Teen Readers Historical Fiction

Born in a South Africa divided by racism and hatred, little six-year-old Peekay learns that small can beat big. Armed with this knowledge, he resolves to take on the injustices of his country, and sets his heart on becoming the welterweight champion of the world. Peekay starts to take boxing lessons, makes new friends, collects cacti, and plays the piano. Above all, he learns to think with his head and then with his heart. Peekay discovers that nothing can defeat the determination to be true to yourself: This is the power of one.

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.

A swoonworthy queer romance set against a riveting story of social change in the 1880s, this historical novel reimagines the life of America’s first stunt girl—a young undercover reporter—and her whirlwind summer of romance and fighting injustice. Seventeen-year-old Helena “Nell”...

In a breathless, haunting, and rich historical mystery, New York Times bestselling author Monica Hesse speaks to the depths of trauma and the power of memory. Seven months ago, Edda was on the World War I front lines as one of two hundred “Hello Girls,” female switchboard operators employed...

In this high-stakes heist novel, an alchemologist and a con man team up to steal a rare necklace—but complicated feelings of attraction and deception threaten to destroy everything and everyone they love—for fans of Alexandra Bracken and Judy I. Lin. Within the dazzling halls of London’s...

In this historical thriller from the bestselling author of Code Name Verity, Stella North enters an air race competition as the only woman—and finds herself thrown into a mystery she must solve before it kills her. When Stella North is chosen to represent Britain in Europe’s first air race...

Perfect for fans of Promise Boys, this gripping historical mystery follows a teenager who finds a murdered girl on her family's California beach—a discovery that will reveal the racism rampant in her world. Fifteen-year-old Blue Collins’s parents own the only Black beach in Santa Monica in...

A young-adult thriller ricocheting between the bigotry of the past and present as teens unravel their parents’ secrets. Perfect for fans of One of Us is Lying. Four teens have dug up the time capsule that their parents buried in 1986 and never bothered to recover. But in addition to the...

The bestselling, "gripping" (Entertainment Weekly), "powerful" (Hypable), "utterly thrilling" (Paste.com) winner of the Edgar Award for Best Young Adult Mystery, perfect for readers of Kristin Hannah and Ruta Sepetys Amsterdam, 1943. Hanneke spends her days procuring and delivering sought-after...

New from Monica Hesse, the bestselling and award-winning author of Girl in the Blue Coat--an "important" (New York Times Book Review), "extraordinary" (Booklist, starred review) novel of conviction, friendship, and betrayal "A must-read for fans of historical fiction." --Ruta Sepetys, #1 New...

Something is stalking the queen of England, and Irene Adler is ready to find whatever monster may lurk behind this new gruesome string of murders—with or without the help of Sherlock Holmes. Irene Adler and Sherlock Holmes were both sent away from Oxford’s All Souls class after uncovering a...

For fans of Bridgerton and The Davenports comes a sweeping historical novel from bestselling author Veronica Chambers about courageous (and flirtatious) Ida B. Wells as she navigates society parties and society prejudices to become a civil rights crusader. Before she became a warrior, Ida B...

Young Reader's Shakespeare returns, with another visually stunning and brilliantly rewritten version of one of the Bard's classic plays. Julius Caesar has become such a part of our culture that many people even quote from it without realizing they are doing so: phrases such as "the dogs of war," "it's Greek to me," and "the evil that men do" have become part of everyday English.