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United States Historical Fiction

Great Depression - 1929 to 1941

All books can be found by the author's last name in the Juvenile Fiction area unless noted on the booklist.

Alexander, Lloyd (J)
The Gawgon And The Boy
In Depression-era Philadelphia, when eleven-year-old David is too ill to attend school he is tutored by the unique and adventurous Aunt Annie, whose teaching combines with his imagination to greatly enrich his life.

Ayres, Katherine (J)
Macaroni Boy
In Pittsburgh in 1933, sixth-grader Mike Costa notices a connection between several strange occurrences, but the only way he can find out the truth about what's happening is to be nice to the class bully. Includes historical facts.

Bornstein, Ruth Lercher (J)
Butterflies And Lizards, Beryl And Me
In 1936, eleven-year-old Charlotte and her mother move to tiny Valley Junction, Missouri, where Charlotte befriends an eccentric old woman in spite of her mother's and others' warnings.

Durbin, William (J)
The Journal Of C.J. Jackson: A Dust Bowl Migrant
Thirteen-year-old C.J. records in a journal the conditions of the Dust Bowl that cause the Jackson family to leave their farm in Oklahoma and make the difficult journey to California, where they find a harsh life as migrant workers.

Haseley, Dennis (J)
The Amazing Thinking Machine
During the Great Depression, while their father is away looking for work, eight-year-old Patrick and thirteen-year-old Roy create a machine to help their mother make ends meet, even as she is helping tramps.

Lasky, Kathryn (J Dear America)
Christmas After All: The Great Depression Diary Of Minnie Swift
In her fictionalized journal, eleven-year-old Minnie Swift recounts how her family dealt with the difficult times during the Depression and how the arrival of an orphan from Texas changed their lives in Indianapolis just before Christmas 1932.

McDonough, Yona Zeldis (J)
The Dollhouse Magic
During the Depression, intrigued by the beautiful dollhouse they see in a house window, sisters Lila and Jane befriend its elderly owner and ultimately have a very different Christmas.

Tripp, Valerie (J American Girl)
Changes For Kit: A Winter Story
In 1934, during the Depression, Kit's cantankerous uncle comes to live in the Cincinnati boardinghouse run by her parents, enlisting her aid in transcribing his complaining letters to the editor of the local newspaper and inspiring her to write a different kind of letter of her own.

Wells, Rosemary (J)
Wingwalker
During the Depression, Reuben and his out-of-work parents move from Oklahoma to Minnesota, where his father gets a job as a carnival wingwalker and Reuben has a chance to overcome his terror of flying.

Willis, Patricia (J)
The Barn Burner
In 1933, while running from a bad situation at home and suspected of having set fire to a barn, fourteen-year-old Ross finds haven with a loving family, which helps him make an important decision.

Winthrop, Elizabeth (J)
Franklin D. Roosevelt: Letters From A Mill Town Girl
Between 1933 and 1935, a young Italian American girl living in North Adams, Massachusetts, corresponds with President Franklin Roosevelt about the conditions in her town, Mr. Roosevelt's New Deal programs, and her own family's activities.

Curtis, Christopher Paul (J & also sound recording)
Bud, Not Buddy
Ten-year-old Bud, a motherless boy living in Flint, Michigan, during the Great Depression, escapes a bad foster home and sets out in search of the man he believes to be his father-the renowned bandleader, H.E. Calloway of Grand Rapids.

Blackwood, Gary L. (YA)
Moonshine
During the Depression, in the Ozarks of Missouri, thirteen-year-old Thad has adventures selling moonshine and fishing with a rich visitor.

Peck, Richard (YAPB & YA and also sound recording)
A Long Way From Chicago
A boy recounts his annual summer trips to rural Illinois with his sister during the Great Depression to visit their larger-than-life grandmother.

Slade, Arthur G. (Arthur Gregory) (YA)
Dust
Eleven-year-old Robert is the only one who can help when a mysterious stranger arrives, performing tricks and promising to bring rain, at the same time children begin to disappear from a dust bowl farm town in Saskatchewan in the 1930s.