TIME-LINE PROJECTS
BIOGRAPHIES & HISTORICAL FICTION
Grade 6
MIDDLE SCHOOL COLLECTION
DIARIES
Land of the Buffalo Bones by Marion Dane Bauer
Fourteen-year-old Polly Rodgers keeps a diary of her 1873 journey from England to Minnesota as part of a colony of eighty people seeking religious freedom, and of their first year struggling to make a life there, led by her father, a Baptist minister.
ANCIENT HISTORY
The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth Speare
A young boy seeks revenge against the Romans for killing his parents, but is turned away from vengeance by Jesus.
Call Me Isis: Egyptian Goddess of Magic by Gretchen Maurer
"Isis, Egyptian Goddess of Magic, thinks herself destined for a charmed life as the Goddess-Queen of Egypt. But in one fell swoop she loses her love, her home, even her magical powers. For the sake of Egypt and her infant son, Horus, she has to put this topsy-turvy world aright. Her adventures take her out into the realm of humans, and down into the underworld. How will she reclaim Egypt's throne for Horus, against the will of the evil usurper, Seth? Will she be able to save Egypt from ruin? And where can you find her now?"--Back cover.
14th-15th CENTURY & MIDDLE AGES
Bound by Donna Jo Napoli
Ming Dynasty China
In
this Cinderella story set in 14th-century China, "Napoli grants her
heroine an independence that remains authentic to her time, and creates
both an adventure and a coming-of-age story that will have readers
racing to the finish," according to our Best Books citation. Ages 12-up.
(Aug.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Branded as traitors by the king's authorities, Crispin and his guardian, Bear, flee to coastal towns in fourteenth-century England, where they perform a musical juggling act and bond as a family after befriending a disfigured girl.
Crispin by Avi
Branded as traitors by the king's authorities, Crispin and his guardian, Bear, flee to coastal towns in fourteenth-century England, where they perform a musical juggling act and bond as a family after befriending a disfigured girl.
Crispin at the End of Time by Avi
Crispin and Troth, wandering the French countryside following the death of their beloved mentor, Bear, find refuge at a convent, and when Troth decides to stay, Crispin continues on alone, joining a band of traveling musicians who he soon realizes are murderous thieves.
16th CENTURY
The Shakespeare Stealer by Gary Blake
A young orphan boy is ordered by his master to infiltrate Shakespeare's acting troupe in order to steal the script of "Hamlet," but he discovers instead the meaning of friendship and loyalty.
17th CENTURY
Sugared Plum by Mary Hooper
In June 1665, excited at the prospect of coming to London to work at her sister Sarah's candy shop, teenaged Hannah is unconcerned about rumors of Plague until, as the hot summer advances and increasing numbers of people succumb to the disease, she and Sarah find themselves trapped in the city with no means of escape.
A Break with Charity: A Story about the Salem Witch Trials by Ann Rinaldi -
While waiting for a church meeting in 1706, Susanna English, daughter of a wealthy Salem merchant, recalls the malice, fear, and accusations of witchcraft that tore her village apart in 1692.
18th CENTURY
Ann's Story, 1747 by Joan Lowry Nixon
Ann, a young girl in eighteenth-century Williamsburg, wants to become a doctor like her father, but she is not allowed even to study Latin or mathematics.
Anson's Way by Gary Schmidt While serving as a British Fencible to maintain the peace in eighteenth-century Ireland, Anson finds that his sympathy for a hedge master, a teacher devoted to teaching Irish children their forbidden language and culture, places him in conflict with the law of King George II.
The Blackthorn Key by Kevin Sands
In 1665 London, fourteen-year-old Christopher Rowe, apprentice to an apothecary, and his best friend Tom try to uncover the truth behind a mysterious cult, following a trail of puzzles, codes, pranks, and danger toward an unearthly secret with the power to tear the world apart.
Calico Captive by Elizabeth George Speare
An Englishwoman, Miriam Willard, becomes a captive during the French and Indian War in 1754. After a harrowing march north to Montreal she discovers a city filled with the intrigue of war.
American Revolution
Cast Two Shadows by Ann Rinaldi
In South Carolina in 1780, fourteen-year-old Caroline sees the Revolutionary War take a terrible toll among her family and friends and comes to understand the true nature of war.
Sophia's War by Avi
In 1776, after witnessing the execution of Nathan Hale in New York City, newly occupied by the British army, young Sophia Calderwood resolves to do all she can to help the American cause, including becoming a spy.
19th CENTURYAirman by Eoin ColferIn the 1890s on an island off the Irish coast, Conor Broekhart is falsely imprisoned and passes the solitary months by scratching designs of flying machines into the walls, including one for a glider with which he dreams of escape.
The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich
Omakayas, a seven-year-old Native American girl of the Ojibwa tribe, lives through the joys of summer and the perils of winter on an island in Lake Superior in 1847.
The Borning Room by Paul FleischmanLying at the end of her life in the room where she was born in 1851, Georgina remembers what it was like to grow up on the Ohio frontier.
Bloody Jack:
Being an Account of Curious Adventures of Mary Jacky Faber "Ship Boy" by L.A. Meyer
Mary's family dies of the pestilence in the eighteenth century, forcing her to join a gang of ragamuffins living in London's underbelly. When the leader is killed, Mary dresses as a boy and gets a job in the Royal Navy, calling herself Jacky (which is changed to Bloody Jack when she kills a man). Stock minor characters allow the plot to sail along at a fast clip.
Blue Fingers: A Ninja's Tale by Cheryl Aylward WhiteselHaving failed apprenticeship as a dye maker, Koji is captured and forced to train as a ninja, where he remains disloyal until he discovers samurai have burned his former village.
The Boundless by Kenneth Oppel
Aboard "The Boundless," the greatest train ever built, on its maiden voyage across Canada, teenaged Will enlists the aid of a traveling circus to save the train from villains.
A Chapel of Thieves by Bruce Clements
In 1849, Henry, a resourceful young man, sets off from Missouri to Paris in hopes of saving his older brother, a self-styled preacher, from the clutches of a clever charlatan.
In 1835, when his father is put in a Philadelphia debtor's prison, twelve-year-old chess prodigy Rufus Goodspeed is relieved to be recruited to secretly operate a chess-playing automaton named The Turk, but soon questions the fate of his predecessors and his own safety.
Land of the Buffalo Bones by Marion Dane Bauer
Fourteen-year-old Polly Rodgers keeps a diary of her 1873 journey from England to Minnesota as part of a colony of eighty people seeking religious freedom, and of their first year struggling to make a life there, led by her father, a Baptist minister.
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi
Thirteen-year-old Charlotte Doyle, the only passenger on a voyage from England to America in 1832, must take serious matters into her own hands when she learns that the captain is murderous.
Civil War
Evvy's Civil War
Iron Thunder by Avi
Thirteen-year-old Tom Carroll takes his place as head of the family after his father dies fighting for the Union; but his job at the local ironworks, where he helps build an iron ship for the Union army, and his loyalty come into question when he is approached by Confederate spies to sell secrets about the ship to the South.
20th CENTURY
WORLD WAR II
The Art of Keeping Cool by Janet Lisle
In 1942, Robert and his cousin Elliot uncover long-hidden family secrets while staying in their grandparents' Rhode Island town, where they also become involved with a German artist who is suspected of being a spy.
A Boy No More by Harry Mazer
Japanese Internment CampsAfter his father is killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor, Adam, his mother, and sister are evacuated from Hawaii to California, where he must deal with his feelings about the war, Japanese internment camps, his father, and his own identity.
Caleb's Story by Patricia MacLachlan - early 20th century
| Sequel to: Skylark. |
| The stranger lurking on the Witting family's prairie farm turns out to be their long-lost grandfather, whose presence, plus prodding from Caleb, forces Jacob to deal with his past. |
🌟The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradly
The War I Finally Won by Bradly
"As the frightening impact of World War II creeps closer and closer to her door, eleven-year-old Ada learns to manage life on the home front"--
POST WORLD WAR II
Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer CholdenkoA twelve-year-old boy named Moose moves to Alcatraz Island in 1935 when guards' families were housed there, and has to contend with his extraordinary new environment in addition to life with his autistic sister.
Bat 6 by Virginia Euwer Wolff
In small town, post-World War Oregon, twenty-one 6th grade girls recount the story of an annual softball game, during which one girl's bigotry comes to the surface.
Breaking Stalin's Nose by Eugene Yelchin
In the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union, Sasha idolizes his father, a devoted Communist, but when police take his father away and leave Sasha homeless, he is forced to examine his own perceptions, values, and beliefs.
Casualties of War by Chris Lynch
One of four friends who have volunteered to fight in the Vietnam War, the intellectual Beck is in the Air Force, where he is part of a crew spraying Agent Orange, but the destruction of the jungle and his isolation from the fighting going on below is starting to affect him.
The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle by Janet Fox
In 1940, during the Blitz, Katherine, Robbie and Amelie Bateson are sent north to a private school in Rookskill Castle in Scotland, a brooding place, haunted by dark magic from the past--but when some of their classmates disappear Katherine has to find out if the cause is hidden in the past or very much in the present.
