List of the Week (#2): America, America!

...to read!

This year, in honor of the 4th of July, instead of just chowing down on hot dogs and gawking at fireworks, try celebrating Independence Day through your reading as well. Here's a chronological list of historical fiction that will walk you through the (sometimes inspiring, sometimes saddening) history of the U. S. of A.:

1) Native Americans (before the European "discovery" of America):

-Children of the Longhouse and other novels of Joseph Bruchac

-The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich (not pre-European but focuses on and celebrates Native American life/heritage)

2) Early European Settlements and the Salem Witch Trials:

A Lion to Guard Us by Clyde Robert Bulla

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

Beyond the Burning Time by Kathryn Lasky

3) The Colonies, Revolution and Formation of the U.S.A.:

The Secret of Sarah Revere by Ann Rinaldi

Forge by Laurie Halse Anderson

Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes

4) Slavery and the Civil War:

Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson

My Name is Not Angelica by Scott O'Dell

Nightjohn by Gary Paulsen

5) Life on the Prairie/Western Expansion:

The Little House collection by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Sing Down the Moon and Thunder Rolling in the Mountains by Scott O'Dell

Hard Gold by Avi

6) The Industrial Revolution and Immigration:

Lyddie and Bread and Roses, Too by Katerine Paterson

Counting on Grace by Elizabeth Winthrop

My Antonia by Willa Cather (Beautiful. Not YA literature, really--just, human literature. So if you're human, you should read it.)

Letters from Rifka by Karen Hesse

The Traitor other books in the "Golden Mountain Chronicles" by Laurence Yep

7) Segregation during the Jim Crow Era:

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and other novels by Mildred D. Taylor

Sounder by William H. Armstrong

A Yellow Watermelon by Ted M. Dunagan

Jericho Walls by Kristi Collier

8) The Great Depression:

Out of the Dust by Katherine Hesse

Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool

A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck

Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis

Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan

9) WWII:

Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene

The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen

Lily's Crossing by Patricia Reilly Giff

American Girl by Tony Talbot

Weedflower by Cynthia Kadohata

10) Social/Class Tension and Rebellion: The 1950's, 60's and 70's:

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

Penny from Heaven by Jennifer L. Holm

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

Just Like Martin by Ossie Davis

Dogtag Summer by Elizabeth Partridge

Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers

The Red Umbrella by Christina Gonzalez

Generally good/prolific children's and young adults' American historical fiction authors:

-Scott O'Dell (Native American experience and Revolutionary War)

-Elizabeth George Speare (Native American and Pre-Revolutionary Colonial America)

-Laurie Halse Anderson (Colonial America and Revolutionary War)

-Avi (Revolutionary War)

-Ann Rinaldi (Revolutionary and Civil War)

-Laurence Yep (Chinese-American experience)

-Karen Hesse (late 1800's-Great Depression)

-Katherine Paterson (1900's-1940's)

-Richard Peck (early 1900's/Great Depression)

-Mildred D. Taylor (Segregation and Civil Rights Movement)