Forthcoming Children’s and YA Historical Novels for 2027
The Historical Novel Society lists mainstream and small press narrative and picture book titles for readers aged 4 – 18, with settings from ancient times to the mid 1970s.
Details are pulled from publisher catalogues and websites; Amazon; NetGalley; Publishers Weekly forecasts; Edelweiss US Trade and BNCCatalist Canada Trade. The age suitability is publisher recommended.
Information is compiled by Fiona Sheppard (US, CAN, UK, ANZ).
See our guide to forthcoming children’s and YA historical novels for 2026 for the previous year’s releases.
For adult titles, see our guides to forthcoming historical novels for 2027 and for 2026.
Please link to this page rather than copying the entries – thank you!
This list is updated every 6/8 weeks, so please visit us again for more titles!
Last update: August 13, 2026
January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December
January 2027
Jake Maia Arlow, Princess of the Shtetl, Dial BfYR, Age 8-12 (story of an 11-year-old girl growing up in a 19th-century shtetl who is certain her name will one day be known far and wide)
Dusti Bowling, illus. Beth Hughes, Sir Edmund of the Wild West: Mystery in Roswell, Holiday House, Age 7-11 (chapter book series featuring a service dog who thinks he’s a knight, tasked with chasing unsolved ghost stories of the Wild West – the 1947 Roswell incident)
Alexis Castellanos, A Missing Frame of Time, Bloomsbury Children’s, YA (modern-day Camila is transported to 1895 Cuba, where she must solve a centuries-old family mystery to return to her time, discovering dark secrets, magic, and love along the way)
Casey Cep and Kathryn Schulz, illus. Aaron Becker, Black Cat Island: An Almost Entirely True Story, Little, Brown BfYR, Age 6-8 (picture book inspired by 19th-century story of a man who collects black cats with the intention of harvesting their fur, and the two clever felines who lead a daring midwinter escape)
Lisa Gerlits, The Singer of Terezin, Apples & Honey, Age 10-14 (1944; Eva and her sister are sent to live in a girl’s home in the walled city of Terezin, where thousands of Czech Jews face hunger, disease, and fear of transport to the “East”)
Taylor Grothe, Monstrous Beautiful Things, Peachtree Teen, YA (a sapphic romantic fantasy rooted in medieval history)
Deborah Hopkinson, Lucky’s Home for Lost and Hungry Dogs, Knopf BfYR, Age 8-12 (a brave pup navigates the streets of Victorian London in search of a loving home in this adventure inspired by the true story of England’s first animal shelter)
B. Sharise Moore, illus. Charis Jackson Barrios, The Marvelous Magic of Ellen Armstrong, Kokila, Age 4-8 (picture book story about a girl who inherits her father’s magic act in the segregated South)
Murielle Szac, trans. Mercedes Gilliom, Victor Hugo: No to the Death Penalty, Triangle Square, Age 10-14 (first young adult book about the poet and novelist and social justice activist)
Jennifer A. Nielsen, War Boats, Scholastic, Age 9-12 (story of a boy who is desperate to save his older brother from the Nazi army, and takes part in the rescue operation at Dunkirk during World War I)
Leslie Johnson Piotrowski, illus. Tonya Engel, The Northbound Train, Abrams BfYR, Age 4-8 (story about the Great Migration that affected more than six million Black American families who migrated to escape Jim Crow laws and racial violence)
Leslie Vedder, illustrated by Karyn Lee, The Princess and the Outlaw, Random House Graphic, YA (sapphic retelling of the Robin Hood legend in which the heroine and her lady love, Maid Marian, secretly work together to save Robin from a curse and solve the mystery behind King Richard’s disappearance)
February 2027
Kate Albus, The Passage of Jamie Quill, Holiday House/Margaret Ferguson, Age 8-12 (aboard Titanic’s sister ship, RMS Olympic, a 12-year-old orphan tries to escape his criminal uncle by pulling one last con—posing as a first-class passenger)
Rebecca E.F. Barone, Mind Not the Timid, Amulet, YA (amidst the upheaval of WWI in 1917 Washington, D.C., 18-year-old Lily decides to fight for the right to vote)
Pol Castellanos, trans. Claire Storey, The Murderess of Venice, Amazon Crossing, Age 8-12 (murder mystery with a touch of witchcraft, set around the Mediterranean in 1914, about a wealthy teen who discovers that she has the power to see misfortunes before they occur)
Kerrie Logan Hollihan, illus. Julie Benbassat, Louisine Lights a Legacy, Abrams BfYR, Age 5-9 (picture book story about an influential leader of the suffragist movement in 1919)
Dylan Merconis, author & illustrator, Queen of the Sea, Candlewick, Age 10-14 (story of political intrigue drawn from the real life of Elizabeth I, set on an island at the heart of a treasonous royal plot)
Katie Norton, I Think I Made You Up, Charlesbridge, YA (dual timeline story told in 2024 and 1954, Portland, Maine)
Mitali Banerjee Ruths, illus. Iacopo Bruno, Jitty and the Machine, Simon & Schuster BfYR, Age 8-12 (a young inventor in Victorian India gets caught up in a wild scheme and races to outwit forces far more powerful than she ever imagined)
Nikki Shannon Smith, Fireproof, Scholastic, Age 9-12 (historical survival story about a girl and her younger brother braving the chaos of the 1871 Great Chicago Fire alone)
M. J. Thomas, illus. Alan Brown, The Mighty Warrior: The Mystery of the Ancient Map, Zonderkidz, Age 6-9 (join Peter, Mary, and their dog, Hank, in an inspirational adventure as they follow an ancient map to travel back in time to key moments in Biblical history)
Jenni L. Walsh, Outlook Unclear, Zonderkidz, Age 8-12 (11-year-old Jamie is sent on a “health holiday” to heal in the fresh air of Switzerland, but when her new friends go missing in the mountains, Jamie has to help to find them)
Holly Webb, A Girl’s Guide to Going Undercover, Rock the Boat, Age 9-12 (the Rose Patrol Girlguiding unit are taking to the stage in London’s theatreland to investigate the mystery of a suspected German spy in WWI)
March 2027
Nathalie Alonso, illus. Julissa Mora, Andy and the Tri-Cornered Baseball Game, Charlesbridge, Age 8-8 (story set in New York City during World War II, follows a young Dodgers fan who gives away his most treasure possession to buy war bonds)
Samira Ahmed, It Begins with the End, Alvina Ling Books, YA (novel-in-verse set during WWII, a young British spy reverses back through her memories of a life filled with resistance, courage, and love)
Stuart Gibbs, There’s No Place Like Rome, Simon & Schuster BfYR, Age 8-12 (middle schooler Johnny Day visits his brilliant aunt at her groundbreaking tech company, but he never expects her to send him back to ancient Rome)
Erica Lyons, illus. Sally Deng, Yingcheng’s Two Hats, Levine Querido, Age 4-8 (picture book story of Kaifeng’s Zhou Yingcheng, aka Moshe ben Avram, the highest-ranking Chinese Jew in the Imperial system who, in the 1600s, managed to conquer rebels, sponsor schools, and rebuild his synagogue)
Ondrej Navratil, illus. Jakub Cenkl, Vikings, Albatros Media, Age 4-6 (follow a daring crew of Vikings from a successful raid back to a Viking village in the land of rocks and snow, in a blend of historical facts and imaginative narration)
Hanna R. Neier, When You Write Back, Feiwel & Friends, Age 8-12 (novel about tweens who share a magical connection across time and space – and whether it’s possible to save someone in the past when you know their future. Dual narrative present and 1942)
Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka, To Court a Killer, Viking BfYR, YA (a debutante seeks to turn her prospects around by competing in a competition to solve a murder for a wealthy bachelor in exchange for his hand in marriage)
April 2027
Lesléa Newman, illus. Vesper Stamper, Song of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Enchanted Lion, Age 6-8 (picture book about the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, told in the poetic voice of the Scrolls themselves)
Michael P. Spradlin, Lies of the Spider, Margaret K. McElderry, Age 8-12 (amid the rise of Hitler’s Germany, twelve-year-old refugee siblings navigate Nazi propaganda and growing violence)
May 2027
Deborah Bodin Cohen, Prairie Smoke, Apples & Honey, Age 8-12 (novel based on a true story of an Illinois prairie town upended by the government’s seizure of family farms for a bomb factory during World War II)
Erin Soderberg Downing, A Light in the Dark, Scholastic, Age 8-12 (alternating narrative that crosses generations and spans decades, three kids connected by a Great Lakes shipwreck and lighthouse each face their own journey for survival while the fate of their family and future hang in the balance)
Alison Gervais, Beyond the Dust, Blink, YA (dual-narrative historical mystery of resilience, identity, and justice, set during the little-known events of the Colorado Coalfield Wars of the early 20th century)
Ray Anthony Shepard, illus. R. Gregory Christie, The Forgotten: Patriots of Color at Lexington and Concord, Calkins Creek, Age 7-10 (honors the people of color who fought for freedom at the first battle of the American Revolution on April 19, 1775)
June 2027
R.M. Romero, The Mermaid of Warsaw, Peachtree Teen, YA (merging the real history of the Warsaw Uprising with Polish folklore, a Jewish boy living under false Aryan papers teams up with a mermaid who bargained with Baba Jaga for a pair of legs to fight the German occupation)
