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

1960's

updated August 2016

Picture Books


Aston, Dianna Hutts THE MOON OVER STAR
On her family's farm in the town of Star, eight-year-old Mae eagerly follows the progress of the 1969 Apollo 11 flight and moon landing and dreams that she might one day be an astronaut, too.
2008 unpaged

Johnson, Angela A SWEET SMELL OF ROSES
Longing to participate in a Civil Rights march led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., two little girls sneak out of their house to join the march. They marvel at the enthusiastic singing and clapping of the marchers, as well as the shouting and jeering of the hecklers along the route.
2005 unpaged

Lorbiecki, Marybeth SISTER ANNE’S HANDS
7-year-old Anna has her first encounter with racism in the 1960’s when an African-American nun comes to teach at her parochial school.
1998 unpaged

Wiles, Deborah FREEDOM SUMMER
In 1964, Joe is pleased that a new law will allow his best friend John Henry who is colored to share the town pool and other public places with him but he is dismayed to find that prejudice still exists.
2001 unpaged


1st - 2nd Grades

Medearis, Angela SINGING FOR DR. KING
1965, Selma, Alabama. The story of the young girl who helped change America by singing and marching for civil rights with Dr. Martin Luther King.
2001 unpaged


3rd - 4th Grades

Bandy, Michael and Eric Stein WHITE WATER
1962. After tasting the warm, rusty water from the fountain designated for African Americans, a young boy questions why he cannot drink the cool, refreshing water from the "Whites Only" fountain. Based on a true experience co-author Michael S. Bandy had as a boy..
2011 unpaged

Kroll, Virginia ESPECIALLY HEROES
After talking about heroes and martys at school, a young girl gets a first-hand looks at heroism when her father and several others protect their neighbor from a group of racists.
2003 unpaged

McKissack, Patricia ABBY TAKES A STAND
Gee recalls for her grandchildren what happened in 1960 in Nashville, Tennessee, when she, aged ten, passed out flyers while her cousin and other adults held sit-ins at restaurants and lunch counters to protest segregation.
2005 99 p.

Mochizuki, Ken HEROES
follow-up to BASEBALL SAVED US
Japanese American Donnie, whose playmates insist he be the bad guy in their war games, calls on his reluctant father and uncle to help him get away from that role.
1995 unpaged

Warhola, James UNCLE ANDY'S
The author describes a tip to see his uncle, the soon-to-be-famous artist Andy Warhol, and the fun that he and his family had on the visit. 1962.
2003 unpaged

Weatherford, Carole FREEDOM ON THE MENU
The Greensboro Sit-Ins

The 1960 civil rights sit-ins at the Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, are seen through the eyes of a young Southern black girl.
2005 unpaged


5th Grade and UP

Alvarez, Julia BEFORE WE WERE FREE
In the early 1960's, in the Dominican Republic, 12-year-old Anita learns that her family is involved in the underground movement to end the bloody rule of the dictator, General Trujillo.
2002 163 p.

Banks, Lynn Reid ONE MORE RIVER
14-year-old Lesley is upset when her parents abandon their comfortable life in Canada for a kibbutz in Israel prior to the 1967 war.
1992 243 p.

Crum, Shotta SPITTING IMAGE
In the small town of Baylor, Kentucky, 12-year-old Jessie K. Bovey and her friends confront some of life's questions during their summer vacation in the late 1960's.
2003 218 p.

Curtis, Christopher THE WATSONS GO TO BIRMINGHAM
The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watsons, an African-American family living in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963.
1999 210 p.

Edwardson, Debby Dahl MY NAME IS NOT EASY
Told by five different narrators covering the time period 1960-65, this is essentially Luke s story, whose native and, as the title indicates, difficult-to-pronounce name is not revealed until toward the end. Forbidden to use their language, fed unfamiliar food and under the thumb of priests and nuns, some strict and some kind but whose religion is unfamiliar, Luke s homesickness is visceral. The good wishes and intentions of other children, their teachers and their parents all fail to offer comfort or to soften the hardships endured. Details of the outside world and the concerns of the day are woven in to the narrative, often highlighting how astonishingly oblivious the world is to the reality of life in Alaska. The rivalry between Indian and Eskimo is made equally vivid, along with the stereotypes and bias that both sides believe about the other.
2011 352 p.
Donahue, John TIL TOMORROW
In 1961, newly arrived at the United Army base near the World War I battlefield at Verdun, France, 12-year-old Terrence "O.B." O'Brien is torn between the popular boys on the baseball team and a French boy they tease for being different.
2001 185 p.

Gantos, Jack DEAD END IN NORVELT
In the historic town of Norvelt, Pennsylvania, 12-year-old Jack Gantos spends the summer of 1962 grounded for various offenses until he is assigned to help an elderly neighbor with a most unusual chore involving the newly dead, molten wax, twisted promises, Girl Scout cookies, underage driving, lessons from history, typewriting, and countless bloody noses.
2011 341 p.

Gauthier, Gail THE HERO OF TICONDEROGA
When Therese is chosen to do the coveted oral report on Ethan Allen, she learns a great deal about the Bermont hero and also discovers what pleasure she gets from writing and presenting the report. Vermont 1966.
2001 229 p.

Gordon, Amy WHEN JFK WAS MY FATHER
Feeling neglected by her father in Brazil and her mother in Washington, D.C., Georgia Hughes tries to cope with life at a boarding school in Connecticut by imagining relationships with John Kennedy and Mrs. Beard, the ghost of the former headmistress of the school. February 1963.
1999 202 p.

Grove, Vicki THE STARPLACE
13-year-old Frannie learns hard lessons about prejudice and segregation when she becomes friends with a young black girl who moves into her small Oklahoma town in 1961.
1999 214 p.

Grimes, Nikki JAZMIN'S NOTEBOOK
Jazmin, an African-American teenager who lives with her sister in a small Harlem apartment in the 1960's, finds strength in writing poetry and keeping a record of the events in her sometimes difficult life.
1998 102 p.

Henry, Marguerite MUSTANG: WILD SPIRIT OF THE WEST
Fictionalized account of Wild Horse Annie's crusade to save the mustangs from extinction because of professional killers who slaughter the horses for use in dog food.
1966 222 p.

Hobbs, Valerie SONNY'S WAR
In the late 1960s, fourteen-year-old Cori's life is greatly changed by the sudden death of her father and her brother's tour of duty in Vietnam.
2002 215 p.

Holt, Kimberly DANCING IN CADILLAC LIGHT
In 1968, 11-year-old Jaynell's life in the town of Moon, Texas, is enlivened when her eccentric Grandpap comes to live with her family.
2001 168 p.

Laser, Michael 6-321
6th grade in a public school in Queens brings many changes into the life of Marc Chalkin, as he falls in love, deals with class bullies, overcomes his fear of school, and faces his parents' divorce. 1960's.
2005 237 p.

Madden, Kerry GENTLE'S HOLLER
In the early 1960s, twelve-year-old songwriter Livy Two Weems dreams of seeing the world beyond the Maggie Valley, North Carolina, holler where she lives in poverty with her parents and eight brothers and sisters, but understands that she must put family first.
2001 127 p.

Marino, Jan THE DAY ELVIS CAME TO TOWN
Wanda feels betrayed when her parents' glamorous boarder doesn't introduce her to Elvis Presley, and it takes a near-tragedy to reunited them and to help her face the truth about her family and herself.
1991 204 p.

McGuigan, Mary Ann WHERE YOU BELONG
In 1963, when 13-year-old Fiona runs away from home and end up reunited with her former classmate Yolanda in an all-black neighborhood of the Bronx, the interracial friendship gives rise to both comfort and controversy.
1997 171 p.

Moore, Yvette FREEDOM SONGS
In 1963, when Sheryl’s Uncle Pete joins the Freedom Riders down South, she organizes a gospel concert in Brooklyn to help him.
1991 168 p.

Myers, Anna ETHAN BETWEEN US
In an Oklahoma oil drilling camp in 1960, 15-year-old Clare finds her relationship with her best friend threatened by her new romance with Ethan, a boy carrying a dark secret.
1998 153 p.

Myers, Walter Dean FALLEN ANGELS
Seventeen-year-old Richie Perry, just out of his Harlem high school, enlists in the Army in the summer of 1967 and spends a devastating year on active duty in Vietnam.
1991 309 p.

Nelson, Theresa AND ONE FOR ALL
Geraldine's close relationship with her older brother Wing and his friend Sam changes when Wing joins the Marines and Sam leaves for Washington and joins a peace march.
1989 182 p.

Qualey, Marsha TOO BIG A STORM
When serious worrier Brady Callahan meets vivacious Sally Cooper, daughter of a wealthy Minnesota family, they develop a close friendship that helps they both grow and survive during the turbulent Vietnam War era.
2004 246 p.

Rodman, Mary Ann YANKEE GIRL
When her FBI-agent father is transferred to Jackson, Mississippi, in 1964, 11-year-old Alice wants to be popular but also wants to reach out to the one black girl in her class in a newly-intergrated school.
2004 216 p.

Saenz, Benjamin SAMMY AND JULIANA IN HOLLYWOOD
As a Chicano boy living in the unglamorous town of Hollywood, New Mexico, and a member of the graduating class of 1969, Sammy Santos faces the challenges of "gringo" racism, unpopular dress codes, the Vietnam War, barrio violence, and poverty.
2004 291 p.

Scattergood, Augusta Glory Be
A Mississippi town in 1964 gets riled when tempers flare at the segregated public pool. As much as Gloriana June Hemphill, or Glory as everyone knows her, wants to turn twelve, there are times when Glory wishes she could turn back the clock a year. Jesslyn, her sister and former confidante, no longer has the time of day for her now that she'll be entering high school. Then there's her best friend, Frankie. Things have always been so easy with Frankie, and now suddenly they aren't. Maybe it's the new girl from the North that's got everyone out of sorts. Or maybe it's the debate about whether or not the town should keep the segregated public pool open.
2012 208 p.

Schmidt, Gary THE WEDNESDAY WARS
During the 1967 school year, on Wednesday afternoons when all his classmates go to either Catechism or Hebrew school, seventh-grader Holling Hoodhood stays in Mrs. Baker's classroom where they read the plays of William Shakespeare and Holling learns much of value about the world he lives in.
2007 264 p.

Shalant, Phyllis WHEN PIRATES CAME TO BROOKLYN
Lee Bloom is drawn into a high-energy friendship with her new neighbor that is built around their exuberant imaginations, but their mothers' bigotry soon threatens to destroy their friendship. Brooklyn, 1960.
2002 213 p.

Sherlock, Patti LETTERS FROM WOLFIE
It's 1969 and America is deeply divided over the war in Vietnam. Yet when thirteen-year-old Mark donates his dog, Wolfie, to the Army's scout program, he feels sure he's doing the right thing. After all, his dad is a WWII veteran, and his older brother Danny is serving in Vietnam. But although Wolfie's handler sends letters detailing Wolfie's progress, the Army won't say when, or if, Wolfie and the other dogs will be returned to their owners. As Danny's letters home become increasingly grim, Mark grows more and more unsure of his decision to send Wolfie and of his feelings about the war. He'll need to do something drastic to get Wolfie back, but how can he raise his voice in protest without betraying his country?
2004 240 p.

Talbert, Marc THE PURPLE HEART
When his wounded father is sent home early from Vietnam, Luke finds it difficult to adjust to the troubled, emotinally shaken man who seems so unlike the fearless hero of his dreams. 1967.
1992 133 p.

Testa, Maria ALMOST FOREVER
A young girl describes what she, her brother , and their mother do during the year that her doctor father is serving in the Army in Vietnam. 1967.
2003 69 p.

Voigt, Cynthia THE RUNNER
Bullet Tillerman is a track team star who answers to no one. He'd rather be cut from the team than work with the promising new runner, Tamer Shipp. But Bullet finds his own rules are becoming too painful to live by. As a dedicated runner, a teenage boy has always managed to distance himself from other people until the experience of coaching one of his teammates on the track team gradually helps him see the value of giving and receiving.
1994 281 p.

Weaver, Beth Nixon ROOSTER
On a small Florida orange grove in the 1960’s, 15-year-old Kady Palmer is burdened with housework and caring for her senile grandmother and mentally handicapped neighbor, so when a rich, handsome boy from school becomes interested in her she devises a plan to spend time with him. August 1969.
2001 301 p.

White, Ellen Emerson WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE?
THE DIARY OF MOLLY MACKENZIE FLAHERTY

In 1968 Massachusetts, after her brother Patrick goes to fight in Vietnam, 15-yer-old Molly records in her diary how she misses her brother, volunteers at a Verterans' Administration Hospital, and tries to make sense of the Vietnam War and tumultuous events in the United States.
2002 169 p.

Williams-Garcia, Rita ONE CRAZY SUMMER
In the summer of 1968, after travelling from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to spend a month with the mother they barely know, eleven-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters arrive to a cold welcome as they discover that their mother, a dedicated poet and printer, is resentful of the intrusion of their visit and wants them to attend a nearby Black Panther summer camp.
2010 218 p.

Williams-Garcia, Rita P.S. Be Eleven
Sequel to: One crazy summer. The Gaither sisters are back in Brooklyn, where changes large and small come to their household as they grow up during the turbulent 1960s.
2013 274 p.

Wiseman, Eva NO ONE MUST KNOW
In 1957, Alexandra's immigrant family is living the North American dream. But Alexandra's world is turned upside down when she discovers a secret that her parents have kept: They are not Catholic, as Alexandra believes; they are Jewish.
2004 194 p.

Young,Karen Romano OUTSIDE IN
In 1968, as the Vietnam War continues and violence erupts throughout America, 12-year-old Cherie tries to understand the changing nature of her relationship with the two teenage brothers across the street, as well as other aspects of her unpredictable world.
2002 201 p.

TEEN


Jimenez, Francisco REACHING OUT
1962. Sequel to: Breaking through and The Circuit.
Leaving his home in a migrant community, Francisco sets off for college, carrying memories of years of poverty and prejudice.
2007 288 p.

Perkins, Lynne Rae CRISS CROSS
Teenagers in a small town in the 1960s experience new thoughts and feelings, question their identities, connect, and disconnect as they search for the meaning of life and love.
2005 337 p.

Sharenow, Robert MY MOTHER THE CHEERLEADER
Louise uncovers secrets about her family and her neighborhood during the violent protests over school desegregation in 1960 New Orleans.
2007 288 p.


TEEN

McMullan, Margaret SOURCES OF LIGHT
Fourteen-year-old Samantha and her mother move to Jackson, Mississippi, in 1962 after her father is killed in Vietnam, and during the year they spend there Sam encounters both love and hate as she learns about photography from a new friend of her mother's and witnesses the prejudice and violence of the segregationists of the South.
2010 233 p.