Forthcoming children’s and YA historical novels for 2022
The Historical Novel Society lists mainstream and small press titles for readers aged 4 – 18. Books are set in eras up to the early 1970s. Details are compiled by Fiona Sheppard and Susan Firghil Park using publisher descriptions and recommended age suitability.
Other than short excerpts, please remember to link to this page rather than copying the entries – thank you!
See our guide to Forthcoming Children’s and YA Historical Novels for 2021 for the previous year’s releases. We also have a guide to Forthcoming Historical Novels for 2o22.
Page will no longer be updated.
Last updated February 8, 2023
January 2022
Salima Alikhan, illus. Andrea Rossetto, Marika Marches for Equality, Stone Arch, Age 8-11 (a girl becomes involved with the Women’s Rights movement in 1970)
Salima Alikhan, illus. Jacqui Davis, Ollie Escapes the Great Chicago Fire, Stone Arch, Age 8-11 (an orphan in 1871 Chicago fights to escape with his sister and a young boy when fire breaks out)
Jeannine Atkins, Hidden Powers: Lise Meitner’s Call to Science, Atheneum BfYR, Age 10+ (novel-in-verse recounting of the life of the pioneering Jewish woman physicist and her work during WWII)
Tracey Baptiste, illus. Tonya Engel, Because Claudette, Dial, Age 6-9 (picture book biography of the teen whose activism launched the Montgomery bus boycott)
Joseph Bruchac, Peacemaker, Dial BfYR, Age 9-12 (historical novel based on the creation of the Iroquois Confederacy)
Jessie Burton, Medusa, Bloomsbury YA, YA (feminist YA retelling of the Greek myth)
Selene Castrovilla, illus. E.B. Lewis, Seeking Freedom, Calkins Creek, Age 7-10 (the story of Fortress Monroe and the end of slavery in America)
Dhonielle Clayton, Shattered Midnight, Disney-Hyperion, YA (an 18-year-old girl arrives in Jazz Age New Orleans, fleeing a curse of her own magic; Book 2 of The Mirror series)
Jennieke Cohen, My Fine Fellow, HarperTeen, YA (a gender-bent take on My Fair Lady set in 1830s England)
Alice Faye Duncan, illus. Charly Palmer, Evicted! The Struggle for the Right to Vote, Calkins Creek, Age 9-12 (fictional account of the little-known Tennessee’s Fayette County Tent City Movement in the late 1950s)
Fabrice Erre, illus. Sylvain Savoia, Magical History Tour # 7: Gandhi, Papercutz, Age 7-12 (Annie and Nico go on a magical tour to explore India’s history and learn about Gandhi)
Also: Magical History Tour # 8: Vikings (April 2022)
Magical History Tour # 9: The Titanic (June 2022);
Magical History Tour # 10: The First Steps on the Moon (August 2022)
Jessica Gunderson, illus. Wendy Tan Shiau Wei, Audrey under the Big Top, Stone Arch, Age 8-12 (in 1944, a girl must protect herself and her sister when fire breaks out at the circus; Girls Survive series)
Corey Ann Haydu, Lawless Spaces, S&S BfYR, YA (novel-in-verse about a girl delving into the journals of her grandmother and great-grandmother)
Leah Henderson, The Magic in Changing Your Stars, Sterling Children’s Books, Age 8-12 (journey back to 1939 Harlem in this time-travel adventure with an empowering message about believing in yourself and persevering)
June Hur, The Red Palace, Feiwel & Friends, YA (historical mystery set in Joseon (Korea), 1758)
Rachel Menard, Game of Strength and Storm, Flux, YA (with the aid of Castor & Pollux, two young women strive to accomplish a series of heroic, magical tasks to earn freedom for themselves and others)
Michael Morpurgo, illus. Benji Davies, The Puffin Keeper, Puffin Canada, Age 9-12 (a story of enduring friendship during and after WWII)
Pip Murphy, illus. Roberta Tedeschi, Christie and Agatha’s Detective Agency: A Discovery Disappears, Sweet Cherry, Age 7-9 (book 1 in the 1920s detective series that fictionalises discoveries and events of the 1920s with a whodunnit twist)
Jennifer A. Nielson, Words on Fire, Scholastic (Lithuania 1893 – story of a girl who discovers the strength of her people united in resisting oppression)
Linda Sue Park, A Single Shard, Oneworld, Age 8-12 (tale about finding belonging and beauty amidst hardship; set in 12th-century Korea)
Lesley Parr, When the War Came Home, Bloomsbury Children’s, Age 10+ (WWI has ended, but the aftermath lingers for a young girl in an English village)
Gary Paulsen, Northwind, Farrar, Straus & Giroux (BYR), Age 10-14 (set in a northern fishing community centuries ago, a young boy flees into the icy ocean in a canoe when plague reaches his village)
Amy Raphael, The Ship of Cloud and Stars, Orion, Age 9+ (it’s 1832 and Nico Cloud desperately wants to be an explorer, so she stows away on a scientist’s ship)
Dana Schwartz, Anatomy: A Love Story, Wednesday Books, YA (historical fantasy set in 1817 Edinburgh about a young woman trying to become a surgeon and the grave robber who helps her)
Neal Shusterman, illus. Andrés Vera Martínez, Courage to Dream, Graphix, Age 10-14 (novel explores one of the greatest atrocities in modern memory, delving into the core of what it means to face the extinction of everything and everyone you hold dear)
Nikki Shannon Smith, illus. Markia Jenai, Lena and the Burning of Greenwood, Stone Arch, Age 8-12 (when racial tensions erupt into violence in 1920s Oklahoma, a girl and her family must flee for their lives; Girls Survive Series)
Lucy Strange, illus. Pam Smy, The Mermaid in the Millpond, Barrington-Stoke, Age 8-12 (in a 19th century English village a girl discovers a creature in the millpond)
Maggie Tokuda-Hall, illus. Yas Imamura, Love in the Library, Candlewick, Age 6-9 (picture book set in an internment camp where the United States cruelly detained Japanese Americans during WWII and based on true events)
Tamara Pizzol and Yolanda Gladden, illus. Keisha Morris, When the Schools Shut Down, HarperCollins, Age 4-8 (relating the untold experiences of an African American girl living in Farmville, Va., following the landmark civil rights case)
Charles Waters and Irene Latham, African Town, G.P. Putnam’s Sons BfYR, YA (novel in verse tells the story of the last Africans brought illegally as slaves to America in 1860)
Alison Weatherby, The Secrets Act, Chicken House, YA (story based on two young women who worked at Bletchley Park)
Brenda Woods, When Winter Robeson Came, Nancy Paulsen, Age 10-12 (in 1965 Los Angeles, children are thrust into the midst of the civil rights events and riots)
Genzaburo Yoshino (trans. Bruno Navasky), How Do You Live?, Puffin Canada, Age 8-12 (story of a young man who, like his namesake Copernicus, looks to the stars and uses his discoveries to answer the question of what kind of person he will grow up to be)
February 2022
Beth Anderson, illus. Susan Reagan, Revolutionary Prudence Wright, Calkins Creek, Age 7-10 (story of a real-life woman during the time of the American Revolutionary War who organized women to fight the British)
Avi, Loyalty, Clarion Books, Age 10-12 (story of a young Loyalist turned British spy navigating patriotism and personal responsibility during the lead-up to the War of Independence)
Livia Blackburne, Feather and Flame: The Queen’s Council #2, Disney-Hyperion, YA (continues the saga of Mulan in an Imperial-age China)
Linda Boroff, The Dressmaker’s Daughter, Santa Monica, YA (a young Jewish woman faces danger and persecution in 1940 Romania)
J.G. Bryan, Ventura and Zelzah, Santa Monica Press, YA (coming-of-age tale of four boys in suburban Los Angeles in the confusing, permissive 1970s)
Samantha Cohoe, Bright Ruined Things, Wednesday Books, YA (a reimagining of Shakespeare’s Tempest, set on a magic-imbued island in a 1920s world)
William Dumas, illus. Rhian Brynjolson, The Gift of the Little People: A Six Seasons of the Asiniskaw Ithiniwak Story, HighWater, Age 9-11 (story of the Rocky Cree tribe’s first disastrous contact with Hudson Bay that led to sickness, and one member’s quest to obtain a cure)
Phil Earle, When the Sky Falls, Bloomsbury Children’s, Age 9-11 (a boy and a gorilla create an unbelievable bond in this WWII tale for young readers)
Margarita Engle, Rima’s Rebellion, Atheneum BfYR, YA (in 1920s Cuba, a young woman falls in love while finding the courage to defend women’s voting)
Laura Gehl, illus. Timothy Banks, The Hiking Viking, Capstone, Age 4-7 (picture book story of a young Viking who prefers hiking to fighting)
Kate Hannigan, illus. Rebecca Gibbon, Nellie vs. Elizabeth: Two Daredevil Journalists’ Breakneck Race Around the World, Calkins Creek, Age 7-9 (real-life adventure story in picture book form)
Michael Levanthal, illus. Laura Catalan, The Chocolate King, Apples & Honey, Age 5-8 (set in France in the mid-1600’s, an intergenerational story of one family’s part in the migration of chocolate from the Americas to Spain and further)
Amina Luqman-Dawson, Freewater, Little, Brown BfYR, Age 8-12 (two enslaved children in the Antebellum south escape from a plantation and journey towards freedom)
Kelly McWilliams, Mirror Girls, Little, Brown BfYR, YA (in the Civil Rights era, two biracial twin sisters separated at birth discover their lives joined by family secrets and a curse)
Eva Wong Nava, The House of Little Sisters, Penguin Random House SEA, YA (a supernatural expose of a past system of indentured servitude that has a tight grip on Singapore and Malaysia)
Carolyn Tara O’Neil, Daughters of a Dead Empire, Roaring Brook, YA (in a re-telling of the Anastasia story, two girls flee across 1918 Russia to escape the Bolsheviks)
Betsy R. Rosenthal, When Lightnin’ Struck, Kar-Ben, Age 9-13 (after his father’s death, a boy in 1928 Odessa, Texas struggles to uncover a family secret)
Alisha Sevigny, The Oracle of Avaris, Dundurn YR, Age 9-12 (third book in adventure series set in Ancient Egypt)
Nadia Shammas and Sara Alfageeh (+illus.), Squire, Quill Tree, YA (historical fantasy in which a young knight in training has to choose between loyalties)
Dan Smith, Nisha’s War, Chicken House, Age 9-13 (historical ghost story, full of adventure, grief, guilt, forgiveness and belonging. Set in Malaya, 1942)
Joel Edward Stein, illus. Sara Ugolotti, Raquela’s Seder, Kar-Ben, Age 5-9 (in Inquisition-era Spain, a young girl longs to celebrate a Passover seder)
Rosiee Thor, Fire Becomes Her, Scholastic, YA (in a Jazz Age-inspired world, a politically savvy teen must juggle her ambitions with her heart)
Gita Trelease, Everything That Burns, Flatiron, YA (in a revolutionary-era Paris where magic is outlawed, a young woman strives to understand her own dark magic. Enchantee #2)
Jean-Claude van Rijckeghem (trans. Kristen Gehrman), Ironhead, or Once a Young Lady, Levine Querido, YA (early 1800s – story of a fierce renegade and the silly men who try to bring her down)
Shirley Vernick, Ripped Away, Fitzroy, YA (when Abe consults a fortune teller, he and his crush Mitzy are swept back to Victorian London in the times of Jack the Ripper, and find their fates tied to the murders)
Gloria Wesley, For King and Country, Formac, YA (in WWI, a young man volunteers for Canada’s first and only all-black military regiment)
Alex Wheatle, Kemosha of the Caribbean, Black Sheep, YA (in 1668, a young Jamaican girl, Kemosha, secures her freedom from enslavement and finds her true self while sailing to Panama with the legendary Captain Morgan)
March 2022
Ayesha Harruna Attah, The Deep Blue Between, Carolrhoda Lab, YA (after a raid on their West African village in 1892, twin sisters Hassana and Husseina are torn apart)
Etan Basseri, illus. Rashin Kheiriyeh, A Persian Passover, Kalaniot Books, Age 4-8 (in 1950s Iran, two children prepare for their Passover celebration)
M. A. Bennett, The Ship of Doom, Welbeck Flame, Age 10+ (Greenwich, London, 1894; members of the Butterfly Club travel to 1912 to board a ship sailing from Southampton to New York)
Meghan P. Browne, (illus. Brooke Smart), Dorothy the Brave, Viking BfYR, Age 4-8 (picture book biography of Rosie the Riveter and how women worked to keep America safe)
J. G. Bryan, Ventura and Zelzah, Santa Monica, YA (coming-of-age story of a teenager in 1970s suburban Los Angeles)
Alexis Castellanos, illus. Alexis Castellanos, Isla to Island, Atheneum BfYR, Age 10+ (a young girl in the 1950s struggles to adjust when she is sent from Cuba to Brooklyn; wordless graphic novel)
Christopher Denise, Knight Owl, Christy Ottaviano, Age 4-8 (a determined young owl builds strength and confidence in this medieval picture book)
Jill Esbaum, illus. Stacy Innerst, Jack Knight’s Brave Flight, Calkins Creek, Age 7-10 (story of a daring pilot, who in 1921 flew his biplane into a blizzard over America’s heartland and saved the US Air Mail Service)
Daniel Fehr, illus. Monika Vaicenaviciene, Ella in the Garden of Giverny, Prestel Junior, Age 4-8 (story of Claude Monet’s friendship with a young child in his famous garden)
Béatrice Fontanel, illus. Vanessa Hié, The Lady and the Unicorn, Princeton Architectural, Age 8-12 (story with characters and scenes from the medieval Unicorn Tapestries)
Kallie George, illus. Abigail Halpin, Anne’s Tragical Tea Party, Tundra, Age 8-12 (retold story from Anne of Green Gables)
Annelise Grey, Circus Maximus: Rivals on the Track, Zephyr, Age 9+ (Dido is the only girl ever to have won victory at the Circus Maximus, but now the whole Empire wants to know her true identity)
L. M. Elliott, Louisa June and the Nazis in the Waves, Katherine Tegen, Age 8-12 (captures life on the US home front during World War II)
Dee Hahn, The Grave Thief, Puffin Canada, Age 9-12 (in a 19th-century world, a young grave thief is caught up in a royal heist)
A.M. Howell, The Secret of the Treasure Keepers, Usborne, Age 8-12 (historical mystery of stolen treasure, friendship and deep courage set in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War)
Lizz Huerta, The Lost Dreamer, FSG BfYR, YA (fantasy inspired by ancient Mesoamerica)
Shana Keller, illus. Margeaux Lucas, The Peach Pit Parade, Sleeping Bear, Age 4-8 (during WWI a young girl finds an unusual way to help the war effort)
Lillie Lainoff, One for All, FSG BfYR, YA (a gender-bent retelling of The Three Musketeers, in which a girl with a chronic illness trains as a Musketeer, and uncovers secrets, sisterhood, and self-love)
Véronique Massenot, illus. Élise Mansot, Paint Brushes for Frida, Prestel Junior, Age 4-8 (picture book based on the life of Frida Kahlo)
Cory McCarthy, illus. Ekua Holmes, Hope Is an Arrow, Candlewick, Age 6-9 (picture book story of poet Khalil Gibran)
Joy McCullough, Caroline Tung Richmond, Tess Sharpe, Jessica Spotswood, Great or Nothing, Delacorte, YA (Little Women reimagined as set in 1942, with separate authors writing each of the four March sisters’ points-of-view)
Hilary McKay, The Swallows’ Flight, Macmillan’s Childrens, Age 9-11 (World War II story of family and friendship on opposite sides of a devastating conflict. Companion novel to The Skylarks’ War)
David Barclay Moore, illus. John Holyfield, Carrimebac, the Town That Walked, Candlewick, Age 6-9 (story of how the freed Black citizens of Walkerton, Georgia learned to cope with ongoing racism after the Civil War)
Katrina Nannestad, We Are Wolves, Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy, Age 10-14 (based on the Wolfskinder, the German children left to fend for themselves at the end of WWII)
Anne Nesbet, Daring Darleen, Queen of the Screen, Candlewick, Age 8-12 (when a publicity stunt goes wrong, 12-yr-old Darleen, star of the silent film era, must defeat villains both on screen and off)
Jennifer A. Nielsen, Lines of Courage, Scholastic, Age 8-12 (weaves together the stories of five kids living through World War I, each of whom holds the key to the others’ futures)
Sonia Nimr (trans. M. Lynx Qualey), Thunderbird: Book One, Univ. Texas Press, Age 11-13 (a modern-day Palestinian girl must travel to different time periods to retrieve four sacred feathers. Historical fantasy)
Matt Phelan, The Sheep, the Rooster, and the Duck, Greenwillow, Age 8-12 (middle-grade adventure full of secrets, hijinks, and reimagined historical events)
Andrea Davis Pinkney, illus. Brian Pinkney, Loretta Little Looks Back, Little, Brown YR, Age 8-12 (members of the Little family each present the vivid story of their young lives, beginning in a cotton field in 1927 and ending at the presidential election of 1968)
Ransom Riggs, The Desolations of Devil’s Acre, Dutton BfYR, YA (sixth and final book in the Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children series)
Sabaa Tahir, All My Rage, Razorbill, YA (dual-narrative coming-of-age told by two contemporary Muslim-American teenagers, including a past perspective from a parent in Pakistan)
Aminah Mae Safi, Travelers Along the Way: A Robin Hood Remix, Feiwel and Friends, YA (in 12th century Jerusalem a band of rat-tag misfits use their cunning to foil the usurping Queen Isabella)
Jenni L. Walsh, Over and Out, Scholastic, Age 8-12 (story of a young girl from Cold War East Berlin forced to spy for the secret police… but who is determined to escape to freedom)
Nancy Werlin, Healer and Witch, Candlewick, Age 8-12 (Sylvie and her mother and grandmother are trusted healers in their medieval French village, though some whisper they deal in more than herbs and medicines)
Eloise Williams, illus. August Ro, The Tide Singer, Barrington Stoke, Age 8-12 (in the wake of a tempest hitting her town, Morwenna is left to take care of a shipwrecked stranger who appears to be no ordinary girl)
Kip Wilson, The Most Dazzling Girl in Berlin, Versify, YA (in 1930s Berlin, at the cusp of war, an orphaned teenager finds a job as a cabaret singer)
Amélie Wen Zhao, Crimson Reign, Delacorte, YA (conclusion of trilogy in which a princess, loosely based on the Russian princess Anastasia, struggles to liberate her people and regain her lost powers)
April 2022
Caroline Arnold, illus. Rachell Sumpter, Keeper of the Light: Juliet Fights the Fog, Cameron Books, Age 4-8 (picture book story of Juliet Nichols, lightkeeper on Angel Island in San Francisco Bay in the early 1900s)
Annette Leblanc Cate (+illus.), A Dragon Used to Live here, Candlewick, Age 7-10 (tongue-in-cheek story of a brother and sister in a medieval-style fantasy world complete with a castle and a dragon)
Dominique Conil (trans. Alison L. Strayer) No to Fear, Triangle Square, Age 10-14 (fictional story of the fearless, internationally recognized journalist who was assassinated for believing that ‘words can save lives’)
Melissa de la Cruz, Cinder & Glass, G. P. Putnam’s Sons BfYR, YA (a “Cinderella” retelling set in 17th-century Versailles)
Phil Earle, When the Sky Falls, Bloomsbury Children’s, Age 9-11 (a boy and a gorilla create a close bond in this WWII tale)
Debby Dahl Edwardson, illus. Nasugraq Rainey Hopson, Blessing’s Bead (c.2009), Lee & Low, Age 10-14 (dual timeline story of two young women generations apart in northern Alaska)
Sarah Ellis, illus. Nancy Vo, As Glenn as Can Be, Groundwood, Age 3-6 (picture book story of the pianist Glenn Gould’s life from boyhood in the 1940s through his recording career)
Shea Fontana, ed. Rebecca Taylor, illus. Agness Garbowska, Kenzie’s Kingdom, Wonderbound, Age 9-11 (Kenzie must help a squire get back to the past in this time-traveling fantasy adventure! Graphic format)
Fawzia Gilani-Williams & Bridget Hodder, illus. Harshad Marathe, The Button Box, Kar Ben, Age 8-13 (Ava and Nadeem discover that a button that will take them back in time to ancient Morocco, where Nadeem’s ancestor is running for his life)
Rachel Hausfater (trans. Alison L. Strayer), No to Despair, Triangle Square, Age 10-14 (portrait of the last days of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising and its young leader Mordechai Anielewicz)
Amy Hest, The Summer We Found the Baby, Candlewick, Age 10+ (set during World War II, novel relays the events of one extraordinary summer from three points of view)
Linda Williams Jackson, The Lucky Ones, Candlewick, Age 8-12 (1967 – story of Ellis Earl, who dreams of a real house, food enough for the whole family—and to be someone)
Adiba Jaigirdar, A Million to One, HarperTeen, YA (high-stakes heist in which four girls team up to steal a priceless jewel-encrusted book on board the infamous ship. Lesbian romance)
Ji-li Jiang, illus. by Nadia Hsieh, Eighteen Vats of Water, Creston, Age 7-11 (a boy in 4th century China wants to be a great calligrapher like his father)
Rukhsana Khan, illus. Ayesha Gamiet, The Clever Wife, Wisdom Tales, Age 4-8 (based on a traditional folktale from Kyrgyzstan; story of a spirited young heroine whose wit and courage draw the attention of the ruling Khan)
Beth Kephart, illus. Melodie Stacey, Beautiful Useful Things, Cameron Books, Age 4-8 (poetic picture book story about the life and work of William Morris)
Matt Koceich, Imagine: 6 Epic Adventure Stories for Kids, Barbour Kidz, Age 8-12 (retelling of six religious tales from Biblical times)
Amanda West Lewis, These Are Not the Words, Groundwood, Age 9-12 (semi-autobiographical coming-of-age novel set in 1960s New York City)
Ian Lewis, The Balland of Billie Bean, Fitzroy Books, Age 9-12 (adventure set in London and California in the early 1900s)
Katherine Locke, This Rebel Heart, Knopf BfYR, YA (tale set amid the 1956 Hungarian revolution in post-WWII Communist Budapest)
D.M. Mahoney, Frances Finkel and the Passenger Pigeon, Red Cardinal, YA (frustrated with her responsibilities of running the household, aviator Fran flies out to the wilderness and winds up rescuing an injured pigeon that she trains to deliver messages)
Sonia Manzano, Coming Up Cuban, Scholastic Press, YA (story of four children who must carve out a path for themselves in the wake of Fidel Castro’s rise to power)
Amanda McCrina, The Silent Unseen, FSG BfYR, YA (historical novel of suspense and intrigue about a teenage girl who risks everything to save her missing brother; set in 1944)
Michelle Paver, Wolf Bane, Zephyr, Age 8-12 (in the ninth and final Wolf Brother story, Wolf is swept out to sea and hunted by an ice demon bent on eating his soul)
Tirzah Price, Sense and Second-Degree Murder, HarperTeen, YA (second book of the Jane Austen Murder Mystery series)
Onjali Q. Rauf, The Lion Above the Door, Orion Children’s, Age 9-11 (story about missing histories and the concept of a universal family: includes themes of historical racism & contains historical photos from WWII)
Mattie Richardson, Blue Skies West, Appaloosy Books, Age 8-12 (series that tells the story of events in American history–from the horse’s point of view!)
Michael Rosen, illus. Michael Foreman, Please Write Soon, Scholastic, Age 8-12 (inspired by a true family story, an account of perseverance, love and hope in wartime)
Liam Francis Walsh, Red Scare, Scholastic, Age 8-12 (graphic adventure featuring a clever 11-year-old girl who must, against all odds, protect her family and town during the height of the communist “red scare”)
Jill Paton Walsh, A Parcel of Patterns (c. 1983), Vintage Children’s Classics, Age 9-12 (based on the true events of the village of Eyam — a story of the plague of 1665)
Betty Yee, Gold Mountain, Carolrhoda Lab, YA (working on the Transcontinental Railroad promises a fortune―for those who survive)
Benjamin Zephaniah, illus. Onyinye Iwu, We Sang Across the Sea: The Empire Windrush and Me, Scholastic, Age 4-6 (picture book about the voyage of HMT Empire Windrush)
May 2022
Avi, Gold Rush Girl, Candlewick, Age 10-14 (1848, a girl stows away aboard ship following her father to Gold Rush & gets involved in a dangerous search for her kidnapped brother)
Alfreda Bearcrack-Algeo, The Land Grab: Legend of the Big Heart, 7th Generation, Age 8-12 (in 1929, a Lakota boy fights to survive and help protect his family’s land)
M. A. Bennett, The Ship of Doom, Welbeck, Age 8-12 (a girl is sent on her aunt’s time travel machine from 1894 London to 1912, on a mission to rescue Marconi from sinking on the Titanic)
Meg Caddy, Slipping the Noose, Text YR (imagines Anne Bonny’s subsequent exploits and whereabouts, after history left her languishing in a Jamaican jail when Calico Jack was hanged)
Eve Nadel Catarevas, illus. Martina Peluso, Rena Glickman, Queen of Judo, Kar Ben, Age 5-9 (fictional picture book biography)
William Durbin, Barbara Durbin, The Hidden Room, Lake Vermilion Press, YA (reveals little-known historical details of Ukraine, including Stalin’s brutal pre-war campaign of forced starvation)
Lindsay Eagar, The Patron Thief of Bread, Candlewick, Age 10-14 (adventure of street urchins set in medieval times)
Margarita Engle, Singing with Elephants, Viking BfYR, Age 8-12 (novel in verse about the friendship between a young girl and the poet Gabriela Mistral)
Nick Esposito, illus. Ricardo Tokumoto, Brave Like Jackie, Bushel & Peck, Age 6-10 (Lucky, Rudy, and Red take another trip back in time for a courageous adventure with Jackie Robinson, the first Black baseball player to play Major League Baseball)
Also: Sweet Like Milton (visit with Milton Hershey)
Play on Like Ludwig (visit with Beethoven)
Alex Field, illus. Peter Carnavas, Mr. Darcy, New Frontier, Age 4-7 (picture book re-telling of the story of Jane Austen’s story with Mr. Darcy as a duck)
Deborah Lerme Goodman, illus. Suzanne Nugent, The Flight of the Unicorn, Chooseco, Age 9-12 (in a fantasy medieval Scotland, the reader tries to locate a missing person while raising magical creatures)
Rafael Grossman and Anna Olswanger, illus. Yevgenia Nayberg, The Visit, Graphic Arts, Age 8-12 (novel depicting a story from 1965 when an American rabbi visited the Soviet Union)
Rachel Hausfater (trans. Alison L. Strayer), Mordechai Anielewicz: No to Despair, Triangle Square, Age 10+ (portrait of the last days of the Warsaw ghetto uprising and its young leader)
Marianne Hering, Islands and Enemies, Tyndale House, Age 7-12 (time-traveling children journey to Magellan’s era)
Isabel Ibañez, Together We Burn, Wednesday books, YA (romantic fantasy adventure inspired by medieval Spain)
Terry Catasús Jennings, illus. Raúl Colón, The Little House of Hope, Neal Porter, Age 4-8 (story of a girl arriving in the US with her family from Cuba, based on the author’s experience in 1961)
Kendall Kulper, Murder for the Modern Girl, Holiday House, YA (romantic romp that captures the extravagance of the Roaring Twenties and the dangers of vigilante justice)
Patrice Lawrence, illus. Camilla Sucre, Granny Came Here on the Empire Windrush, Nosy Crow, Age 4-6 (debut picture book help ensure that the struggles and achievements of the Windrush generation are never forgotten)
Michael Leali, The Civil War of Amos Abernathy, HarperCollins, Age 8-12 (an epistolary debut about one boy’s attempts to find himself in history)
Witold Makowiecki (trans. Tom Pinch), Out of the Lion’s Maw (c.1946), Mondrala Press, YA (an elderly Zoroastrian priest and his young teen apprentice slip their jailors in Carthage and race across the Mediterranean to fulfill their mission, pursued by agents and assassins)
Tracey Mayhew, illus. Mike Phillips, The Legends of King Arthur: Lancelot, Sweet Cherry, Age 7-9 (retelling of the Arthurian legends, adapted and illustrated to introduce children aged 7+ to classic folklore)
Also: The Quest for the Holy Grail (June), The Death of Merlin (July), The Fall of Camelot (August)
PJ McIlvaine, Violet Yorke, Gilded Girl: Ghosts in the Closet, Darkstroke, Age 8-12 (supernatural historical fantasy set in 1912)
Kim Oclon, The War on All Fronts, Trism, YA (an LGBTQ coming-of-age story of two young men, set in the Vietnam War era)
Jenny O’Neill, The Freethinker’s Daughter, Old Cove, Age 10-13 (explores a devastating year in the life of a young girl in 1833 Kentucky)
Monique Polak, What World is Left, Orca, YA (novel inspired by the experiences of the author’s mother, who was imprisoned in Theresienstadt during World War II)
R. M. Romero, The Ghosts of Rose Hill, Peachtree Teen, YA (a teenage girl becomes involved with the mystery of a boy who died one hundred years ago)
Samantha San Miguel, Spineless, Union Square, Age 8-12 (in Gilded-Age Florida, a boy discovers intrigue and mysterious cryptids in the swamps)
Arnon Z. Shorr, illus. Joshua M. Edelglass, José and the Pirate Captain Toledano, Kar-Ben, Age 8-12 (coming-of-age of a young refugee who forms a powerful bond with the mysterious Pirate Captain Toledano)
Ali Standish, Yonder, HarperCollins, Age 8-12 (a boy on the home front of World War II must solve the mystery of his best friend’s disappearance)
Michael Sweater and Josue Cruz, Puppy Knight: Den of Deception, Silver Sprockett, Age 7-11 (humorous story of a young knight and his apprentice, told in comic book format)
Lauren Tarshis, illus. Berat Pekmezci, I Survived the Attack of the Grizzles, 1967, Scholastic Graphix, Age 8-12 (graphic format adaptation)
Kimberlee Turley, Circus of Shadows, Sweetwater, YA (seventeen-year-old Gracie Hart is swept into the supernatural secrets surrounding Vincenzio’s Circus Troupe & Menagerie)
Wendelin Van Draanen, The Peach Rebellion, Knopf BfYR, YA (set in post WWII America, a coming-of-age story of two young women, best friends in childhood, and the changes in their worlds)
Shelley Wilson, The Last Princess, BHC Press, YA (Anglo-Saxon tale of a girl’s journey to fully embrace a new world, as she grows into her own as a warrior)
Lauren Wolk, My Own Lightning, Dutton BfYR, Age 10-12 (returns to World War II–era Western Pennsylvania in sequel to Wolf Hollow)
Jane Yolen, illus. Alida Massari, Mrs. Noah’s Doves, Kar Ben, Age 5-9 (when the flood comes there is a special mission for Mrs. Noah’s doves)
June 2022
Sasha Alsberg, Breaking Time, Inkyard, YA (a young woman in contemporary times meets a Scotsman from centuries ago, and learns she is a Pillar of Time, and in danger)
Martha Attema, When the Dikes Breached, Ronsdale, YA (a young woman is caught between societal expectations and her own heart in the aftermath of the 1953 Netherlands flooding)
Avi, City of Magic, Scholastic, Age 8-12 (1492 Italy, a magician and a servant boy are sent on a quest to Venice to find a mysterious manuscript that describes a new type of bookkeeping)
Tony Bradman, illus. Tania Rex, Bruno and Frida, Barrington Stoke, Age 8-12 (in East Prussia, 1945, a friendship forms between a young German boy and a Russian bomber dog)
Peter Bunzl, The Clockwork Queen, Barrington Stoke, Age 8-12 (when her father is imprisoned in the dungeons of the Winter Palace in St Petersburg by Empress Catherine the Great, Sophie must help him escape)
Debra Amirault Camelin, Nathalie: An Acadian’s Tale of Triumph and Tragedy, Ronsdale, YA (1755; a young French-Canadian woman’s expulsion from Novia Scotia, and deportation by the British, separates her from her betrothed)
Emi Watanabe Cohen, The Lost Ryū, Levine Querido, Age 8-12 (debut fantasy set in post-WWII Japan finds 10-year-old Kohei searching for the truth about his family history)
Lesley Crewe, Nosy Parker, Nimbus, Age 12-14 (a young would-be detective searches for the truth about her mother in 1960s Montreal)
Kat Dunn, Glorious Poison, Zephyr, YA (conclusion to the 18th-century French Revolution trilogy)
Phil Earle, While the Storm Rages, Andersen Press, Age 9+ (when the government advises people to have their pets put down in readiness for war, thousands of people do as they are told, while young Noah tries to save as many as he can)
Lindsay Galvin, My Friend the Octopus, Chicken House, Age 9-12 (Victorian mystery with a touching connection between a young girl and an octopus at its heart)
Melissa Grey, Valiant Ladies, Feiwel & Friends, YA (two teen vigilantes set off on an investigation to expose corruption and deliver justice)
Jim Grimsley, The Dove in the Belly, Arthur A. Levine, YA (follows two young gay men navigating a complex romance in late 70s North Carolina)
Jenny Laird, Mary Pope Osborne, illus. Kelly Matthews & Nichole Matthews, Mummies in the Morning, RH BfYR, Age 6-9 (get whisked back to Ancient Egypt with Jack and Annie)
Tanya Landman, The Battle of Cable Street, Barrington Stoke, YA (story explores the rise of antisemitic fascism in 1930s London)
Paul McHugh, Splinter, Bronzeville Books (WWII story in which two teenagers join the Resistance to fight the Nazi invasion of Norway)
Brad Meltzer, illus. Christopher Eliopoulos, I am Dolly Parton, Rocky Pond Books, Age 5-9 (fictional biography of the famous singer)
Mikael, Bootblack, Papercutz, YA (an American soldier, the only survivor of his WWII unit, immerses himself in the memories of his New York life in 1935)
Jenny Elder Moke, Rise of the Snake Goddess, Disney-Hyperion, YA (a young detective, in a 1920s world with mythic elements, travels to Greece to solve an archeological mystery; 2nd in Samantha Knox series)
Margaret Stohl and Melissa de la Cruz, A Secret Princess, Putnam BfYR, YA (reimagining of The Secret Garden and The Little Princess in a Victorian-inspired romance)
Marcia Vaughan, Abbie Against the Storm, Beyond Words, Age 6-10 (fictionalized account of a young girl’s triumph over a savage storm based on an actual incident that took place in the winter of 1856)
Shirley Reva Vernick, The Sky We Shared, Lee & Low/Cincos Puntos, YA (two girls, one in southern Japan & one in rural Oregon are inextricably linked by war)
Cao Wenxuan, Dragonfly Eyes, Candlewick, Age 9-12 (multigenerational saga takes the reader from 1920s France to a ravaged postwar Shanghai and through the convulsions of the Cultural Revolution)
J. T. Williams, The Lizzie and Belle Mysteries: Drama and Danger, Farshore, Age 8-12 (story set in 18th-century London and inspired by real Black British historical figures)
Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, Dean Hamer, Joe Wilson, illus. Daniel Sousa, Kapaemahu, Kokila, Age 4-8 (picture book of 15th century indigenous legend of four spirits coming to Hawaii, bringing gifts of science and healing)
Andrew Young, Paula Young Shelton, illus. Gordon James, Just Like Jesse Owen, Scholastic, Age 3-5 (story based on Ambassador Andrew Young’s early life in 1930s New Orleans in which a boy is taught by his parents how to respond to racism from the inspiration of Jesse Owens)
July 2022
Marcus Alexis, Thomas the Baker & the Fire of London, Cranthorpe Millner, Age 5-7 (the Great Fire of London in 1666, told in rhyme and pictures)
Gonzalo Alvarez, Piyoman and the Sun Warriors, HarperCollins, Age 8-12 (graphic novel follows the journey of a timid boy who stumbles into a war-torn Aztec underworld where dangerous Legends come to life)
Serena Blasco, illus. Tanya Gold, Enola Holmes: The Graphic Novels, Andrews McMeel, Age 9-12 (London 1889; when Sherlock receives a mysterious package, he knows he’ll need Enola’s help to decipher its meaning. Three mysteries included)
Terry Lee Caruthers, The Faithful Dog, Black Rose, Age 8-12 (based on a true story and the history of the Fifty-Eighth Illinois, novel illustrates the unwavering bond between dogs and their humans)
J. C. Cervantes, Fractured Path, Disney-Hyperion, YA (historical fantasy set in 1960s San Francisco. The Mirror book three)
Marita Conlon-McKenna, A Girl Called Blue (c. 2003), O’Brien Press, Age 10+ (a young girl in an orphanage is desperate to find out her real identity)
Nick Esposito, illus. Ricardo Tokumoto, Kind Like Mr. Rogers (The Good Guys Agency #1), Bushel & Peck, Age 6-10 (three friends travel back in back in time to talk to Mr. Rogers, as a role model of an honorable man)
Anna Fargher, The Fire Cats of London, Macmillan Children’s, Age 9-11 (two young wildcats seek to escape London and return to the forest, but are caught in the Great Fire of 1666)
Emily Gale and Nova Weetman, Elsewhere Girls, Text Publishing, Age 9-12 (two young swimmers, one from modern-day Melbourne, the other from early 1900s Sydney, swap places)
Jamila Gavin, Never Forget You, Farshore, YA (based on a true story, a WW2 historical fiction novel of heroism and female friendship)
Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, Jodi Meadows, My Imaginary Mary, HarperTeen, YA (a young Mary Shelley, and Ada Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron, learn their parents are actually powerful fae)
Anna Rose Johnson, The Star That Always Stays, Holiday House, Age 8-12 (coming-of-age story about an introspective and brilliant Native American heroine, set in 1914)
Andrew Komarnyckyj, The Revenge of Joe Wild, Santa Monica, YA (adventure set against the backdrop of the Civil War, with themes involving racism, sexuality, and misinformation)
Elizabeth Laird, The Misunderstandings of Charity Brown, Macmillan Children’s, Age 9-11 (inspired by the author’s own childhood growing up in post-war London)
Kieran Larwood, illus. Sam Usher, Carnival of the Hunted, Faber & Faber, YA (second of the Carnival series; story of a group of young misfits struggling to survive against a gothic Victorian society)
Karen McCombie, illus. Anneli Bray, Fagin’s Girl, Barrington Stoke, Age 8-12 (Fagin’s infamous gang lives again in this Oliver-Twist-inspired adventure)
Caroline Starr Rose, Miraculous, Putnam BfYR, Age 8-12 (a traveling medicine show promises to cure all, but two kids learn it takes more than faith to fix things that are broken)
Tasha Suri, What Souls Are Made Of, Feiwel & Friends, YA (reimagining of Wuthering Heights set in Yorkshire, North of England, 1786, with multicultural protagonists)
Jonathan Tulloch, Cuckoo Summer, Andersen Press, Age 10-12 (when two children find a wounded Nazi airman in the woods, it starts a chain of events that leads to the uncovering of secrets and a summer neither child will ever forget)
Serena Valentino, Never, Never, Disney-Hyperion, YA (a spin-off of Peter Pan, in which one of the Lost Boys, rescued by his parents, yearns to return to Neverland)
Michael Wenberg, Elizabeth’s Song, Beyond Words, Age 4-8 (historical-fiction based on the young life of the noted African American folksinger, Elizabeth “Libba” Cotton)
Diane Zahler, Daughter of the White Rose, Holiday House, Age 8-12 (based on the royal scandal of the princes in the tower in 1483)
August 2022
Sufiya Ahmed, Rosie Raja: Churchill’s Spy, Bloomsbury, Age 8-12 (coming-of-age WWII adventure about the French resistance and their British allies)
Barbara Ciletti, illus. Maria Cristina Pritelli, Sashiko, Creative Editions, Age 8-11 (picture book celebrating the elegant textile art of sashiko, an embroidery style which originated as a way to strengthen the jackets of fishermen)
Natasha Deen, illus. Wendy Tan, Millie and the Great Drought, Stone Arch, Age 8-12 (can Millie and her family survive the Dust Bowl and the hardships of the Great Depression? Graphic format. Girls Survive series)
Judith Eagle, illus. Kim Geyer, The Accidental Stowaway, Faber & Faber, Age 8-12 (a nautical adventure set in 1910)
Timothée de Fombelle (trans. Holly James), illus. François Place, The Wind Rises, Europa Editions, Age 8-12 (from Europe to Africa to the Caribbean, first installment in the Alma trilogy tells a story of hope, perseverance, and love in 1786)
Claudia Friddell, illus. by Jeremy Holmes, Road Trip: Camping with the Four Vagabonds, Calkins Creek, Age 7-10 (join Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, and John Burroughs on their pioneering camping trips during the early 1900s)
Julie Gilbert, illus. Wendy Tan, Maddy and the Monstrous Storm, Stone Arch, Age 8-12 (Girls Survive series graphic novel account of the Minnesota Schoolhouse Blizzard of 1888)
Danielle Greendeer, Anthony Perry, Alexis Bunten, illus. Gary Meeches Sr, Keepunumuk: Weeâchumun’s Thanksgiving Story, Charlesbridge, Age 3-7 (two kids from the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe learn the story of the first Thanksgiving)
Bryce Moore, Don’t Go to Sleep, Sourcebooks Fire, YA (in 1918, in the midst of the chaos of the Spanish Influenza outbreak, people are being killed by a lone man with an axe)
Pip Murphy, illus. Roberta Tedeschi, Christie and Agatha’s Detective Agency: Of Mountains and Motors, Sweet Cherry, Age 7-11 (2nd book featuring 1920s-era twin sisters Christie and Agatha)
Tom Palmer, Resist, Barrington Stoke, Age 8-12 (life under wartime occupation, in a story inspired by the childhood of Hollywood legend Audrey Hepburn)
Skyler Schrempp, Three Strike Summer, Margaret K. McElderry, Age 8-12 (novel set in the 1930s about a strong-willed girl who finds her voice in a tale of moxie, and determination to thrive despite the odds)
Francesco Sedita, Prescott Seraydarian, illus. Steve Hamaker, The Legend of the Lost Boy, Viking BfYR, Age 8-12 (members of the Pathfinders Society are transported fifty years back in time and plunged into mysterious events)
Nancy Springer, Mickey George, illus. Giorgia Sposito, Enola Holmes, Mycroft’s Dangerous Game, Legendary Comics, YA (after a mysterious group of anarchists abducts her brother Mycroft, Enola investigates his disappearance in hopes of rescuing him)
Bethan Woollvin, Three Little Vikings, Peachtree, Age 5-9 (picture book fairy tale retelling about three brave and rebellious Viking girls)
September 2022
Kwame Alexander, The Door of No Return, Little, Brown BfYR, Age 10+ (first book in a trilogy that tells the story of a boy, a village, and the odyssey of an African family)
Claire Andrews, Blood of Troy, Little, Brown BfYR, YA (Daphne must use her wits and her precarious relationship with Apollo to find a way to keep her queen safe, stop the war, and uncover the true reason the gods led her to Troy)
Jabari Asim, illus. A.G. Ford, Me and Muhammad Ali, Nancy Paulsen, Age 4-7 (a little boy’s joyous encounter with boxing champion Muhammad Ali is everything he’s dreamed of)
William Augel, Young Agatha Christie, BiG, Age 8-12 (graphic novel of the famous mystery writer’s imagined detecting adventures as a child)
Randi Barrow, Finding Zasha, Scholastic, Age 8-12 (a daring WWII story set in 1941)
Andrew Beattie, The Secret in the Tower, Sweet Cherry, Age 8-12 (historical fiction book based on the famous story of The Princes in the Tower)
Jennifer Chambliss Bertman, illus. Vesper Stamper, Sisterhood of Sleuths, Christy Ottaviano, Age 9-14 (a mystery that pays homage to the 1930s origins of the classic Nancy Drew stories)
Kim Taylor Blakemore, The Deception, Lake Union, YA (New Hampshire, 1877; a celebrated child medium, now penniless, her guiding spirits gone, is desperate to regain her reputation―but doing so means putting her faith in deceiving others)
Kirsten Boie (trans. David Henry Wilson), Alhambra, Arctis, YA (on a school trip to Spain a boy stumbles across a gateway through time that send him to 1492, in the shadow of the Spanish Inquisition)
Ruby Bridges, illus. Nikkolas Smith, I Am Ruby Bridges, Orchard Books, Age 4-8 (story of the day in 1960 when Ruby became the first child to integrate the school system, told from her perspective as a six-yr-old girl)
Alice Brière-Haquet (trans. Emma Ramadan), Phalaina, Levine Querido, Age 8-12 (tale of a mysterious young orphan in 19th-century London)
Adrianna Cuevas, Cuba in my Pocket, Square Fish, Age 8-12 (novel about a 12-yr-old boy who leaves his family in Cuba, in 1961, to immigrate to the U.S. by himself, based on the author’s family history)
John DeMont, illus. Belle DeMont, To Boston With Love, MacIntyre Purcell, Age 5+ (commemoration story of Boston’s response to the December 1917 Halifax explosion)
Alda P. Dobbs, The Other Side of the River, Sourcebooks YR, Age 8-12 (a novel about building a new life in America after escaping the Mexican Revolution)
Kailin Duan (trans. Jeremy Tiang), Nine Color Deer, Levine Querido, Age 4-8 (story about generosity and gratitude, adapted from a traditional Buddhist tale)
Frances Durkin, illus. Grace Cooke, A Greek Adventure, Jolly Fish, Age 8-10 (the Histronauts travel back to ancient Greece in this graphic novel with facts and interactive reader activities)
Bruce Doucey (trans. Ruth Diver), No to Dictatorship: Victor Jara, Triangle Square, Age 10-14 (fictionalized biography of the Chilean songwriter and rebel during the Pinochet years)
Also: No to Homophobia: Harvey Milk
Caroline Fernandez, illus. by Dharmali Patel, Asha and Baz Meet Mary Sherman Morgan, Common Deer Press, Age 5-8 (first in a time-travel series featuring historical women who made an impact in STEM fields)
Chloe Gong, Foul Lady Fortune, Margaret K. McElderry, YA (in 1930s Shanghai, a pair of spies posing as a married couple investigate a series of murders)
Laurel Guillen, A Bellwether Christmas, Fidelis, Age 9-12 (a 13th century lamb named Bart wants to know more about a mysterious man from the town of Assisi who talks to animals)
Margaret Peterson Haddix, The Secret Letters, Katherine Tegen, Age 8-12 (a boy finds a shoebox full of old letters that illuminate a mystery from the 1970s)
C. C. Harrington, Wildoak, Scholastic, Age 8-12 (explores the delicate interconnectedness of the human, animal, and natural worlds)
Jay Hosler, Santiago!, Margaret Ferguson, Age 8-12 (graphic novel based on true story of Santiago Ramón y Cajal, the pioneer of modern neuroscience, and his early dreams of becoming an artist)
Justina Ireland, Rust in the Root, Balzar + Bray, YA (in an alternate Depression-era America, a young mage struggles to find her place in a world split between magic and mechanism)
Catherine Johnson, Journey Back to Freedom: The Olaudah Equiano Story, Barrington Stoke, Age 8-12 (focuses on Equiano’s early life, demonstrating the resilience of the human spirit and one man’s determination to be free)
Catherine Johnson, A Nest of Vipers, Puffin, Age 9-12 (tale of a group of larger-than-life con artists who roam the streets of eighteenth-century London)
Angela Joy, illus. Janelle Washington, Choosing Brave, Roaring Brook, Age 6-10 (a picture book story of the mother of Emmett Till)
Kathy Kacer, Hidden on the High Wire, Second Story, Age 9-12 (a Jewish girl is forced to flee and hide when the traveling circus she works for shuts down in 1941)
Christian Klaver, Armadas in the Mist, CamCat Books, YA (finale to the Empire of the House of Thorns Victorian fantasy series, in which Justice and her rag-tag fleet of misfits sail out to meet the Faerie Armada)
Logan Kline, Finding Fire, Candlewick, Age 4-8 (a young boy in prehistoric times goes on a dangerous quest to renew fire for his family)
J. Kasper Kramer, The List of Unspeakable Fears, Atheneum BfYR, Age 8-12 (middle grade historical novel following an anxious young girl learning to face her fears–and her ghosts–against the backdrop of the typhoid epidemic)
Barbara Krasner, Ethel’s Song, Calkins Creek, YA (convicted traitor and suspected Soviet spy Ethel Rosenberg shares the story of her beliefs, loves, secrets, betrayals, and injustices in this YA novel in verse)
Kathryn Lasky, illus. Johnson Yazzie, Yossel’s Journey, Charlesbridge, Age 5-9 (Yossel’s family flees anti-Jewish pogroms in Russia and immigrates to the American Southwest in the 1890s)
Patrice Lawrence, illus. Jeanetta Gonzales, Our Story Starts in Africa, Magic Cat, Age 4+ (picture book story of a generational journey to the Caribbean; through the dark days of colonization and enslavement, to the thriving, contemporary community they now know)
Marian Lye, Patty McGuigan, illus. Rebekah Reif, Leonardo and the Time Travelers, Overcup Press, Age 8-10 (time-traveling tech adventure that takes kids through the centuries using modern technology as their tour guide)
Kerry L. Malawista, Meet the Moon, Fitzroy, YA (a coming-of-age story of sadness, guilt and redemption, set in 1970)
Andy Marino, Escape from East Berlin, Scholastic, Age 8-12 (dual time-line thriller of two children, one in 1961, the other in 1989 – and their attempts to cross the Berlin Wall)
Ellie Marney, The Killing Code, Little, Brown BfYR, YA (historical mystery about a girl who risks everything to track down a vicious serial killer)
L. L. McKinney, Escaping Mr. Rochester, HarperTeen, YA (a reimagining of Jane Eyre, in which Jane and Bertha Mason must save each other from the horrifying machinations of Mr. Rochester)
Anna-Marie McLemore, Self-Made Boys, Feiwel & Friends, YA (three teens chase their own version of the American Dream in New York, 1922, in this YA remix of The Great Gatsby)
Shelia P. Moses, We Were the Fire: Birmingham, 1963, Nancy Paulsen, Age 10+ (a boy and his classmates cut school to protest segregation and make history)
Sally Nicholls, The Silent Stars Go By, Candlewick, YA (WWI era romance involving love, loyalty and secrets at the end of the Great War)
Stacy Nockowitz, The Prince of Steel Pier, Kar-Ben, Age 8-13 (a young teen falls in with the mob, when he helps out at his Jewish family’s struggling Atlantic City hotel in mid 70s)
Sofiya Pasternack, Black Bird, Blue Road, Versify, Age 8-12 (historical fantasy in which a girl will do anything to save her twin brother from his illness)
James Patterson, Emily Raymond, The Girl in the Castle, jimmy Patterson, YA (reverse time travel adventure in which a girl from 1347 travels to the present to save her sister from certain death in their medieval village)
Adam Perry, Ghosts Come Rising, S&S Yellow Jacket, Age 8-12 (in 19th century America, two children, immersed in the Spiritualist movement, try to find answers to the mysteries around them)
Rodman Philbrick, We Own the Sky, Scholastic, Age 8-12 (in 1924 Maine, the rise of the KKK puts two orphaned boys at risk)
Isabel Pin, I am Coco, Prestel Junior, Age 6-9 (fictional biography of Coco Chanel’s life and career, from schoolgirl rebel to haute couture icon)
Aden Polydoros, Bone Weaver, Inkyard, YA (in a fantasy turn-of-the-century Russia, three young people unite to restore the usurped Tsar to power, with help from the undead and magic; LGBTQ+)
Lynette Richards, illus. Emily Burton, Call Me Bill, Emanata, YA (1873; set against the backdrop of the worst maritime disaster before the Titanic, story explores identity and courage of someone who took huge risks to live an authentic life)
Ransom Riggs, Miss Peregrine’s Museum of Wonders, Dutton BfYR, YA (everything you need to know about the peculiar world, written by Miss Peregrine herself)
Joan Schoettler, illus. Jessica Lanan, Good Fortune in a Wrapping Cloth, Lee & Low, Age 5-8 (story of a royal seamstress brings the landscape and culture of ancient Korea to life)
Joni Sensel, A Curse on the Wind, The Wild Rose Press, YA (historical fantasy in which a would-be actress, a good-looking gravedigger, and a cemetery haunted by an invisible power collide with the unintended consequences of a curse)
Shirin Shamsi, illus. Tarun Lak, The Moon from Dehradun, Atheneum BfYR, Ages 4-8 (account of the harrowing journey faced by millions of migrants in the aftermath of the division of India and Pakistan)
Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch, Winterkill, Scholastic, Age 8-12 (two brothers fight to survive the Great Famine in 1930 Soviet Ukraine)
Suzanne Slade, illus. by Edwin Fotheringham, Dazzlin’ Dolly, Calkins Creek, Age 5-9 (inspirational story follows Dolly Parton’s rise to fame, from her beginnings in East Tennessee to performing at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville)
David Michael Slater, The Vanishing, Library Tales, YA (to save her best friend from the horrors of Nazi Germany, an invisible girl must embark on an journey of redemption and revenge)
Nancy Springer, Enola Holmes and the Elegant Escapade, Wednesday Books, YA (Sherlock’s much younger sister returns in an adventure of a confused young Baronet’s daughter who is on the run from her father’s devious schemes)
Vesper Stamper, Berliners, Knopf BfYR, YA (story about the rivalry between two brothers living on opposite sides of the Berlin wall during its construction in the 1960s)
Susan Tarcov, illus. Fotini Tikkou, Professor Buber and His Cats, Kar-Ben, Age 4-9 (humorous and accessible introduction to the famous Jewish philosopher Martin Buber)
Sheila Turnage, Island of Spies, Dial Books, Age 9-12 (a 12-year-old girl and her two best friends on Hatteras Island, N.C., during WWII, resolve to uncover German spies)
Jean Ure, Dandelion, HarperCollins Children’s, Age 9+ (in 1953, a young girl glimpses a strangely dressed girl with bright yellow hair, who is possibly from the future)
David Walliams, Spaceboy, HarperCollinsChildren’sBooks, Age 8-12 (when a UFO crash-lands in a cornfield, and Ruth rushes to help, she finds a mystery – and an adventure – set in 1960s America)
Renée Watson, illus. Bryan Collier, Maya’s Song, HarperCollins, Age 4-8 (a picture book biography in verse about Maya Angelou)
Kathleen Wilford, Cabby Potts, Duchess of Dirt, Walker, Age 8-12 (drops you right into 1870’s Kansas, with a whole lot of drama and a little bit of romance)
October 2022
Susan Austin, Drawing Outside the Lines, SparkPress, Age 10-14 (in 1883, 11-yr-old Julia Morgan visits the new Brooklyn Bridge & aspires to become an architect)
Linda Bailey, Arthur Who Wrote Sherlock, Tundra, Age 5-9 (humorous picture book biography of young Arthur Conan Doyle’s adventures)
Rebecca E. F. Barone, Unbreakable, Henry Holt BYR, Age 10-14 (fictionalised true story of the codebreakers, spies, and navy men who cracked the Nazis’ infamous Enigma encryption machine and turned the tide of World War II)
Stephanie Baudet, Sherlock Holmes: The Creeping Man, Sweet Cherry, Age 7-11 (illustrated adaptation of Sherlock Holmes mystery – at an easy-to-read level for readers of all ages)
Also: Sherlock Holmes: The Lion’s Mane
M. A. Bennett, The Mummy’s Curse, Wellbeck Flame, Age 10+ (Luna, Konstantin and Aidan travel to Egypt’s Valley of the Kings in 1922; Butterfly Club book 2)
Barbara Binns, Unlawful Orders, Scholastic Focus, Age 8-12 (story of one man’s struggle for racial equality in the field of battle and the field of medicine)
Elizabeth C. Bunce, In Myrtle Peril, Algonquin YR, Age 10+ (Myrtle Hardcastle—twelve-year-old Victorian Amateur Detective—investigates the case of a missing heiress lost at sea)
Heather Camlot, illus. Sophie Casson, The Prisoner and the Writer, Groundwood, Age 9-12 (when a Jewish army captain is falsely accused of treason and sent to prison, a writer uses his pen to fight for justice)
Cinda Williams Chima, Children of Ragnarok, Balzer + Bray, YA (Viking fantasy based in Norse mythology)
Jan Coates, illus. Francois Thisdale, Anna Maria & Maestro Vivaldi, Red Deer Press, Age 6-9 (Antonio Vivaldi guides a young orphan toward becoming one of the most celebrated violinists of her time)
Betsy Cornwell, Reader, I Murdered Him, Clarion, YA (a girl becomes a teenage vigilante who roams Victorian England using her privilege and power to punish her friends’ abusive suitors)
Sandra Dallas, Tenmile, Sleeping Bear Press, Age 9-10 (story of a girl living in a gold mining town in Colorado in 1880)
Matt Faulkner, My Nest of Silence, Atheneum BfYR, Age 10+ (middle grade story about a Japanese American family during World War II)
Rhiannon Giddens, illus. Monica Mikai, Build a House, Candlewick, Age 7-10 (a story of a family who would not be moved, created by the singer and songwriter to commemorate the 155th anniversary of Juneteenth)
Julia Golding, Jane Austen Investigates: The Convict’s Canal, Lion Fiction, Age 9-12 (set in the early industrial revolution and the great canal building age, a young Jane Austen takes on the role of detective)
Amanda Glaze, The Second Death of Edie and Violet Bond, Union Square, YA (supernatural debut inspired by lives of real teenage twin mediums in the 19th century)
Jas Hammonds, We Deserve Monuments, Roaring Brook, YA (multi-generational fiction in which Avery must decide if digging for the truth of the town’s history of racism is worth risking friendships. LGBTQ)
Natasha Hastings, The Miraculous Sweetmakers # 1: The Frost Fair, HarperCollins, Age 8-12 (fantasy set in 1683 London, in which a young girl makes a dangerous wish to bring her brother back from the dead)
Ana Cristina Herreros (trans. Sara Lissa Paulson), illus. Violeta Lópiz, The Amazing and True Story of Tooth Mouse Perez, Enchanted Lion, Age 5-7 (traces the Tooth Mouse and his changes throughout history; a playful, thought-provoking look at our changing world)
Crystal Hubbard, illus. Alleanna Harris, Marvelous Mabel, Lee & Low, Age 6-10 (picture book story based on Mabel Fairbanks’s determination to become America’s first black skating superstar)
Emily Inouye Huey, Beneath the Wide Silk Sky, Scholastic, YA (after Pearl Harbor, 1941, a Japanese-American girl uses her passion for photography to document the growing racism)
Jacqueline Jules, My Name Is Hamburger, Kar-Ben, Age 8-13 (set in 1962, story of a girl embarrassed by her German last name, her father’s accent, and the way her classmates tease her for being Jewish)
Bart King, Choose Your Own Adventure Spies: Moe Berg, Chooseco, Age 9-12 (adventure where the reader is a famous baseball player during the second World War)
Antony Barone Kolenc, The Merchant’s Curse, Loyola Press, YA (fourth book in the Harwood Mystery mediaeval adventure series)
Torben Kuhlmann (illus.) (trans. Mischa Damjan, Anthea Bell), The Clown Said No, NorthSouth, Age 4-8 (a newly illustrated historical classic from 1961)
Sacha Lamb, When the Angels Left the Old Country, Levine Querido, YA (a centuries-old angel and demon, travel to America, encountering corrupt Ellis Island officials, cruel mob bosses, murderers, and poverty in search of a missing young emigrant)
Sara Latta, I Could Not Do Otherwise, Zest Books, YA (picture book story of Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, the Civil War surgeon, spy, and activist)
J. M. Lee, The Nightland Express, Erewhon, YA (in antebellum America, two teens bury their secrets and join the historic Pony Express, and soon discover the mortal world is not the only one on the brink of war)
Mackenzi Lee, The Nobleman’s Guide to Scandal and Shipwrecks, Katherine Tegen, YA (Ashley Montague sets off to find his disowned siblings in an adventure set in an 18th century world)
Gail Carson Levine, Sparrows in the Wind, Quill Tree, Age 10+ (a retelling of the ancient Greek legend of Cassandra in the time before the fall of Troy)
Claudia Guadalupe Martínez, illus. Magdalena Mora, Still Dreaming, Lee & Low, Age 6-9 (recounts an often-overlooked period of 1930s and 1940s United States history–Mexican Repatriation)
Evan May, Easter Pinkerton and the Case of the Heretic Blood, Renaissance Press, YA (in 1883, crown secret agent Pinkerton latest investigation forces her to decide where her duty truly lies)
Rati Mehrotra, Night of the Raven, Dawn of the Dove, Wednesday Books, YA (debut set in an alternate medieval India infested with monsters)
Michael Morpurgo, illus. Michael Foreman, Flying Scotsman and the Best Birthday Ever, Thames and Hudson, Age 6-8 (celebrating the world’s most iconic train, and its greatest fan, a young girl named Iris)
Pip Murphy, illus. Roberta Tedeschi, Christie and Agatha’s Detective Agency: Tombful of Trouble, Sweet Cherry, Age 7-9 (travel 100 years back in time to solve 1920s crimes and mysteries with young twins, Christie and Agatha)
Sally Nicholls, illus. Nadiyah Suyatna, The Knight’s Kiss, Barrington Stoke, YA (an arranged marriage interferes with star-crossed love in this medieval romance)
Ovid, illus. Ana Sender, adapt. Heinz Janisch, The Golden Age: Ovid’s Metamorphoses, North South, Age 8-12 (collection includes some of Ovid’s most popular and potent stories)
Cathie Pelletier, Evangeline, Down East Books, Age 10-15 (the story of an Acadian girl as she searches for her lost love Gabriel amid the expulsion of the Acadians from maritime Canada and Maine)
Anne Rand, illus. Olle Eksell, Edward and the Horse (c. 1961), Thames & Hudson, Age 4-6 (a small boy named Edward lives in mid-20th-century New York City and yearns for a pet to keep him company)
Casey Rislov, The Rowdy Randy Wild West Show, Mountain Stars, Age 8-12 (Rowdy Randy is back, and this time instead of aggravating all the creatures in her path, she’s rounding them up to put on her very own Wild West Show)
Aida Salazar, A Seed in the Sun, Dial Books, Age 8-12 (a farm working girl with big dreams meets activist Dolores Huerta and joins the 1965 protest for migrant workers’ rights)
Marina Scott, The Hunger Between Us, FSG, YA (debut novel about a girl’s determination to survive, and save her best friend, during the Nazi siege of Leningrad)
Erin Michelle Sky, Steven Brown, The Captain, Trash Dogs Media, YA (third and final book in Tales of the Wendy)
Chana Stiefel, illus. Susan Gal, The Tower of Life, Scholastic, Age 6-8 (true story of a Jewish girl who survives the Nazi invasion of her Polish town and grows up to revive the town’s spirit with a tower made of 1,000 photographs)
Nita Tyndall, Nothing Sung and Nothing Spoken, Harperteen, YA (two gay teens, part of the underground youth Swing movement in WWII Berlin, contend with the Nazi party; LGBTQ+)
Carole Boston Weatherford and Rob Sanders, illus. by Byron McCray, A Song for the Unsung, Henry Holt BYR, Age 6-10 (picture book biography of Bayard Rustin, the gay Black man behind the March on Washington of 1963)
Christine Welldon, Knight of the Rails, Red Deer Press, YA (thirteen-year-old Billy Knight leaves home to “ride the rails” across Canada during the 1930s)
Diane Worthey, illus. Helena Pérez García, Rise Up with a Song, Bushel & Peck, Age 6-9 (picture book biography of the composer and suffragette who wrote “The March of the Women”)
Camron Wright, The Orphan Keeper, Shadow Mountain, Age 10-14 (journey about discovering oneself and the unbreakable family bonds that connect us – adapted for young readers)
November 2022
Beth Anderson, illus. Anne Lambelet, Cloaked in Courage, Calkins Creek, Age 7-10 (fictionalised true story of Deborah Sampson, a woman who fought in the American Revolution disguised as a man)
Laura Best, This is it, Lark Harnish, Nimbus, Age 8-12 (follows a plucky 13-yr-old hired girl in rural 1919 Nova Scotia, and explores grief and love, poverty and privilege, and family)
Sandra Bradley, illus. Gabrielle Grimard, Cocoa Magic, Pajama Press, Age 4-7 (picture book story takes place in a cozy 1920s chocolate shop)
Gwendolyn Clare, In the City of Time, Feiwel & Friends, YA (dual timeline story ranging from 1891 Italy to 2034 San Francisco. Ink, Iron and Glass duology)
Lesa Cline-Ransome, illus. Ashley Yazdani, Of Walden Pond, Holiday House, Age 6-9 (story of Henry David Thoreau and businessman Frederic Tudor—and a changing world)
Judi Curtin, Lily Takes a Chance, The O’Brien Press, Age 8-12 (adventure set in Lissadell House, Sligo, 1915, where Lily is housemaid)
Joan He, Strike the Zither, Text, YA (historical fantasy about found family, rivals and identity set in year 414 of the Xin Dynasty)
Lyn Miller-Lachmann, Torch, Carolrhoda Lab, YA (1969; three misfits face the wrath of the secret police when their best friend dies in protest of the Soviet invasion and occupation of Czechoslovakia)
Mónica Montañés (trans. Lawrence Schimel), illus. Eva Sánchez Gómez, Different: A Story of the Spanish Civil War, Eerdmans BfYR (story of Socorro and her brother Paquito who flee Spain for a new life in Venezuela)
Alan Nolan, The Sackville Street Caper, The O’Brien Press, Age 8-12 (eleven-year-old Bram Stoker, future author of Dracula, escapes school to 1850s Dublin City seeking adventure)
Rosanne Parry, Last of the Name, Carolrhoda, Age 10-14 (story of an immigrant’s experience amidst class and racial tensions in 1863)
Lynn Ng Quezon, Mattie and the Machine, Santa Monica, YA (fictionalized yet historically accurate account of Margaret E. Knight’s fight to obtain recognition as a 19th century female inventor)
Solet Scheeres, The Lion Tamer’s Assistant, Penguin Random House South Africa, Age 5-10 (loosely based on the history of the Pagel Circus, which was known in every South African city and town in the 20th century)
Sasha Peyton Smith, The Witch Haven, Simon & Schuster BfYR, YA (murder mystery set in 1911 New York City)
Esme Symes-Smith, Sir Callie and the Champions of Helston, Labyrinth Road, Age 8-12 (in a magical medieval world filled with shape-shifters and witches, a 12-yr-old hopeful knight battles for the heart of their kingdom. LGBTQIA fantasy)
Robin Stevens, A Spoonful of Murder, S&S BfYR, Age 10+ (sixth book in the Murder Most Unladylike Mystery series)
Lauren Tarshis, I Survived the Wellington Avalanche, 1910, Scholastic, Age 8-12 (one child’s survival through the 6-day Cascade Mountains storm and resulting avalanche)
Duncan Tonatiuh, A Land of Books: Dreams of Young Mexihcah Word Painters, Abrams BfYR, Age 4-8 (a young Aztec girl tells her little brother how their parents create painted manuscripts called codices)
Jane Yolen, illus. Cosei Kawa, Deborah’s Tree, Kar-Ben, Age 5-9 (based on the story of the biblical heroine Deborah)
December 2022
Fabrice Erre, Magical History Tour #11: Slavery, Papercutz, Age 7-12 (Annie and Nico explain this tragic phenomenon with compassion, clarity, and the keys to how we can reconcile with history’s tragic past)
Miriam Halahmy, Saving Hanno, Holiday House, Age 8-12 (nine-year-old Rudi and his beloved dog Hanno escape from Nazi Germany)
Marianne Hering, Sled Run for Survival, Focus On The Family, Age 7-11 (after arriving in Alaska in the winter of 1925, the kids from the Imagination Station discover that a disease called diphtheria is sweeping through the town of Nome)
Adiba Jaigirdar, A Million to One, HarperCollins, YA (four young people aboard the Titanic plan the heist of the Rubaiyat, a jewel-encrusted book)
Lisa Maxwell, The Shattered City, Margaret K. McElderry, YA (book 4 of The Last Magician time travel series)
Alex Paz-Goldman, The Lost Spy and the Green Dress, Green Bean Books, Age 8-12 (tightly-plotted, funny, and complex story which explores heavy themes – the Holocaust, trauma, mental health and poverty)
Kip Wilson, One Last Shot, Versify, YA (coming of age historical fiction novel in verse about Gerda Taro, a photojournalist with a passion for capturing the truth amid political turmoil)
