Showing results by publisher "Recorded Books" in Historical Fiction

In 1707, eight-year-old Sarah travels with her father to build a new home in the Connecticut wilderness. Sarah is afraid when she hears animals in the night. She is afraid when she meets her Indian neighbors. She is especially afraid when she is left with an Indian family while her father goes back to get the rest of their family. But when Sarah remembers her mother’s parting words, “Keep up your courage, Sarah Noble,” she learns to be brave even when she’s afraid.

Robert Edwards Stevens, nicknamed "Qwerty", likes digging in his backyard when he's in a bad mood. He doesn't dig for anything special - he just digs to get his mind off things. One day, when he's really angry and has a lot on his mind, he starts digging...and thunk! He hits something, a wooden box with a famous signature: Thomas A. Edison. Is this a phonograph created by the famous inventor himself? Or is it something even more incredible - something that could take Qwerty right to Thomas Edison's doorstep? Get ready for one remarkable time-travel adventure!

Twelve-year-old Myrtle Hardcastle has a passion for justice and a highly unconventional obsession with criminal science. Armed with her father’s law books and her mum’s microscope, Myrtle studies toxicology and keeps abreast of the latest developments in crime scene analysis. When her next-door neighbor, a wealthy spinster and eccentric breeder of rare flowers, dies under mysterious circumstances, Myrtle seizes her chance. With her unflappable governess, Miss Ada Judson, by her side, Myrtle takes it upon herself to prove Miss Wodehouse was murdered.

Johnny had been Mr. Lapham's star pupil, a clever, industrious apprentice silversmith. But when Johnny seriously burns his hand in a furnace, he finds himself crippled and with no means of taking care of himself. Soon, trouble reaches Johnny's life in a new way. Swept along in the tide of events leading to the Boston Tea Party and the first skirmishes of Lexington and Concord, Johnny finds a job as message-carrier for the Sons of Liberty. As young and old men alike make sacrifices for a new country, Johnny prepares to take his own stand in the cause for freedom.

It is 1848, and Francis Tucket is heading west on the Oregon Trail with his family. Yesterday he celebrated his 14th birthday on the tailgate of a Conestoga wagon in the foothills of the Rockies. Today, he is going to practice with his new birthday present, a Lancaster rifle. Falling far behind the wagon train, Francis loses sight of his family and is kidnapped by Pawnee Indians.

Noble Prince Jen is the one person that his father, King Ta'i, trusts enough to send on a mission to the legendary kingdom of Tien-Kuo. The prince eagerly begins his quest bearing only enormous pride and humble gifts. From the onset, however, the young ruler marches headlong into misfortune. Separated from his faithful servant, the prince finds himself fending off murderers, falling prey to trickery, and searching for a village girl who plays a magic flute. But it isn’t until he faces his most challenging personal trial that the he fully realizes the power hidden in each humble gift.

In the small 14th-century English village where he has lived his entire life, the boy has grown up with no name of his own, known only as "Asta's son". But when his mother dies, the boy receives both his rightful name, Crispin, and a lead cross, inscribed with a secret that soon has him fleeing for his life.

It's 1942: Tomi Itano, 12, is a second-generation Japanese American who lives in California with her family on their strawberry farm. Although her parents came from Japan and her grandparents still live there, Tomi considers herself an American. She doesn't speak Japanese and has never been to Japan. But after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, things change. No Japs Allowed signs hang in store windows and Tomi's family is ostracized. Things get much worse.

When her governess inherits an estate on a Scottish island, amateur detective Myrtle Hardcastle couldn't be more excited. Unfortunately, the ancestral castle is both run-down and haunted. Ghostly moans echo in the walls, and there are rumors of a cursed treasure lost on the island—an ancient silver brooch that may have cost the former lord his life. But who had the motive, means, and opportunity to kill him? And could this Scottish trip mean the end of Myrtle's plans to get her father and governess together?

This spellbinding and grand adventure tale is populated by a cast of eccentric characters who spring to vibrant life with Kerin McCue's dazzling narration.

In 1948 West Berlin, Mercedes and her mother rely on the noisy American planes that form a “sky bridge” into the city, bringing vital food and supplies. But the planes deliver more than flour, clothing, and coal. Every day, one special plane wiggles its wings, and its pilot drops small candy-filled parachutes for the children. How can Mercedes get the “Chocolate Pilot” to drop some candy just for her?

When 12-year-old Prince Lev Lvov goes to live with his aunt at Falcon House, he takes his rightful place as heir to the Lvov family estate. Prince Lev dreams of becoming a hero of Russia like his great ancestors. But he'll discover that dark secrets haunt this house. Prince Lev is the only one who can set them free. Will he be the hero his family needs?

In 1848, Francis Tucket was stolen from his family while they were travelling west along the Oregon Trail. After his escape, he spent a year learning the ways of the land from a one-armed mountain man. Trying to catch up with his family again, Francis found two stranded children, Lottie and Billy. Together, they're facing the dangers of the old West while making their way to Oregon.

In 1939 the Nazis invade Lodz, Poland, forcing four-year-old Syvia Perlmutter and 270,000 other Jews into a ghetto surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by armed men. Scared and confused, Syvia and the others have no idea how terrible their lives will soon be.

Twelve-year-old Pascal can hardly believe his ears. His older, run-away brother has returned to the plantation with an amazing story: President Lincoln has freed the slaves. Not only that, each newly-freed family can have 40 acres of land and maybe a mule, just for the asking. Now all Pascal and his brother have to do is sneak away from their angry master - and find out where the government is giving away farmland.

Willful and high-spirited, exerting his independence at every turn, 10-year-old Robert "Robbie" Burns Hewitt plans to live life to the fullest - because the world is going to end at the turn of the century anyway! The year 1900 is fast approaching. Robbie decides that living by The Ten Commandments, which have been drilled into his head by his preacher father, is not meant for him - since he "ain’t got the knack for holiness." On his quest to be his own person, he stirs up trouble daily.

Celebrated artist and author Eugene Yelchin drew on his own experience growing up in Soviet Russia to pen this Newbery Honor Book. Breaking Stalin’s Nose follows 10-year-old Sasha Zaichik, who wants nothing more than to be a Young Pioneer in Stalin’s Communist Party. But when his father, a member of the State Security police, is arrested the night before the Young Pioneer ceremony, Sasha is left to re-evaluate everything he’s been taught about Stalin and what it truly means to be a good comrade.

In 1925 Colorado, 14-year-old Ida Bidson dreams of becoming a teacher, but she knows it won’t be easy. When the school board closes the town’s one-room school, threatening to keep Ida from finishing eighth grade and moving on to high school, it looks like her dream will never come true. Then she and her classmates come up with a plan for a secret school - with Ida as their teacher!

Lucy Bluecrowne and Maxwell Ault are on a mission: find the three pieces of a strange and arcane engine. They're not exactly sure what this machine does, but they have it on good authority that it will stop the war that's raging between their home country of England and Napoleon Bonaparte's France. Despite being followed by mysterious men dressed all in black, they're well on their way to finding everything they need when their ship, the famous Left-Handed Fate, is taken by the Americans. And not just any Americans.

Convicted of thievery and transported from England to America, Oliver Cromwell Pitts, shackled to his fellow prisoners, endures inedible food, filthy conditions, and deadly storms on his voyage across the Atlantic. But the hazardous shipboard journey is nothing compared to the peril that waits for him on the colonial shores.