Salem Middle School Award for Excellence in
Historical Fiction Novel Selections
Title[1] / Author / Historical Connection / GradeLevel / An excerpt from the book summary on Amazon.com
1. Under a Painted Sky
$15.29
384 pages / Stacey Lee / Chinese Americans; Frontier Life / 7-12
730L / Samantha dreams of moving back to New York to be a professional musician--not an easy thing if you're a girl, and harder still if you're Chinese. But a tragic accident dashes any hopes of fulfilling her dream, and instead, leaves her fearing for her life. With the help of a runaway slave named Annamae, Samantha flees town for the unknown frontier.
2.Out of the Dragon's Mouth
$9.99240 pages / Joyce Burns Zeiss / Vietnam War / 7-9 / After the fall of South Vietnam, fourteen-year-old Mai, a young Vietnamese girl of Chinese descent, is torn from a life of privilege and forced to flee across the South China Sea in the hold of a fishing trawler. With her father’s words “You must survive” echoing in her ears, Mai endures the hardships of a refugee camp, which are tempered only by her dreams of being sponsored by her uncle for entry into America.
3.A Night Divided
$12.15
336 pages / Jennifer A. Nielson / Cold War; Berlin Wall
(Germany) / 5-8
810L / It's August 13, 1961. Young Gerta wakes up to see that the Berlin Wall has been built overnight, dividing not only her city but her family. Her father and brother Dominic went looking for work on the west side of the city and now they cannot return home. Gerta, her mother, and brother Fritz are trapped in East Berlin.
4.Stay Where You Are and Then Leave
$7.99
256 pages / John Boyne / World War I
(London, U.K.) / 5-8
880L / The day the First World War broke out, Alfie Summerfield's father promised he wouldn't go away to fight―but he broke that promise the following day. Four years later, Alfie doesn't know where his father might be, other than that he's away on a special, secret mission. Then, while shining shoes at King's Cross Station, Alfie unexpectedly sees his father's name on a sheaf of papers belonging to a military doctor. . .
5.The Bomb
$6.95
208 pages / Theodore Taylor / atomic bomb (Japan) / 6-10
830L / It is 1946, a year after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and World War II is over. But the U.S. government has decided that further tests of atomic bombs must be conducted. When Bikini Atoll is chosen for the testing site, the inhabitants of the tiny island are told they must relocate for just two years. But sixteen-year-old boy Sorry Rinamu believes the Americans are lying and that it will never be safe to return. He must find a way to stop the first bomb before it is dropped . . . even if it means risking his own destruction.
6.Dash
$14.81
256 pages / Kirby Lawson / internment camps (Idaho) / 3-6
570L / Although Mitsi Kashino and her family are swept up in the wave of anti-Japanese sentiment after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Mitsi never expects to lose her home -- or her dog, Dash. But, as World War II rages and people of Japanese descent are forced into camps, Mitsi is separated from Dash, her classmates, and life as she knows it.
7.Chains
$8.04
316 pages / Laurie Halse Anderson / Revolutionary War
(New York City) / 5-9
780L / As the Revolutionary War begins, thirteen-year-old Isabel wages her own fight...for freedom. Promised freedom upon the death of their owner, she and her sister, Ruth, in a cruel twist of fate become the property of a malicious New York City couple, the Locktons, who have no sympathy for the American Revolution and even less for Ruth and Isabel. When Isabel meets Curzon, a slave with ties to the Patriots, he encourages her to spy on her owners, who know details of British plans for invasion.
8.Stella By Starlight
$12.08
336 pages / Sharon Draper / segregation;
Great Depression
(North Carolina) / 4-8
740L / Stella lives in the segregated South—in Bumblebee, North Carolina, to be exact about it. Some stores she can go into. Some stores she can’t. Some folks are right pleasant. Others are a lot less so. To Stella, it sort of evens out, and heck, the Klan hasn’t bothered them for years. But one late night, later than she should ever be up, much less wandering around outside, Stella and her little brother see something they’re never supposed to see….
9.Between Shades of Gray
$5.17
384 pages / Ruta Sepetys / Stalin, gulag
(Soviet Union, Siberia) / 7-12
490L / Lina has a normal childhood until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home, tearing her family from the comfortable life they've known. Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and dirty train car, Lina, her mother, and her young brother slowly make their way north, crossing the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia.
10. The River Between Us
$6.99
176 pages / Richard Peck / American Civil War / 7-12
740L / The year is 1861. Civil war is imminent and Tilly Pruitt's brother, Noah, is eager to go and fight on the side of the North. With her father long gone, Tilly, her sister, and their mother struggle to make ends meet and hold the dwindling Pruitt family together. Then one night a mysterious girl arrives on a steamboat bound for St. Louis
11. The Green Glass Sea
$8.99
368 pages / Ellen Klages / Manhattan Project
(New Mexico) / 5-8
790L / It's 1943, and eleven-year-old Dewey Kerrigan is en route to New Mexico to live with her mathematician father. Soon she arrives at a town that, officially, doesn't exist. It is called Los Alamos, and it is abuzz with activity, as scientists and mathematicians from all over America and Europe work on the biggest secret of all--"the gadget."
12. Chickadee
$6.99
224 pages / Louise Erdrich / mid-1800s Native Americans (Minnesota) / 4-8
800L / Twin brothers Chickadee and Makoons have done everything together since they were born—until the unthinkable happens and the brothers are separated. Desperate to reunite, both Chickadee and his family must travel across new territories, forge unlikely friendships, and experience both unexpected moments of unbearable heartache as well as pure happiness.
13. One Crazy Summer
$6.00
240 pages / Rita Williams-
Garcia / 1968; Black Panthers; civil rights movement
(Oakland, CA) / 4-7
750L / Eleven-year-old Delphine is like a mother to her two younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern. She's had to be, ever since their mother, Cecile, left them seven years ago for a radical new life in California. When they arrive from Brooklyn to spend the summer with her, Cecile is nothing like they imagined. Unexpectedly, Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern learn much about their family, their country, and themselves during one truly crazy summer.
Dear Students,
In quarter three, you will read a work of historical fiction. Please review these fourteen choices and select your top two or three choices. Consult with fellow 6-1 Supernovas, reach a consensus (agreement), and form reading groups consisting of 2-4 students. You and your partner or group will not only read the same novel, but you’ll also research the time period in which your novel is set. You’ll create a multimedia presentation using tools such as - but not limited to - Google Slides, StoryBoardThat.com, Animoto, Padlet, Haiku Deck, and iMovie.
Dear Parents,
Once your child has chosen a novel from this list, please conduct research online (Amazon.com is always helpful) to be sure you are comfortable with your child’s reading selection. It should be of interest to your child, at an appropriate reading level, and approved by you. If possible, please purchase the book during the track out period. Used or new copies may be purchased online or visit a local bookstore such as Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh. Call ahead to see if the bookstore has your child’s chosen book.
Students and Parents,
If you are unable to purchase a book, please email me at as soon as possible with your book selection.
ALL 6-1 students will be expected to have their books in class each day starting Tuesday, January 19.
[1]The most popular titles from track one are The Green Glass Sea, The Bomb, and Between Shades of Gray. Two groups are reading each of these novels: A Night Divided, Dash, Chains, Stella By Starlight, and The River Between Us. One group is reading Chickadee.
Books NOT chosen include One Crazy Summer, The Storm in the Barn, Under a Painted Sky (it's $15!), Out of the Dragon's Mouth, and Stay Where You Are and Then Leave.