summer Nights, Triangle Square, Mid-grd 10+ (journey of two wanderers, an eleven-year-old boy and an old man to whom the boy has been entrusted by his father, a Jew, fleeing the ravages of the war)

Michael S. Bandy, Eric Stein, illus. James Ransome, Granddaddy’s Turn: A Journey to the Ballot Box, Candlewick, Pic 6+ (based on the true story of one family’s struggle for voting rights in the civil rights–era South)

Emma Carlson Berne, illus. Matt Forsyth, Ruth and the Night of Broken Glass, Stone Arch, Mid-grd (a WW II story – Girls Survive graphic novel series)

Chelsea Bobulski, Remember Me, Feiwel & Friends, YA (a teen girl & a mysterious bellboy must relive a day in which a murder took place in 1905, in order to break the curse that imprisons them both)

Peter Bunzi, Moonlocket, North Star, Mid-grd (follows Lily, Robert, and mechanical fox Malkin around steampunk Victorian London as they try to outwit a criminal mastermind and find a family heirloom)

Weng Wai Chan, Lizard’s Tale, Text Publishing, Mid-grd (adventure for middle-grade readers, set in a British colony in Asia as the oncoming Japanese invasion of World War II loom)

Sandra Dallas, Someplace To Call Home, Sleeping Bear, Mid-grd (in 1933, twelve-year-old Hallie and her two brothers find themselves swept up into a new migratory way of life)

Margarita Engle, illus. Rafael López, Dancing Hands, Atheneum BfYR, Pic (picture book biography of the child prodigy who played the piano for Abraham Lincoln)

Patricia Reilly Giff, A Slip of a Girl, Holiday House, Mid-grd (paints a picture of the tensions in the Irish countryside of the early 1890s, and the aftermath of the Great Famine – story in verse)

Julie Gilbert, illus. Alessia Trunfio, Lucy Fights the Flames, Stone Arch, Mid-grd (a Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, 1911 – Girls Survive graphic novel series)

Jessica Gunderson, illus. Matt Forsyth, Carrie and the Great Storm, Stone Arch, Mid-grd (Great Galveston Hurricane in 1900 – Girls Survive graphic novel series)

Kate Hannigan, illus. Patrick Spaziante, Cape: The League of Secret Heroes, Book 1, Aladdin, Mid-grd (comic-inspired adventure series about girls transformed into superheroes during WW II)

Sonya Hartnett, Thursday’s Child, Candlewick, YA (set during the Great Depression – an unsentimental portrait of a loving family faced with poverty and heartbreak)

Jessica Scott Kerrin, Clear Skies, Groundwood, Mid-grd (summer 1961―eleven-year-old Arno Creelman dreams of becoming an astronomer)

Autumn Krause, A Dress for the Wicked, HarperTeen, YA (twisted story of fashion, betrayal, and romance set in reimagined 19th-c Europe)

Stacey Lee, The Downstairs Girl, G P Putnam’s Sons BfYR, YA (social drama about a lady’s maid who moonlights as the anonymous author of a genteel Southern ‘advice’ column)

Diane Carmel Leger, The Lookout Tree, Nimbus, Mid-grd (1755 – a family’s escape from the Acadian Deportation)

Debbie Levy, illus. Sonja Wimmer, The Key from Spain: Flory Jagoda and Her Music, Kar-Ben, Pic (when Flory flees Europe during World War II she carries Ladino (harmoniku) with her)

Audrey Mackaman, Cavall in Camelot #2: Quest for the Grail, HarperCollins, Mid-grd (King Arthur & his dog, Cavall embark on a quest to find a legendary grail)

Tamar Meir, illus. Yael Albert, Francesco Tirelli’s Ice Cream Shop, Kar-Ben, Mid-grd (true story of how an ice cream shop owner in Hungary hid his Jewish friends from danger during WWII)

Kate Merlin, Stormy Passage, Nimbus, Mid-grd (when his ship gets caught in the Saxby Gale of 1869 Nate has to draw on his courage to help keep the ship and its passengers safe)

Gloria Moskowitz-Sweet, Hope Anita Smith, illus. Leatrice Lyon, It Rained Warm Bread, Henry Holt and Co. (BYR), Mid-grd (a novel-in-verse about a boy’s experience surviving the Holocaust)

Trinka Hakes Noble, illus. Nicole Tadgell, A Fist for Joe Louis and Me, Sleeping Bear , Mid-grd (against the backdrop of the 1938 Fight of the Century, a boy makes a stand for a friend)

Shane Peacock, The Dark Missions of Edgar Brim: Demon, Tundra, YA (conclusion of gothic Victorian trilogy)

Mal Peet, Meg Rosoff, Beck, Candlewick, YA (depression-era coming-of-age of an illegitimate, orphaned boy who is sent overseas to the Catholic Brothers in Canada)

Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, Baker Street (classics), Mid-grd (nothing in the army prepares Paul Buumer and friends for the death and destruction that they witness)

Julian Sedgwick, illus. Alexis Deacon, Voyages in the Underworld of Orpheus Black, Walker Books US, YA (Harry Black is lost between the world of war & land of myth in this illustrated novel that transports the tale of Orpheus to WW II-era London)

Nikki Shannon Smith, illus. Alessia Trunfio, Charlotte Spies for Justice, Stone Arch, Mid-grd (a Civil War story – Girls Survive graphic novel series)

Susan Vande Griek, illus. Pascal Milelli, The Art Room, Groundwood, Pic (story-poem recreates the world of “the art room,” where painter Emily Carr taught drawing and painting to children to support herself in the early 1900s)

Ferida Wolff, illus. Margeaux Lucas, Rachel’s Roses, Holiday House, Chap (story set on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the early twentieth century)

September 2019

Dahlia Adler, editor, His Hideous Heart, Flatiron (thirteen of Edgar Allan Poe’s most popular tales brought to life)

Alex Alice, Castle in the Stars: The Knights of Mars, First Second, Mid-grd (third volume in graphic adventure series set in a world where space exploration began during the Victorian era)

Jenn Bennett, The Lady Rogue, Simon Pulse, YA (a girl has to hunt down Vlad the Impaler’s cursed ring in order to save her father)

Rachel Caine, Sword and Pen, Berkley, YA (story rewrites history, creating a dangerous world where the Great Library of Alexandria has survived the test of time)

Sara Cassidy, Nevers, Orca, Mid-grd (Burgundy, France 1799 ―fourteen-year-old Odette is on the move again, traveling as a stowaway on a cheese cart with her hapless mother, Anneline)

J. Anderson Coats, The Green Children of Woolpit, Atheneum BfYR, Mid-grd (autumn, 1160―eerie fantasy about a young girl who discovers two otherworldly children—and an ancient bargain that threatens to destroy them all)

Sophie Cleverly, Scarlet and Ivy 6: The Last Secret, HarperCollinsChildren’sBooks, Mid-grd (6th and final book)

Padraic Colum, The Arabian Nights: Tales of Wonder and Magnificence, Aladdin, 10+ (brings together a selection of the over 600 stories which Shahrazad told)

Padraic Colum, illus. Wilfred Jones, The Island of the Mighty, Aladdin, 10+ (includes fifteen stories, including bold exploits at the Court of King Arthur)

Padraic Colum, The Golden Fleece and the Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles, Aladdin, 10+ (weaves tales about life, war, and astounding beings who lived in a time long past)

Padraic Colum, illus. Willy Pogany, The Children’s Homer: The Adventures of Odysseus and the Tale of Troy, Aladdin, 10+ (fifteen timeless stories inspired by classic Greek literature)

Padraic Colum, illus. Willy Pogany, The Children of Odin, Aladdin, 10+ (15 tales inspired by Norse mythology)

Elizabeth Eulberg, The Great Shelby Holmes and the Haunted Hound, Bloomsbury, Mid-grd (a junior retelling of The Hound of the Baskervilles)

Glynnis Fawkes, Charlotte Brontë Before Jane Eyre, Hyperion, Mid-grd (fictional biography told in graphic novel format)

Melanie Gillman, Stage Dreams, Graphic Universe, Mid-grd (a Latinx outlaw and a trans runaway team up to thwart a Confederate plot in the New Mexico Territory)

Kathy Kacer, illus. Juliana Kolesova, The Brave Princess and Me, Second Story, Pic 7+ (1943 – story of Alice of Greece, grandmother to the UK’s Prince Charles)

Monica Kulling, illus. Sarah Dvojack, Ruby’s Hope, Page Street Kids, Pic (how the famous ‘Migrant Mother’ photo became the face of the Great Depression)

Jennifer Leason, trans. Norman Chartrand, Blueberry Patch / Mayabeekamneeboon, Theytus Books, Pic 6+ (in English & Anishinaabemowin ―based in Duck Bay, Manitoba, in the 1940s, an Elder shares his experience of packing up to go out to collect blueberries)

Jason Lutes, illus. Nick Bertozzi, Houdini, the Handcuff King, Hyperion, Mid-grd (fictional biography told in graphic novel format)

Patricia MacLachlan, illus. Kenard Pak, The Hundred-Year Barn, Katherine Tegen, Pic (in 1919 a little boy watches his family and community come together to build a grand red barn)

Kyo Maclear, illus. Julie Morstad, It Began With A Page, Tundra, Pic (picture book biography of the life of Gyo Fujikawa, the Japanese-American children’s book illustrator)

Hilary McKay, The Skylark’s War, Margaret K. McElderry, Mid-grd (inspirational story full of wit, heartbreak, and hope as a girl fights for her independence during World War I)

Charlotte Willing McManis, Traci Sorell, Indian No More, Tu Books, Mid-grd (a 10-year-old Umpqua girl must figure out who she is when her tribe is terminated by the government in the 1950s)

Mireille Messier, illus. Kass Reich, Sergeant Billy, Tundra, Mid-grd 10+ (during WW I, a goat was adopted by a platoon of soldiers and made his way across the ocean to be part of the war effort)

R. J. Palacio, White Bird: A Wonder Story, Knopf BfYR, Mid-grd (graphic novel debut ― a story of the power of kindness and unrelenting courage in a time of war)

Sofiya Pasternack, Anya and the Dragon, Versify, Mid-grd (story of fantasy and mayhem in tenth century Eastern Europe, where headstrong 11-yr-old Anya is a daughter of the only Jewish family in her village)

Ashley Hope Pérez, Out of Darkness, Holiday House, YA (a dangerous forbidden romance rocks a Texan oil town in 1937, when segregation was a matter of life and death)

Patricia Polacco, The Bravest Man in the World, S&S/Paula Wiseman, Pic 6+ (celebrates the memory of Wallace Hartley who used the power of music to comfort thousands of people during the Titanic sinking)

Monique Polak, The Taste of Rain, Orca, Mid-grd (1945: 13-year-old Gwendolyn is a prisoner at the Weihsien Internment Camp; one of 140 children who were enrolled at a boarding school in Chefoo when the Japanese Imperial Army invaded China)

Chris Raschka, illus. Vladimir Radunsky, Mother Goose of Pudding Lane, Pic (story of the real Mother Goose who lived in Boston in 1692)

Edeet Ravel, A Boy is Not a Bird, Groundwood, Mid-grd (1941― based on the true story of Nahum Halpern, who was exiled to Siberia as a boy, escaped after the war, & settled in Montreal)

Barb Rosenstock, illus, Christopher Silas Neal, Prairie Boy, Calkins Creek, Pic 7+ (Frank Lloyd Wright, a young boy from the prairie, becomes America’s first world-famous architect)

Steve Sheinkin, illus. Bijou Karman, Born to Fly, Yearling, Mid-grd 10+ (story of the fearless women pilots who aimed for the skies―and beyond)

Traci Sorell, illus. Weshoyot, At the Mountain’s Base, Kokila, Pic (celebrating the bonds of a Cherokee family and the bravery of history-making women pilots)

Jessica Spotswood, The Radical Element, Candlewick, YA (an anthology of revolution and resistance, a sisterhood of YA writers shines a light on a century and a half of heroines)

Lauren Tarshis, I Survived the Great Molasses Flood, 1919, Scholastic, Mid-grd (I Survived series #19)

Zoe Tucker, illus. Rachel Katstaller, Ada Lovelace and the Number Crunching Machine, NorthSouth, Pic (pictorial biography of the famous mathematician and scientist)

Eric Walters, Kathy Kacer, Broken Strings, Puffin Canada, Mid-grd 10+ (a violin and a middle-school musical unleash a dark family secret)

Jeri Watts, On Snowden Mountain, Candlewick, Mid-grd (WW II era – twelve-year-old Ellen learns the strength of family when her mother’s depression prompts her to ask an estranged aunt for help)

Laura E. Weymouth, A Treason of Thorns, HarperTeen, YA (historical fantasy balances danger and intrigue on a razor’s edge as one girl defies all to save her home and her heart)

Deborah Wiles, Anthem (Sixties Trilogy #3), Scholastic, Mid-grd (story of two cousins who must take a road trip across American in 1969 in order to let a teen know he’s been drafted to fight in Vietnam)

Jonah Winter, illus. Bryan Collier, Thurgood, Schwartz & Wade, Pic (picture book biography of Thurgood Marshall–the first black justice on the Supreme Court and a giant of the civil rights movement)

Barry Wittenstein, illus. Jerry Pinkney, A Place to Land: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Speech That Inspired a Nation, Neal Porter, Mid-grd (story of how the speech came to be)

Ange Zhang, Red Land, Yellow River, Groundwood, 10+ (story takes place during Mao’s Cultural Revolution which took hold in China in 1966)

October 2019

Renée Ahdieh, The Beautiful, Putnam’s Sons BfYR (romantic new series set in 19th century New Orleans where vampires hide in plain sight)

Camille Andros, illus. Tessa Blackham, From A Small Seed, Henry Holt, Pic (picture book biography of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton)

Sonia Antaki, illus. Andrew Bosley, Red Dove, Listen to the Wind, One Elm, Mid-grd (coming-of-age story of a 13-year-old Lakota girl set against the backdrop of the battle of Wounded Knee)

Mira Bartok, The Wonderling, Candlewick, 10+ (a Dickensian steampunk world richly imagined …. a story of friendship, hope, and heroics)

Justin Benton, Moonshine, Calkins Creek, Mid-grd (set in the Great Depression, a boy begins to question his and his father’s illicit lifestyle brewing moonshine in the Tennessee wilderness)

Teri Bailey Black, Girl at the Grave, Tor Teen, YA (gothic tale of murder and romance in 1850s New England)

Tami Lewis Brown, Debbie Loren Dunn, illus. Chelsea Beck, Instructions Not Included, Hyperion, Pic 6+ (story of Betty Snyder, Jean Jennings & Kay McNulty and how they aided the war effort during WWII)

Anthony Browne, Little Frida, Candlewick, Pic (inspired by Frida Kahlo’s [1907-1954] diary, Anthony Browne captures the essence of the artist’s early flights of fancy)

Ryan Calejo, Charlie Hernández & the League of Shadows, Aladdin, 10+ (fantasy inspired by Hispanic folklore, legends, and myths from the Iberian Peninsula and Central and South America)
Also: Charlie Hernández & the Castle of Bones

Padraic Colum, illus. various, Stories of Magic and Adventure, Aladdin, 10+ (five retellings of classic mythologies)

Charlotte Nicole Davis, The Good Luck Girls, Tor Teen, YA (an alternate Wild West fantasy adventure)

Joan Dicicco, illus. Ebony Glenn, The Unstoppable Garrett Morgan, Lee & Low, Mid grd (fictional biography of a man who dedicated his life to improving the lives of others)

Margarita Engle, illus. Beatriz Gutierrez Hernandez, Dreams From Many Rivers, Henry Holt (BYR), Mid-grd (history of Latinos in the United States, told through the voices of many and varied individuals ranging from Juan Ponce de León to modern-day sixth graders)

Matt Faulkner, Gaijin: American Prisoner of War, Hyperion, Mid-grd (based on true events, which reveal Koji struggling to find his place in a tumultuous world-one where he is a prisoner of war in his own country. Graphic format)

Susan Fletcher, Journey of the Pale Bear, Margaret K. McElderry, Mid-grd (England 1200s – runaway boy befriends a polar bear that’s being transported from Norway to London

Anastasiya Galkina, Ekaterina Ladatko, Travel to the Jurassic Era, Clever Publishing, Pic (adventure, fascinating facts and stories that travel back in time to prehistoric days)

Anastasiya Galkina, Ekaterina Ladatko, Travel to the Triassic Era, Clever Publishing, Pic (magical book which travels back in time to explore a land of dinosaurs)

Cynthia Grady, illus. Amiko Hirao, Write to Me, Charlesbridge, Pic (story about Japanese American children were imprisoned in World War II internment camps)

Kester Grant, A Court of Miracles, Knopf, YA (reimagines Les Misérables as first in new series starring a young thief in Paris’s criminal underground following a failed French Revolution)

Alan Gratz, Allies, Scholastic, Mid-grd (D-Day, June 6, 1944: the story of the most expansive military endeavor in history)

Jacqueline Dembar Greene, illus. Odessa Sawyer, Walk Till You Disappear, Kar-Ben, Mid-grd (set in 1870s Arizona. 12-year-old Miguel, raised as a Catholic has his world upended when he discovers his Jewish ancestry)

A.B. Greenfield, illus. Sarah Horne, Ra the Mighty: The Great Tomb Robbery, Holiday House, Mid-grd (wacky illustrations with fun historical details bring these oddball characters to life)

Marianne Hering, Sheila Seifert, Rescue on the River, Focus on the Family, Chap (third book in a three-part story arc focusing on Civil War America)

Deborah Hopkinson, illus. Leonard Jenkins, Sweet Land of Liberty, Peachtree, Mid-grd (1939 – story of little-known civil rights champion Oscar Chapman reminds readers that one person can truly make a difference)

Rehan Khan, A Tudor Turk, HopeRoad, YA (Istanbul, 1591―an elite band of warriors is sent by Sultan Murad III to track down the stolen Staff of Moses―first in a series)

Kathryn Lasky, Tangled in Time 2: The Burning Queen, HarperCollins, Mid-grd (series about a newly orphaned girl, Rose, who finds herself traveling between present-day Indiana and the English courts of Elizabeth and Mary)

Brittany Luby, illus. Michaela Goade, Encounter, Tundra, Pic (based on an actual journal entry by Jacques Cartier in July 1534, this story imagines the first encounter between a European sailor and a Stadaconan fisher)

Sibongiseni Mkhize, King Shaka: Zulu Legend, Catalyst Book Press, YA (graphic format novel – Shaka struggles to retain power as challenges at home and from across an ocean threaten his new rule)

Sharelle Byars Moranville, Surprise Lily, Holiday House, Mid-grd (generations of Lovell women narrate their experiences on the farm)

Mariko Nagai, Under the Broken Sky, Henry Holt (BYR), Mid-grd (middle-grade novel-in-verse about a Japanese orphan’s experience in occupied rural Manchuria during World War II)

Jennifer A. Nielsen, Words on Fire, Scholastic, Mid-grd (story of a Lithuanian girl who discovers the strength of her people united in resisting oppression)

Godrey Nkongolo, Eric Walters, illus. Eva Campbell, Light a Candle / Tumaini pasipo na Tumaini, Orca, Pic 6+ (a boy climbs Mt. Kilimanjaro to fulfill a request of the country’s first leaderto light a candle on the top of the mountain and unify the mainland of Tanganyika and the islands of Zanzibar as one country – the Republic of Tanzania)

Monique Polak, Room For One More, Kar-Ben, Mid-grd (for fifteen-year-old Rosetta Wolff, the war in Europe seems very far off but then Rosetta’s parents are asked if they will take in a young war refugee)

Laura Ruby, Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All, Balzer + Bray, YA (novel about two young women—one living and one dead—trying to survive in WWII-era Chicago)

Virginia Frances Schwartz, Among the Fallen, Holiday House, YA (16-year-old Orpha is imprisoned for crimes she did not commit but an unusual invitation from Charles Dickens offers hope)

Ruta Sepetys, The Fountains of Silence, Philomel ( a portrait of love, silence, and secrets under a Spanish dictatorship, Madrid, 1957)

Liesl Shurtliff, Time Castaways #2: The Obsidian Compass, Katherine Tegen, Mid-grd (the Hudson family embarks on a time-traveling quest to rescue Jia from the evil Captain Vincent)

Tom Wheeler, illus. Frank Miller, Cursed, Simon & Schuster BfYR, YA (a twist on the tale of King Arthur)

November 2019

Stephanie Baudet, (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle), illus. Arianna Bellucci, The Veiled Lodger, Sweet Cherry Publishing, Mid-grd (original stories adapted for young readers)
Also in series: The Three Students, The Speckled Band, A Study in Scarlet, The Sussex Vampire

Cassandra Clare, Chain of Gold, Margaret K. McElderry, YA (first in magical fantasy trilogy set in Edwardian London)

Sophia Day, Carol Sauder, illus. Stephanie Strouse, To the New World & Back, Real MVP Kids, 10+ (travel with Blake on the Mayflower as he struggles to find his new identity as his ancestor Henry Samson)

Sally Gardner, Invisible in Bright Light, Zephyr (1870― story about a crystal chandelier that splinters into a thousand pieces, a girl abandoned as a baby on the steps of an opera house and a dangerous game called the Reckoning)

Candy Gourlay, Bone Talk, David Fickling, Mid-grd (a coming-of-age story set at the end of the 19th century in a remote village in the Philippines)

Christopher Healy, The Treacherous Seas: A Perilous Journey of Danger and Mayhem #2, Walden Pond, Mid-grd (alternate-history romp starring the world’s most famous inventors—and its most forgotten ones)

Marcus Sutter, Soldier Dogs #5 [untitled], HarperFestival, Mid-grd (5th in series about heroic dogs in war)

Amy Trueblood, Across a Broken Shore, North Star, YA (an 18-year-old bound for the convent in 1936 San Francisco discovers a love of medicine)

Various, illus. Jim Kay, The Great War, Candlewick, 10+ (eleven writers draw on personal objects to bring the First World War to life for readers young and old)

Kiersten White, The Guinevere Deception, Delacorte, YA (1st in new historical fantasy series reimagining the Arthurian legend and set in the magical world of Camelot)

Elizabeth Winthrop, The Castle in the Attic (c 1994), Holiday House, Mid-grd (time-travel medieval adventure)

Elizabeth Winthrop, The Battle for the Castle (c 1994), Holiday House, Mid-grd ( 2nd in series)

Jane Yolen, Adam Stemple, illus. Orion Zangara, Breaking Out the Devil, Graphic Universe, YA (book #3 is the conclusion to the Stone Man Mysteries trilogy

December 2019

Jennieke Cohen, Dangerous Alliance, HarperTeen, YA (witty stand-alone historical romance with a mystery)

Cynthia Hand, My Plain Jane, HarperTeen, YA (reimagining of Jane Eyre)

Maureen Johnson, The Vanishing Stair: Truly Devious book 2, Katherine Tegen, YA (the mystery of the 1936 affair at Ellingham Academy continues)

Chris Lynch, Minesweeper (Special Forces, Book 2), Scholastic, 12+ (fiction series based on the real-life, top-secret history of US black ops and today’s heroic Navy SEALs)

Geraldine McCaughrean, Where the World Ends, Flatiron (story of eight boys stranded on a rock in the middle of the sea)

Beverley Naidoo, illus. Eric Velasquez, Journey to Jo’burg, HarperCollins, Mid-grd (classic set in South Africa during apartheid)

Wendy Orr, Swallow’s Dance, Pajama Press, 10+ (story set in Bronze Age Crete)

Lana Popovic, Blood Countess, Amulet, YA (17th century Hungary, Anna Darvulia works as a scullery maid for the young and glamorous Countess Elizabeth Ba´thory)

Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch, Don’t Tell the Nazis, Scholastic, Mid-grd (The Ukraine, 1941 – a story of ultimate compassion and sacrifice based on true events during WWII)

Elizabeth Tammi, The Weight of a Soul, North Star, YA (Viking fantasy about a teen girl making a gruesome deal with the Norse gods in order to bring her warrior sister back from the dead)

Susan VanHecke, illus. London Ladd, Under the Freedom Tree, Charlesbridge, Pic 6+ (tells the story of the “beginning of the end of slavery in America”)