Teen Historical Novels
Top 10 Teen Historical Novels
: Rebel Angels, The Sweet Far Thing, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, A Northern Light, The Season, Anastasia: The Last Grand Duchess, Russia, 1914, Marie Antoinette: Princess of Versailles, Austria - France, 1769, Cleopatra VII: Daughter of the Nile - 57 B.C., Splendor, The Crucible
| Author | Libba Bray |
| ISBN | 0385733410 |
Ah, Christmas! Gemma Doyle is looking forward to a holiday from Spence Academy, spending time with her friends in the city, attending ritzy balls, and on a somber note, tending to her ailing father. As she prepares to ring in the New Year, 1896, a handsome young man, Lord Denby, has set his sights on Gemma,...
| Author | Libba Bray |
| ISBN | 0385730306 |
It has been a year of change since Gemma Doyle arrived at the foreboding Spence Academy. Her mother murdered, her father a laudanum addict, Gemma has relied on an unsuspected strength and has discovered an ability to travel to an enchanted world called the realms, where dark magic runs wild. Despite...
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle
An ocean voyage of unimaginable consequences... Not every thirteen-year-old girl is accused of murder, brought to trial, and found guilty. But I was just such a girl, and my story is worth relating even if it did happen years ago. Be warned, however: If strong ideas and action offend you, read no more....
| Author | Jennifer Donnelly |
| ISBN | 0152053107 |
Sixteen-year-old Mattie Gokey has big dreams but little hope of seeing them come true. Desperate for money, she takes a job at the Glenmore, where hotel guest Grace Brown entrusts her with the task of burning a secret bundle of letters. But when Grace's drowned body is fished from the lake, Mattie discovers...
| Author | Sarah MacLean |
| ISBN | 0545048869 |
Seventeen year old Lady Alexandra is strong-willed and sharp-tongued; in a house full of older brothers and their friends, she had to learn to hold her own. Not the best makings for an aristocratic lady in Regency London. Yet her mother still dreams of marrying Alex off to someone safe, respectable,...
Anastasia: The Last Grand Duchess, Russia, 1914
| Author | Carolyn Meyer |
| ISBN | 0439129087 |
This was the book that launched my love affair with Russia. I read it at age 12, fell in love with the Romanov family and Russia, and promptly went out and bought a Teach Yourself Russian in Three Months set (with accompanying CASSETTES, which lets you know how long ago this was!). Ten years later, I graduated...
| Author | Kathryn Lasky |
| ISBN | 0439076668 |
"I look up now into the oval mirror and see barely a trace of the mud-splattered girl tearing through the woodland on her horse, or the barefoot girl wading at Schonbrunn... I have become what Mama set out for me to be. Majestic. A Dauphine and eventually a Queen." So writes the headstrong 13-year-old Maria...
Cleopatra VII: Daughter of the Nile - 57 B.C.
Disclaimer: The last time I read this book was in middle school, so my review will be spotty and more nostalgic than any review should be. Oh well.
I avidly read the Royal Diaries series during my middle school years. Like most young girls, I was fascinated with princesses and--maybe not so much...
| Author | Anna Godbersen |
| ISBN | 0061626317 |
New Beginnings.
Shocking Revelations.
Unexpected Endings.
As spring turns into summer, Elizabeth relishes her new roles as a young wife, while her sister, Diana, searches for adventure abroad. But when a surprising clue about their father's death comes to light, the Holland girls...
| Author | Arthur Miller |
| ISBN | 0142437336 |
"I believe that the reader will discover here the essential nature of one of the strangest and most awful chapters in human history," Arthur Miller wrote of his classic play about the witch-hunts and trials in seventeenth-century Salem, Massachusetts. Based on historical people and real events,...
Elizabeth I: Red Rose of the House of Tudor, England, 1544
| Author | Kathryn Lasky |
| ISBN | 0590684841 |
This was a reread for me. I believe I originally read this book sometime during middle school and I remembered that I really liked it. I read a bunch of the Dear America and Royal Diaries books but I would always get them from my school library. Now I’m going to try to buy the ones I liked so I can relive my childhood....
| Author | Eloise Jarvis McGraw |
| ISBN | 0140319298 |
Mara is a proud and beautiful slave girl who yearns for freedom. In order to gain it, she finds herself playing the dangerous role of double spy for two arch enemies - each of whom supports a contender for the throne of Egypt.
Against her will, Mara finds herself falling in love with one of her masters,...
| Author | Eva Ibbotson |
| ISBN | 0142412775 |
Spring, 1922
Tessa is a beautiful, tiny, dark-eyed princess - who's given up her duties to follow her heart, working for nothing backstage at the Viennese opera. No one there knows who she really is, or that a fairy-tale castle is missing its princess, and Tessa is determined to keep it that way.
But...
| Author | Lisa Ann Sandell |
| ISBN | 0439918480 |
The year is 490 AD. Fiery 16-year-old Elaine of Ascolat, the daughter of one of King Arthur's supporters, lives with her father on Arthur's base camp, the sole girl in a militaristic world of men.
Elaine's only girl companion is the mysterious Morgan, Arthur's older sister, but Elaine cannot...
The year is 1929. New York is ruled by the Bright Young Things: Flappers and socialites seeking thrills and chasing dreams in the anything-goes era of the Roaring Twenties.
Letty Larkspur and Cordelia Grey escaped their small Midwestern town for New York's glittering metropolis. All Letty...
| Author | Marissa Doyle |
| ISBN | 0805082514 |
In 1837 London, young daughters of viscounts pined for handsome, titled husbands, not careers. And certainly not careers in magic. At least, most of them didn't.
Shy, studious Persephone Leland would far rather devote herself to her secret magic studies than enter society and look for a suitable...
| Author | Eva Ibbotson |
| ISBN | 0142408662 |
Ellen never expected the Hallendorf school to be quite so unusual. Her life back in England with her suffragette mother and liberated aunts certainly couldn't be called normal, but buried deep in the beautiful Austrian countryside, Ellen discovers an eccentric world occupied by wild children and...
| Author | Celia Rees |
| ISBN | 0763618292 |
The spellbinding diary of a teenage girl who escapes persecution as a witch--only to face new intolerance in a Puritan settlement.
Enter the world of young Mary Newbury, a world where simply being different can cost a person her life. Hidden until now in the pages of her diary, Mary's startling...
| Author | Philip Pullman |
| ISBN | 0394895894 |
Sally is sixteen and uncommonly pretty. Her knowledge of English literature, French, history, art and music is non-existent, but she has a thorough grounding in military tactics, can run a business, ride like a Cossack and shoot straight with a pistol.
When her dear father is drowned in suspicious...
Princess of the Midnight Ball
| Author | Jessica Day George |
| ISBN | 1599903229 |
A tale of twelve princesses doomed to dance until dawn…
Galen is a young soldier returning from war; Rose is one of twelve princesses condemned to dance each night for the King Under Stone. Together Galen and Rose will search for a way to break the curse that forces the princesses to dance...
| Author | Eva Ibbotson |
| ISBN | 0142409111 |
After reading the above blurb about the book, I was excited to dive in. Oh yes, this seemed to fit neatly into my preferred genre! I couldn’t tell if it was going to be more romance-ish or historical-fiction-y, but I figured either way I was set.
Imagine my surprise, then, when I really found...
Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy
Life as a ship's boy aboard HMS Dolphin is a dream come true for Jacky Faber. Gone are the days of scavenging for food and fighting for survival on the streets of eighteenth-century London. Instead, Jacky is becoming...
| Author | Kirby Larson |
| ISBN | 0385733135 |
ACTUALLY THIS WAS A PLEASANT SURPRISE. Honestly I was afraid this was going to be SUPER GIRLY or SUPER ROMANCE-Y (or both). But… it really wasn’t? I mean it definitely would hold more of an appeal for girls, and it’s definitely not a new favorite, but the good news is that I only gagged once. *nods*...
| Author | Jane Yolen |
| ISBN | 0142401099 |
I wish I could say I liked this book. I thought I would. I know it's critically acclaimed and a well-known story. But it left me with a bad taste in my mouth.
The book is meant to educate young people about the Holocaust, but it had a lot of historical inaccuracies. The idyllic shtetl world at the beginning...
Why be the sheep, when you can be the wolf?
Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where the sisters still serve the gods of old. Here she learns that the god of Death Himself has blessed her with dangerous...
| Author | Elizabeth George Speare |
He trains my hands for war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. –from the Song of David (2 Samuel 22:35)
The Bronze Bow, written by Elizabeth George Speare (author of The Witch of Blackbird Pond) won the Newbery Medal in 1962. This gripping, action-packed novel tells the story of eighteen-year-old...
| Author | Carolyn Meyer |
| ISBN | 0152045562 |
Imprisonment. Betrayal. Lost love. Murder. What more must a princess endure?
Elizabeth Tudor's teenage and young adult years during the turbulent reigns of Edward and then Mary Tudor are hardly those of a fairy-tale princess. Her mother has been beheaded by Elizabeth's own father, Henry...
| Author | L.A. Meyer |
| ISBN | 0152058737 |
It makes me sad that they don't write many pirate novels for adults. This series is listed as YA, and the themes within are suitable for that category, but the main character is just so obnoxiously childish that I think I've outgrown her.
The author does his research well in terms of nautical technicalities...
| Author | L.A. Meyer |
| ISBN | 0152055576 |
The British crown has placed a price on Jacky's head, and so she returns to the Lawson Peabody School for Young Girls in Boston to lay low. But laying low isn't in the cards for a spunky lass who finds trouble even when she's not looking for it.
A school outing goes awry as Jacky and her classmates...
| Author | Karen Cushman |
| ISBN | 0060739428 |
"Corpus Bones! I utterly loathe my life."Catherine feels trapped. Her father is determined to marry her off to a rich man--any rich man, no matter how awful. But by wit, trickery, and luck, Catherine manages to send several would-be husbands packing. Then a shaggy-bearded suitor from the north comes...
Curse of the Blue Tattoo: Being an Account of the Misadventures of Jacky Faber, Midshipman and Fine Lady
| Author | L.A. Meyer |
| ISBN | 0152054596 |
After being forced to leave HMS Dolphin and Jaimy, her true love, Jacky Faber is making a new start at the elite Lawson Peabody School for Young Girls in Boston. But growing up on the streets of London and fighting pirates never prepared Jacky for her toughest battle yet: learning how to be a fine lady.
Everything...
| Author | Irene Hunt |
| ISBN | 0425182789 |
Do they make kid's books like this sort anymore? Real and real painful. Across Five Aprils was required reading in 6th grade and it was as if the teacher's were saying "Life's a bitch, get used to it."
I remember this as eloquently rendered and high-minded, gut-wrenching drama when I read it way...
| Author | Marissa Doyle |
| ISBN | 0805082522 |
Penelope (Pen) Leland has come to Ireland to study magic and prove to herself that she is as good a witch as her twin sister, Persy. But when the dashing Niall Keating begins to pay her court, she can’t help being distracted from her studies.
Little does Pen know, Niall is acting upon orders from...
From the author of Catherine, Called Birdy comes another spellbinding novel set in medieval England. The girl known only as Brat has no family, no home, and no future until she meets Jane the Midwife and becomes her apprentice. As she helps the sharp-tempered Jane deliver babies, Brat--who renames...
| Author | Susanne Dunlap |
| ISBN | 1599904209 |
For Anastasia Romanov, life as the privileged daughter of Russia's last tsar is about to be torn apart by the bloodshed of revolution. Ousted from the imperial palace when the Bolsheviks seize control of the government, Anastasia and her family are exiled to Siberia. But even while the rebels debate...
| Author | Meg Cabot |
| ISBN | 0060753218 |
Victoria
Growing up in far-off India, wealthy young heiress Lady Victoria Arbuthnot was accustomed to handling her own affairs -- not to mention everyone else's. But in her sixteenth year, Vicky is unceremoniously shipped off to London to find a husband. With her usual aplomb, however, Lady...
| Author | Kristiana Gregory |
| ISBN | 0439164842 |
Author of the best-selling Royal Diaries title, CLEOPATRA VII, Kristiana Gregory now takes readers to twelfth-century France and introduces Eleanor of Aquitaine, who becomes queen at age 15.
Fourteen-year-old Eleanor of Aquitaine lives in a castle in Poitier, France, with her father...
| Author | Y.S. Lee |
| ISBN | 0763649686 |
Now nearly a full-fledged member of the Agency, the all-female detective unit operating out of Miss Scrimshaw's Academy for Girls, Mary Quinn is back for another action-packed adventure. Disguised as a poor apprentice builder and a boy, she must brave the grimy underbelly of Victorian London - as...
| Author | Sarah Miller |
| ISBN | 1416983406 |
Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia. Like the fingers on a hand--first headstrong Olga; then Tatiana, the tallest; Maria the most hopeful for a ring; and Anastasia, the smallest. These are the daughters of Tsar Nicholas II, grand duchesses living a life steeped in tradition and privilege. They are...
| Author | Ann Rinaldi |
| ISBN | 0816712697 |
This was an excellent read.
Yes, I didn't 100%, completely approve of the romance here--but you know what? In the end, that hardly MATTERED. Because, as with all Ann Rinaldi books . . . this is about so much more than just romance. This is why she's my favorite historical fiction author. She takes...
Jahanara: Princess of Princesses
| Author | Kathryn Lasky |
| ISBN | 0439223504 |
In the 1600s, the Mughal emperors of India were among the greatest rulers of the East. Jahanara is the daughter of one of these ultra-rich and powerful figures, Shah Jahan The Magnificent. The oldest and favorite of his children, she is showered with emeralds, diamonds, and rubies, and is attended by...
Victoria: May Blossom of Britannia, England, 1829
| Author | Anna Kirwan |
| ISBN | 0439215986 |
In 1829, nine-year-old Victoria begins a journal chronicling her life as an English princess, in a title which includes information on the reign, marriage, and family life of Queen Victoria and English civilization during that period.
29 MAY
...I had to kiss His Majesty's hand....
| Author | Priya Parmar |
| ISBN | 1439171173 |
While selling oranges in the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, sweet and sprightly Ellen "Nell" Gwyn impresses the theater's proprietors with a wit and sparkle that belie her youth and poverty. She quickly earns a place in the company, narrowly avoiding the life of prostitution to which her sister has...
| Author | Elizabeth C. Bunce |
| ISBN | 0439895766 |
Charlotte Miller has always scoffed at talk of a curse on her family's woolen mill, which holds her beloved small town together. But after her father's death, the bad luck piles up: departing workers, impossible debts, an overbearing uncle. Then a stranger named Jack Spinner offers a tempting proposition:...
| Author | Susan Coventry |
| ISBN | 0805089926 |
Joan's mother is Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, the most beautiful woman in the world. Her father is Henry II, the king of England and a renowned military leader. She loves them both, so what is she to do when she's forced to choose between them? As her parents' arguments grow ever more vicious, Joan begins...
| Author | Vicky Alvear Shecter |
| ISBN | 0545221307 |
This book utterly blew me away. The research that went into it was obviously extensive and i was so glad to see that it was so historically accurate. I've always been fascinated by Cleopatra and ancient Egypt, but i would often get frustrated when authors portray the great queen as a promiscuous sex symbol...
Betsy Was a Junior / Betsy and Joe
| Author | Maud Hart Lovelace |
| ISBN | 0061794724 |
Betsy Was a Junior: It's the best school year ever, especially now that charming, funny Tib Muller is back in Deep Valley. But when her crowd gets into trouble, Betsy's best year could turn out to be her worst.
Betsy and Joe: Betsy always thought she and Joe Willard were made for each other—and...
| Author | Jane Yolen |
| ISBN | 0698119185 |
Called La Jardiniere, a resourceful and clever jester to the queen's court, Nicola was a most unlikely person to end up "fool" and friend to Mary, Queen of Scots. But Nicola isn't an ordinary comedian clowning before the court; her sharp tongue is rare amongst the fawning nobles. As fate takes Mary from...
| Author | Ann Rinaldi |
| ISBN | 0439676460 |
From acclaimed QUILT TRILOGY author Ann Rinaldi comes another gripping historical adventure. Here, a courageous girl disguises herself as a boy and fights in the Civil War.
The year is 1861. When spirited teenager Sarah Louisa learns that she is to be married off to her despicable neighbor,...
| Author | Kristiana Gregory |
| ISBN | 0439253853 |
Scholastic is proud to present the final installment of The Royal Diaries series. Drama and intrigue explode in the story of young Princess Catherine's incredible journey to greatness.
Fourteen-year-old Prussian princess Sophia finds herself entangled in her mother's efforts to arrange...
| Author | Philip Pullman |
| ISBN | 0679826718 |
Pullman is fast becoming a modern-day Dickens for young adults. The setting is the same, the strong eye for characters is there, as are the brooding atmosphere, the social conscience, and the ability to spin plot within plot.
Sally Lockhart is now a young woman, left alone with a toddler. Nothing...
What I Saw and How I Lied
| Author | Judy Blundell |
| ISBN | 0439903467 |
When Evie's father returned home from World War II, the family fell back into its normal life pretty quickly. But Joe Spooner brought more back with him than just good war stories. When movie-star handsome Peter Coleridge, a young ex-GI who served in Joe's company in postwar Austria, shows up, Evie is...
| Author | Kathryn Lasky |
| ISBN | 0439194040 |
I read these books when I was little, so I have a very childish adoration for them. However, reading them now I am irritated with the historical inaccuracies since they help perpetuate the lack of knowledge having to do with history in general. MQoS is a very complex figure given a very anglo personality,...
Sondok: Princess of the Moon and Stars, Korea, A.D. 595
| Author | Sheri Holman |
| ISBN | 0439165865 |
In the late seventh century, the land that we now call Korea was embroiled with political and religious conflicts. Three kingdoms (Silla, Koguryo, and Paekche) fought for supremacy, and three faiths (Shamanism, Buddhism, and Confucianism) battled for dominance. Princess Sondok, the eldest daughter...
The Prince and the Pauper
| Author | Mark Twain |
| ISBN | 0451528352 |
This treasured historical satire, played out in two very different socioeconomic worlds of 16th-century England, centers around the lives of two boys born in London on the same day: Edward, Prince of Wales and Tom Canty, a street beggar. During a chance encounter, the two realize they are identical...
