Civil
War in YA Literature
1861 - 1865
Bolich
Middle School Library 2010-2011
1863:
A House Divided: A Novel of the Civil War by Elizabath Massie
(FIC MAS)
Sixteen-year-old twins Susanne and Stephen leave their sleepy town to help the
Union army, but they are unaware of the impending battle that will occur between
Union and Confederate forces in a small town called Gettysburg.
Young Jethro Creighton grows from a boy to a man when
he is left to take care of the family farm in Illinois during the difficult
years of the Civil War.
When
a Confederate general threatens to burn Hagerstown, Maryland, unless it pays an
exorbitant ransom, twelve-year-old Amelia and her friend find a way to save the
town.
In 1865 with the war recently over, fourteen-year-old Hannalee and her reunited
family decide to start a new life in Atlanta where, because of the need to
rebuild the devastated city, jobs are plentiful.
Black
Angels
by Linda Beatrice Brown (FIC BRO)
Three Southern children, two black and one white, escape from their homes during
the horrors of the Civil War and, after meeting in the woods, gradually come to
rely on each other as they make their way slowly north, enduring hunger, fear,
sickness, and constant danger, before arriving in Harper's Ferry, West Virginia.
In the years before the Civil War, Bright discovers that her parents are
providing a safe house for the Underground Railroad and helps to save a runaway
slave named Marcus.
Northerners, Southerners, generals, couriers, dreaming boys and worried sisters
describe the glory, the horror, the thrill, and the disillusionment of the first
battle of the Civil War.
Charley
Skedaddle
by Patricia Beatty (FIC BEA)
During the Civil War, a twelve-year-old Bowery Boy
from New York City joins the Union Army as a drummer, deserts during a battle in
Virginia, and encounters a hostile old mountain woman.
Dear
Ellen Bee: A Civil War Scrapbook of Two Union Spies
by Mary E. Lyons (FIC LYO)
A scrapbook kept by a young black girl details her experiences and those of the
older white woman, "Miss Bet," who had freed her and her family, sent
her north from Richmond to get an education, and then worked to bring an end to
slavery. Based on the life of Elizabeth Van Lew.
Deep
Cut
by Susan
Rosson Spain (FIC SPA)
Considered "slow" by his father, Lonzo tries
his best to help his family in Culpeper, Virginia, during the Civil War and, in
the process, comes to some decisions about how to live his life.
Drums
of War
by Edith Morris Hemingway (FIC HEM)
In
1861 Charley, a twelve-year-old drummer boy with the Army of the Potomac, is
caught up in the excitement and horrors of the Civil War as he travels from
Washington towards Antietam.
Freedom
Crossing
by Margaret Goff Clark (FIC CLA)
After spending four years with relatives in the South, a fifteen-year-old girl
accepts the idea that slaves are property and is horrified to learn when she
returns to the North that her home is a station on the underground railroad.
Gentle
Annie, the True Story Of a Civil War Nurse
by Mary Francis Shura (FIC SHU)
A
biography of Anna Blair Etheridge, a nurse during the Civil War, from childhood
through her four years of service with the Army of the Potomac.
Ghost
Cadet
by Elaine Marie Alphin (FIC ALP)
Twelve-year-old Benjy, in Virginia visiting the
grandmother he has never met, meets the ghost
of a Virginia Military Institute cadet
who was killed in the Battle of New Market in 1864 and helps him recover his
family's treasured gold watch.
Ghosts
and Haunts of the Civil War: Authentic Accounts of the Strange and Unexplained
by Christopher Coleman (133.1 COL)
From haunted battlefields to phantom
soldiers, this book is a fascinating collection of chilling and intriguing
stories of Civil War ghosts. It contains thirty-six such stories, including an
encounter by both Teddy Roosevelt and First Lady Grace Coolidge with Abraham
Lincoln in the White House.
Girl
in Blue
by Ann Rinaldi (FIC RIN)
To escape an abusive father and an arranged marriage, fourteen-year-old Sarah,
dressed as a boy, leaves her Michigan home to enlist in
the Union Army, and becomes a soldier on the battlefields of Virginia as well as
a Union spy working in
the house of Confederate sympathizer Rose O'Neal Greenhow in
Washington, D.C.
Henry’s
Freedom Box by Ellen Levine (FIC
LEV)
A fictionalized account of how in 1849 a Virginia slave, Henry "Box"
Brown, escapes to freedom
by shipping himself in a wooden crate from Richmond to Philadelphia.
House
of Dies Drear by Virginia Hamilton
(FIC HAM)
An African-American family tries to unravel the secrets of
their new home which was once a stop on the Underground Railroad.
I
Thought
My
Soul
Would
Rise
and Fly:
The Diary of Patsy, a Freed Girl
by Joyce Hansen (FIC HAN)
Twelve-year-old
Patsy keeps a diary of the ripe but confusing time following the end of the
Civil War and the granting of freedom to former slaves.
In
My Father’s House
by Ann Rinaldi (FIC RIN)
An overview of the Civil War provides the setting for
the evolution of a young girl's relationship with her stepfather.
Iron
Thunder: The Battle Between the Monitor & the Merrimac by Avi (FIC AVI)
When
his father is killed fighting for the Union in the War Between the States,
thirteen-year-old Tom Carroll must take a job to help support his family. He
manages to find work at a bustling ironworks in his hometown of Brooklyn, New
York, where dozens of men are frantically pounding together the strangest ship Tom
has ever seen. A ship made of iron.
Journal
of James Edmond Pease: A Civil War Union Soldier by Jim Murphy (FIC MUR)
A sixteen-year-old orphan keeps a
journal
of his
experiences as a volunteer in the Union army during the Civil War.
Journal
of Rufus Rowe: Witness to the Battle of Fredricksburg by Sid Hite (FIC
HIT)
In 1862, sixteen-year-old Rufus
Rowe runs away
from home and settles in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where he documents in his journal
the battle he watches unfold there.
Light
in the Storm: the
Civil War Diary of Amelia Martin (FIC HES)
In
1860 and 1861, while working in her father's lighthouse on an island
off the coast of Delaware, fifteen-year-old Amelia records in
her diary how the Civil War is beginning to devastate
her divided state.
Listen
for Rachel
by Lou Kassem (FIC KAS)
Moving up into the mountains of Tennessee introduces Rachel
to a possible calling, as she learns about folk medicine from a local healer,
until the Civil War divides the family loyalties and brings romance into her
life.
Mine
Eyes Have Seen by Ann Rinaldi (FIC RIN)
As
antislavery crusader John Brown gathers men and arms at a small farm near
Harper's Ferry, seventeen-year-old Annie Brown must decide: Is her father a
visionary or a madman?
Mr.
Lincoln’s Drummer by G. Clifton Wisler (FIC WIS)
Recounts the courageous exploits of Willie Johnston, an eleven-year-old Civil
War drummer,
who became the youngest recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Month
of Seven Days by Shirley Climo (FIC CLI)
When
twelve-year-old Zoe's Georgia home is taken over by Union soldiers, she uses all
her ingenuity to drive them away.
After the Civil War, a family of former slaves struggles to establish itself in
a rural North Carolina town.
No
Man’s Land: A Young Soldier’s Story
by Susan Campbell Bartoletti (FIC BAR)
Because he had been unable to fight off the gator which injured his father,
fourteen-year-old Thrasher joins the Confederate Army hoping to prove his
manhood.
North
by Night: A Story of the Underground Railroad
by Katherine Ayres (FIC AYR)
Presents
the journal of a sixteen-year-old girl whose family operates a stop on the
Underground Railroad.
Numbering
All the Bones
by Ann Rinaldi (FIC RIN)
It is 1864, the Civil War is
moving toward an end. President Lincoln has proclaimed his 'great measure,' and
Southern slaves are slowly gaining their freedom. But for thirteen-year-old
Eulinda, a house slave on a Georgia plantation, it is the
most difficult time of her life.
A Picture of Freedom: the Diary of Clotee, a
Slave Girl by Patricia C.
McKissack (FIC MCK)
In 1859, a
girl slave on a
plantation in Virginia records her thoughts and experiences in a
diary.
Red
Badge of Courage
by Stephen Crane (FIC CRA)
Henry Fleming, a young Union soldier, struggles with
his conflicting emotions about violence, death, and the nature of
bravery in this ironic, skeptical account of
the Civil War.
River
Between Us
by Richard Peck (FIC PEC)
During the early days of the Civil War, the Pruitt family takes in two
mysterious young ladies who have fled New Orleans to come north to Illinois.
Sarny,
A Life Remembered by Gary
Paulsen (FIC PAU)
Continues the adventures of Sarny,
the slave girl Nightjohn taught to read, through the aftermath of the Civil War
during which time she taught other Blacks and lived a full life until age
ninety-four.
Shades
of Gray
by Carolyn Reeder (FIC REE)
At the end of the Civil War,
twelve-year-old Will, having lost all his immediate family, reluctantly leaves
his city home to live in the Virginia countryside with his aunt and the uncle he
considers a "traitor" because he refused to take part in the war.
Silent
Thunder: A Civil War Story
by Andrea Davis Pinkney (FIC PIN)
In 1862 eleven-year-old Summer and her thirteen-year-old brother Rosco take
turns describing how life on the quiet Virginia plantation where they are slaves
is affected by the Civil War.
Soldier's
heart: a novel of the Civil War by Gary Paulsen
(FIC PAU)
Eager to enlist, fifteen-year-old Charley has
a change of heart after experiencing both the
physical horrors and mental anguish of Civil War combat.
Steal
Away
by Jennifer Armstrong (FIC ARM)
In 1855 two thirteen-year-old girls, one White and one Black, run away
from a southern farm and make the difficult journey north to freedom, living to
recount their story forty-one years later to two similar young girls.
Stealing
Freedom
by Elisa Carbone (FIC CAR)
A novel based on the true story of Ann Maria Weems, a young slave girl from
Maryland who endures all kinds of mistreatment and cruelty, including being
separated from her family, but who eventually escapes to freedom
in Canada.
Stealing
South: A Story of the Underground Railroad
by Katherine Ayres (FIC AYR)
Sixteen-year-old Will Spencer leaves home to become a peddler, but gets more
than he bargained for when he agrees to go to Kentucky, steal two slaves, and
help them reach their brother in Canada.
Stonewall’s
Gold: A Novel of the Civil War
by Robert Mrazek (FIC MRA)
Ahead
of Jamie lies the adventure of his life. He'll be captured and almost killed,
survive a terrible blizzard, fall in love, and lose a trusted friend all on his
search to find Stonewall's
gold.
Storm
Before Atlanta
by Karen Schwabach (FIC SCH)
In
1863 northwestern Georgia, an unlikely alliance forms between ten-year-old New
York drummer boy Jeremy, fourteen-year-old Confederate Charlie, and runaway
slave Dulcie as they learn truths about the Civil War, slavery, and freedom.
Turn
Homeward, Hannalee by Patricia Beatty (FIC
BEA)
Twelve-year-old
Hannalee Reed, forced to relocate in Indiana along with other Georgia
millworkers during the Civil War, leaves her mother with a promise to return
home as soon as the war ends.
Undying Glory
by Clinton Cox (FIC COX)
As does the recent movie Glory, this book details the history of
the Massachusetts 54th Regiment, a black regiment that served with valor and
distinction in the Civil War. The account begins with the formation of the unit
in 1863 and follows it throughout the remainder of the war. Cox clearly
documents the difficulties that black soldiers faced: pay unequal to that of
whites, severe prejudice, and an unwillingness on the part of many in power to
allow them to engage in actual battle.
When
Will This Cruel War Be Over?: The Civil War Diary of Emma Simpson
by Barry Denenberg (FIC DEN)
The diary of a fictional fourteen-year-old girl living in Virginia, in which she
describes the hardships endured by her family and friends during one year of the
Civil War.
Which
Way Freedom
by Joyce Hansen (FIC HAN)
Obi escapes from slavery during the Civil War, joins a Black Union regiment, and
soon becomes involved in the bloody fighting at Fort Pillow, Tennessee.
Who
Comes With Cannons? By Patricia Beatty (FIC
BEA)
In 1861 twelve-year-old Truth, a Quaker girl from Indiana, is staying with
relatives who
run a North Carolina station of the Underground Railroad, when her world is
changed by the beginning of the Civil War.
Non
Fiction (Narrative)
Battle
of New Market: A Story of Virginia military Institute by Paxton Davis (973.7 DAV)
In vivid detail, The Battle of New Market tells of Breckinridge's
audacious domination of the battlefield and of Sigel's tragic ineptitude; of the
opposing troops, both seasoned and untried; of the fate of prisoners and of the
wounded; and, perhaps most memorably, of the gallantry of the cadets who marched
from the classrooms of VMI directly into the heat of battle.
Chasing
Lincoln’s Killer by James Swanson (973.7092 SWA)
Recounts the escape of John Wilkes Booth, Abraham Lincoln's assassin, and
follows the intensive twelve-day search for him and his accomplices.
Gettysburg
by MacKinlay Kantor (973.73 KAN)
When troops entered Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the South seemed to be winning the
Civil War. But Gettysburg was a turning point. After three bloody days of
fighting, the Union finally won the battle. Inspired by the valor of the many
thousands of soldiers who died there, President Lincoln visited Gettysburg to
give a brief but moving tribute. His Gettysburg Address is one of the most
famous speeches in American history.
Harriet
Tubman: Secret Agent
by Thomas B. Allen (973.7 ALL)
It's 1863. Harriet Tubman is facing one of the biggest--and most dangerous--
challenges of her life. She has survived her master's lash, escaped from
slavery, and risked her life countless times to lead runaway slaves to freedom
along the Underground Railroad. Now she has a new role--that of Union spy.
Updated March 28, 2011