Entering Grade 7

HISTORICAL FICTION

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Magnitude
by Jennifer A. Nielsen
​As only Nielsen can, she puts readers right into the San Francisco earthquake of April 1906. Narrated by Cora, who usually finds herself buried in trouble, but who has just found herself buried in rubble. Saved by a friend and joined by a new one, we watch the three teenagers learn the power of friendship, the necessity of willpower, and how both are critical to survival. 
The War That Saved My Life
by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
If you think you don't enjoy historical fiction, please give this book a try! It opens the genre up for many, many readers! When war comes to London, parents hope to save their children by sending them to families in the countryside who have agreed to help until London is safe again. Ada's older brother is sent away, but she is not because no one knows she exists. She has never left her apartment. When an opportunity presents itself, Ada runs away to find him and so begins this epic tale of survival, found family, and resilience. This book was a massive award-winner, including the Newbery Honor Award.
Rebellion 1776
by Laurie Halse Anderson
From another powerhouse of an author, Rebellion 1776 is the tale of Elsbeth who wakes one morning to the sound of cannon fire. The siege of Boston has begun and her father is missing. Smallpox is raging through Boston and there are not enough vaccines for everyone. Will the wealthy family Elsbeth works for be torn apart by the weight of their own struggles and secrets? Will the inoculations arrive in time to save people? Will the Patriots survive to push the Loyalists out? Will Elsbeth find her father and will he be alive when she does? You'll have to read to find out!
Freewater
by Amina Luqman-Dawson
Homer and his sister Ada escape from a southern plantation with the help of their mother, but when she is captured returning for Homer's friend, Ada and Homer are forced to leave their mother behind and flee into the Swamps. They end up in a place called Freewater, where the formerly enslaved have created a free society, but Homer is determined to return to find his mother and bring her back. 
African Town
by Charles Waters and Irene Latham
In 1860, long after the United States outlawed the importation of enslaved laborers, 110 men, women and children from Benin and Nigeria were captured and brought to Mobile, Alabama aboard a ship called Clotilda. They were secretly sold to various plantations, where they made desperate attempts to maintain both their culture and survive.  At the end of the Civil War, the survivors created a community for themselves they called African Town, which still exists to this day. 
Captain America: The Ghost Army (Original Graphic Novel) 
by Alan Gratz 
Set during World War II, Steve Rogers (AKA Captain America) and his young sidekick, Bucky Barnes, encounter threat like none they've ever seen—a Ghost Army. The dead of this war and wars past are coming back to life, impervious to bullets, flames, or anything else the Allies can throw at them. The armies rise from the ground in the night and seem to disappear without a trace.
I Must Betray You
​​by Ruta Sepetys
Living under Nicolae Ceaușescu's brutal dictatorship in Romania 1989, Cristian is blackmailed by the secret police to become an informer. He’s left with only two choices: betray everyone and everything he loves—or use his position to creatively undermine the most notoriously evil dictator in Eastern Europe.
The Night Diary
by Veera Hiranandani
In the 1940s a Hindu family whose home, once in India, becomes part of Muslim Pakistan when British colonial rule ends and religious violence erupts between once-peaceful neighbors. ​
The Book Thief
by Markus Zusak
Trying to make sense of the horrors of World War II, Death relates the story of Liesel--a young German girl whose book-stealing and storytelling talents help sustain her family and the Jewish man they are hiding, as well as their neighbors.
Maus, Volume 1: My Father Bleeds History
by Art Spiegelman
The haunting story of the author's father, a Holocaust survivor, in which the Nazis are cats and Jewish characters are mice. (Graphic novel)
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