WORLD HISTORICAL Fiction
for Teens

AFRICA:

Things Fall Apart (20th century)
Chinua Achebe (FIC ACHEBE)
What happens to your world when fear & anger dominate it?

Half of a Yellow Sun (20th century)
Chimamanda Adichie (FIC ADICHIE)
How do you stay together when your country is ripped apart?

The Power of One (20th century)
Bryce Courtenay (YA COURTENAY)
Peekey was born in apartheid South Africa, where everything about him was wrong… everything but his boxing.

Over a Thousand Hills I Walk… (20th century)
Hanna Jansen (YA JANSEN)
During the genocide in Rwanda, a Tutsi family must flee
threatening Hutu soldiers.

Pharaoh’s Daughter (Ancient)
Julius Lester (YA LESTER)
The story of Moses and the Pharaoh retold with great detail and new twists.

The Americas:

Like Water for Chocolate (20th century)
Laura Esquivel (FIC ESQUIVEL)
Must true love be forsaken for tradition?

Feathered Serpent (16th century)
Colin Falconer (FIC FALCONER)
Is she a traitor to her people, or a true heroine?

ASIA:

Forgotten Fire (20th century)
Adam Bagdasarian (YA BAGDASARIAN)
Set during the Armenian genocide in Turkey, a young Armenain boy must survive each new day knowing that it could be his last.

Balzac & the Little Chinese Seamstress (20th century)
Sijie Dai (FIC DAI)
Forbidden literature leads to love and enlightenment.

Memoirs of a Geisha (20th century)
Arthur Golden (FIC GOLDEN)
The true confessions of one of Japan’s most celebrated Geisha.

Samurai Shortstop (19th century)
Alan Gratz (YA GRATZ)
Baseball. Samurai sword-fighting. Toyo knows them both and he plays to win!

Revenge of the Forty-Seven Samurai (18th century)
Erik Haugaard (YA HAUGAARD)
Of two hundred samurai only forty-seven will avenge their master. Jiro, a samurai’s servant, may turn out to be the hero.

The Stone Goddess (20th century)
Minfong Ho (YA HO)
Nakri spent her childhood in a Khmer Rouge labor camp. Now, in America she must come to terms with her past.

The Demon in the Teahouse (18th century)
Dorothy Hoobler (YA HOOBLER)
Seikei has been given a case… find out who started a series of fires. Posing as a teahouse attendant, he is about to find out more than he intended.

The Kite Rider (13th century)
Geraldine McCaughrean (YA MCCAUGHREAN)
A boy becomes a kite rider to save his mother and find the spirit of his father.

Empress Orchid (19th century)
Anchee Min (FIC MIN)
During the last days of imperial China, one woman seizes power… then struggles to keep the country together.

The Ties That Bind, Ties That Break (20th century)
Lensey Namioka (YA NAMIOKA)
Foot-binding was a tradition Chinese women couldn’t escape…but Ailin is determined to do so.

Bound (17th century)
Donna Jo Napoli (YA NAPOLI)
Xing Xing's fate & future happiness rest solely on a beautiful carp…and her own determination.

A Single Shard (12th century)
Linda Sue Park (YA PARK)
An orphan in 12th century Korea, Tree-ear wants to become a master potter—he finds a teacher, but the most important lessons he must learn alone.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (19th century)
Lisa See (FIC SEE)
Two friends from childhood survive the decades with the help of a secret language, nu shu (women’s writing).

I Rode a Horse of Milk White Jade (15th century)
Diane Wilson (YA WILSON)
A grandmother tells her granddaughter of her childhood in 14th century Mongolia and of her horse that brought luck to her and her family.

CARIBBEAN:

Before We Were Free (20th century)
Julia Alvarez (YA ALVAREZ)
During the dictatorship of Trujillo, one girl must escape the Dominican Republic with her family.

In the Time of the Butterflies (20th century)
Julia Alvarez (FIC ALVAREZ)
Three sisters are assassinated after visiting their husbands in jail during the tumultuous Trujillo years in the Dominican Republic.

EUROPE:

Crispin series (14th century)
Avi (YA AVI)
Young Crispin, accused of a crime he did not commit, sets off with his mother’s cross of lead across the English countryside.

The Book of the Lion (12th century)
Michael Cadnum (YA CADNUM)
Part mystery, part history… a brutal but beautiful tale of the crusades under King Richard.

Corelli’s Mandolin (WWII)
Louis de Bernieres (FIC DEBERNIERES)
Cephallonia was a quiet Greek island. Then came WWII and suddenly three people’s lives were changed forever.

Powder Monkey (19th century)
Paul Dowswell (YA DOWSWELL)
Sam’s a slave on a war ship. Will he survive, or get blown into “pink mist” like the last powder monkey?

Blood Red Horse (12th century)
K.M Grant (YA GRANT)
Will & Gavin join the Crusades. Blood will be shed. Lives lost. 2 things will be constant: Fair Ellie, & a horse named Hosanna.

The Minister’s Daughter (17th century)
Julie Hearn (YA HEARN)
They say Nell is a witch. They also say that she put a spell on the two daughters of a Puritan minister.

Incantation (15th century)
Alice Hoffman (YA HOFFMAN)
Estrella is a Spanish Jew practicing her religion in secret against a backdrop of threat from the inquisition.

Remarkable Life & times of Eliza Rose (17th century)
Mary Hooper (YA HOOPER)
“From orange seller to mermaid to a lady about town, Eliza will take on many remarkable guises” before finding “a place where she truly belongs.”

Pagan Chronicles (13th century)
Catherine Jinks (YA JINKS)
This story of adventure and humor pits young Pagan Kidrouk against the various pitfalls of Jerusalem during the crusades.

Blood Confession (16th century)
Alisa Libby (YA LIBBY)
You might have heard of the infamous Vlad the Impaler… chances are you don’t know the real-life Erzebal Bathery, the countess with a thing for bathing in human blood.

Young royals series (16th century)
Mary, Bloody Mary; Beware Princess Elizabeth; Doomed Queen Anne; Patience, Princess Catherine
Carolyn Meyer (YA MEYER)
The fascinating tales of four of the most famous royal women of England.

The English Patient (WWII)
Michael Ondaatje (FIC ONDAATJE)
Who is the nameless English patient? Three people in an Italian village at the end of WWII would like to know as well.

Betsy & the Emperor (19th century)
Statin Rabin (YA RABIN)
“In in 1815, the former emperor Napolean Bonaparte is the captive of the British, confined to the home of Betsy Balcombe and her family on the island of Helena.”

Sword Song (11th century)
Rosemary Sutcliff (YA SUTCLIFF)
What other option does a wrongfully accused Viking swordsman have than to be a mercenary? Maybe to become a hero?

The Edge on the Sword (9th century)
Rebecca Tingle (YA TINGLE)
Noblewomen were expected to be modest and genteel. Too bad for the king… he should’ve inquired about his daughter’s new suitor.

Johnny Got His Gun (WWI)
Dalton Trumbo (YA TRUMBO)
A young soldier is maimed in WWI—without arms, legs, or a face. The one thing he still has… his mind.

The Book Thief (WWII)
Marcus Zusak (YA ZUSAK)
“It’s just a small story really, about, among other things: a girl, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of stealing.”

MIDDLE EAST:

A Stone in My Hand (20th century)
Cathryn Clinton (YA CLINTON)
“Nothing stops me, not the concrete and razor wire, not the guns, not the soldiers. I stare at them with my hard black Abdo eyes, and they do not shoot me. I am hidden.”

Alphabet of Dreams (1st century)
Susan Fletcher (YA FLETCHER)
They were brother and sister. They were also of royal blood. Now they are beggars…one has a special gift. Together they head for Jerusalem towards a better future.

Anahita’s Woven Riddle (20th century)
Meghan Nuttall Sayres (YA SAYRES)
In 20th century Persia one brave young women defies tradition and gets permission to choose her husband herself.

The Beduins’ Gazelle (14th century)
Frances Temple (YA TEMPLE)
“A pair of star-crossed lovers challenge a wicked uncle in the 14th century Middle East.” Said by many to be an accurate account of Middle Eastern culture and history.

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