KEY: jP = Picture Books; jZ = 1st and 2nd Grade Readers; jE = 3rd and 4th Grade Readers; J = 5th Grade and Up

1700's

updated August 2012


Picture Books

Kay, Verla HOMESPUN SARAH
Simple rhyming text presents the everyday life of a young girl, living on a Pennsylvania farm in the early 1700's.
2003 unpaged

Kinsey-Warnock, Natalie THE BEAR THAT HEARD CRYING
A fictionalized retelling of the true story of 3-year-old Sarah Whitcher, who in 1783, became lost in the woods of New Hampshire and was protected by a bear until her rescue 4 days later.
1996 unpaged

Kinsey-Warnock, Natalie WILDERNESS CAT
Papa's announcement that Moses, the cat, couldn't move to Canada with the family devastated Serena. Their journey from Vermont in the late 1700's into the Canadian wilderness was hard. Papa and brother Luke return to Craftsbury to earn money to keep the family alive, but back home, a miracle brings relief to the wilderness cabin.
1992 unpaged

Siegelson, Kim IN THE TIME OF THE DRUMS
Mentu, an American-born slave boy, watches his beloved grandmother, Twi, lead the insurrection at Teakettle Creek of Ibo people arriving from Africa on a slave ship.
1999 unpaged


1st - 2nd Grades

Fritz, Jean GEORGE WASHINGTON'S MOTHER
1708-1789 Virginia. Describes the life of our first President's mother and her children.
1992 48 p.
Herman, John RED, WHITE AND BLUE
THE STORY OF THE AMERICAN FLAG

Describes how the American flag came into being, how it has changed over the years, and its importance as the symbol of our country.
1998 48 p.
Murphy, Frank GEORGE WASHINGTON AND THE GENERAL'S DOG
Recounts events in the life of George Washington that focus on his fondness for animals.
2002 unpaged


3rd - 4th Grades

Birch, Beverley BENJAMIN FRANKLIN'S ADVENTURES WITH ELECTRICITY
Description of Franklin's kite experiment and subsequent work with electricity in the 1750's.
1996 unpaged

Dalgliesh, Alice THE COURAGE OF SARAH NOBLE
Based on a true story, 8-year-old Sarah and her father travel from Westfield, Massachusetts to New Milford Connecticut so she can cook for him while he builds the family home. 1707 .
1982 53 p.

Ingoglia, Gina JOHNNY APPLESEED AND THE PLANTING OF THE WEST
Disney's AMERICAN FRONTIER #5
In 1794, Johnny Chapman and his younger brother Nat left their home in Massachusetts to seek adventure and a new life in the West. Johnny was so grateful for the kindnesses he received on their way that he decided to devote the rest of his life to helping others. By planting hundreds of apple orchards across the frontier, Johnny made sure that people would at least have something to eat.
1992 75 p.

Krensky, Stephen THE PRINTER'S APPRENTICE
In 1735 in New York City, a young printer's apprentice learns about the importance of freedom of speech when the printer Peter Zenger is arrested and tried for writing articles criticizing the government.
1995 100 p.

Mandrell, Louise RUNAWAY THANKSGIVING
In 1787 Kentucky, 11-year-old Reba runs intothe forest with her pet turkey Moses to protect him from being killed and cooked for Thanksgiving dinner, but surprises and danger await her in the wilderness.
1992 unpaged

Turner, Ann WHEN MR. JEFFERSON CAME TO PHILADELPHIA
WHAT I LEARNED OF FREEDOM, 1776

A young boy is fascinated by a lodger at his mother's boardinghouse in the summer of 1776. It turns out that the interesting lodger is Thomas Jefferson. Turner's simple text explains about Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence.
2004 unpaged

Van Leeuwen, Jean THE AMAZING AIR BALLOON
In this story, based on true events, a 13-year-old apprentice takes the first manned hot-air balloon flight in America and gains new insight into life's possibilities.
2003 unpaged


5th Grade and Up

Jones, Elizabeth LADY MARGARET'S GHOST
A Felicity Mystery
American Girl
In 1776, eleven-year-old Felicity runs the household while her mother and siblings are away, but is distracted by her horse's ill health, two strangers in town, and the fear that a box of family heirlooms is haunted. Includes historical information about life in colonial Williamsburg.
2009 171 p.
Anderson, Laurie FEVER 1793
In 1793 Philadelphia, 16-year-old Matilda Cook, separated from her sick mother, learns about perserverance and self-reliance when she is forced to cope with the horrors of a yellow fever epidemic.
2000 243 p.

Avi CAPTAIN GREY
Following the Revolution, an 11-year-old boy becomes the captive of a ruthless man who has set up his own nation supported by piracy, on a remote part of the New Jersey coast.
1977 141 p.

Avi NIGHT JOURNEYS
Pennsylvania-New Jersey border in 1768. Two young endentured servants escape into Pennsylvania and receive help from 12-year-old Peter York and his guardian, Everett Shinn, a devout Quaker.
1979 143 p.

Bradley, Kimberly WEAVER'S DAUGHTER
In 1791 after her family's journey from Pennsylvania, 10-year-old Lizzie suffers from the disease of asthma in her new home in the Southwest Territory (present-day Tennessee).
2000 162 p.

Collier, James BLOODY COUNTRY
In the mid-eighteenth century a family moves from Connecticut to Pennsylvania and becomes involved in the property conflict between the two states.
1976 183 p.

Curry, Jane Louise DARK SHADE
16-year-old Maggie attempts to save recently orphaned Kip from permanently going back in time to 1758 as an adopted Lenape in the primeval forests of western Pennsylvania.
1998 168 p.

Dubois, Muriel ABENAKI CAPTIVE
In 1752, 18-year-old Abenaki warrior Ogistin is present when a band of his people capture an English trapper, John Stark, and as Stark is carried into captivity in Canada a bond of hate and competition develops between him and Ogistin.
1994 173 p.

Durrant, Lynda THE BEADED MOCCASINS
THE STORY OF MARY CAMPBELL

After being captured by a group of Delaware Indians and given to their leader as a replacement for his dead granddaughter, 12-year-old Mary Campbell is forced to travel west with them to Ohio.
1998 171 p.

Durrant, Lynda ECHOHAWK
A twelve-year-old white boy, adopted and raised by Mochicans in the Hudson River Valley during the 1730's, is sent with his younger brother to an English settlement for schooling.
1996 181 p.

Durrant, Lynda TURTLE CLAN JOURNEY
sequel to ECHOHAWK
As the captive white boy Echohawk and his Mohican father and brother make a perilous journey from the Hudson River Valley to a settlement on the Ohio River, Echohawk feels the conflicting pulls of his dual heritage.
1999 180 p.

Edmonds, Walter THE MATCHLOCK GUN
In 1756, during the French and Indian War, ten-year-old Edward is determined to protect his home and family with the ancient, Spanish gun that his father gave him before leaving home to fight. (Newbery Medal 1942)
1941 50 p.

Fast, Howard APRIL MORNING
April 19, 1775. A young man's baptism by fire during the bloody battle of Lexington.
1961 202 p.

Field, Rachel CALICO BUSH
1932 Newbery Honor Book. In 1742-1743, 13-year-old Marguerite Ledoux, a young French emigrant, finds herself all alone in the New World after her uncle and grandmother die. She agrees to be "bound" to a family who are moving to begin a farm on an isolated section of the coast of colonial Maine. This novel depicts farm life in colonial America and the interactions on a young girl in a whole new culture.
1931 201 p.

Fleishman, Paul PATH OF THE PALE HORSE
Lep, an apprentice to a doctor, helps his master take care of yellow fever victims in Philadelphia during the epidemic of 1793.
1983 147 p.

Forbes, Esther JOHNNY TREMAIN
After injuring his hand, a silversmith's apprentice in Boston becomes a messenger for the Sons of Liberty in the days before the American Revolution. 1773.
1971 293 p.

Fritz, Jean EARLY THUNDER
Traces a youth's growth to maturity as he resolves his political conflicts in pre-revolutionary Salem, a center of high feeling between the British and colonists. 1774-75.
1967 225 p.

Genty, G.A WITH WOLFE IN CANADA or The Winning of a Continent
The Battle of Quebec 1759.
1999 353 p.

Giblin, James Cross THE BOY WHO SAVED CLEVELAND
1798. During a malaria epidemic in late eighteenth-century Cleveland, Ohio, ten-year-old Seth Doan surprises his family, his neighbors, and himself by having the strength to carry and grind enough corn to feed everyone. Based on a true story.
2006 62 p.

Grote, JoAnn DANGER IN THE HARBOR
GRAIN RIOTS THREATEN BOSTON

The American Adventure series
When Queen Anne's War leaves Boston with major problems such as food shortages and riots, ten-year-old Beth and her family struggle to survive peacefully.
1998 137 p.

Grote, JoAnn QUEEN ANNE'S WAR 1998 136 p.

Keehn, Sally I AM REGINA
In 1755, as the French and Indian War begins, 10-year-old Regina is kidnapped by Indians in central Pennsylvania, and she must struggle to hold onto memories of her earlier life as she grows up under the name of Tskinnak and starts to become Indian herself.
1991 235 p.

Ketchum, Liza WHERE THE GREAT HAWK FLIES
1782.Years after a violent New England raid by the Redcoats and their Revolutionary War Indian allies, two families, one that suffered during that raid and one with an Indian mother and Patriot father, become neighbors and must deal the past.
2005 264 p.

Jones, Elizabeth McDavid MYSTERY ON SKULL ISLAND
American Girl History Mysteries
In 1724, 12-year-old Rachel and her friend Sally discover a pirates' hiding place on a deserted island near Charles Town, South Carolina, and they suspect it may be connected to the woman who will soon become Rachel's stepmother.
2001 173 p.

Lawlor, Laurie ADVENTURE ON THE WILDERNESS ROAD, 1775
American Sisters series
The Poage family's journey from Tennessee to Kentucky.
1999 178 p.

Lawlor, Laurie HORSEBACK ON THE BOSTON POST ROAD,1704
American Sisters series
As the winter of 1704 approaches, New Englanders are reeling from the news of war with the French and Indians. A mysterious letter has arrrived for Madame Sarah Kemble Knight, instructing her to bring the identical twin servants, 12-year-old Hester and Philena, on a long, dangerous journey by horse from Boston toward New Haven, Connecticut. But Madame Knight decides to take only one of the twins, who have been bound in servitude to her since infancy. Devastated, Hester starts off with her mistress, leaving her sister behind.
2000 177 p.

Lutz, Norma MAGGIE'S DARE
Sisters in Time series
The Great Awakening
A twelve-year-old Bostonian finds her heart stirred by a major spiritual revival and determines she must dare to help a mistreated slave girl. 1744.
2005 142 p.

Matcheck, Dianne THE SACRIFICE
When her father's death leaves her orphaned and an outcast among her Apsaalooka (Crow) people, a 15-year-old sets out to avenge his death and prove that she, not her dead twin brother, is destined to be the Great One.
1998 194 p.

McCaughrean, Geraldine THE PIRATE'S SON
Left penniless in 18th century England, 14-year-old Nathan Gull and his mousy sister Maud accompany Tamo, the son of a notorious pirate, to his homeland of Madagascar where they are all changed by their encounter with Tamo's dangerous past. 1717.
1998 295 p.

McKissack, Patricia LOOK TO THE HILLS
THE DIARY OF LOZETTE MOREAU, A FRENCH SLAVE GIRL

New York Colony, 1763
Dear American
Brought up in France as the African slave companion of a nobleman's daughter, thirteen-year-old Zettie records the events of 1763, when she and her mistress escape to the New World where they are inadvertently drawn into the hostilities of the ongoing French and Indian War and, eventually, find a new direction to their lives.
2004 188 p.

Miller, Susan Martins BOSTON REVOLTS!
American Colonist Fight the Kings Taxes

The American Adventure #9series
During the Christmas season of 1764 in an increasingly tense Boston, 12-year-old Kathleen Lankford and her 14-year-old brother William rish danger when they try to help a soldier wounded in a mob riot against British rule.
2000 142 p.

Moore, Robin MAGGIE AMONG THE SENECA
Maggie Callahan journeys across the rugged Pennsylvania frontier to find her kin but, just before she reaches the destination, she is taken captive by a band of Seneca warriors and forced to travel with them along the war trail. 1778.
1987 99 p.

Myers, Walter Dean GLORY FIELD
Follows a family's two-hundred year history, from the capture of an African boy in the 1750s through the lives of his descendants, as their dreams and circumstances lead them away from and back to the small plot of land in South Carolina that they call the Glory Field.
1994 375 p.

Nixon, Joan Lowery ANN'S STORY: 1747
Young Americans
Colonial Williamsburg

Ann, a young girl in 18th century Williamsburg, wants to become a doctor like her father, but she is not allowed even to study Latin or mathematics.
2000 118 p.

Nixon, Joan Lowery CAESAR'S STORY: 1759
Young Americans
Colonial Williamsburg

After having been a slave on Carter's Grove plantation near Williamsburg, Virginia, since childhood, Caesar finally finds a way to plan his own future.
2000 133 p.

Nixon, Joan Lowery MARIA'S STORY: 1773
Young Americans
Colonial Williamsburg

In Williamsburg, Virginia, two years before the start of the American Revolution, 9-year-old Maria worries that her mother will lose her contract to publish official reposrts and announcements of the British government because she prints anti-British articles in their family-run newspaper. 1773.
2001 138 p.

Nordoff, Charles MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY
THE H.M.S. Bounty, set sail from England in 1787 bound for Tahiti. Part of the crew mutinies and sets Captain Bligh, a harsh taskmaster, and 18 others adrift in a small boat. The mutineers and nonmutineers on the ship then divide. Some seek refuge on an uncharted island, while others stay on Tahiti, eventually to be arrested and court-martialed.
1932 379 p.

O'Dell, Scott SARAH BISHOP
Left alone after the deaths of her father and brother who take opposite sides in the War for Independence, and fleeing from the British who seek to arrest her, Sarah Bishop struggles to shape a new life for herself in the wilderness (Long Island).
1980 184 p.

Peckham, Howard WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON
YOUNG TIPPECANOE

Young Patriots Series
A biography focusing on the early years of the man who distinguished himself at the Battle of Tippecanoe and was later elected the 9th president of the United States.
2000 110 p.

Richter, Conrad THE LIGHT IN THE FOREST
1764-65. An Indian village in Ohio and a white settlement in western Pennsylvania. A white boy captured and reared by Indians is forcibly returned to his white family. Unable to readjust to white civilization, he attempts to rejoin his foster Indian family but is banished for refusing to help ambush white settlers.
1966 176 p.

Rinaldi, Ann A BREAK WITH CHARITY
A STORY ABOUT THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS

While waiting for a church meeting in 1706, Susanna English, daughter of a wealthy Salem merchant, recalls the malice, fear, and accusations of witchcraft that tore her village apart in 1692.
1992 224 p.

Rinaldi, Ann THE SECOND BEND IN THE RIVER
In 1798 Rebecca, a young settler in the Ohio territory, meets the Shawnee called Tecumseh and later develops a deep friendship with him.
1997 265 p.

Shaik, Fatima MELITTE
In 1772, years of mistreatment force 13-year-old Melitte to decide whether or not to run away from the Frenchman who has kept her as a slave on his poor Louisiana farm and leave the young girl who is the only person who ever loved her.
1997 144 p.

Spear, Elizabeth George CALICO CAPTIVE
August 1754. Miriam's town of Charlestown, New Hampshire is shattered by warhoops as the Indians take townspeople prisoner. Marched through the wilderness to the north, and sold to the French in Montreal they are held for ransom. Takes place at the brink of the French and Indian War.
1957 272 p.

Spear, Elizabeth George THE SIGN OF THE BEAVER
Left alone to guard the family's wilderness home in 18th-century Maine, a boy is hard-pressed to survive until local Indians teach him their skills.
1983 135 p.

Steele, William THE BUFFALO KNIFE
Andy Clark's family travels a thousand miles by flat-boat down the Tennessee river in 1782 to the French Salt Lick on a dangerous voyage.
1952 177 p.

Trottier, Maxine A CIRCLE OF SILVER
Book I in the Circle of Silver Trilogy
In 1760, thirteen-year-old John MacNeil, a skilled artist, leaves England and his beloved twin sister to join his father on a journey to the Canadian wilderness, where his role as official cartographer brings him often dangerous adventures, including an encounter with Pontiac, Chief of the Ottawas.
1999 216 p.

Trottier, Maxine BY THE STANDING STONE
Book II in the Circle of Silver Trilogy
Two kidnapped young men, forced to travel through the North American wilderness on the eve of the American Revolution, try to thwart the evil that stalks them, meeting brave allies, thrilling political intrigue, and even love.
1999 216 p.

Wiley, Melissa THE LITTLE HOUSE IN THE HIGHLAND
The Martha Years
The childhood adventures in the Scottish countryside of 6-year-old Matha Morse, who would grow up to become the great-grandmother of author Laura Ingalls Wilder. 1788.
1991 279 p.

Willis, Patricia DANGER ALONG THE OHIO
Lost in the Ohio River Valley in May 1793, 12-year-old Clare and her two brothers struggle to survive in the wilderness and to avoid capture by the Shawnee Indians.
1997 181 p.

Wood, Frances M. BECOMING ROSEMARY
While 12-year-old Rosemary observes life in 1790 North Carolina, she is forced to deal with the safety of her family as she becomes friends with a woman about whom malicious gossip is spread.
1997 247 p.

Wyeth, Sharon ONCE ON THIS RIVER
While on a trip with her mother from Madagascar to New York in 1760, 11-year-old Monday learns the horrors of slavery and the truth about her "other" mother.
1998 144 p.


TEEN

Draper, Sharon COPPER SUN
1738. Two fifteen-year-old girls--one a slave and the other an indentured servant--escape their Carolina plantation and try to make their way to Fort Mose, (pronounced Mo-ZAY), Florida, a Spanish colony that gives sanctuary to slaves.
2006 302