World Historical Fiction Fiction Title: A Single Shard Author: Linda Sue Park Summary: An orphan in 12th century Korea, 13-year-old Tree-Ear lives under a bridge until he becomes an apprentice to a talented potter and journeys to the royal court to display his master's work. Title: Anna of Byzantium Author: Tracy Barrett Summary: Anna Commena, heir to her father's throne and educated as a ruler, finds her future thwarted when her grandmother pushes the king to name his younger son as heir in her place. Title: Before We Were Free Author: Julia Alvarez Summary: Twelve-year-old Anita shares her family's personal and political struggles under the Dominican Republic's ruthless dictator in 1960 Title: Blue Fingers Author: Cheryl Aylward Whitesel Summary: After he's kidnapped by ninjas, Koji develops his skills as a ninja warrior so he can join them in fighting against a cruel Samurai warlord in feudal Japan. Title: Breadwinner Author: Deborah Ellis Summary: Parvana must masquerade as a boy to support her mother and sister in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, which forbids women to leave home without a male escort. Title: Chain of Fire Author: Beverly Naidoo Summary: The white-ruled South African government tells the people of Naledi's village to relocate, but the residents of Bophelong decide to resist. Title: Deep Dream of the Rain Forest Author: Malcolm Bosse Summary: Bayang, an Iban tribesman, and Tambong, a tribal outcast, kidnap the 15-year-old orphan Harry Windsor, in order to fulfill a dream prophecy. Title: Escape from Botany Bay: The True Story of Mary Bryant Author: Gerald and Loretta Hausman Summary: In 1791, after being sent to Australia's Botany Bay penal colony for stealing a lady's bonnet, Mary Bryant leads a daring open boat escape hoping to reach England and freedom. Title: Escape from Egypt Author: Sonia Levitin Summary: Jesse, an Israelite boy, and Jennat, a heathen slave girl, wrestle with feelings for each other and their faiths, as the charismatic leader, Moses, leads his people to freedom. Title: Forgotten Fire Author: Adam Bagdasarian Summary: Vahan is the spoiled youngest son of an Armenian family living in Turkey in 1915, but he must grow up quickly when Armenians begin being arrested and killed by the Turkish government. Title: Ghost in the Tokaido Inn Author: Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler Summary: In 18th century Japan, 14-year-old Seikei helps Judge Ooka solve the mystery when a jewel is stolen from Lord Hakuseki at the Tokaido Inn, and young girl is accused of the crime. Title: I Rode a Horse of Milk White Jade Author: Diane L. Wilson Summary: Oyuna's clan considers her cursed after a horse crushes her foot, so she leaves to seek a horse swift enough to win a great race and bring honor to her family during the reign of Kubla Kahn. Title: In the Shadow of the Alamo Author: Sherry Garland Summary: Lorenzo is conscripted into the Mexican army for ten years and finds himself fighting to retake the Alamo from the North American settlers. Title: Kiss the Dust Author: Elizabeth Laird Summary: Thirteen-year-old Tara's privileged life is lost forever when the Iraqi government discovers her father is in the Kurdish resistance movement of the 1980s. Title: Kite Rider Author: Geraldine McCaughrean Summary: Haoyou finds an escape from his sad and impoverished family in 13th century China when he joins the circus as a kite rider - a person who is strapped to a soaring kite. Title: Mara, Daughter of the Nile Author: Eloise Jarvis McGraw Summary: An Egyptian slave girl becomes a double agent in the palace intrigues of Queen Hatshepset Title: Masada: The Last Fortress Author: Gloria Miklowitz Summary: In the year 73, 17-year-old Simon waits with his friends in a fortress under siege, preparing for the unstoppable Roman army to arrive. Title: Paradise: Based on a True Story of Survival Author: Joan Elizabeth Goodman Summary: In 1542, 16-year-old Marguerite leaves her strict Protestant family in France to sail with her uncle to the New World, but is abandoned on a desert island after her Catholic lover is discovered as a stowaway. Title: Pharoah's Daughter: A Novel of Ancient Egypt Author: Julius Lester Summary: The Biblical Moses story is retold through the eyes of Almah, an Egyptian priestess, and Moses, Almah's brother and a young man struggling with his identity and the murder he committed. Title: Pirates! The True and Remarkable Adventures of Minerva Sharpe and Nancy Kington, Female Pirates Author: Celia Rees Summary: Dark and tragic events on her father's Jamaican sugar plantation send Nancy Kington and her half-sister, Minerva Sharpe, into hiding among pirates in the 1700s. Title: Rebel: A Tibetan Odyssey Author: Cheryl Aylward Whitesel Summary: In late 19th century Tibet, 14-year-old Thunder accidentally has contact with a foreigner and must be sent away from his village to the unfamiliar world of a Buddhist monastery. Title: Red Palms Author: Cara Haycak Summary: After her father loses his wealth during the Great Depression in Ecuador, Benita must adjust to a simpler lifestyle on the tropical island of Paita, where she falls for Raúl. Title: Rice without Rain Author: Minfong Ho Summary: After her father dies in jail for refusing to pay the high land rents, Jinda travels to Bangkok to join the rallies in support of Thai farmers and also finds love. Title: Samurai Shortstop Author: Alan Gratz Summary: In the 1890s when the new Emperor has banned Samurai warriors, 16-year-old Toyo is taught the Samurai ways by his father anyway, and relates them to the new game of baseball. Title: Serpent's Children Author: Laurence Yep Summary: In China in the 1800s, Cassia keeps her family together through times of famine and violence. Title: Shadow Spinner Author: Susan Fletcher Summary: Marjan, a crippled Persian girl, secretly searches the marketplaces of Baghdad for stories to help save Shahrazad from the Sultan. Title: Shadows of Ghadames Author: Joëlle Stolz Summary: In Libya in the late 19th century, Malika nears age twelve when she will join the women of Ghadames to live a sheltered but limited life on the rooftops and within her own home. Title: Smiler's Bones Author: Peter Lerangis Summary: Minik longs for his home in Greenland after Explorer Robert Peary brings him and five other Eskimos to the American Museum of Natural History to display for science. Title: Sweetgrass Author: Jan Hudson Summary: An outbreak of smallpox in her Canadian Blackfoot tribe allows Sweetgrass the chance to prove to her father that she is ready for what she most desires- to marry. Title: Taste of Salt: A Story of Modern Haiti Author: Frances Temple Summary: Seventeen-year-old Djo tells a beautiful young visitor how he came to be so badly beaten and confined to a hospital bed while fighting to end the misery of a cruel dictatorship in Haiti. Title: The Beduins' Gazelle Author: Frances Temple Summary: In 1302, Halima and Atiyah, two engaged cousins of the Beni Khalid tribe, are separated: Atiyah is sent to the city by a scheming uncle, and Halima is kidnapped by a rival tribe. Title: The Bomb Author: Theodore Taylor Summary: Thirteen-year-old Sorry Rinamu isn't going to make it easy for the Americans to use his people's homeland, the Bikini Atoll, to test the atom bomb so they can win World War II. Title: The Bone Collector's Son Author: Paul Yee Summary: Bing hates his father's job collecting the bones of dead Chinese people to send back to their relatives, but finds his job as a houseboy in a fancy Vancouver home has its own problems. Title: The Captive Author: Scott O'Dell Summary: A young man on his way to the New World in a Spanish expedition starts out with pure intentions but is seduced by greed during the enslavement of a Mayan colony. Title: The Kin: Mana's Story, Noli's Story, Po's Story, Suth's Story Author: Peter Dickinson Summary: Follow four different stories of life among the Moonhawk Kin, a band of prehistoric people living 200,000 years ago. Title: The Storyteller's Beads Author: Jane Kurtz Summary: Sahay and Rahel flee 1980s Ethiopia and draw both courage and strength from one another, a thing they would never have thought possible, since one is Christian and the other Jewish. Title: The Wadjet Eye Author: Jill Rubalcaba Summary: Damon, a medical student living in Egypt in 45 B.C., must overcome many hardships when he travels to the battlefields of Spain where his father is a soldier under Julius Caesar. Title: The Year the Gypsies Came Author: Linzi Glass Summary: When a gypsy family comes to stay with her South African family in the 1960s, 12-year-old Emily must cope with the tragedy this brings while also facing the war on Apartheid raging around her. Title: Ties that Bind, Ties that Break Author: Lensey Namioka Summary: In 1911 China, Ailin's grandmother wants to bind her feet to make them small and beautiful, but Ailin refuses when she sees the deformed stumps her older sister can barely hobble on. Title: Under the Persimmon Tree Author: Suzanne Fisher Staples Summary: The lives of Najmah, an Afghan girl whose family has been destroyed by the 2001 war, and Nusrat, an American woman running a school at a refugee camp, connect on the Pakistani border. Title: When My Name Was Keoko Author: Linda Sue Park Summary: Older brother Tae-yul and younger sister Sun-hee are Korean, but must forsake their heritage during the Japanese occupation of Korea in the 1940s. Title: Winter People Author: Joseph Bruchac Summary: After English Rangers kidnap his mother and sister from their home in Quebec during the French and Indian wars, fourteen year old Saxso sets out to rescue his family.