Just in Time: Historical Fiction

Hard Gold: The Colorado Gold Rush of 1859, a tale of the Old West

Avi (J Avi)

A diary-style adventure chronicling the journey of young Early Whitcomb as he strikes out on his own for the gold fields of Pikes Peak to find his uncle during the Gold Rush of 1859. Danger lies at every turn.

The Mighty Miss Malone

Christopher Paul Curtis (J Curt)

Set during the Great Depression, The Mighty Miss Malone follows the increasingly desperate circumstances of gutsy, 12-year-old, Deza Malone, and her family in 1936, Indiana and Michigan.

One Crazy Summer

Rita Garcia (J Garciat)

Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern (11, 9 and 7) travel from their home in Brooklyn to spend the summer of 1968 in Oakland, California, an explosive summer of social unrest, prompting the rise of the Black Panthers.

The Lions of Little Rock

Kristin Levine (J Levi)

Twelve-year-old, Marlee, and her new best friend see the consequences of racism in Little Rock, Arkansas, 1958.

The Glorious Adventures of the Sunshine Queen

Geraldine McCaughrean (J McCa)

A funny and smartly-written story following the unlikely adventures of three kids as they escape Oklahoma’s diphtheria outbreak by travelling with The Bright Lights Theater Company on a dilapidated paddle wheeler in rural America, circa 1890.

May B. : A Novel

Caroline Starr Rose (J Rose)

In 1850s Kansas, a young farm girl, May B. is hired out to a distant prairie neighbor as the wife’s helper. Her story of overcoming overwhelming odds is told in verse.

Glory Be

Augusta Scattergood (J Scat)

The year is 1964, and it’s a steaming hot summer in Hanging Moss, Mississippi. Glory hopes to have her 11th birthday party at the Community Pool, but the town has closed the pool in a fight to maintain segregation. When Yankee “freedom fighters” come to town, tempers flare.

Wonderstruck: A Novel in Words and Pictures

Brian Selznick(J Selz)

Wonderstruck is two mysterious and wonder-filled stories, one about a boy in Minnesota, 1977, and one about a deaf girl from Hoboken, 1927. One story is told in words and one in detailed pencil illustrations. The two stories are woven together and conclude as one.

Moon Over Manifest

Clare Vanderpool (J Vand)

The 2011 Newbery Award winner, featuring Abilene Tucker, left by her hobo father to make her way in the town of Manifest, Kansas, 1936. With no clues as to why her father chose Manifest, Abilene will have to discover the town’s and her father’s secretive history.

Crow

Barbara Wright (J Crow)

Based on a true story from Wilmington, NC, 1898, Crow is the story of a young boy, Moses, his grandmother and his parents. Three generations of one family, each confronting racism; each responding in a different way.