Elementary and Middle School | Young Adult

Here are recommended historical fiction titles for Young Adults. In addition to the titles below, we recommend:

• Young Readers’ Editions: Noted social justice titles that have been adapted for young readers
•  Zinn Education Project: Lessons, books, and films for middle and high school students on people's history

Titles with reviews on this site are noted with an asterisk(*).

Being Clem

By Lesa Cline-Ransome

Dactyl Hill Squad (Dactyl Hill Squad Volume 1)*

By Daniel Jose Older

Dayshaun's Gift

By Zetta Elliott, Alex Portal (Illustrator)

The Fire *

By Thomas Peacock

Freedom Fire (Dactyl Hill Squad Volume 2)

By Daniel Jose Older

The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano

By Sonia Manzano

Sugar

By Jewell Parker Rhodes

Thunder Run (Dactyl Hill Squad Volume 3)

By Daniel Jose Older

47

By Walter Mosley

African Town

By Irene Latham and Charles Waters

Angel of Greenwood

By Randi Pink

Ashes of Izalco

By Claribel Alegria, Claribel Laegria, Darwin J. Flakoll

Black Was the Ink *

By Michelle Coles 

The Book Thief

By Markus Zusak

Bread and Roses, Too

By Katherine Paterson

Bull Run

By Paul Fleischman

Chains*

By Laurie Halse Anderson

Crossing Ebenezer Creek*

By Tonya Bolden

Day of Tears

By Julius Lester

Elijah of Buxton

By Christopher Paul Curtis

Fire from the Rock

By Sharon Draper

Fire in the Streets

By Kekla Magoon

Forge

By Laurie Halse Anderson

Freedom Road

The Glory Field

By Walter Dean Myers

House of Purple Cedar *

By Tim Tingle

In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse*

By Joseph Marshall III

Jazz Owls: A Novel of the Zoot Suit Riots*

By Margarita Engle, Rudy Gutierrez (Illustrator)

Kindred

By Octavia Butler

One Day of Life

By Manlio Argueta

Out of Darkness *

By Ashley Hope Pérez

Red Glass

By Laura Resau

Return to Sender*

By Julia Alvarez

Revolution

By Deborah Wiles

Rite of Passage

By Richard Wright, David Diaz (Illustrator)

The Rock and the River

By Kekla Magoon

Sacred Leaf

By Deborah Ellis

Shadowshaper *

By Daniel Jose Older

Stella by Starlight

By Sharon M. Draper

Storm Warriors

By Elisa Carbone

Sunrise Over Fallujah

By Walter Dean Myers

The Surrender Tree /El árbol de la rendición

By Margarita Engle

Taste of Salt: A Story of Modern Haiti

By Frances Temple

This Promise of Change: One Girl’s Story in the Fight for School Equality*

By Jo Ann Allen Boyce, Debbie Levy

Unbound: A Novel in Verse*

By Ann E. Burg

Unbroken

By Marieke Nijkamp

The Weight of All Things

By Sandra Benitez

Zora and Me: The Cursed Ground

By T.R. Simon