Historical Happenings

F KLE Klein, Lisa. Ophelia. New York : Bloomsbury Children's Books, 2006.
The Shakeparean story of Hamlet is retold from Ophelia's point of view. Her "madness" and reactions to the plot form a very exciting and believable Ophelia!

F PEE Tamar by Mal Peet Cambridge, Mass. : Candlewick Press, c2007.
Set in World War II Holland, Tamar is the code name for the Dutch spy, trained in England and returned to Holland to help unite all the resistance forces against the Nazis. This novel is full of suspense, romance, and the horrors of war. Tamar falls in love with a young woman who is in the resistance, and his best friend, whose code name is Dart also falls in love with her. A puzzle leads to a very satisfying surprise that brings the story to a close that will keep you enthralled until the end.

F LAW Lawrence, Iain. B is for Buster. New York : Delecorte, 2004.
A fascinating book about World War II when 16-year-old Kak lies bout his age to join the Canadian Air Force and soon finds himself in the midst of bombings and death.

F BOY Boyne, John. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. New York : David Fickling Books, 2006.
Bored and lonely after his family moves from Berlin to a place called "Out-With" in 1942, Bruno, the son of a Nazi officer, befriends a boy in striped pajamas who lives behind a wire fence. This is a story that will move you!

F COR Cormier, Robert. Heroes. New York : Delacorte Press, c1998.
Francis Cassavant is 18 years old and back from the horrors of World War II, where he earned a silver star, but lost most of his face. He is now on a quest to find the man he once adored and respected, but who violated that trust and destroyed Francis' life.

F VON Vonnegut, Kurt.Slaughterhouse-Five Delecorte Press,1969.
Billy Pilgrim is the son of a barber and serves as a chaplain's assistqant in World War II. He is captured by the Germans, forced to march through Germany to escape, put in a concentration camp, survives the bombing of Dresden, Germany. After the war he becomes an optometrist, marries well, becomes wealthy, is kidnapped by aliens and and forced to live in a zoo on another planet. This time travel fantasy/realistic novel is mesmerizing!

F SIM Simmons, Edwin Howard. Dog Company Six. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute, 2000..
If you love military stories, this is for you! As he prepares to leave the Korean War, George remembers the battles and people that have affected his life as company commander--a job he did not want. Filled with violence and the horrors of war, this is one story you won't soon forget.

F RIN Rinaldi, Ann. Nine Days a Queen. New York: HarperCollins, 2005.
Based on the life of Lady Jane Grey who became queen of England for 9 days and was then beheaded, all at age 16.

F DON Donnelly, Jennifer. A Northern Light. San Diego, Calif. : Harcourt, 2003.
In 1906, sixteen-year-old Mattie, determined to attend college and be a writer against the wishes of her father and fiance, takes a job at a summer inn where she discovers the truth about the death of a guest.

F JOH Johnson, Charles. Middle Passage New York : Atheneum, 1990.
In 1830, Rutherford Calhoun, a newly freed slave leading a dissolute life in New Orleans, finds himself forced into marriage. This book is very graphic and realistic. Not for the faint of heart!

F TER Terris, Susan. Nell's Quilt. New York : Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1987.
Set in 1899, Nell tries to get out of marrying her cousin in order to go to college. To avoid thinking about her upcoming marriage, she begins making a quilt. However, she becomes obsessed and she begins to refuse to eat or drink. An amazing historical look at anorexia! (A)

F GER Geras, Adele Troy. New York : Harcourt ; 2000.
Wow! The seige of Troy is told here like never before! In this exciting book, the gods toy with the mortals on earth, involving themselves in love and war whenever bored. Marpessa and Xanthe are twin servant girls around whom the story revolves. Both sisters become victims of the gods in love, unfortunately, the both fall in love with the same man.

F PEC Peck, Richard. The River Between Us. New York : Dial Books, c2003.
Tilly, a simple girl, has her entire life changed the day the glamorous Delphine and her mysteriously silent servant arrive. Soon the Civil War begins, and Tilly's twin brother Noah goes to war. Wrapped up in Tilly's story is that of Delphine and her future grandsons. The mystery of Delphine, her servant, and how they will impact the future is not revealed until the end.

F WUL Wulffson, Don. Soldier X. School Library Journal, March 2001.
Sixteen-year-old Erik Brandt barely knows what Germany is fighting for when he is drafted into Hitler's army in 1944. Sent to the killing fields of the Eastern Front, he is surrounded by unimaginable sights, more horrific than he ever thought possible. It's kill or be killed, and it seems clear that Erik's days are numbered. Until, covered in blood and seriously injured, he conceives of another way to survive. (from Amazon.com)

F ALL Allende, Isabel. Daughter of Fortune. New York: Harper Collins, 1999.
A spirited young Chilean woman follows her lover to California during the Gold Rush time. What begins as a search for love ends up as the conquest of personal freedom.

F CHE Chevalier, Tracy. Girl with a Pearl Earring. New York : Dutton, c1999.
The life of sixteen-year-old Griet is transformed forever when she goes to work as a maid in the home of Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer, and catches the eye of the famous artist.

F CHO Choldenko, Gennifer. Al Capone Does My Shirts. New York : Putnam's, c2004.
A twelve-year-old boy named Moose moves to Alcatraz Island in 1935 when guards' families were housed there, and has to contend with his extraordinary new environment in addition to life with his autistic sister.

F CRI Crichton, Michael. Timeline. New York : Knopf : Distributed by Random House, 1999.
When a group of scientists learns how to travel through time, they enter life in fourteenth-century feudal France and threaten the history of the world.

F MYE Myers, Walter Dean. Fallen Angels. New York : Scholastic Inc., c1988.
Seventeen-year-old Richie Perry from Harlem volunteers for the army when his dream of attending college falls through. Sent to the front lines, Perry and his platoon come face-to-face with the Vietcong and the real horror of warfare. But violence and death aren't the only hardships. As Perry struggles to find virtue in himself and his comrades, he questions why black troops are given the most dangerous assignments, and why the U.S. is there at all. (from Amazon.com)

F HOS Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner. New York : Riverhead Books, 2003.
An epic tale of fathers and sons, of friendship and betrayal, that takes us from the final days of Afghanistan’s monarchy to the atrocities of the present.

F PEC Peck, Richard. Fair Weather. New York : Dial Books, c2001.
In 1893, thirteen-year-old Rosie and members of her family travel from their Illinois farm to Chicago to visit Aunt Euterpe and attend the World's Columbian Exposition which, along with an encounter with Buffalo Bill and Lillian Russell, turns out to be a life-changing experience for everyone.

F REE Rees, Celia. Witch Child. Cambridge, Mass. : Candlewick Press, 2002.
In 1659, fourteen-year-old Mary Newbury keeps a journal of her voyage from England to the New World and her experiences living as a witch in a community of Puritans near Salem, Massachusetts.

F RIN Rinaldi, Ann. Wolf by the Ears. New York : Scholastic, c1991.
Harriet Hemings, rumored to be the daughter of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, one of his black slaves, struggles with the problems facing her -- to escape from the velvet cage that is Monticello, or to stay, and thus remain a slave.

F RIN Rinaldi, Ann. A Break with Charity : a story about the Salem Witch trials. San Diego : Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, c1992.
Susanna desperately wants to join the circle of girls who meet every week at the parsonage. What she doesn't realize is that the girls are about to set off a torrent of false accusations leading to the imprisonment and execution of countless innocent people. Susanna faces a painful choice. Should she keep quiet and let the witch-hunt panic continue, or should she "break charity" with the group--and risk having her own family members named as witches? (from Amazon.com)

updated 8/16/05