Reviews by Tag: historical fiction

Teen Review
Girls Like Us by Randi Pink

Girls Like Us

By Randi Pink

Rated by
Molly J from BV YA Lit Council
Jul 24, 2020

As a teen invested in equal rights, I really enjoyed this book. I didn't know much history about this topic and because of that the most compelling aspect of the book is how it provided a new perspective. Lots of other teens like me will find this book informative and inspiring, and that is what makes it awesome. I also love books that have multiple POVs and make each person’s story come together in the end, and this book did a really good job with that. I think publishing novels like this one is really important to the current generation.

Teen Review

The Librarian of Auschwitz

By Antonio Iturbe

Rated by
Olivia from Leawood Pioneer Library YAAC
Mar 23, 2018

This book is based on the incredible true story of the Auschwitz prisoner Dita Kraus. She was taken from the Terrezin ghetto in Prague, and she is adjusting to life in the Nazi camp with her mother and father. And when the Jewish leader Fredy Hirsch asks her to protect the 8 precious books prisoners have managed to sneak past the guards, she agrees. This is the story of how she became the librarian of Auschwitz. This girl risked her life to keep the magic of books alive during the Holocaust despite constant danger every day.

Teen Review

Fallout

By Todd Strasser

Rated by
Olivia from Leawood Pioneer Library YAAC
Jul 10, 2017

In the summer of 1962, the possibility of nuclear war is all anyone talks about. But Scott’s dad is the only one in the neighborhood who actually prepares for the worst. As the neighbors scoff, he builds a bomb shelter to hold his family and stocks it with just enough supplies to keep the four of them alive for two critical weeks. In the middle of the night in late October, when the unthinkable happens, those same neighbors force their way into the shelter before Scott’s dad can shut the door.

Teen Review

The Wave

By Todd Strasser

Rated by
Olivia from Leawood Pioneer Library YAAC
Jun 22, 2017

This book is based on a true incident that occurred in a high school class in 1969.

When history teacher Burt Ross’ students can not seem to understand the powerful forces of group pressure that helped create the rise of Nazism, he decides to create the Wave, with its rules of “strength through discipline, community, and action.” It quickly spreads throughout the school. But as almost all of the students join in, Laurie Saunders and David Collins recognize its frightening momentum and must stop it before something awful happens.

Teen Review

Unbound

By Ann E. Burg

Rated by
Olivia from Leawood Pioneer Library YAAC
Apr 20, 2017

When Grace is called to work in the Big House from the slave cabins, her family warns her to keep her eyes down and watch her mouth, or there could be disastrous consequences. But she makes a grave mistake, and she and her family must flee deep into the dangerous woods, braving slave patrollers, deadly wild animals, and the uncertainty that they will ever be free.

Teen Review

Projekt 1065

By Alan Gratz

Rated by
Olivia from Leawood Pioneer Library YAAC
Apr 13, 2017

Michael O'Shaunessey, like all his other classmates, is part of the Hitler Youth. He participates in their book burnings and horrific games, but he secretly despises everything the Nazis stand stand for. He has a dangerous secret that he must protect at all costs, he and his parents are spies. He is just playing the part so he can get insider information. Soon he hears about Projekt 1065, a secret Nazi war mission that he has to stop. But to do that he must prove his loyalty to the Third Reich no matter the cost...

Staff Review

The Lie Tree

By Frances Hardinge
Star Rating
★★★★★

Rated by Chris K.
Jan 5, 2017

What had she just done? She had obediently opened a door and stepped through into blackness, without even knowing if there was a floor on the other side.

Teen Review

Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy

By L. A. Meyer

Rated by
Olivia from Leawood Pioneer Library YAAC
Jun 20, 2016

After all of Jacky’s family dies from a disease outbreak, she is forced to dress as a boy and work as a ship’s boy to survive. Now she no longer has to scavenge for food or fight for survival in the streets. As she becomes a skilled and respected member of the crew, she must use every ounce of her wit and courage to keep the crew from discovering her secret.

Teen Review

The Dark Days Club

By Alison Goodman

Rated by
Olivia from Leawood Pioneer Library YAAC
Jun 8, 2016

London, April 1812. On the eve of eighteen-year-old Lady Helen Wrexhall’s presentation to the queen, one of her family’s housemaids disappears-and Helen is drawn into the shadows of Regency London. There, she meets Lord Carlston, one of the few who can stop the perpetrators: a cabal of demons infiltrating every level of society. Dare she ask for his help, when his reputation is almost as black as his lingering eyes? And will her intelligence and headstrong curiosity wind up leading them into a death trap?

Staff Review

The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963

By Christopher Paul Curtis
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Becky C.
May 31, 2016

Told from the point-of-view of 10-year-old Kenny, it's really his big brother Byron who's the hero of this funny, emotional sucker-punch of a novel. Byron, thirteen, is a juvenile delinquent--a black sheep--according to Kenny, and pretty much everyone else in the so-called "Weird Watsons" family. But in the end it's Kenny who helps Byron overcome his depression over witnessing tragic events during a trip to visit their grandmother in Birmingham, Alabama during the height of the struggle for Civil Rights. 

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