Resource Type: Books: Fiction

Books: Fiction

Mama’s Window

Book — Historical fiction. By Lynn Rubright. 2008. 89 pages.
Historical fiction inspired by incidents in the early life of sharecropper Owen Whitfield, the organizer of the Southern Tenant Farmers Union.
Continue reading

My Mother the Cheerleader

Book — Fiction. By Robert Sharenow. 2009. 320 pages.
Louise's mother spends her mornings at the local elementary school with a group of women known as the Cheerleaders, who harass the school's first Black student, six-year-old Ruby Bridges.
Continue reading

Nettie’s Trip South

Book — Fiction. By Ann Turner and Ronald Himler. 1995. 32 pages.
Based on the diary of the author's great-grandmother, this is a poignant and compelling look at slavery through the eyes of a young girl.
Continue reading
Ninth Ward (Book) | Zinn Education Project: Teaching People's History

Ninth Ward

Book — Historical fiction. By Jewell Parker Rhodes. 2010. 224 pages.
Historical fiction for grades 6-12 about the devastation when the levees broke in New Orleans and how people drew on their wits, community, and history to survive.
Continue reading

One Crazy Summer

Book — Fiction. By Rita Williams-Garcia. 2010. 224 pages.
Chapter book for middle school introduces readers to the Black Panthers in 1960s Oakland.
Continue reading

Revolution

Book — Fiction. By Deborah Wiles 2014. 544 pages.
Historical fiction for young adults set in Greenwood, Mississippi during the 1964 Freedom Summer.
Continue reading
Riot (Book) - YA historical fiction about the 1863 Draft Riots by Walter Dean Myers | Zinn Education Project: Teaching People's HIstory

Riot

Book — Fiction. By Walter Dean Myers. 2011. 176 pages,
Historical novel about the 1863 draft riots in New York for young adults.
Continue reading
Sacred Leaf

Sacred Leaf

Book — Fiction. By Deborah Ellis. 2009. 206 pages.
A story based in Bolivia about a group of peasants who organize against the military.
Continue reading

Same Sun Here

Book — Fiction. By Silas House and Neela Vaswani. 2013. 304 pages.
Two 12-year old pen pals find commonalities in issues of the environment, immigration, employment, and overall human rights.
Continue reading
Satchel Paige

Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow

Book — Fiction. By James Sturm and Rich Tommaso with an introduction by Gerald Early. 2007. 96 pages.
Told from the point of view of a sharecropper, this narrative in graphic novel format follows baseball champion Satchel Paige as he travels throughout the segregated South.
Continue reading

Sugar

Book — Fiction. By Jewell Parker Rhodes. 2013. 288 pages.
Historical fiction about Reconstruction-era Louisiana through the eyes of a young girl who bridges the divide between the long-time plantation workers and the Chinese indentured servants.
Continue reading

The Dreamer

Book — Fiction. By Pam Muñoz Ryan. 2010. 384 pages.
An introduction to the life of Pablo Neruda as a child in historical fiction for young adults.
Continue reading

The Friendship

Book — Fiction. By Mildred Taylor. 1998. 56 pages.
Cassie witnesses a Black man address a white storekeeper by his first name.
Continue reading

The Game of Silence

Book — Fiction. By Louise Erdrich. 2006. 288 pages.
The second in a series of novels for middle school and high school students about an Ojibwe family in the mid-19th century. The story parallels the time of the widely-read Little House on the Prairie series.
Continue reading
The Journey of Little Charlie (Book) | Zinn Education Project

The Journey of Little Charlie

Book — Fiction. By Christopher Paul Curtis. 2018. 256 pages.
A novel for young adults that that shows how slavery was state-sanctioned terrorism and the impact of the Fugitive Slave Law.
Continue reading

The Porcupine Year

Book — Fiction. By Louise Erdrich. 2010. 224 pages.
The third in a series of novels for middle and high school students about an Ojibwe family in the mid-19th century. The story parallels the time of the widely-read Little House on the Prairie.
Continue reading