Best YA Historical Fiction Books of All Time
To Kill a Mockingbird (Released: January 1960)
Author(s): Harper Lee
Ratings and Reviews from Hardcover
Rating: 4.17 (2539 Ratings, 114 Reviews)
Pages: 323
The unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town and the crisis of conscience that rocked it. "To Kill A Mockingbird" became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film, also a classic. Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, "To Kill A Mockingbird" takes readers to the roots of human behavior - to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and pathos. Now with over 18 million copies in print and translated into forty languages, this regional story by a young Alabama woman claims universal appeal. Harper Lee always considered her book to be a simple love story. Today it is regarded as a masterpiece of American literature.
Genre(s): Fiction, Classics, Historical Fiction, Young Adult, African Americans, Comics, Spanish, Juvenile Nonfiction, Juvenile Fiction, Families
Slaughterhouse 5 (Released: June 1968)
Author(s): Kurt Vonnegut
Ratings and Reviews from Hardcover
Rating: 4.09 (1516 Ratings, 98 Reviews)
Pages: 292
Kurt Vonnegut’s masterpiece, Slaughterhouse-Five is “a desperate, painfully honest attempt to confront the monstrous crimes of the twentieth century” (Time). Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time Slaughterhouse-Five, an American classic, is one of the world’s great antiwar books. Centering on the infamous World War II firebombing of Dresden, the novel is the result of what Kurt Vonnegut described as a twenty-three-year struggle to write a book about what he had witnessed as an American prisoner of war. It combines historical fiction, science fiction, autobiography, and satire in an account of the life of Billy Pilgrim, a barber’s son turned draftee turned optometrist turned alien abductee. As Vonnegut had, Billy experiences the destruction of Dresden as a POW. Unlike Vonnegut, he experiences time travel, or coming “unstuck in time.” An instant bestseller, Slaughterhouse-Five made Kurt Vonnegut a cult hero in American literature, a reputation that only strengthened over time, despite his being banned and censored by some libraries and schools for content and language. But it was precisely those elements of Vonnegut’s writing—the political edginess, the genre-bending inventiveness, the frank violence, the transgressive wit—that have inspired generations of readers not just to look differently at the world around them but to find the confidence to say something about it. Authors as wide-ranging as Norman Mailer, John Irving, Michael Crichton, Tim O’Brien, Margaret Atwood, Elizabeth Strout, David Sedaris, Jennifer Egan, and J. K. Rowling have all found inspiration in Vonnegut’s words. Jonathan Safran Foer has described Vonnegut as “the kind of writer who made people—young people especially—want to write.” George Saunders has declared Vonnegut to be “the great, urgent, passionate American writer of our century, who offers us . . . a model of the kind of compassionate thinking that might yet save us from ourselves.” More than fifty years after its initial publication at the height of the Vietnam War, Vonnegut’s portrayal of political disillusionment, PTSD, and postwar anxiety feels as relevant, darkly humorous, and profoundly affecting as ever, an enduring beacon through our own era’s uncertainties.
Genre(s): Classics, Fiction, Young Adult, Science fiction, General, Comics, War, Dystopian, Literature, History
Circe (Released: January 2018)
Author(s): Madeline Miller
Ratings and Reviews from Hardcover
Rating: 4.23 (1421 Ratings, 224 Reviews)
Pages: 409
"Circe" by Madeline Miller is a mesmerizing reimagining of the Greek mythological character, Circe. Banished to a remote island for defying the gods, Circe's journey unfolds through enchanting prose as she discovers her own power and identity. With vivid storytelling and encounters with legendary figures, including Odysseus, the novel explores themes of strength, transformation, and belonging. "Circe" is a captivating blend of mythology and human emotion that offers an unforgettable reading experience.
Genre(s): Fantasy, Fiction, Adventure, General, Historical Fiction, Magic, Young Adult Fiction, Classics, greek mythology, Young Adult
The Book Thief (Released: January 2005)
Author(s): Markus Zusak
Ratings and Reviews from Hardcover
Rating: 4.32 (1251 Ratings, 143 Reviews)
Pages: 552
Trying to make sense of the horrors of World War II, Death relates the story of Liesel--a young German girl whose book-stealing and story-telling talents help sustain her family and the Jewish man they are hiding, as well as their neighbors.
Genre(s): Historical Fiction, Fiction, Classics, Young Adult, History, War, Spanish, Religion, Difficult Situations, Death & Dying
The Kite Runner (Released: January 1969)
Author(s): Khaled Hosseini
Ratings and Reviews from Hardcover
Rating: 4.16 (1036 Ratings, 65 Reviews)
Pages: 401
The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father’s servant, caught in the tragic sweep of history, The Kite Runner transports readers to Afghanistan at a tense and crucial moment of change and destruction. A powerful story of friendship, it is also about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption; and an exploration of the power of fathers over sons—their love, their sacrifices, their lies. Since its publication in 2003 Kite Runner has become a beloved, one-of-a-kind classic of contemporary literature, touching millions of readers, and launching the career of one of America's most treasured writers.
Genre(s): Fiction, Young Adult, General, Comics, War, Literature, History, Historical Fiction, Friendship, Performing Arts
The Count of Monte Cristo (Released: January 1830)
Author(s): Alexandre Dumas, David Case (Narrator), Robin Buss (Translator/Editor)
Ratings and Reviews from Hardcover
Rating: 4.32 (759 Ratings, 51 Reviews)
Pages: 1276
The original revenge story, The Count of Monte Cristo is an adventure story set in France and Italy. The story commences just before the Hundred Days of Napoleon and continues on to the reign of King Louis-Philippe. Edmond Dantes, a young merchant sailor is falsely accused of being a Bonapartiste and imprisoned on an island. It takes 14 years for Dantes to escape, during which he befriends an ageing fellow prisoner who bequeaths him a fortune hidden in a cave on an Italian island. With this fortune Dantes reinvents himself as the Count of the title and returns to France to seek revenge against the men who ruined his life.
Genre(s): Adventure, Fiction, Mystery, General, Comics, History, Historical Fiction, Friendship, French fiction, Classical fiction
All the Light We Cannot See (Released: January 2014)
Author(s): Anthony Doerr
Ratings and Reviews from Hardcover
Rating: 4.20 (775 Ratings, 115 Reviews)
Pages: 544
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist, the beloved instant New York Times bestseller and New York Times Book Review Top 10 Book about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris, and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel. In a mining town in Germany, the orphan Werner grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, then a special assignment to track the Resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure’s converge. Doerr’s “stunning sense of physical detail and gorgeous metaphors” (San Francisco Chronicle) are dazzling. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, he illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another. Ten years in the writing, All the Light We Cannot See is a magnificent, deeply moving novel from a writer “whose sentences never fail to thrill” (Los Angeles Times).
Genre(s): Fiction, Historical Fiction, War, General, History, Classics, Friendship, Young Adult, Adventure
A Christmas Carol (Released: January 195)
Author(s): Charles Dickens
Ratings and Reviews from Hardcover
Rating: 4.05 (662 Ratings, 60 Reviews)
Pages: 112
A stunningly beautiful hardback edition of the most famous Christmas story in the world - Charles Dickens' beloved book A Christmas Carol. Ebenezer Scrooge is a mean, miserable, bitter old man with no friends. One cold Christmas Eve, three ghosts take him on a scary journey to show him the error of his nasty ways. By visiting his past, present and future, Scrooge learns to love Christmas and the people all around him. Also in Puffin Clothbound Classics: 9780241411148 Black Beauty 9780241411155 Dracula 9780241411162 The Secret Garden 9780241411209 The Wizard of Oz 9780241411216 Treasure Island
Genre(s): Classics, Fiction, Literature, Young Adult, Philosophy, Suspense, Children, Comics, General, Adventure
All Quiet on the Western Front (Released: January 1928)
Author(s): Erich Maria Remarque, Arthur Wesley Wheen (Translator)
Ratings and Reviews from Hardcover
Rating: 4.12 (458 Ratings, 37 Reviews)
Pages: 295
Paul Baumer enlisted with his classmates in the German army of World War I. Youthful and enthusiastic, they become soldiers. But despite what they have learned, they break into pieces under the first bombardment in the trenches. And as horrible war plods on year after year, Paul holds fast to a single vow: to fight against the principles of hate that meaninglessly pits young men of the same generation but different uniforms against each other - if only he can come out of the war alive.
Genre(s): Fiction, Classics, War, Young Adult, Comics, War stories, History, Historical Fiction, World War, Adventure
The Dragon Republic (Released: January 2019)
Author(s): R.F. Kuang
Ratings and Reviews from Hardcover
Rating: 4.16 (378 Ratings, 59 Reviews)
Pages: 672
The war is over. The war has just begun. Three times throughout its history, Nikan has fought for its survival in the bloody Poppy Wars. Though the third battle has just ended, shaman and warrior Rin cannot forget the atrocity she committed to save her people. Now she is on the run from her guilt, the opium addiction that holds her like a vice, and the murderous commands of the fiery Phoenix—the vengeful god who has blessed Rin with her fearsome power. Though she does not want to live, she refuses to die until she avenges the traitorous Empress who betrayed Rin’s homeland to its enemies. Her only hope is to join forces with the powerful Dragon Warlord, who plots to conquer Nikan, unseat the Empress, and create a new republic. But neither the Empress nor the Dragon Warlord are what they seem. The more Rin witnesses, the more she fears her love for Nikan will force her to use the Phoenix’s deadly power once more. Because there is nothing Rin won’t sacrifice to save her country . . . and exact her vengeance.
Genre(s): Fantasy, Young Adult, Fiction, War, Historical Fiction, Imaginary wars and battles