Historical Literature For Teens

An epic re-creation of the exhilarating and mysterious time when the Sun King ruled Egypt, Ramses, the Son of Light, has become the rage in France. With over two million copies sold, it is the greatest publishing phenomenon to hit the shelves there in 20 years. Rameses is only 14 when his father, the Pharaoh Seti, begins testing his true mettle. Being the younger of two sons, the proud Ramses has a problem with being relegated to second place.

“Take him and run.” The last words of Jake’s mother urged him to save his brother. Jake and Louie get thrown into the outside world, where Jake learns his skill with a sword can save their lives, and Louie, gifted with elemental magic, soon learns his magic is part of something much bigger: a world of spirits that wage a war of their own. The necrom are after Louie. They only way the necrom can increase their numbers is to capture and possess more adepts. After centuries of the necrom pillaging, adepts are scarce. The necrom want Louie and won’t stop until they capture him.

When tragedy strikes, Victoria Ravenwood inherits the crumbling estate of Ravenfell Manor, hoping to find solace within its ivy-choked walls. Instead, she discovers a house alive with sorrow, secrets, and whispers of the dead. Gabriel Allward has guarded Ravenfell for years, his mysterious presence as rooted as the stones themselves. Cold and distant, he carries a secret that binds him to the estate—a truth too dangerous to share. Yet Victoria is drawn to him, even as the shadows close in.

When Titus refuses to deny his Christian faith, Roman persecution destroys his family and condemns him to a brutal life in the copper mines of northern Italy. Underground, surrounded by despair and danger, he must choose between hatred and hope, revenge and redemption. From a mine collapse to an emperor’s audience hall, Titus’s journey spans the Roman Empire during Constantine’s transformative reign. Alongside Tribune Felix, he discovers that true freedom comes through forgiveness, not force.

Cuchu Ramirez and Matias Kim barely survived their first journey through time. Now, as their Seattle high school faces state-level attacks on Indigenous archaeology programs, they're pulled back 4,500 years to witness the Builders of Monuments—and discover that ancient peoples were far more sophisticated than any textbook dared to admit.

With her crooked spine and reckless heart, Princess Meera always knew she wasn't meant to become queen of Ezo. But when her sister, the rightful heir, is cursed on the eve of her coronation, Meera must defend her kingdom from ruthless invaders by taking the throne.

Imagine an alternate universe where romance and technology reign. Where tinkerers and dreamers craft and recraft a world of automatons, ornate clockworks, calculating machines, and other marvels that. Where scientists and schoolgirls, fair folk and Romans, intergalactic bandits, and intrepid orphans - decked out in corsets, clockwerk suits, and tall black boots - solve dastardly crimes, escape from monstrous predicaments, consult oracles, and hover over volcanoes in steam-powered airships.

This time danger threatens their homes. Tory and her friends are celebrating the success of a second mission to aid WWII Britain when an urgent summons calls them back to their own time: Napoleon is on the brink of invading England. Can a handful of young mages stop an army? In desperation, Merlin's Irregulars ask Rebecca Weiss, an untrained telepath from 1940, to come back to 1804 and change Napoleon's mind before it's too late. Rebecca agrees, willing to risk anything for the friends who saved her family - even her life and her budding relationship with Nick Rainford.

Based on the true life story of Anne Burras, First Lady of Jamestown shares the excitement, sorrow, and grit of 17th Century Jamestown. When tragedy strikes, young Anne is left as the lone woman among hundreds of men in the fledgling Virginia colony, forced to forge a new life for herself despite the confines of her culture and gender. From heartache to love, and from tragic loss to heroic survival in the harshest of conditions, Anne's determination and fortitude through her life's challenges inspires all who learn of her story.

Seventeen young adult authors across the queer spectrum have come together to create a collection of beautifully written diverse historical fiction for teens. From a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood set in war-torn 1870s Mexico featuring a transgender soldier, to two girls falling in love while mourning the death of Kurt Cobain, forbidden love in a 16th-century Spanish convent, or an asexual girl discovering her identity amid the 1970s roller-disco scene, All Out tells a diverse range of stories across cultures, time periods and identities, shedding light on an area of history often ignored or forgotten.

Two years have passed since Peter and his friends went up against Zoltan - a supernatural being - in a battle of minds and wits, with the fate of the Earth on the line. Life is great for Peter now: He and Nicola are still dating. He’s about to start high school, where he will be taking advanced science and math classes. But then, out of nowhere, something happens. Something confusing and terrifying, which has the potential to cause immeasurable destruction.

The last thing fourth-grader Kai Waters remembers (before the world as she knew it disappeared) is being surrounded by bullies on her walk home from school. What happens next can't be explained as Kai finds herself on the run for her life in ancient Egypt! Imagine...The Ten Plagues is the second release in an exciting, brand-new epic adventure series for kids ages eight to 12 written by schoolteacher Matt Koceich. The Imagine series brings the Bible to life for today's kids as they ponder what it would be like to live through a monumental biblical event.

Weekly ballet classes are Harriet Morton's only escape from her intolerably dull life. So when she is chosen to join a corps de ballet which is setting off on a tour of the Amazon, she leaps at the chance to run away for good. Performing in the grand opera houses is everything Harriet dreamed of, and falling in love with an aristocratic exile makes her new life complete. Swept away by it all, she is unaware that her father and intended fiance have begun to track her down.

Award-winning author and illustrator Rosalyn Schanzer’s book Witches! was named a School Library Journal Best Book and a Chicago Public Library Best of the Best. Witches! recounts, in electrifying detail, the true events of the 17th-century witch trials in Salem Village, Massachusetts. After two girls exhibit strange behavior, the colonial town’s doctor concludes their symptoms are the result of witchcraft. The chilling events of this period remain one of the most disturbing passages of U.S. history.

WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD AND THE PRIX DU MEILLEUR LIVRE ÉTRANGER The Centaur is a modern retelling of the legend of Chiron, the noblest and wisest of the centaurs, who, painfully wounded yet unable to die, gave up his immortality on behalf of Prometheus. In the retelling, Olympus...

With Caught, award-winning author Margaret Peterson Haddix delivers the fifth thrilling installment of her Missing series. Time-traveling siblings Jonah and Katherine are shocked when time in the 21st century comes to a standstill. Back in 1903, the siblings discover the time-freeze was caused by a botched job involving Albert Einstein's secret daughter Lieserl. Somehow, they've got to set things right - but that won't be easy with Lieserl's mother standing guard.

In this fictionalized journal, Anastasia Romanov lives again. Through her eyes, we witness the day-to-day splendor the czar's family experienced before the onslaught of the Russian Revolution. However, one senses also that crowding the outskirts of Anastasia's ornate diary are hundreds of thousands of teeming serfs, just beginning to percolate.

Laura Amy Schlitz wrote the Newbery Medal winner Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! for the students at the school where she is a librarian. The 22 monologues introduce readers to everyone in a medieval village, from the town half-wit, to Nelly the Sniggler, to the Lord's daughter.

It is 1915. 17-year-old Sasha Fox is the privileged only daughter of a respected doctor living in Brighton. But her brothers, Edgar and Tom, have gone to war and Sasha has a terrible gift. She can see the future.

Berlin, November 1943. With bombing raids commencing, the city is blanketed by explosions. Siblings Gerta and Max Hoffmann live a surprisingly carefree childhood amid the raids. Berlin is a city going about its business, even as it's attacked almost nightly. But one night, the air raid sirens wail, and the Hoffmanns' neighborhood is hit. A mortally wounded man comes to their door, begging to be let in. He asks for Karl Hoffmann, their father. Gerta and Max watch as Karl tries in vain to save the man's life.