Historical Literature For Teens

Sanna is a mermaid - but she is only half seavish. The night of her birth, a sea-witch cast a spell that made Sanna’s people, including her landish mother, forget how and where she was born. Now Sanna is sixteen and an outsider in the seavish matriarchy, and she is determined to find her mother and learn who she is. She apprentices herself to the witch to learn the magic of making and unmaking, and with a new pair of legs and a quest to complete for her teacher, she follows a clue that leads her ashore on the Thirty-Seven Dark Islands.

They came in summer. They fell upon the land swiftly and suddenly. Through autumn they spread, like locusts, like mice, like a plague. Now its winter. They're still here. But so too are Ellie and Homer and their friends.

He is a king, a warrior, the last hope of his people - and the chosen one of the sidhe.... Faced with the unleashed might of the Underworld, Rhiann, Cade, and their companions travel to the world of the sidhe. And it is there, in the heart of Arawn’s domain, that Cade finds himself finally able to grasp the reins of his own power to become the Christian king and pagan hero that has always been his destiny.

The third title in the compelling Tales of the Otori - the story that began with Across the Nightingale Floor and Grass for his Pillow, Brilliance of the Moon by Lian Hearn is an epic tale of love, power and destiny, set in a mythical world inspired by feudal Japan. Takeo and the exquisite Kaede, still only teenagers, are now married, but the implacable forces of destiny that rule their lives tear them apart.

Enola Holmes, the much younger sister of Sherlock and Mycroft, owns a building in the heart of 19th-century London, a place she uses under pseudonyms to front for her investigative work. Employed there is a porter - Joddy, a young boy in a uniform festooned with buttons - whose even younger brother substitutes for him when he's sick. But Paddy disappears after one day at the job, and Enola Holmes is alerted to this by the still ill Joddy.

Aspiring young naturalist Celeste Rossan is determined to live a life of adventure and scientific discovery. But when her father loses everything, Celeste’s hopes of ever leaving her hometown are dashed…until she sees a narrow opportunity to escape to Paris and attend the 1867 Exposition Universelle. Celeste seizes her chance, but the elements overwhelm her before she can make it five miles. In desperation, she seeks refuge in an abandoned chateau, only to find herself trapped inside the den of an unknown species: a predator with an intelligence that rivals any human.

Of The Lion of St. Mark, G.A. Henty wrote: "I have laid my story in the time not of the triumphs of Venice but of her hardest struggle for existence, when she defended herself successfully against the coalition of Hungary, Padua, and Genoa, for never at any time were the virtues of Venice, her steadfastness, her patriotism, and her willingness to make all sacrifice for her independence more brilliantly shown.

Set against the backdrop of the Revolutionary War, this engrossing tale unveils the untold, yet true-to-life story of a remarkable Irish-American tailor-turned-spy, Hercules Mulligan. Follow Mulligan's clandestine journey as he navigates the treacherous landscape of espionage, employing his wit, charm, and skillful craftsmanship to extract invaluable secrets from his unsuspecting British Officer clients.

Sixteen-year-old photography enthusiast Zoey has been fascinated by the haunted, burnt-out ruins of Medwyn Mill House for as long as she can remember - so she and her best friend, Poulton, run away from home to explore them. In 1851, 17-year-old Roan arrives at the Mill House as a ward - one of three, all with something to hide from their new guardian. 1583. Hermione, a new young bride, accompanies her husband to the wilds of North Wales where he plans to build the largest water mill and mansion in the area.

When 16-year-old Angus Campbell finds himself orphaned and his life at risk, he leaves Tabriz and makes his way to Teheran to seek employment with the British ambassador there. His knowledge of Persian, Arabic, Armenian, Kurdish, and Pushtoo secures him a post as a secretary for Mr. M'Neill.

1836, Wisconsin. Catalina lives with her pa and brother in a ramshackle cabin on the edge of the wilderness. Harsh winters have brought the family to the brink of starvation, and Catalina has replaced her poet's soul with an unyielding determination to keep Pa and her brother alive. When a sudden illness claims Pa, a strange man appears—a man covered in bark, leaves growing from his head, and sap dripping from his eyes.

After the death of her father, twelve-year-old Tomoko is sent by her mother to live for a year with her aunt and uncle. It is a year which will change her life. The 1970s are bringing changes to Japan and her uncle's big colonial mansion hides many secrets. It also has an unusual occupant in Pochiko, a Pygmy hippopotamus who is the last survivor from a time when the extensive gardens housed a zoo. But it is Tomoko's growing friendship with her cousin Mina which has the most profound effect on her time with the family.

Mazelina of Wexcombe has always dreamed of traveling with her father to lands beyond the confining walls of their castle. But his sudden death deprives her of the future she imagined. Abandoned by her eldest brother, Mazy is soon forced to seek help from her beloved brother Sir John at the great estate of Strachleigh. Her visit leads to a friendship with the dashing and noble Sir Berenger of Dericott. He has notions of rescuing a damsel in distress. But Mazy is brave enough to defend herself—and has proven that her skills in archery and knife throwing rival that of a knight’s.

All eyes are on those closest to the dearly departed: her mischievous sister, Diana, now the family's only hope for redemption; New York's most notorious cad, Henry Schoon-maker, the flame Elizabeth never extinguished; the seductive Penelope Hayes, poised to claim all that her best friend left behind including Henry; even Elizabeth's scheming former maid, Lina Broud, who discovers that while money matters and breeding counts, gossip is the new currency.<

From the author of Flint’s Island: The Lost Sequel to Treasure Island…. In this high-seas, historical adventure, 16-year-old orphan Peter Millet discovers that his wicked guardian, his uncle, had been a slave trader and was involved in the kidnapping of a young English girl. Peter teams up with an ex-slave, and together they must face mutiny and shipwreck in order to find the girl and return her to her father. “Add this to the increasing number of ‘thrillers’ in hard covers which match and sometimes excel the thrillers of TV and comic books. The background here is the slave trade ...

Reid has spent her whole life pretending to be a man so she can inherit her father’s estate, but when a chance encounter threatens to expose her lie, she is forced to risk everything. In the kingdom of Marsden, women are subservient to men and land can only pass from father to son. So when Reid Ellington is born, the fifth daughter to one of the wealthiest landholders in the kingdom, it’s announced that Reid is a boy.

With the other gods forbidden to interfere in the human world, it is up to Cade, Rhiann, and their companions to stop Mabon and the Saxons - and time is running out.

Cast into the underworld after an act of shattering betrayal, Mayana and Ahkin must overcome unimaginable odds if they are to return home and reclaim the throne of the Chicome. A river of blood and demons disguised as children are only two of the challenges standing in their way. Fortunately, they are not unequipped. Mayana’s royal blood controls the power of water, and Prince Ahkin wields the power of the sun itself. Ometeotl, the Mother goddess, provides them with other gifts - and an ominous warning that one of them may not survive. But can the goddess be trusted?

Berlin, 1961. Rudi Möser-Fleischmann is an aspiring photographer with dreams of greatness, but he can't hold a candle to his talented, charismatic twin brother Peter, an ambitious actor. With the sudden divorce of their parents, the brothers find themselves living in different sectors of a divided Berlin; the postwar partition strangely mirroring their broken family.

In A Presumption of Death, Jill Paton Walsh tells how World War II changed the lives of Peter, Harriet and their growing family. The story opens in 1940. Harriet Vane - now Lady Peter Wimsey - has taken her children to safety in the country. But the war has followed them: glamorous RAF pilots and even more glamorous land-girls scandalise the villagers; the blackout makes the nighttime lanes as sinister as the back alleys of London.