​Sandip Wilson
Books on historical topics in fiction and nonfiction provide insight into human experience while they give details on lives and events in the past. The books reviewed here share stories about events that may be new for readers and offer new perspectives on events that might be familiar. 

​Close-up on War: The Story of Pioneering Photojournalist Catherine Leroy in Vietnam. Mary Cronk Farrell. (2022). Amulet. 
Showing resourcefulness and courage, French-born Catherine Leroy (1944-2006) became a well-known photojournalist at a time when the profession was dominated by men. Mary Cronk Farrell chronicles the work of Leroy (the only woman photographer in Vietnam from 1966-1969) while embedded with the U.S. Marines, who had growing respect for this tiny woman with indomitable spirit and energy. Some of the numerous captioned photographs in this well-researched biography also picture Vietnamese civilians affected by the conflict. Each chapter begins with an image of a dated letter Leroy wrote to her parents during her time in Vietnam that adds interest. Back matter includes an epilogue, an author’s note, a “How a Camera Worked in the 1960s” section, a glossary, a timeline, source notes, a bibliography, references, and an index. (Gr 9-12)

​Gold Mountain. Betty G. Yee. (2022). Carolrhoda Lab.
In 1860s China, 15-year-old Tam Ling Fan’s life changes drastically when her father is imprisoned under false accusations of treason and her brother, Jing Fan, dies of influenza. Hoping to make enough money for a bribe to secure her father’s release, Ling Fan takes the contract with the Central Pacific Railroad Company her father had attained for Jing Fan and, disguised as a boy, travels to California to join the thousands of Chinese laborers laying track and tunneling through the Sierra Nevada under harsh and dangerous conditions (weather extremes, avalanches, accidental explosions, and caving walls) while also facing racial discrimination. Ling Fan remains determined to fulfill the terms of the contract and return home with enough money to free her father even as she finds herself drawn into plans to sabotage the Transcontinental Railroad project under threat of exposure that she is a girl. Back matter includes an extensive author’s note offering historical background and questions for discussion. (Grade 6 Up) 

​Ironhead, or Once a Young Lady. Jean-Claude van Rijckeghem. Trans. by Kristen Gehrman. (2022). Levine Querido.
In 1808 Ghent, Belgium, high spirited 18-year-old Constance (Stance) faces the criticisms of her parents, who want her to behave in ways deemed appropriate for a young lady. Facing difficult economic circumstances, her parents arrange her marriage to a rich merchant. After four months of an abusive marriage, she steals a horse and, disguised as a man, escapes to join Napoleon Bonaparte’s army. Told from the alternating perspectives of Stance and her brother, Pieter (Pier), the novel recounts Pier’s efforts to retrieve her and Stance’s training as she becomes friends with the soldiers. Stance earns the name Ironhead after surviving a shot in the head during a duel. She designs elaborate means to keep her identity secret until the soldiers are ordered to disrobe and swim across a river in this complex novel of determination, friendship, and unexpected twists. A glossary is included. (Gr 9-12) 

​Louisa June and the Nazis in the Waves. L. M. Elliott. (2022). Katherine Tegen.
At the end of 1941, 13-year-old Louisa June’s Tidewater Virginia family know of the presence of German U-boats and the sinking of ships off the east coast. Kate is working as a riveter at the Newport News shipyard; Will is a merchant marine; Joe has joined the navy; and Butler is working on their father’s tugboat before heading off to college in the fall. When the tugboat is torpedoed, killing Butler and severely injuring her father, the family struggles to deal with the loss of Butler and to find income. Learning the government is considering forming a Civilian Picket Patrol, Louisa June wants to help protect the coast. With her friend Emmett, she takes the family boat to an observation post, only to find they are a target for U.S. pilots in training. The back matter for this engaging middle grade novel depicting the early days of World War II on the home front includes information on the historical events that figure in the novel, separating fact from fiction. (Gr 3 Up) 

Love in the Library. Maggie Tokuda-Hall. Illus. by Yas Imamura. (2022). Candlewick. 
In this beautifully crafted picture book, Maggie Tokuda-Hall tells the story of her Japanese American grandparents’ incarceration at Minidoka Relocation Center in southern Idaho during World War II. Harsh weather, lack of privacy, and uncertainty about whether she will ever be free are constants in the life of Tama, the librarian at Minidoka. As she shares her love of books and feelings with George, who visits the
library every day, they fall in love. They marry, their first son is born, and they hope for the best. In thinking about these events happening in the internment camp, Tama writes in her journal, “The miracle is in us as long as we believe in change, in beauty, in hope.” In her author’s note, Tokuda-Hall provides a context for the story and shares thoughts on how racism, which led to the incarceration of people of Japanese ancestry during World War II, remains a problem in the U.S. today. (PreK Up) 

​The Lucky Ones. Linda Williams Jackson. (2022). Candlewick.  
In 1967, Black 11-year-old Ellis Earl Brown, who cares for seven siblings and four cousins while his mother finds work outside their home on the Mississippi Delta, has dreams of becoming a teacher or a lawyer, like Thurgood Marshall. Ellis Earl loves school and admires his teacher, Mr. Foster, who encourages Ellis Earl to learn, lends him books, and often feeds him. Mr. Foster gives him Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which he loves, and the opportunity to participate in activities at the AME Church. During a field trip to Jackson to meet Senator Robert Kennedy, who is visiting the area on his “poverty tour,” the children witness the virulent racism that undercut national integration laws in the 1960s. The back matter for this novel of self-discovery includes information about the lives of the people living on the Delta and Senator Kennedy’s 1967 visit to the area. (Gr 3 Up) 

​​Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America. (Young Adult Adaptation). Candacy Taylor. (2022). Amulet.
This young adult adaptation of Overground Railroad (2020) gives readers an engaging road trip-view of 20th century American history through the pages of The Green Book, the annual guide for Black travelers published from 1936 to1966. Victor Hugo Green (1892-1960), a Harlem mail carrier for decades, created The Negro Motorist Green Book as a guide to safe travel. Over the years, the book included more and more businesses, restaurants, accommodations, gas stations, and other facilities open to Black travelers as they became part of the American economy, building prosperity and mobility in the face of ongoing discrimination and segregation. Candacy Taylor’s lively narrative also offers accounts of key travel-related events such as the development of the interstate highway system, the evolution of rail travel, and the migrations from south to north and east to west. Overground Railroad includes many archival photographs and images from The Green Book, an extensive epilogue, source notes, a bibliography, and an index. (Gr 6 Up)  

​Revolutionary Prudence Wright: Leading the Minute Women in the Fight for Independence. Beth Anderson. Illus. by Susan Reagan. (2022). Calkins Creek.
Growing up in colonial America, Prudence Cummings argued with her brothers against the rule of King George III. “Prudence had a spark of independence.” After she married David Wright of Pepperell, Massachusetts, in 1761, she was eager to join the fight for independence. Thinking about the quilts she helped make with small pieces of cloth, Prudence realized that small actions might form a pattern of rebellion. The expressive watercolor and digitally-drawn illustrations of this biography of Prudence Cummings Wright (1740-1824) depict the arming of town militias, the minutemen, and the division in her family with brothers being Tories (Loyalists), one even a spy, while her husband was a Patriot. As conflicts accelerate, the women strategize a way to defend the town, and Prudence becomes the leader of the first unit of minute women. Back matter includes an afterword, author research notes, illustrator’s notes, and a bibliography. (PreK Up) 

​Rima’s Rebellion: Courage in a Time of Tyranny. Margarita Engle. (2022). Atheneum.
In 1923, 12-year-old Rima Marín lives with her Abuela and Mamá in Cuba, working as blacksmiths and lacemakers and living as squatters on her father’s land. As an illegitimate child, una niña natural, Rima has no legal rights and is shamed. Years before, Rima’s grandmother founded the Mambisa Voting Club during the time of mounting discontent under the Machado regime. Seeing the contrast between her life and that of her half-sister, Violeta (who has privilege, wealth, and comfort), and her growing awareness of the strength and resourcefulness of the Mambisas and her own abilities inspire Rima to become involved in the fight for the rights of women. Spanning 13 years, Margarita Engle’s novel in verse reveals the complex ethnic and racial history of Cuba. Back matter includes an historical note and an international timeline of women’s suffrage (Cuban women were granted suffrage in 1934). (Gr 6 Up) 

​A Rose Named Peace: How Francis Meilland Created a Flower of Hope for a World at War. Barbara Carroll Roberts. Illus. by Bagram Ibatoulline. (2020). Candlewick.
At the age of 17, after visiting a rose grower who cross-pollinated rosebushes, Francis Meilland (1912-1958) began experimenting with hybridization of roses on his family’s farm in southern France. In June of 1939, after years of experimentation, he revealed to rose enthusiasts a large rose with petals that were shaded from ivory to yellow and tinged with pink on the edges. Just before the German invasion of France, Francis mailed cuttings of the rose to a few growers including Robert Pyle in the United States. Bagram Ibatoulline’s stunning watercolor paintings dramatically depict the Meilland family’s burning of acres of rosebushes in order to cultivate vegetables. When the war is over in 1945, Francis receives a letter from Robert Pyle about his naming of the rose Peace. Back matter includes an afterword, a glossary, and references. (PreK Up) 

​This Rebel Heart. Katherine Locke. (2022). Knopf.
In 1956 Communist-governed Budapest, 18-year-old Csilla Tisza and her aunt, who are the only members of her Jewish family to survive the Holocaust, are wary of the government’s antisemitism. Although she has been quietly doing her job as a typist and living a life that goes unnoticed while she plans her escape from Hungary with her aunt, friends encourage her to meet Tamas and other university students, and she becomes involved in the growing unrest that leads to the student uprising that began the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. The novel’s magical element of the Danube whispering to her and a friendship with Azriel, the angel of death who becomes involved in the resistance, contribute to Csilla’s growing courage to rebel. Each chapter begins with an excerpt from her father’s journals from 1945 that show his hopes for the family’s future. Information on the student uprising of 1956 in Budapest is included in the back matter. (Gr 9-12) 

​Yonder. Ali Standish. (2022). Harper.
 In 1943, the narrator of this story, 13-year-old Danny Timmons, is determined to solve the mystery of the sudden disappearance of Jack Bailey, who became a local hero when he saved twins during the Great Flood of 1940 as adults looked on and did nothing. Flashbacks to events during the past three years weave together a history of disturbing events of bullying, prejudice, and injustice in the community of Foggy Gap, North Carolina, and the story of Danny’s growing friendship with Jack, who is abused by his father, a troubled World War I hero. Jack is the one who introduces Danny to Yonder, a magical place free of all worldly ills that Jack longs to travel to one day. This coming-of-age mystery is a thought-provoking story of friendship and having the courage to stand up against evil on the home front in the early days of World War II. Back matter includes historical notes and discussion questions for the classroom. (Gr 6 Up)

 Sandip Wilson serves as professor in the School of Education and English Department at Husson University, in Bangor, Maine, and is President-elect of the Children’s Literature and Reading Special Interest Group.

​Sandip Wilson and Mary Ellen Oslick
Reading historical fiction and nonfiction accounts gives young people insight into places and events, some familiar from textbook introductions and some new for readers. These books can be engaging and transporting, presenting ways to jumpstart thinking about the past. This column features books introducing unique points of view and perspectives on recent as well as long-past lives and experiences. 

Enduring Freedom. Jawad Arash & Trent Reedy. (2021). Algonquin.
In 2003 Iowa, National Guard Reservist Joe Killian dreams of becoming a journalist after graduating from university, while in Kandahar, Afghanistan, Baheer Sadiq dreams of becoming a writer. Told from two points of view, they recount their meeting in 2003 when Joe is deployed to Afghanistan and Baheer’s family starts a new life in Farah, western Afghanistan, far away from Kabul overtaken by the Taliban. As Joe and Baheer seek to help one another, they discover the biases that they have about each other are wrong. Readers learn about the lives, work, traditions, and practices of Baheer’s family in this thrilling novel of friendship, hope, resistance, and persistence. The book’s back matter includes notes from both authors. (Gr 9-12)  
--SW

Ensnared in the Wolf’s Lair: Inside the 1944 Plot to Kill Hitler and the Ghost Children of His Revenge. Ann Bausum. (2021). National Geographic.
In 1944 some German career military officers planned an assassination of Adolf Hitler at his outpost, the Wolf’s Lair, as a result of their doubts about the tactics and goals of the Nazi regime. Their master plan is suspensefully detailed in the first half of this intriguing book. The failure of the plot precipitates Hitler’s revenge of demanding Sippenhaft, “clan arrest.” Gestapo agents arrested, detained, and executed relatives of these officers and scooped up their children, isolating and incarcerating them in secret places. Including many archival photographs, Ann Bausum’s narrative establishes the context of the officers’ loyalty to Germany and provides details of their family lives. The back matter includes an author’s note with information on interviews she conducted with ghost children survivors, a glossary, and information on the officers. (Gr 6 Up)
--SW

Flight: A Novel of a Daring Escape During World War II. Vanessa Harbour. (2021). Feiwel and Friends.
In 1945 Austria, Jakob lives with Herr Engel and shares in the care of the beautiful stallions, the Lipizzaner dancing horses, while concealing his Jewish identity. Determined to uncover every Jewish person hiding in the region and their sympathizers, SS Officer Major Bauer threatens to kill all the horses, demonstrating his intention by shooting one of them. Afraid for the safety of the horses and for one another, Herr Engel and Jakob cross Nazi-held countryside, guiding the skittish horses over mountains and across rivers and passing dangerously close to towns. Vanessa Harbour details the relationships between the horses and Jakob in this novel based on the true story of a joint effort of Germans and Americans to save the Lipizzaner horses in the last days of World War II as the Russians advance from the east. (Gr 6-8)
—SW

​Ground Zero: A Novel of 9/11. Alan Gratz. (2021). Scholastic.
On September 11, 2001, nine-year-old Brandon Chavez takes the subway to the World Trade Center with his father, a chef for Windows on the World, the restaurant on the 107th floor of the North Tower. When the first airliner hits the building, he is in an elevator on his way to the underground mall to buy a toy. The chapters alternate between that day in New York City in 2001 as Brandon, a man named Richard, and other strangers work together to escape the building, and another day, September 11, 2019, in Afghanistan, when Taliban fighters attack the village of eleven-year-old Reshmina and her family, killing Americans who were doing reconnaissance there. Her family shows compassion, sequestering the surviving American, Taz, who begged her for help after being blinded in the attack. Taz, who was born Brandon Chavez and became the ward of Richard following 9/11, confesses to Reshmina that he had joined the army seeking revenge but found compassion instead. Back matter includes a map of the World Trade Center and an author’s note detailing the 9/11 attacks in the U.S. and the war in Afghanistan.  (Gr 6-8)
—SW

​I Am Defiance. Jenni L. Walsh. (2021). Scholastic.
In 1942 twelve-year-old Brigitte is part of the League of German Girls, the counterpart of Hitler Youth for boys. At first wholehearted in her adherence to Hitler’s effort to create one nation with work and bread for all, safeguarded against the Jews, whom the Nazi’s claimed prolonged the war, she begins to doubt the ideology. She questions Germany’s attack on Poland and its non-German-speaking people, and learns that her eighteen-year-old sister, who had polio in childhood, is at risk for sterilization as a disabled person. Witnessing an anti-Hitler demonstration at the university where her father teaches, and her sister and friend Sophia Scholl are students, endangers the lives of Brigitte and her family. This novel of conflict and loyalty includes a note from the author with information on the White Rose resistance and biographical notes on Sophia Scholl, a member of the movement. (Gr 6-8)
—SW

​The Poetry of Secrets. Cambria Gordon. (2021). Scholastic.
Sixteen-year-old Isabela Perez lives with her family in Trujillo, Spain, in 1481 as conversos, Jewish people who have lived in Spain for centuries  and have converted to Christianity. Her family secretly practices their Jewish traditions in the cellar of their home where they make wine that serves a clientele of local nobility. Her family has picked a husband for her, but she wants to make her own choice about whom she marries and her future. She wants to learn to read the sacred text and to write poetry. Her abuela promises to help her learn to read and, in support of her poetry writing, gives her a centuries-old scroll of a Jewish poetess written in Arabic. As the Inquisition reaches Trujillo, Fray Torquemada vows to punish sympathizers as heretics and threatens the conversos. Endangered by the policy, Isabela and her family flee the country in this novel based on the true story of Jews who fled Spain for Italy during the Inquisition and later migrated to Turkey. (Gr 9 Up)
—SW

​Rescue. Jennifer A. Nielsen. (2021). Scholastic.
During World War II, Meg covertly supports the French Resistance in her small village of Perche in Occupied France. Her father taught her about codes and surveillance before he was summoned to aid the Allies in London, and she uses these skills to gather intelligence to warn the partisans living in a nearby forest of Nazi activities. Meg faces a much bigger mission after she finds and helps an injured British pilot who crash landed. If she can lead a German family to a neutral country to escape the Nazis, the German father will share where the Nazis have imprisoned her father. Readers will enjoy Jennifer Nielson’s fast-paced and history-rich novel which includes back matter about secret codes and the Special Operatives Executive (S.O.E.). (Gr 6-8)
—MEO

​Runaway: The Daring Escape of Ona Judge. Ray Anthony Shepard. Illus. by Keith Mallett. (2021). Farrar Straus Giroux.
“Why you run Ona Judge?” As Shepard describes the life of George and Martha Washington’s slave Ona Judge, he poses this rhetorical question to Ona and to readers. Ona worked in the Washington’s house, not in the field, and was given nice clothing and shoes, but was never taught to read or write. Shepard proffers that Mrs. Washington kept Ona as her pet until the day she planned to give Ona to her granddaughter. During the night Ona runs away to her freedom and lives the rest of her life as a fugitive from the Washingtons. Considering Ona’s experiences as a slave and examining the timeline and bibliography in the back matter will give readers a deeper understanding of the history of enslavement in America. (Gr K-2)
—MEO

Separate No More: The Long Road to Brown v. Board of Education. Lawrence Goldstone. (2021). Scholastic Focus.
In Separate No More, Constitutional law scholar Lawrence Goldstone brings to light the key legal cases and influential voices that led to the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka that ended the legality of “separate but equal.” Goldstone begins with the 1896 case of Plessy v. Ferguson in which the Supreme Court said that the U.S. Constitution legitimized the practice, perpetuating existing segregation in all aspects of American life including schools, neighborhoods, and even drinking fountains. Goldstone traces almost sixty years of history in recounting state and local court cases leading to the monumental Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision ending school segregation in 1954. This comprehensive text contains an extensive bibliography and notes on the multitude of primary sources used. (Gr 6 Up)
--MEO

Standing on Her Shoulders: A Celebration of Women. Monica Clark-Robinson. Illus. by Laura Freeman. (2021). Orchard.
This lyrical picture book is a letter of love and celebration of the strong women in our families and in America: “When we remember them and speak their names, we respect the struggles they overcame. We are grateful for the freedoms they’ve given, we stand on the shoulders of powerful women.” Laura Freeman’s bold and realistic portraits of athletes, activists, artists, politicians, educators, authors, explorers, and scientists are displayed on the pages as three generations of female family members celebrate their stories. At the end, the young protagonist is asked to consider who will stand on her shoulders, fostering both a sense of duty and empowerment for all children, but especially for girls. Brief biographies of all the women profiled are included at the end of the book. (Gr PK- 2)
—MEO

​Together We March: 25 Protest Movements That Marched into History. Leah Henderson. Illus. by Tyler Feder. (2021). Atheneum.
Going back to 1903 and ending in 2020, this nonfiction collection documents twenty-five trailblazing protest movements. While most take place in the U.S., several are worldwide. A year after the Black Lives Matter marches of the summer of 2020, this picture book is especially timely and important. Leah Henderson links the protest movements together chronologically and includes quotes from influential leaders of each march including Mahatma Gandhi for the Salt March, which began the nonviolent protest against British rule in India in 1930, and Dr. Lehman Brightman for the Longest Walk, the peaceful transcontinental march for Native American justice in 1978. Tyler Feder provides colorful cartoonlike illustrations of the marches to augment the text and make it accessible for a wide range of readers. Back matter includes a selected bibliography with a website link for a more comprehensive bibliography on Henderson’s personal website. (Gr 6 Up)
—MEO

​We Must Not Forget: Holocaust Stories of Survival and Resistance. Deborah Hopkinson. (2021). Scholastic Focus.
Deborah Hopkins spotlights Holocaust stories of Jewish youth from Germany, the Netherlands, France, and Poland during the Nazis’ “Final Solution” in World War II in this narrative nonfiction collection. Divided into three parts by regions and experiences, each section includes a photo album and chronicles the true stories of oppression, resistance, and ultimately, for some, survival. These stories honor the courage of Holocaust victims and remind readers of the power they have when they show compassion. Extensive back matter includes a glossary, timeline of World War II in Europe, internet resources, a bibliography, source notes, and an index. (Gr 6-8)
—MEO

​Sandip Wilson, Chair of the Notable Books for a Global Society Committee, is a professor at Husson University, Bangor, Maine. Mary Ellen Oslick, Co-chair of the committee, serves as associate professor at Stetson University, Deland, Florida.