Just in Time! Historical Fiction

Refugee

Three different kids with one common mission: to escape. Josef is a Jewish boy in 1930s Germany, Isabel is a Cuban girl in 1994, and Mahmoud is a Syrian boy in 2015. Each will go on a journey in search of refuge.

The War That Saved My Life

A young disabled girl and her brother are evacuated from London to the English countryside during World War II, where they find life to be much sweeter away from their abusive mother.

Wolf Hollow

Twelve-year-old Annabelle must learn to stand up for what's right in the face of a manipulative and violent new bully who targets people Annabelle cares about, including a homeless World War I veteran.

The Marvels

By Brian Selznick (J Selz)

In 1766, a boy, Billy Marvel, is shipwrecked, rescued, and goes on to found a brilliant family of actors that flourishes in London until 1900--and nearly a century later, Joseph Jervis, runs away from home, seeking refuge with his uncle in London, and is captivated by the Marvel house, with its portraits and ghostly presences.

Inside Out and Back Again

Through a series of poems, a young girl chronicles the life-changing year of 1975, when she, her mother, and her brothers leave Vietnam and resettle in Alabama.

Stella by Starlight

When a burning cross set by the Klan causes panic and fear in 1932 Bumblebee, North Carolina, fifth-grader Stella must face prejudice and find the strength to demand change in her segregated town.

It Ain't So Awful, Falafel

Eleven-year-old Zomorod, originally from Iran, tells her story of growing up Iranian in Southern California during the Iranian Revolution and hostage crisis of the late 1970s.

The Button War

A stark, unflinching tale of ordinary boys living in wartime as tensions—and desperations—mount among them.

Escape From Aleppo

After Nadia is separated from her family while fleeing the civil war, she spends the next four days with a mysterious old man who helps her navigate the checkpoints and snipers of the rebel, ISIS, and Syrian armies that are littering Aleppo on her way to meeting her father at the Turkish border.

Grenade

On April 1, 1945 with the battle of Okinawa beginning, fourteen-year-old native Okinawan Hideki, is handed two grenades and told to go kill American soldiers. But Hideki does not really want to kill anyone, he just wants to find his family. The choices he makes will change his life forever.

Ghost Boys

After seventh-grader Jerome is shot by a white police officer, he observes the aftermath of his death and meets the ghosts of other fallen black boys including historical figure Emmett Till.