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United States Historical Fiction

Post Civil War and Reconstruction Era - 1866 to 1899

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

Ayres, Katherine (J)
Silver Dollar Girl
In 1885, unhappy living with her aunt and uncle in Pittsburgh, Valentine Harper disguises herself as a boy and runs away to Colorado determined to find her father, who has gone there in search of gold.

Bartoletti, Susan Campbell (J Dear America)
A Coal Miner's Bride: The Diary Of Anetka Kaminska
A diary account of thirteen-year-old Anetka's life, in Poland, in 1896, immigration to America, marriage to a coal miner, widowhood, and happiness in finally finding her true love.

Gray, Dianne E. (J)
Together Apart
In 1888 in Prairie Hill, Nebraska, a few months after barely surviving a deadly blizzard that has killed two of her brothers, fourteen-year-old Hannah goes to work at the home of a wealthy widow with progressive social ideas, where she finds Isaac, who is also trying to make a new life for himself. Told from alternating points of view of Hannah and Isaac.

Holland, Isabelle (J)
Paperboy
In 1881 in New York City, teenaged Kevin O'Donnell, ever conscious of the prejudice against the Irish poor, struggles to support his sick father and young sister by working as a messenger for a prominent newspaper but finds his job threatened when he is falsely accused of stealing from his employer.

Kittredge, Frances (J)
Neeluk: An Eskimo Boy
In The Days Of The Whaling Ships. Traces the life of Neeluk and his family through one year in the 1880s in the Arctic land that would later become the state of Alaska.

Murphy, Jim (J Dear America)
My Face To The Wind: The Diary Of Sarah Jane Price, A Prairie Teacher
Following her father's death from a disease that swept through her Nebraska town in 1881, teenaged Sarah Jane must find work to support herself and records in her diary her experiences as a young schoolteacher.

Reiss, Kathryn (J American Girl)
Riddle Of The Prairie Bride
In 1878, twelve-year-old Ida Kate and her widowed father welcome a mail-order bride and her baby to their Kansas homestead, but Ida Kate soon suspects that the bride is not the woman with whom Papa has corresponded.

Rinaldi, Ann (J)
Numbering All The Bones
While most slaves are being freed now that the Civil War has ended, Eulinda's young brother has been sold after being falsely accused of stealing and her older brother has run away, leaving thirteen-year-old Eulinda alone in a household headed by a cruel mistress.

Robinet, Harriette (J)
Missing From Haymarket Square
Three children in Chicago in 1886 experience the Haymarket Riot in response to exploitative working conditions.

Warner, Sally (J)
Finding Hattie
In 1882 Hattie, a fourteen-year-old orphan, joins her cousin Sophie in attending boarding school at Miss Bulkley's Seminary for Young Ladies in Tarrytown, New York, and tries to find her place in the world.

White, Ellen Emerson (J Royal)
Kaiulani: The People's Princess
Follows the life of Victoria Kaiulani Cleghorn from 1889 to 1893 as she studies to be a better princess, even as Hawaii's monarchy and her throne are being undermined by American businessmen.

Calvert, Patricia (YA)
Betrayed!
In 1867, after his father's death and his mother's remarriage, fourteen-year-old Tyler and his black friend Isaac set out on the Missouri River headed west to seek their fortunes, encountering an unsavory keel boat captain and a Sioux chief along the way. Sequel to Sooner

Fletcher, Susan (YA)
Walk Across The Sea
In late nineteenth-century California, when Chinese immigrants are being driven out or even killed for fear they will take jobs from whites, fifteen-year-old Eliza Jane McCully defies the townspeople and her lighthouse-keeper father to help a Chinese boy who has been kind to her.

Peck, Richard (YA)
Fair Weather
In 1893, thirteen-year-old Rosie and members of her family travel from their Illinois farm to Chicago to visit Aunt Euterpe and attend the World's Columbian Exposition which, along with an encounter with Buffalo Bill and Lillian Russell, turns out to be a life-changing experience for everyone.

Robinet, Harriette (YA)
Forty Acres And Maybe A Mule
Born with a withered leg and hand, Pascal, who is about twelve years old, joins other former slaves in a search for a farm and the freedom, which it promises.