Libraries: Middle School
"Supporting critical, ethical and global thinking."
"Supporting critical, ethical and global thinking."
A book about the past can mean a few different things, which means a lot of reading options for this category!
For example, you could choose a book in the Historical Fiction genre. We even have a Libguide all about reading Historical Fiction!
If you prefer non-fiction, you can also choose a memoir or biography (as long as it is about people from the past), or a book from many of our History sections in the library! Scroll through the suggestions below to see book ideas for this category from both nonfiction, and fiction genres.
Photo Credit: ArtsyBee. "History." Pixabay, pixabay.com/en/history-blackboard-chalk-chalkboard-998337/. Accessed 28 Jan. 2019.
The genre of historical fiction in the field of children’s literature includes stories that are written to portray a time period or convey information about a specific time period or an historical event. Usually the event or time period is about 30 years in the past.
In historical fiction, setting is the most important literary element. Because the author is writing about a particular time in history, the information about the time period must be accurate, authentic, or both. To create accurate and authentic settings in their books, authors must research the time period thoroughly. They must know how people lived, what they ate, what kinds of homes they had, and what artifacts were a common part of their lives.
Historical fiction books—whether they are picture books, transitional books, or novels—may have characters who are either imaginary or who actually lived during the time period. Settings also may be real or imaginary. The plot events may be documented historical events or they may be fictional. If they are fictional, it means that the author created the events for the telling of the story. The fictional characters, settings, and plot events must be portrayed authentically as if they actually could have happened.
ReadWriteThink, editor. "Historical Fiction." Read Write Think, edited by ReadWriteThink, NCTE, 2006, www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson404/HistoricalFictionDefn.pdf. Accessed 28 Jan. 2019.
If you are interested in Historical Fiction, check out our BC Historical Fiction LibGuide, which is full of recommendations!
If you're not a Historical Fiction fan - try a non-fiction history book! This could even be a memoir, or biography of someone you're particularly interested in - as long as the subject is set in the past (and not right now). We have an extensive biography/memoir collection in the Middle School library, as well as numerous shelves in the "900" Dewey Range - our various histories!
Feel free to visit the Memoir page on this guide for any extra memoir recommendations.
Setting: September 2001, USA
Relates how the lives of four children living in different parts of the country intersect and are affected by the events of September 11, 2001.
Call Number: HISTORICAL FIC BAS
Setting: American Revolution in New York
As battle cries of the American Revolution echo in the distance, servants flutter about preparing for one of New York society's biggest events: the Schuylers' grand ball. Descended from two of the oldest and most distinguished bloodlines in New York, the Schuylers are proud to be one of their fledgling country's founding families, and even prouder still of their three daughters--Angelica, with her razor-sharp wit; Peggy, with her dazzling looks; and Eliza, whose beauty and charm rival those of both her sisters, though she'd rather be aiding the colonists' cause than dressing up for some silly ball. Still, Eliza can barely contain her excitement when she hears of the arrival of one Alexander Hamilton, a mysterious, rakish young colonel and General George Washington's right-hand man. And when Alex and Eliza meet that fateful night, so begins an epic love story that would forever change the course of American history.
Call Number: HISTORICAL FIC DE
Setting: 1935 on Alcatraz Island
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.
Call Number: HISTORICAL FIC CHO ► Find eBook in Sora
Setting: 1960s Civil Rights Era in Alabama
The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watsons, an African American family living in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963.
Call No: HISTORICAL FIC CUR
Setting: 1790s in Washington, Pennsylvania, and New England
A narrative of Ona Judge, George and Martha Washington's runaway slave, who risked everything for freedom.
Call Number: B JUDGE
Setting: 1940s in India
In 1942, when Mahatma Gandhi asks Indians to give one family member to the freedom movement, ten-year-old Anjali is devastated to think of her father risking his life for the freedom struggle. But it turns out he isn't the one joining. Anjali's mother is. And with this change comes many more adjustments designed to improve their country and use. When Anjali's mother is jailed, Anjali must step out of her comfort zone to take over her mother's work, ensuring that her little part of the independence movement is completed.
Call No: HISTORICAL FIC KEL
Setting: 1986, USA
Autistic and nearly nonverbal, twelve-year-old Nova is happy in her new foster home and school, but eagerly anticipates the 1986 Challenger launch, for which her sister, Bridget, promised to return.
Call Number: HISTORICAL FIC PAN ► Find eBook in Sora
Setting: 1960s in Oakland, California
In the summer of 1968, after traveling from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to spend a month with the mother they barely know, eleven-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters arrive to a cold welcome as they discover that their mother, a dedicated poet and printer, is resentful of the intrusion of their visit and wants them to attend a nearby Black Panther summer camp.
Call Number: HISTORICAL FIC GAR ► Find eBook in Sora
Setting: World War II in Germany
Trying to make sense of the horrors of World War II, Death relates the story of Liesel--a young German girl whose book-stealing and story-telling talents help sustain her family and the Jewish man they are hiding, as well as their neighbors.
Call Number: YA FIC ZUS ► Find eBook in Sora
Setting: 1920s-1030s in Illinois
What happens when Joey and his sister, Mary Alice--two city slickers from Chicago--make their annual summer visits to Grandma Dowdel's seemingly sleepy Illinois town? August 1929: They see their first corpse, and he isn't resting easy. August 1930: The Cowgill boys terrorize the town, and Grandma fights back. August 1931: Joey and Mary Alice help Grandma trespass, poach, catch the sheriff in his underwear, and feed the hungry--all in one day. And there's more, as Joey and Mary Alice make seven summer trips to Grandma's--each one funnier than the year before--in self-contained chapters that readers can enjoy as short stories or take together for a rip-roaringly good novel.
Call Number: HISTORICAL FIC PEC