Armstrong, Jennifer. The Dreams of Mairhe Mehan.  Y FIC Armstrong
Mairhe, who lives in an Irish slum in Washington, D.C., in the 1860s, struggles to come to grips with the impact of the Civil War on her family.

Avi.  Beyond the Western Sea.  Y FIC Avi
Driven from their impoverished Irish village, fifteen-year-old Maura and her younger brother meet their landlord's runaway son in Liverpool while all three wait for a ship to America; their fates continue to intertwine on board ship and in the New World.

Cormier, Robert. Frenchtown Summer. Y FIC Cormier
A series of vignettes in free verse in which the writer reminisces about his life as a twelve-year-old boy living in a small town during the hot summer of 1938.

Cormier, Robert. Heroes: A Novel.  Y FIC Cormier
After joining the army at fifteen and having his face blown away by a grenade in a battle in France, Francis returns home to Frenchtown hoping to find--and kill--the former childhood hero he feels betrayed him.

Curtis, Christopher Paul. The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963. Y FIC Curtis // Y PB C
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.

Grimes, Nikki. Jazmin's Notebook. Y FIC Grimes
Jazmin, an Afro-American teenager who lives with her older sister in a small Harlem apartment in the 1960s, finds strength in writing poetry and keeping a record of the events in her sometimes difficult life.

Hesse, Karen. Out of the Dust. Y  FIC Hesse // Y PB H
In a series of poems, fifteen-year-old Billie Jo relates the hardships of living on her family's wheat farm in Oklahoma during the dust bowl years of the Depression.

Hesse, Karen. A Time of Angels. Y FIC Hesse
Sick with influenza during the 1918 epidemic and separated from her two sisters, a young Jewish girl living in Boston relies on the help of an old German man, and her visions of angels, to get better and to reunite herself with her family.

Holt, Kimberly Willis. When Zachary Beaver Came to Town. Y FIC Holt
During the summer of 1971 in a small Texas town, thirteen-year-old Toby and his best friend Cal meet the star of a sideshow act, 600-pound Zachary, the fattest boy in the world.

Karr, Kathleen.  Go West, Young Women!  Y FIC Karr
When a disaster claims the men of their wagon train, spunky twelve-year-old Phoebe, her mother, sister, and other women rely on their own resources to complete the journey to Oregon in 1845.

Lewis, Catherine.  Postcards to Father Abraham.  Y FIC Lewis
When sixteen-year-old Meghan loses her leg to cancer and her brother to Vietnam, she expresses intense anger in postcards which she writes to her idol, Abraham Lincoln.

Lisle, Janet Taylor.  The Art of Keeping Cool.  Y FIC Lisle
In 1942, Robert and his cousin Elliot uncover long-hidden family secrets while staying in their grandparents' Rhode Island town, where they also become involved with a German artist who is suspected of being a spy.

Matcheck, Diane. The Sacrifice.  Y FIC Matcheck
When her father's death leaves her orphaned and an outcast among her Apsaalooka (Crow) people, a fifteen-year-old sets out to avenge his death and prove that she, not her dead twin brother, is destined to be the Great One.

Paterson, Katherine. Lyddie.  Y FIC Paterson  // Y PB P
Impoverished Vermont farm girl Lyddie Worthen is determined to gain her independence by becoming a factory worker in Lowell, Massachusetts, in the 1840s.

Paulsen, Gary.  Sarny, A Life Remembered.  Y FIC Paulsen
Continues the adventures of Sarny, the slave girl Nightjohn taught to read, through the aftermath of the Civil War during which time she taught other Blacks and lived a full life until age ninety-four.

Peck, Richard. A Long Way From Chicago: A Novel in Stories. Y FIC Peck // Y PB P
A boy recounts his annual summer trips to rural  Illinois with his sister during the Great Depression to visit their larger-than-life grandmother.

Rinaldi, Ann. An Acquaintance With Darkness.   Y FIC Rinaldi
When her mother dies and her best friend's family is implicated in the assassination of President Lincoln, fourteen-year-old Emily Pigbush must go live with an uncle she suspects of being involved in stealing bodies for medical research.

Taylor, Theodore. The Bomb.  Y FIC Taylor
In 1945, when the Americans liberate the Bikini Atoll from the Japanese, fourteen-year-old Sorry Rinamu does not realize that the next year he will lead a desperate effort to save his island home from a much more deadly threat.

Thesman, Jean. The Ornament Tree. Y FIC Thesman
When fourteen-year-old Bonnie moves to her cousin's boardinghouse in Seattle in 1918, she learns about life from the boarders and progressive women who live and work there.

Walter, Mildred Pitts. Second Daughter : The Story of a Slave Girl.  Y FIC Walter
Aissa, the teen-age fictional sister of Elizabeth Freeman, struggles against a system which declares that she is property and that she is to remain silent.

White, Ruth.  Memories of Summer.   Y FIC White
In 1955, thirteen-year-old Lyric finds her whole life changing when her family moves from the hills of Virginia to a town in Michigan and her older sister Summer begins descending into mental illness.