Historical Fiction Library

Millions of Africans were enslaved during the transatlantic slave trade, but few recorded their personal experiences. Olaudah Equiano's The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano is perhaps the most well known of the autobiographies that exist. Using this narrative as a primary source text, authors Monica Edinger and Lesley Younge share Equiano's life story in "found verse," supplemented with annotations to give listeners historical context.

Japan 1945. Taro is a talented violinist and a kamikaze pilot in the days before his first and only mission. He believes he is ready to die for his country, until he meets Hana. Hana hasn't been the same since the day she was buried alive in a collapsed trench during a bomb raid. She wonders if it would have been better to have died that day, until she meets Taro. A song will bring them together. The war will tear them apart. Is it possible to live an entire lifetime in eight short days?

Something BIG is going on in the woods near DSA! Wiglaf and his friends are on a rescue mission to save Worm, the dragon they’ve raised since he hatched. They thought that a gang of knights-in-training was the problem, but it turns out that it’s a little girl GIANT! The DSA kids can’t let Worm become her house pet. But how can they free him?

In Venice, magic is not unusual. Merle is apprenticed to a magic mirror maker, and Serafin, a boy who was once a master thief, works for a weaver of magic cloth. Merle and Serafin are used to the mermaids who live in the canals of the city, beautiful creatures with hideous mouths that split their faces from ear to ear, and to the guards who patrol the streets on living stone lions.

With the stroke of a pen, twenty-three-year-old Ivy Radcliffe becomes Lady Hayworth, owner of a sprawling estate on the Yorkshire moors. Ivy has never heard of Blackwood Abbey, or of the ancient bloodline from which she’s descended. With nothing to keep her in London since losing her brother in the Great War, she warily makes her way to her new home.

Shut the hatches. It's time to roll out. You'll find yourself behind enemy lines with Clarence Smoyer and the 3rd Armored Division, the workhorse unit know as "Spearhead", the best in the tank armor ranks. You'll feel as if you are right beside Clarence and his fellow crew members - all formerly strangers from across America who have now become family to each other. You will be jarred by enemy fire, and then explore the other side, stepping into the boots of German tanker soldier, Gustav Schaefer, and his crew.

Rockhopper penguin Freya has always craved - and feared - adventure. When she hears about Captain Salomon August Andrée's hot-air balloon expedition to the North Pole, Freya packs her copy of Hints to Lady Travellers and hops on board. Only moments after leaving land, Freya discovers a fellow stowaway! Meet Zoose, the scrappy, uncouth mouse whose endless wisecracks and despicable manners make him a less-than-ideal travel companion. When the hot-air balloon is forced to land in the Arctic, these polar opposites must learn how to get along. Their very survival depends on it.

By turns thrilling, witty, and heartbreaking, this dramatic conclusion to the Brilliant Death duet transports us to a Vinalia on the verge of transformation and radiates with the electric power of love. With her power over magic finally in hand, and her love for Cielo at last confessed, Teodora di Sangro should be on top of the world. But the country of Vinalia is in chaos as the dictator like Capo threatens to plunge them all into war and capture every strega in the land - including Teo and Cielo.

From the world of Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls comes the historical fiction novel about the exciting life and adventures of Ada Lovelace. In Ada Lovelace Cracks the Code, Ada uses her incredible imagination to dream up technology that could have jump-started the digital age nearly 200 years ago. In fact, she writes what will become the world's first programming language.

Tomie has his own diary with a lock and a key—now he can write down all his secrets and no one will be able to read them. All through the year, exciting things happen and Tomie writes about them in his diary. Sledding down the steep hill on his new Junior Flexible Flyer, being a pirate in the dance recital, and starting second grade with real art lessons at last! Then one Sunday morning Tomie's family hears news on the radio that changes everything. Master storyteller Tomie dePaola takes us back to 1941 and lets us experience what life was like growing up in the dePaola household.

THE GENTLEMAN ROGUE He wanted his heritage. He wanted the loveliest lady in England. And he had to wrest both from a proud, glittering court whose highborn lords and ladies laughed at him. So it was Ian Montrose against all - Montrose, the gentleman highwayman, who robbed the rich of their gold - and their wives - and defied even his Queen for his love. England's most reckless, romantic era comes brilliantly alive in THE GENTLEMAN ROGUE by that historian extraordinary, Gardner F. Fox, author of Gold Medal's unforgettable THE BORGIA BLADE.

They call Gabriela "Tree Girl". Gabi climbs trees to be within reach of the eagles and watch the sun rise into an empty sky. She is at home among the outstretched branches of the Guatemalan forests. Then one day from the safety of a tree, Gabi witnesses the sights and sounds of an unspeakable massacre. She vows to be Tree Girl no more and joins the hordes of refugees struggling to reach the Mexican border. She has lost her whole family; her entire village has been wiped out.

This Raging Bull Publishing box set contains four classic Western books by Owen Wister: Lin Mclean (1897), Red Men and White (1895), The Jimmyjohn Boss (1900), and The Virginian (1902).

On a frosty morning sometime in the 14th century, in a village somewhere in England, a girl known only as Brat was sleeping in a dung heap. "You, girl. Are you alive or dead?" When she opened her eyes, she saw an important-looking woman with a sharp glance and a sharp nose and a wimple starched into sharp pleats. This woman was Jane the midwife, and she needed a helper....

“Kids always search for heroes, so we might as well have a say in it”, Brad Meltzer realized, and so he envisioned this friendly, fun approach to biography - for his own kids, and for yours. Each book tells the story of one of America’s icons in a vivacious, conversational way. Each book focuses on a particular character trait that made that role model heroic. For example, Rosa Parks dared to stand up for herself and other African Americans by staying seated, and as a result she helped end public bus segregation and launch the country’s Civil Rights Movement.

Raised in Charlotte, North Carolina, in the heart of Jim Crow, Dovey Johnson Roundtree felt the sting of inequality at an early age and made a point to speak up for justice. She was one of the first Black women to break the racial and gender barriers in the US Army when women were barely allowed to serve; a fierce attorney in the segregated courtrooms of Washington, DC; and a minister in Black churches, where women had never before had the chance to speak.

A Gothic thriller and captivating love story set in Civil War Mississippi. Seventeen-year-old Violet Dancey has been left at home in Mississippi with a laudanum-addicted stepmother and love-crazed stepsister while her father fights in the war - a war that has already claimed her twin brother. When she comes across a severely injured Union soldier lying in an abandoned lodge deep in the woods, things begin to change. Thomas is the enemy - one of the men who might have killed her own brother - and yet she’s drawn to him. But Violet isn’t Thomas’s only visitor.

Michelle Cooper combines the drama of pre-War Europe with the romance of debutante balls and gives us another compelling historical pause-resister. Sophia FitzOsborne and the royal family of Montmaray escaped their remote island home when the Germans attacked, and now find themselves in the lap of luxury. Sophie's journal fills us in on the social whirl of London's 1937 season, but even a princess in lovely new gowns finds it hard to fit in. Is there no other debutante who reads?

Did you know that our word Thursday comes from the Viking god Thor...as in Thor's Day? Neither did the Time Warp Trio. Did you know that if you say "Thursday" over and over again too close to a certain magic book, you will get sucked back 2,000 years to the time of the Vikings? Neither did the Time Warp Trio. Can our trusty heroes, Joe, Sam, and Fred, survive a wild ride with Leif Eriksson, match wits with his evil cousin, and get back home in one piece?

Millie McGonigle lives in sunny California, where her days are filled with beach and surf. It should be perfect - but times are tough. Hitler is attacking Europe, and it looks like the United States may be going to war. Food is rationed, and money is tight. And Millie's sickly little sister gets all the attention. It's all Millie can do to stay calm and feel in control. Still - there's sand beneath her feet. A new neighbor from the city, who has a lot to teach Millie. And surfer boy Rocky to admire - even if she doesn't have the guts to talk to him.