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

WAR OF 1812

updated 2/07


Picture Books


Beginning-to-Read Books

McCully, Emily Arnold THE BATTLE FOR ST. MICHAELS
In 1813, 9-year-old Caroline, a fast runner, helps the residents of St. Michaels, Maryland, as they defend their town against the British.
2002 63 p.


3rd - 4th Grade Books

Crook, Connie LAURA SECORD'S BRAVE WALK
American and British forces are fighting for control of Upper Canada (now Ontario), causing many hardships for the Secords, but through them all Laura displays strength and resourcefulness. While "[c]annons and muskets roared deafeningly all around" and the "smell of sulphur from the guns hung thick in the damp air," the woman hides her children in the root cellar and rescues her wounded husband from enemy fire. When American soldiers arrive at her house and order her to prepare them a meal, she is determined to find out their military strategies. Overhearing their plans for a surprise attack on the British at Beaver Dams, Laura immediately resolves to inform Lieutenant FitzGibbon. Her 19-mile journey is full of obstacles-rattlesnakes, mosquitoes, swamps, quicksand-but she doesn't stop until she relays her message.
2000 unpaged

Figley, Marty WASHINGTON IS BURNING
The story of how President Madison's young slave Paul Jennings helped Dolley Madison save valuable items in the White House from the advancing British Army during the War of 1812.
2005 48 p.
Greeson, Janet AN AMERICAN ARMY OF TWO
During the War of 1812, Rebecca and Abigail Bates save their town's ships from the British by playing "Yankee Doodle" on a fife and drum to simulate the approach of American troops. Scituate area of Massachusetts, sometime during the summer of 1814.
1992 46 p.

McCully, Emily Arnold THE BATTLE FOR ST. MICHAELS
In 1813, 9-year-old Caroline, a fast runner, helps the residents of St. Michaels, Maryland, as they defend their town against the British.
2002 64 p.

Minahan, John ABIGAIL'S DRUM
During the War of 1812, when British soldiers threaten the town of Scituate, Massachusetts, young Rebecca Bates and her sister, Abigail, daughters of the local lighthouse keeper, find a way to save both him and the town.
1995 64 p.

Mandrell, Louise SUNRISE OVER THE HARBOR
In 1814 Nathan Dunn, a 10-year-old cabin boy serving on an American ship, meets Francis Scott Key during the great naval battle at Fort McHenry and becomes a hero. Baltimore.
1993 unpaged


5th Grade and UP

Adler, Elizabeth CROSSING THE PANTHER'S PATH
16-year-old Billy Calder, son of a British soldier and a Mohawk woman, leaves school to join tecumseh in his efforts to prevent the Americans from taking any more land from the Indians in the Northwest Territory.
1999 153 p.

Buckey, Sarah Masters THE SMUGGLER'S TREASURE
Sent to live with relatives in New Orleans during the War of 1812, 11-year-old Elisabet determines to find a smuggler's treasure to ransom her imprisoned father.
1999 153 p.

Rinaldi, Ann BROKEN DAYS
Book #2 of The Quilt Trilogy
Sequel to: A stitch in time. For sequel see: The blue door
In 1811, life with her Aunt Hannah in Salem, Massachusetts, becomes even more difficult for fourteen-year-old Ebie with the arrival of a half-Indian girl who claims to be the daughter of Hannah's sister, Thankful, and with the threat of impending war.
1995 273 p.

Robinet, Harriet THE TWINS, THE PIRATES, AND THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS
12-year- old Afro-American twins attempt to excape in the face of pirates, an American army, and the British forces during the Battle of New Orleans in 1815.
1997 134 p.

Robinet, Harriet WASHINGTON CITY IS BURNING
In 1814 Virginia, a slave in President Madison's White House, experiences the burning of Washington by the invading British army.
1996 149 p.

Trotter, Maxine UNDER A SHOOTING STAR
Circle of Silver Chronicles
Sequel to: A Circle of Silver and By the Standing Stone
In 1812, Edward McNeil is escorting Kate and Anne Kimmerling home to America when the ship on which they are traveling sinks and the three are shipwrecked on an island in the middle of the conflict between the British and the Americans.
2002 212 p.

Whelan, Gloria ONCE ON THIS ISLAND
12-year-old Mary and her older brother and sister tend the family farm on Michigan's Mackinac Island while their father is away fighting the British in the War of 1812.
1995 184 p.