5th-6th Grade Historical Fiction

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Number the Stars is a 1989 middle-grade novel by Lois Lowry. A work of historical fiction, it focuses on the experiences of Annemarie Johansen, a 10-year-old Danish girl, living in Copenhagen during World War II. The book follows Annemarie and her family as they attempt to save their Jewish friends, the Rosens, from being sent to a Nazi concentration camp. The novel was critically acclaimed at the time of its release and won the 1990... Read Number the Stars Summary

One Crazy Summer, a Coretta Scott King Book Award winner and National Book Award nominee, is a historical novel for children that was published in 2009 by Rita Williams-Garcia. Other works by this author include P.S. Be Eleven, Like Sisters on the Homefront, and Clayton Byrd Goes Underground.This guide is based on the 2009 Amistad/HarperCollins Kindle edition. Set in 1968, the novel describes what happens when Delphine Gaither and her two younger sisters, Vonetta and... Read One Crazy Summer Summary

Karen Hesse’s Out of the Dust is a historical middle-grade novel in verse first published in 1997. Through 110 first-person free verse poems, the narrative tells the story of two years in the life of Billie Jo Kelby, young daughter of a struggling farming family in the Oklahoma Panhandle in the mid-1930s. After a tragic accident results in the death of Billie Jo’s mother and baby brother, she and her father must find a way... Read Out of the Dust Summary

Refugee (2017) is a historical, young adult fiction novel by Alan Gratz. It follows the stories of three refugee children in three different geographic locations and points in time. Each child experiences traumatic losses and personal victories as they struggle to escape the political instability of their homelands. Josef Landau is fleeing Nazi Germany in 1939. Isabel Fernandez is escaping Castro’s Cuba in 1994. Mahmoud Bishara is leaving Syria during the volatile regime of Bashar... Read Refugee Summary

Mildred D. Taylor’s semi-autobiographical Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is a middle grade novel first published in 1976. The novel received the 1977 John Newbery Medal and was recognized by the Coretta Scott King Book Awards. With more than 6.5 million copies in print, the novel anchors Taylor’s “Logan saga,” a series of novels about the same family. A 1978 TV movie of the novel was nominated for two Emmy Awards. This guide references... Read Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Summary

Scott O’Dell’s children’s novel Sing Down the Moon (1970) is a work of historical fiction focusing on a mid-19th-century Navajo teen girl who calls herself Bright Morning. She and her people live as shepherds and farmers in Canyon de Chelly in Arizona. Bright Morning faces a series of trials in the novel: First, she is taken captive and sold into slavery; after she escapes home, white soldiers force her people to leave their village and... Read Sing Down the Moon Summary

Set during the Great Depression in the segregated South, Stella by Starlight is a historical middle grade novel by award-winning author Sharon M. Draper. As the Ku Klux Klan exerts increasing influence over the residents of rural Bumblebee, North Carolina, 11-year-old Stella Mills must confront racism while navigating the challenges of school, family life, and friendship. First published in 2015, the novel won the Charlotte Huck Award, an honor for children’s fiction granted by the... Read Stella by Starlight Summary

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The Birchbark House is a 1999 juvenile novel by Louise Erdrich. The book is the first in a five-book series. It takes place in 1847 on Madeline Island, or Moningwanaykaning, meaning “Island of the Golden-Breasted Woodpecker,” located on Lake Superior. The book follows the story of Omakayas, a young Anishinabe (Indigenous Ojibwa) girl and her family over the course of one year. While the book is presented episodically, with four different segments highlighting various cultural... Read The Birchbark House Summary

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The Lions of Little Rock (2012) is the second novel by juvenile fiction author Kristin Levine. Other titles she has written include The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had (2009), Paper Cowboy (2014), and The Jigsaw Jungle (2018). The book is suitable for readers aged 10 to 13 and is categorized as Children’s American Historical Fiction, Children’s Prejudice and Racism Books, and Children’s Friendships. The author felt compelled to tell this story because her mother... Read The Lions Of Little Rock Summary

Rodman Philbrick’s The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg (2009) is a historical fiction novel for middle-grade readers. It won the Newbery Honor award for its story about a young boy’s travels across Civil War America in search of his lost brother. The 2011 e-book edition is the basis for this study guide. Plot SummaryHomer Figg, 12 years old in 1863, lives on a farm in Maine with his older brother, Harold. They’re in... Read The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg Summary

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Published in 1983, The Sign of the Beaver is a historical adventure novel for middle grade readers written by Elizabeth George Speare. Based on a true story that took place in 1760s Colonial America, the book follows the adventures of a young English boy who, while living alone in the Maine wilderness, befriends a local Penobscot boy who teaches him how to survive. The experience changes his views of himself, his family and fellow colonists... Read The Sign of the Beaver Summary

The War That Saved My Life is a work of historical fiction by bestselling author Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. The novel is intended for middle-grade readers and was published in 2015. It has won several awards, including the Newbery Honor for being among the most distinguished American children’s book of its year. The Wall Street Journal and Publishers Weekly listed the book as among the best children’s books in 2015, and it won 14 state book... Read The War That Saved My Life Summary