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CAL
Will at the Battle of Gettysburg, 1863 (age 8-11)
by Laurie Calkhoven
adventure ... war ... historical
Publisher comments: Twelve-year-old Will wants to be a drummer in the Union army, but he's stuck far from the fighting in his sleepy hometown of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Then the Union and Confederate armies converge on Gettysburg, and suddenly Will and his family are caught up in the battle.
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GER
Little Women (age 8-11)
by Jane Gerver
historical ... growing up ... family
This retelling of Louisa May Alcott's classic novel chronicles the joys and sorrows of the four March sisters as they grow into young ladies in nineteenth-century New England.
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LIT
The Spinner's Daughter (age 8-11)
by Amy Littlesugar
historical
Catalog: When Elspeth, a hardworking Puritan girl, receives a cornhusk doll from a Pequot Indian, her mother fears that Elspeth will become idle.
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LIT
Willy and Max: a Holocaust Story (age 8-11)
by Amy Littlesugar
friendship ... historical ... war
Catalog: In Belgium during World War II, Willy becomes friends with Max and his Jewish family, and although they become separated, they remain related by a bond of friendship and a special painting.
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MCS
Snow Treasure (age 8-11)
by Marie McSwigan
war ... historical
Catalog: In 1940, when the Nazi invasion of Norway reaches their village in the far north, twelve-year-old Peter and his friends use their sleds to transport nine million dollars worth of gold bullion past the German soldiers to the secret harbor where Peter's uncle keeps his ship ready to take the gold for safekeeping in the United States.
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ACK
The Night Crossing (age 8-11)
by Karen Ackerman
survival ... historical
It's hard to leave your home and friends, but the Nazis have invaded Clara's native Austria, and her Jewish family is no longer safe. Clara and her family take only what they can carry and travel by night to the Swiss border, where they hope to escape to freedom. Soldiers are everywhere, and it is Clara's heroism that carries the family across the border, their lives and few precious possessions intact.
Samantha: an American Girl Series (age 8-11)
growing up ... family ... historical
Stories of Samantha, an orphan living with her grandmother in 1904.
title: Meet Samantha: an American Girl by Susan S. Adler F ADL
title: Samantha Learns a Lesson: a School Story by Susan S. Adler F ADL
title: Changes for Samantha: a Winter Story by Valerie Tripp F TRI
title: Happy Birthday, Samantha!: a Springtime Story by Valerie Tripp F TRI
title: Samantha Saves the Day: a Summer Story by Valerie Tripp F TRI
title: Samantha's Surprise: a Christmas Story by Maxine Rose Schur F SCH
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TRI
Molly: an American Girl Series (age 8-11)
by Valerie Tripp
growing up ... family ... historical
Stories of Molly and her family during World War II.
title: Meet Molly: an American Girl
title: Changes for Molly: a Winter Story
title: Happy Birthday, Molly!: a Springtime Story
title: Molly Learns a Lesson: a School Story
title: Molly Saves the Day: a Summer Story
title: Molly's Surprise: a Christmas Story
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TRI
Kit: an American Girl Series (age 8-11)
by Valerie Tripp
growing up ... family ... historical
Stories about Kit and her family, running a boardinghouse during the Great Depression.
title: Meet Kit: an American Girl
title: Changes for Kit!: a Winter Story, 1934
title: Happy Birthday, Kit!: a Springtime Story, 1934
title: Kit Learns a Lesson: a School Story
title: Kit Saves the Day!: a Summer Story, 1934
title: Kit's Surprise: a Christmas Story
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SHA
Kirsten: an American Girl Series (age 8-11)
by Janet Shaw
growing up ... family ... historical
Stories about Kirsten and her family, settling the frontier in Minnesota.
title: Meet Kirsten: an American Girl
title: Changes for Kirsten: a Winter Story
title: Happy Birthday, Kirsten!: a Springtime Story
title: Kirsten Learns a Lesson: a School Story
title: Kirsten Saves the Day
title: Kirsten's Surprise: a Christmas Story
title: Kirsten's Short Story Collection
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SHA
Kaya: an American Girl Series (age 8-11)
by Janet Shaw
growing up ... family ... historical
Stories about Kaya and her family, members of the Nez Perce tribe in the Pacific Northwest in the 1760s..
title: Meet Kaya: an American Girl
title: Changes for Kaya: a Story of Courage
title: Kaya Shows the Way: a Sister Story
title: Kaya's Escape!: a Survival Story
title: Kaya's Hero: a Story of Giving
title: Kaya's Short Story Collection
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TRI
Felicity: an American Girl Series (age 8-11)
by Valerie Tripp
growing up ... family ... historical
Stories about Felicity and her family, living in Williamsburg during the revolutionary war.
title: Meet Felicity: an American Girl
title: Changes for Felicity: a Winter Story
title: Felicity Learns a Lesson: a School Story
title: Felicity Saves the Day: a Summer Story
title: Felicity's New Sister
title: Felicity's Surprise: a Christmas Story
title: Happy Birthday, Felicity!: a Springtime Story
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POR
Addy: an American Girl Series (age 8-11)
by Connie Porter
growing up ... family ... historical
Stories about Addy and her mother, freed slaves living in Philadelphia during the Civil War.
title: Meet Addy: an American Girl
title: Addy Learns a Lesson: a School Story
title: Addy Saves the Day: a Summer Story
title: Addy's Surprise: a Christmas Story
title: Changes for Addy: a Winter Story
title: Happy Birthday, Addy!: a Springtime Story
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GRE
Rebecca: an American Girl Series (age 8-11)
by Jacqueline Dembar Greene
growing up ... family ... historical
Publisher comments: Rebecca Rubin is a lively nine-year-old girl growing up in a big Jewish family in New York in 1914. She dreams of becoming an actress, but her parents and grandparents have traditional ideas and don't think young ladies should perform. When Rebecca learns that her cousins in Russia are in great danger and must escape to America, she puts on a show to raise money--until her disapproving grandmother steps in. Unexpectedly, Rebecca finds another way to earn money. But for her plan to work, she'll have to keep it a secret.
title: Meet Rebecca: an American Girl
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TRI
Josefina: an American Girl Series (age 8-11)
by Valerie Tripp
growing up ... family ... historical
Stories about Josefina and her sisters, in New Mexico before the Mexicn-American War.
title: Meet Josefina: an American Girl
title: Happy Birthday, Josefina!: a Springtime Story
title: Josefina Learns a Lesson: a School Story
title: Josefina Saves the Day: a Summer Story
title: Josefina's Surprise: a Christmas Story
title: A Reward for Josefina
title: Again Josefina
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BER
Samuel's Choice (age 8-11)
by Richard Berleth
historical
Samuel, a fourteen-year-old slave in Brooklyn in 1776, faces a difficult choice when the fighting between the British and the colonists reaches his doorstep and only he can help the rebels.
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FER
Born to Fly (age 8-11)
by Michael Ferrari
adventure ... identity ... historical
Publisher comments: Born to Fly tells the story of eleven-year-old tomboy Bird McGill. Ever since she can remember, Bird has loved flying in small propeller airplanes with her mechanic dad. When the local airstrip is turned into a military flight school, Bird is in heaven. But when a young Japanese American student named Kenji Fujita joins Birds class, the entire school seems to be convinced that hes a spy, or at the very least, that he and his uncle want the Japanese to win. Bird is wary of Kenji, not just because hes Japanese, but because he steals her flight-related topic for a school report and leaves her to write about the deadly boring local marsh weed. But on Birds first trip to the marsh, she and Kenji accidentally discover real spy activity in the area. Bird realizes that Kenji is actually a stand-up guy and she and Kenji begin an adventure that will shake the town and may even change the future of the United States.
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AVI
Hard Gold: the Colorado Gold Rush of 1859: a Tale of the Old West (age 8-11)
by Avi
action ... adventure ... historical
Publisher comments: Early Whitcomb's family needs a miracle. Their Iowa farm has been in the family for generations, but a long drought has withered their savings and left them in debt. Meanwhile, the great Chicago and Northwestern Railroad wants their land, and if the Whitcombs can't pay their loans, the local banker, Judge Fuslin, will foreclose and sell the farm as his own. Early's uncle (though he's more like a brother), Jesse, thinks he has the solution: to head West and dig for gold. Early is wild to go with him, as much for the adventure as for the gold. But the journey costs money--more than the boys can afford--and when Jesse flees during the night, after being accused of a robbery, Early doesn't know what to believe. When Jesse sends an electrifying message--that he has found gold, but his life is in danger-- Early knows he must do whatever it takes to find him, even if it means running away and joining a wagon train with a strange family. The journey is dangerous and full of hardships, and the closer the travelers get to their destination, the more ruined lives they encounter--lives consumed by the hunt for gold. Then to his horror, Early learns that Jesse has been accused of another, much bigger crime and has fled to a secret place in the mountains. Somehow, Early must get to him without leading Jesse's pursuers right to his door. And even if he succeeds, Early will still have to make the hardest choice of his life.
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AVI
Don't You Know There's a War On? (age 8-11)
by Avi
growing up ... school ... historical ... war ... humor
Publisher comments: World War II is on everyone's mind and in every headline, and Howie Crispers has a hunch that his school principal is a spy. With a little snooping around, Howie finds out something even more alarming. Principal Lomister may not be a spy, but he is plotting to get rid of Howie's favorite teacher. Howie's dad is fighting Nazis overseas, and his mom is working hard to support the war effort, so Miss Gossim is the only person Howie can depend on. With the help of his friends, and a plan worthy of radio show superhero Captain Midnight, Howie intends to save Miss Gossim!
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CHR
Goody Sherman's Pig (age 8-11)
by Mary Blount Christian
humor ... historical
In Massachusetts in 1636, Goody Sherman begins a legal battle over her pig that ends up dividing the legislative department of the colony into two independent branches.
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GRE
Cat's Magic (age 8-11)
by Margaret Greaves
historical ... adventure
Through a cat's magic, Louise meets and rescues some unfortunate forebears from Victorian times.
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PEL
First Farm in the Valley: Anna's Story (age 8-11)
by Anne Pellowski
historical ... family
Anna, the American-born daughter of Polish immigrants, longs to escape to rigors of Wisconsin farm life to visit the romanticized Poland of her dreams.
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PEL
Willow Wind Farm: Betsy's Story (age 8-11)
by Anne Pellowski
historical ... family
Follows a year in the life of seven-year-old Betsy and her large family on their Wisconsin farm.
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BUL
A Lion to Guard Us (age 8-11)
by Clyde Robert Bulla
adventure ... family ... historical
Left on their own in seventeenth-century London, three impoverished children draw upon all their resources to stay together and make their way to the Virginia colony in search of their father.
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FAB
Pasquala: the Story of California Indian Girl (age 8-11)
by Gail Faber
historical
A young Yokuts Indian girl describes her life on the shores of Old Buena Vista Lake in central California and the events that led her to a Spanish mission outside the world of her people.
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HOO
The Sign Painter's Secret: The Story of a Revolutionary Girl (age 8-11)
by Dorothy Hoobler
adventure ... historical
When the Redcoats occupy her house in Philadelphia, young Annie MacDougal finds a way to help General Washington's troops at Valley Forge.
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MAY
The Cat Who Escaped From Steerage: a Bubbemeiser (age 8-11)
by Evelyn Wilde Mayerson
voyages/journeys ... historical
Living in the steerage section of a steamship bound for America, Chanah tries to keep her newly found cat a secret.
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MCK
Run Away Home (age 8-11)
by Patricia C. McKissack
bigotry ... friendship ... historical
In 1886 in Alabama, an eleven-year-old African American girl and her family befriend and give refuge to a runaway Apache boy.
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MCD
Julie, 1974: an American Girl Series (age 8-11)
by Megan McDonald
growing up ... friendship ... historical
Julie Albright doesn't want to move away from her San Francisco neighborhood near Chinatown, even if their new apartment is just a few miles away. Moving means leaving her best friend, Ivy, and her pet rabbit, Nutmeg. Worst of all, it means leaving Dad, now that her parents are divorced. Julie tries to make the best of it by joining the school's basketball team, but the coach won't allow girls to play. She learns that it's up to her to make positive changes in her new school--and her new life.
title: Meet Julie
title: Changes for Julie
title: Happy New Year, Julie
title: Julie and the Eagles
title: Julie tells her story
title: Julie's Journey
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BOR
Across the Blue Pacific: a World War II Story (age 8-11)
by Louise Borden
illness/loss ... war ... historical
When the United States enters World War II, Molly is attending Beechwood Elementary. But her thoughts are with Ted Walker, her neighbor, who is serving aboard a cruiser in the South Atlantic. Three years later, the war is still going on and Molly is in the fourth grade. Ted is still at sea, as a naval officer of the USS Albacore, a submarine in the Pacific Ocean. Orchard Road feels like the safest place on earth, but somewhere on the other side of the world, Ted and his crew are carrying out dangerous missions. No one knows when they will come home, and young Molly must find a way to live with fear during wartime.
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SNE
Betrayed (age 8-11)
by Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve
historical
Relates the events of the Santee Indian raid on the Lake Shetek, Minnesota, settlement and the subsequent fate of the captives.
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SHE
Spirit of Iron (age 8-11)
by Janice Jordan Shefelman
adventure ... historical
When Mina learns that Amaya, her Lipan Apache friend, has been kidnapped by a band of marauding Comanches, she disguises herself as a boy and follows the Texas Rangers to search for Amaya. Sequel to "A Paradise Called Texas."
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HOO
Treasure in the Stream: the Story of a Gold Rush Girl (age 8-11)
by Dorothy Hoobler
historical
The lives of ten-year-old Amy and the members of her farming family are changed forever when gold is discovered on Mr. Sutter's land.
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PEL
Winding Valley Farm: Annie's Story (age 8-11)
by Anne Pellowski
historical
A young girl shares pleasures and disappointments with the other members of a large Wisconsin farm family in the early twentieth century.
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WEL
Wingwalker (age 8-11)
by Rosemary Wells
growing up ... historical
Once upon a time in America, half the people lost every dime they ever had. Then the coming of the Dust Bowl hit as hard as a prairie tornado. Reuben, just completing second grade in Ambler, Oklahoma, has grown up knowing the richness of farm life. Now his father, desperate to make ends meet, takes a job as a wingwalker in a traveling county fair. Uprooted from the life he's loved and afraid of his own shadow, Reuben needs a full measure of love and courage to get by.
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LOV
Bess's Log Cabin Quilt (age 8-11)
by D. Anne Love
family ... historical ... the arts
With her father away and her mother ill with fever, ten-year-old Bess works hard on a log cabin quilt to save the family farm.
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LAF
Worth (age 8-11)
by A. LaFaye
family ... historical
After breaking his leg, eleven-year-old Nate feels useless because he cannot work on the family farm in nineteenth-century Nebraska, so when his father brings home an orphan boy to help with the chores, Nate feels even worse.
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HEN
San Domingo: the Medicine Hat Stallion (age 8-11)
by Marguerite Henry
historical ... animals
Peter Lundy has two joys in life: the rugged western plains where he has grown up and San Domingo, a Medicine Hat Stallion. The Indians believe such a horse is sacred ... that neither bullet nor arrow can harm its rider. As they explore the prairie together, a bond forms between Peter and San Domingo that can never be broken. But Peter's father, Jethro Lundy, knows only one love: bargaining. He trades San Domingo for a thoroughbred. How can Peter ever forgive his father? His only choice is to leave home forever!
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FLE
Bandit's Moon (age 8-11)
by Sid Fleischman
bigotry ... friendship ... adventure ... historical
Newly orphaned, young Annyrose escapes from the villainous O.O. Mary and falls under the protection of a proud and fearless Mexican bandit, regarded as the Robin Hood of the California Gold Rush. Annyrose wants only to search for her older brother who had run off to the gold diggings, but she finds herself galloping beside the celebrated outlaw in his own quest. He is hunting down the last of a band of "Yankee" riffraff who wronged him, an event that turned the innocent young Mexican into an avenging terror of the roads.
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KIR
Redcoats and Petticoats (age 8-11)
by Katherine Kirkpatrick
family ... historical ... war
Members of a family in the village of Setauket on Long Island are displaced by the Redcoats and serve as spies for the Revolutionary Army of George Washington.
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KRE
The Iron Dragon Never Sleeps (age 8-11)
by Stephen Krensky
historical
In 1867, while staying with her father in a small California mining town, ten-year-old Winnie meets a Chinese boy close to her age and discovers the role of his people in completing the transcontinental railroad.
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FRI
The Cabin Faced West (age 8-11)
by Jean Fritz
historical
For Ann Hamilton, life out west was anything but adventurous. In fact, she had never been lonelier. She longed for the ease and comfort of the days with friends back in Gettysburg-until a stranger rode into Hamilton Hill and changed her life forever.
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EDM
The Matchlock Gun (age 8-11)
by Walter D. Edmonds
war ... adventure ... historical
In 1756, during the French and Indian War in upper New York state, ten-year-old Edward is determined to protect his home and family with the ancient, and much too heavy, Spanish gun that his father had given him before leaving home to fight the enemy.
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MOS
Emma's Journal: the Story of a Colonial Girl (age 8-11)
by Marissa Moss
historical ... letters/journal
The year is 1774, and the British army has blockaded Boston. Ten-year-old Emma is stuck at Aunt Harmony's house in the city, far from her family. Emma desperately wants to help the American struggle for freedom. When Papa gives her a secret code the militia uses, she finally gets her chance to change the course of history.
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MOS
Rachel's Journal: the Story of a Pioneer Girl (age 8-11)
by Marissa Moss
historical ... letters/journal
young Rachel and her family travel by covered wagon following the Oregon Trail from Illinois all the way to California. The terrain is rough and the seven-month trip is filled with adventure--a surprise encounter with Indians, a thunderous buffalo stampede, even the perilous crossing of a flooded river. Rachel's own handwritten journal chronicles every detail and features cherished "pasted-in" mementos--wildflowers, buttons, quilt patches--gathered along the way.
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COE
Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes (age 8-11)
by Eleanor Coerr
war ... folklore ... historical ... illness/loss
Publisher comments: When Hiroshima-born Sadako falls gravely ill with leukemia, she recalls a Japanese legend that holds that if a sick person folds one thousand cranes, the gods will grant her wish and make her healthy again.
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BRA
Weaver's Daughter (age 8-11)
by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
illness/loss ... historical
In 1791 after her family's journey from Pennsylvania, ten-year-old Lizzie suffers from the disease of asthma in her new home in the Southwest Territory (present-day Tennessee).
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BRI
Caddie Woodlawn (age 8-11)
by Carol Ryrie Brink
family ... identity ... adventure ... historical
Caddie Woodlawn is a real adventurer. She'd rather hunt than sew and plow than bake, and tries to beat her brothers' dares every chance she gets. Caddie is friends with Indians, who scare most of the neighbors...neighbors who, like her mother and sisters, don't understand her at all.
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AYR
Silver Dollar Girl (age 8-11)
by Katherine Ayres
voyages/journeys ... historical ... adventure
Valentine Harper's father has been in Colorado for more than a year seeking his fortune in the Silver Rush. But she's tired of waiting for his overdue return. Aunt Margaret is nice, but Uncle Franklin seems unhappy to have an extra person in the house and Cousin Harold's pranks have been getting meaner. Unfortunately, a girl can't get far on her own in America in 1885. But with a haircut, the right clothes, and a big dose of courage, Vallie Harper just might make it on a journey across the country to look for her father, and pull off an adventure that will change her life.
My Name Is America Series (age 8-11)
war ... identity ... letters/journal ... historical
Each volume in the My Name is America series recounts an exciting slice of life from America's history, told in the voice of a boy living in that time and place.
title: The Journal of Biddy Owens: the Negro Leagues, Birmingham, Alabama, 1948 by Walter Dean Myers F MYE
title: The Journal of Ben Uchida: Citizen 13559, Mirror Lake Internment Camp, California, 1942 by Barry Denenberg F DEN
title: The Journal of James Edmond Pease: a Civil War Union Soldier, Virginia, 1863 by Jim Murphy F MUR
title: The Journal of Sean Sullivan: a Transcontinental Railroad Worker, Nebraska and Points West, 1867 by William Durbin F DUR
title: The Journal of Jesse Smoke: a Cherokee Boy, Trail of Tears, 1838 by Joseph Bruchac F BRU
title: The Journal of William Thomas Emerson: a Revolutionary War Patriot, Boston, Massachusetts, 1774 by Barry Denenberg F DEN
title: The Journal of Wong Ming-Chung: a Chinese Miner, California, 1852 by Laurence Yep F YEP
title: The Journal of Scott Pendleton Collins: a World War II Soldier, Normandy, France, 1944 by Walter Dean Myers F MYE
Dear America Series (age 8-11)
war ... identity ... letters/journal ... historical
Each volume in the Dear America series recounts an exciting slice of life from America's history, told in the voice of a girl living in that time and place.
title: A Line in the Sand: the Alamo Diary of Lucinda Lawrence, Gonzales, Texas, 1835 by Sherry Garland F GAR
title: A Coal Miner's Bride: the Diary of Annetka Kaminski, Lattimer, Pennsylvania, 1896 by Susan Campbell Bartoletti F BAR
title: A Light in the Storm: the Civil War Diary of Amelia Martin, Fenwick Island, Delaware, 1861 by Karen Hesse F HES
title: A Picture of Freedom: the Diary of Clotee, a Slave Girl, Belmont Plantation, Virginia, 1859 by Patricia C. McKissack F MCK
title: A Time for Courage: the Suffragette Diary of Kathleen Bowen, Washington, D.C., 1917 by Kathryn Lasky F LAS
title: Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie: the Oregon Trail Diary of Hattie Campbell, Booneville, Missoura, 1847 by Kristiana Gregory F GRE
title: Color Me Dark: the Diary of Nellie Lee Love, the Great Migration North, Chicago, Illinois, 1919 by Patricia C. McKissack F MCK
title: Early Sunday Morning: the Pearl Harbor Diary of Amber Billows, Hawaii, 1941 by Barry Denenberg F DEN
title: My Heart is on the Ground: the Diary of Nannie Little Rose, a Sioux Girl, Carlisle Indian School, Pennsylvania, 1880 by Ann Rinaldi F RIN
title: Valley of the Moon: the Diary of Maria Rosalia de Milagros, Sonoma Valley, Alta California, 1846 by Sherry Garland F GAR
title: Dreams in the Golden Country: the Diary of Zipporah Feldman, a Jewish Immigrant Girl, New York City, 1903 by Kathryn Lasky F LAS
title: I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly: the Diary of Patsy,a Freed Girl, Mars Bluff, South Carolina, 1865 by Joyce Hansen F HAN
title: A Journey to the New World: the Diary of Remember Patience Whipple, Mayflower, Plimoth Colony, 1620 by Kathryn Lasky F LAS
title: Land of the Buffalo Bones: the Diary of Mary Elizabeth Rodgers, an English Girl in Minnesota, New Yeovil, Minnesota, 1873 by Marion Dane Bauer F BAU
title: My Face to the Wind: the Diary of Sarah Jane Price, a Prairie Teacher, Broken Bow, Nebraska, 1881 by Jim Murphy F MUR
title: My Secret War: the World War II Diary of Madeline Beck, Long Island, New York, 1941 by Mary Pope Osborne F OSB
title: One Eye Laughing, the Other Weeping: the Diary of Julie Weiss, Vienna, Austria to New York, 1938 by Barry Denenberg F DEN
title: So Far from Home: the Diary of Mary Driscoll, an Irish Mill Girl, Lowell, Massachusetts, 1847 by Barry Denenberg F DEN
title: Standing in the Light: the Captive Diary of Catherine Carey Logan, Delaware Valley, Pennsylvania, 1763 by Mary Pope Osborne F OSB
title: The Girl Who Chased Away Sorrow: the Diary of Sarah Nita, a Navajo Girl, New Mexico, 1864 by Ann Turner F TUR
title: The Great Railroad Race: the Diary of Libby West, Utah Territory, 1868 by Kristiana Gregory F GRE
title: Voyage on the Great Titanic: the Diary of Margaret Ann Brady, R.M.S. Titanic, 1912 by Ellen Emerson White F WHI
title: When Christmas Comes Again: the World War I Diary of Simone Spencer, New York City to the Western Front, 1917 by Beth Seidel Levine F LEV
title: When Will This Cruel War Be Over?: the Civil War Diary of Emma Simpson, Gordonsville, Virginia, 1864 by Barry Denenberg F DEN
title: The Winter of Red Snow: the Diary of Abigail Jane Stewart, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania 1777-1778 by Kristiana Gregory F GRE
title: West to a Land of Plenty: the Diary of Teresa Angelino Viscardi, New York to Idaho Territory, 1883 by Jim Murphy F MUR
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TAY
The Friendship (age 8-11)
by Mildred D. Taylor
historical ... bigotry
Cassie Logan and her brothers have been warned never to go to the Wallace store, so they know to expect trouble there. What they don't expect is to hear Mr. Tom Bee, an elderly black man, daring to call the white storekeeper by his first name. The year is 1933, the place is Mississippi, and any child knows that some things just aren't done...
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TAY
Song of the Trees (age 8-11)
by Mildred D. Taylor
historical ... nature
With the depression bearing down on her family and food in short supply, Cassie Logan isn't sure where her next meal will come from. But there is one thing that she knows will always be there-the whispering trees outside her window. Cassie's trees are a steady source of comfort to her, but they also happen to be worth a lot of money. When Mr. Andersen tries to force Big Ma to sell their valuable trees, Cassie can't just sit by and let it happen. She knows that her family needs the money, but something tells her that they need the trees just as much.
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RUS
First Apple (age 8-11)
by Ching Yeung Russell
family ... historical
A young girl living in a Chinese village in the 1940s tries to find a way to buy an apple, the fruit of rich people, to share with her grandmother.
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NIC
Beethoven Lives Upstairs (age 8-11)
by Barbara Nichol
historical ... friendship ... letters/journal ... the arts
The letters that ten-year-old Christoph and his uncle exchange show how Christoph's feelings for Mr. Beethoven, the eccentric boarder that shares his house, change from anger and embarrassment to compassion and admiration.
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HEN
Mustang: Wild Spirit of the West (age 8-11)
by Marguerite Henry
historical ... animals ... nature
A fictional retelling, from the point of view of Annie Bronn Johnston, of how she fought to protect the American wild horse, the mustang, from extinction because of professional killers who chased the horses for personal gain.
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GAU
Thunder at Gettysburg (age 8-11)
by Patricia Lee Gauch
historical
Fourteen-year-old Tillie is sent to accompany a neighbor to Weikert's farm when the fighting at Gettysburg gets too close to home, and instead finds herself trapped in the battle that raged for three days, from July 1-3, 1863.
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UCH
A Jar of Dreams (age 8-11)
by Yoshiko Uchida
bigotry ... identity ... historical ... family
Eleven-year-old Rinko grows up in a closely-knit Japanese American family in Northern California during the Depression, a time of great prejudice.
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RYA
Riding Freedom (age 8-11)
by Pam Munoz Ryan
adventure ... historical
A fictionalized account of Charley (Charlotte) Parkhurst who ran away to California in the mid-1800s disguised as a man, and who eventually became the first woman to vote in the United States.
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GIF
Lily's Crossing (age 8-11)
by Patricia Reilly Giff
war ... illness/loss ... friendship ... historical
Every summer Lily and her father go to her family's house in Rockaway, near the Atlantic Ocean. But the summer of 1944 is different. World War II has called Lily's father overseas, Lily's best friend Margaret had to move with her family to a wartime factory town, and Lily is forced to live with her grandmother. But then a boy named Albert, a refugee from Hungary, comes to live in Rockaway. He has lost most of his family to the war. Soon he and Lily form a special friendship, and they have secrets to share. But they have both told lies, and Lily's lie may cost Albert his life.
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WIL
Little House on the Prairie Series (age 8-11)
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
family ... historical
A family travels from the big woods of Wisconsin to a new home on the prairie, where they build a new life, hewn from the rough prairie and supported by their hopes, dreams, and heart.
title: Little House on the Prairie
title: Little House in the Big Woods
title: By the Shores of Silver Lake
title: Farmer Boy
title: On the Banks of Plum Creek
title: The First Four Years
title: The Long Winter
title: Little Town on the Prairie
title: These Happy Golden Years
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PFE
Portraits of Little Women Series (age 8-11)
by Susan Beth Pfeffer
family ... friendship ... historical
Based on Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, this charming series shares stories of friendship and sisterhood.
title: A Gift for Amy
title: A Gift for Meg
title: Portraits of Little Women. A Gift for Beth
title: Portraits of Little Women. A Gift for Jo
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ALE
Time Cat (age 8-11)
by Lloyd Alexander
short stories ... historical ... adventure
Publisher comments: ``Anywhere, any time, any country, any century,'' Gareth tells Jason. And in the wink of a very special cat's eye, they're off. From ancient Egypt to Japan, the land of young Leonardo da Vinci to the town of a woman accused of witchcraft, Jason and Gareth are whisked from place to place and friend to foe. Full of fun, excitement, and a good dose of history, here's a fantastic tale that grabs the imagination and takes it far and wide, on the adventure of not one but nine amazing lifetimes.

Addison Elementary School, Sat Aug 25 11:55:24 2012
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