History For Teens

The Whitsun Daughters is a story of three contemporary teenage girls - sisters and cousins - in a small Midwestern town, narrated by the ghost of a young woman who, over a century earlier, lived and loved on the same small patch of farmland the girls now call home. The book follows both the present-day story of the three Whitsun girls and the story of Jane Murphy a century earlier as they fight to assert their own desires in worlds determined to ignore and minimize them.

Black Americans who have shaped their country and beyond: We are familiar with a handful of African Americans who are mentioned in American history books, but there are also countless others who do not get recognized in mainstream media. Their actions may not have appeared to shake the world, but their contributions to shifting American culture were just as groundbreaking.

The Beech Bank Girls are back! Teenage friends Chloe, Willow, Annie, Rachel, Holly, and Amber become absorbed in a diary from the First World War, and discover that the choices they make have consequences, just as they did for 14-year-old Grace 100 years ago...the girls continue to live, love, and laugh together through all the trials and joys of life. And discover that even when things seem to be going wrong, God is still at work.

A young adult Alaska Gold Rush adventure.

Carol Anderson's White Rage took the world by storm, landing on the New York Times best seller list and best book of the year lists from New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, and Chicago Review of Books. It launched her as an in-demand commentator on contemporary race issues for national print and television media and garnered her an invitation to speak to the Democratic Congressional Caucus. This compelling young adult adaptation brings her ideas to a new audience.

A young Jewish pianist at Auschwitz, desperate to save her family, is chosen to play at the camp commandant's house. How could she know she would fall in love with the wrong boy?

Natural and man-made disasters have the power to destroy thousands of lives very quickly. Both as they unfold and in the aftermath, these forces of nature astonish the rest of the world with their incredible devastation and magnitude. In this collection of 10 well-known catastrophes such as the great Chicago fire, the sinking of the Titanic, and hurricane Katrina, Brenda Guiberson explores the causes and effects, as well as the local and global reverberations of these calamitous events.

In 1492 people of the Jewish faith were leaving Spain by the thousands. Not even the Conversos, those who had converted to the Catholic faith, were safe. Inquistors sought out heretics and encouraged informers to report anyone who might not be truly Catholic. Those accused were then questioned and tortured. Those declared guilty could be burned at the stake. This audiobook confronts issues of faith and bigotry, while wrestling with the questions of loyalty, betrayal, and the secrets that may lie in every human heart.

Alice is growing up in post-war London: a grey world of old bomb sites. Her escape is her imagination, which always brightens up her day. But when a new boy starts school, her mind begins playing tricks on her. She's oddly drawn to him, and whenever they are out together the world becomes a more exciting place. A place where the things she imagines appear to become real.

He remained firmly in the center of the action and at the center of controversy. That's what made General George S. Patton America's most colorful military leader and an endlessly fascinating subject. He's as dynamic in digital audio as he was in life in Alden Hatch's lively, accessible biography, which chronicles Patton from his early days growing up in Southern California to his triumphant march into Germany in World War II.

The setting is the civil war, and the hero (or anti-hero as it seems at first) is Henry Flemming, a young Northern boy who, swept up in the patriotic tide, joins the Union Army. He is plunged into the conflict, and his courage fails him - he runs from his first battle. He finds out later that his side was victorious, and he feels that he will never be able to face himself or his comrades again. He slowly recovers his courage in time for a crucial confrontation.

Justin Conkey was too young to fight in the Revolution of 1776, but now it is 1787 and he is 14. Justin is ready to fight, even if he has only his father’s old sword to protect him. But once on the battlefield, war is not what he expected. It is dangerous and frightening and nothing makes sense. Throughout a particularly bitter winter the young man is desperate to prove that he too can be a hero - not realizing that many times heroes turn out to be just ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events, who do what comes naturally to save others regardless of risk to themselves.

Eduardo F. Calcines was a child of Fidel Castros Cuba; he was just three years old when Castro came to power in January 1959. After that, everything changed for his family and his country. When he was 10, his family applied for an exit visa to emigrate to America and he was ridiculed by his schoolmates and even his teachers for being a traitor to his country. But even worse, his father was sent to an agricultural reform camp to do hard labor as punishment for daring to want to leave Cuba.

Through the telling of events from his own life, Wes Moore (author of the best-selling adult title The Other Wes Moore) explores the issues that separate success and failure. He also counterpoints his story with another man, someone who shared the same name, was almost the same age, grew up fatherless in a similar Baltimore neighborhood, but is serving a life sentence for murder. Compelled to write to the other Wes, the author was surprised to receive a reply. And so began a friendship, as letters turned into visits and the two men got to know one another.

The heart-pounding story of an unlikely band of ragtags who took on Hitler's Grand Prix driver.

The book chronicles the extraordinary life and leadership of Rome's Emperor Julius Caesar, from his early years to his assassination. "History of Julius Caesar" is one of many biographies aimed at young people written by Jacob Abbott and his brother. The biographies are written in such a way that makes them appealing and easily accessible to everyone.

This Newbery Honor Book - from a three-time Newbery Honor author - paints an indelible portrait of the prairie president. Clara Ingram Judson presents Lincoln in all his gauntness, gawkiness, and greatness: a backwoods boy who became President and saved the Union. Judson's careful reading is enlivened by her visits to his home and vivid descriptions of the Lincoln family's pioneer life.

In March 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops into Vietnam. 57,939 American soldiers would be killed and 17 years would pass before this controversial chapter of American history concluded with the dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in 1982. The history of this era is complex; the cultural impact extraordinary. But it's the personal stories of eight people - six American soldiers, one American nurse, and one Vietnamese refugee - that form the heartbeat of Boots on the Ground. Each individual's story reveals a different facet of the war and moves us forward in time.

James Meredith's 1966 march in Mississippi began as one man's peaceful protest for voter registration and became one of the South's most important demonstrations of the civil rights movement. It brought together leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Stokely Carmichael, who formed an unlikely alliance that resulted in the Black Power movement, which ushered in a new era in the fight for equality. The retelling of Meredith's story opens on the day of his assassination attempt and goes back in time to recount the moments leading up to that event and its aftermath.

Seldom given the credit she deserves, Sacajawea is one of America's true heroines. Without her help, the Lewis and Clark Expedition would never have crossed the Rockies and reached the Pacific Northwest - and the course of U.S. history would have been changed forever. Master Western storyteller Neta Frazier, author of The Stout-Hearted Seven: Orphaned on the Oregon Trail, tells the story of this courageous Native American.