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Best Teen & Young Adult United States Civil War Historical Fiction eBooks

Across Five Aprils
"This is a beautifully written book, filled with bloodshed, hate, and tears, but also with love, loyalty, and compassion, with unforgettable characters, and with ideas and implications that have meaning for young people today. "An impressive book both as a historically authenticated Civil War novel and as a beautifully written family story...The realistic treatment of the intricate emotional conflicts within a border-state family is superb. Bregy compels readers to hear young Jethro Creighton's account of how the horrifying events of the Civil War changed life on his family's Illinois farm, even so many miles from the front lines. (Feb.). Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. Grade 4-8-Irene Hunt's Civil War novel (Berkley Pub., 1986) takes listeners from the first shots fired at Fort Sumter to Lincoln's assassination as seen through the eyes of a Southern Illinois farm boy. As numerous male relatives go off to fight for the North and the South, and after his father falls ill, young Jethro takes responsibility for the family farm.
Reviews
"The characters really come to life and you feel their pain and pleasure as they live through the sufferings of the Civil War. Its obvious why the characters and their situations are so real: they were based on real life people, family letters and stories told by the author's grandfather, who was nine years old at the beginning of the war and was an eyewitness to this fascinating period of history."
"Across Five Aprils is one of the best Civil War books written for readers of any age."
"I H-A-D to read this book in Jr. High, I think."
"This is a touching story of the Civil War and the heartache and tragedy that befell families who had offered up their sons, brothers, fathers, etc."
"I read the book too."
"This story of the United States' greatest conflict, as seen through the eyes of a young boy in rural Illinois is rich in detail, feeling and grit."
"great book my son enjoyed it and the he especially loved the fact that the text is large enough to see which apparently has been a problem with some other books we've purchased lately."
"This historical novel was a wonderful book for both youth and adults."
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Rifles for Watie
He saw the green fields of Kansas and Okla-homa laid waste by Watie's raiding parties, homes gutted, precious corn deliberately uprooted. The friends were strong men like Noah Babbitt, the itinerant printer who once walked from Topeka to Galveston to see the magnolias in bloom; boys like Jimmy Lear, too young to carry a gun but old enough to give up his life at Cane Hill; ugly, big-eared Heifer, who made the best sourdough biscuits in the Choctaw country; and beautiful Lucy Washbourne, rebel to the marrow and proud of it. This is a rich and sweeping novel-rich in its panorama of history; in its details so clear that the reader never doubts for a moment that he is there; in its dozens of different people, each one fully realized and wholly recognizable. Deciding he might someday write a historical novel, he interviewed twenty--two Civil War veterans then living in Oklahoma and Arkansas; much of the background of Rifles for Watie came from the note-books he filled at that time.
Reviews
"A somewhat slow start that might deter some younger readers, but once the central character experiences battle for the first time the pace of the narrative is admirably managed and there are moments of real tension and suspense."
"But after that it was a good read."
"I taught a homeschool co-op Civil War history/literature class for 8th-10th graders."
"Good book about the Civil War from a unique point of view."
"I first read this book on junior high school."
"An excellent read!"
"Such an outstanding story -- I read this to my kids when they were young, and both of them are now in the 30s, and they both have purchased this and read it to their kids."
"Read for school."
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Soldier's Heart: Being the Story of the Enlistment and Due Service of the Boy Charley Goddard inthe First Minnesota Volunteers
Gary Paulsen introduces readers to Charley Goddard in his latest novel, Soldier's Heart. In spare, almost biblical prose, Gary Paulsen writes of the horrors of combat in a Civil War novella that puts a powerful, more contemporary spin on Stephen Crane's classic The Red Badge of Courage . Paulsen is unsparing in the details of what actually happens on the battlefield: the living men suddenly blown into pieces, the agony and fear, the noise and terror, the stinking corpses. Interwoven with these descriptions, a brilliant, fast-moving evocation of Charley's thoughts shows the boy's shocked realization of the price of war, his absolute certainty that he will die and his sudden understanding of the complex forces that prevent him from fleeing. Details from the historical record scorch the reader's memory: congressmen bring their families to picnic and watch the fighting that first day at Bull Run; soldiers pile the bodies of the dead into a five-foot-high wall to protect themselves from a winter wind. Warfare, too, emerges complexly-while a lesser writer might attempt to teach readers to shun war by dint of the protagonist's profound disgust, Paulsen compounds the horrors of the battlefield by demonstrating how they trigger Charley's own bloodlust.
Reviews
"Summer reading project for my 6th grade son."
"Good summer read for rising 5th graders."
"A Soldiers Heart is a book that I would recommend to other readers not only because of the great details that Gary Paulsen put into it, but because you relive the Civil War."
"Great inspirational mature read for those interested in history -- book included in our community's give-away of books at our library conducted in conjunction with the Detroit Lakes, MN rededication of the Grand Army of the Republic Park, 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War and the death of President Lincoln."
"Yes the narrative skips around way faster from battle to battle than the war did, but it's fiction."
"I purchased these for a teacher in my school district as requested."
"I am teaching and reading this novel with my seventh grade students for the first time this year."
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Best Teen & Young Adult US 19th Century Historical Fiction eBooks

Timebound [Kindle in Motion] (The Chronos Files Book 1)
When Kate Pierce-Keller’s grandmother gives her a strange blue medallion and speaks of time travel, sixteen-year-old Kate assumes the old woman is delusional. This inventive science fiction adventure asks the dramatic question: what do you do when you’re a normal 16-year-old girl attending a private school in Washington, D.C., you find out that your grandmother is actually a time-traveling historian from the future (the 23rd century, to be precise), and she sends you into the past (the Chicago Exposition in 1893, to be exact) in order to stop your grandfather (also from the future) from changing history by creating a new religion, the Cyrists? Her adventures in trying to stop the cult’s temporal shift take her across alternate time lines and involve her with past and future versions of the people in her life.
Reviews
"-- “It would be a lot easier to fix the universe if I could dress like Wonder Woman –or Batgirl.”. I enjoyed this novel it was pretty decently paced there was only one chunk in the middle that seemed to drag on a bit too long but the rest of it sailed by especially once Kate actually went into the past. I loved the time travel aspect of this and how they reconciled the different futures and the moral conundrum of what is the right or wrong thing to do which timeline should be restored and why. -- I could see my dark green hair band, vivid against the skin of his wrist as he vanished, looking like a knight carrying his lady’s favor – a scarf or ribbon – into battle. But I mention it because of the insta love and hope that future books in this series don’t dwell on it. Even though I talked about the love thing a lot in my review it really wasn’t overpowering in the book. The time travel story and her grandmother from the future were so interesting along with the shifts in the current time line and the growth of a cult like church who wants to bring about an end of days of sorts was captivating and had my full attention."
"Please read on to know about Timebound by Rysa Walker. What were some of the things I loved about Timebound. The pacing Ms. Walker’s ability to keep the pressure on an across-time hunt whilst building budding relationships amongst family members and potential suitors all the while giving enough descriptive detail to make it feel like we visited the 1893 World’s Fair is nothing short of astonishing. The relationships are tricky enough messing with earlier, future and alternative timeline selves is even trickier. These are some seriously patient, understanding guys who’ll stick with you at all costs; Kiernan’s pretty close to sainthood as well. This book may have been a bit more interesting if the guys were a little less perfect but maybe they were just to offset Mr. Holmes’ (America’s Jack-the-Ripper) unabated, cold-blooded evil."
"But then she started to think about the details. The requisite minutiae that a story about time travel demands."
"An engaging read, with well-developed characters and a twisty plot."
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Best Teen & Young Adult US 20th Century Historical Fiction eBooks

Out of the Dust (Newbery Medal Book)
"Dust piles up like snow across the prairie. A terrible accident has transformed Billie Jo's life, scarring her inside and out. In this compelling, immediate journal, Billie Jo reveals the grim domestic realities of living during the years of constant dust storms: That hopes--like the crops--blow away in the night like skittering tumbleweeds. Perhaps swallowing all that grit is what gives Billie Jo--our strong, endearing, rough-cut heroine--the stoic courage to face the death of her mother after a hideous accident that also leaves her piano-playing hands in pain and permanently scarred.
Reviews
"I'm playing this for my 7th graders after they read a section and the best part is the woman who give a "voice" to Billie Jo sounds like a 14 year-old girl so it helps enhance the story."
"I had to read this book for one of the book reports I’m doing in social studies, and I promise you I regret nothing."
"Sad but true part of history.Im thankful I didn't live in this time but people that did became strong if they survived."
"Grapes of Wrath told the story of the folks that left the dust bowl."
"I started with a highlighter and the whole text turned yellow."
"This book of poems gives a different perspective on the dust bowl and is very easy to read."
"This easy to read novel, written in free verse from a young girl's viewpoint, is equally appropriate for youth and adults."
"A story written like a poem of pain , loss, and survival."
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Best Teen & Young Adult US Colonial & Revolutionary Fiction eBooks

Fever 1793
But when the fever begins to strike closer to home, Mattie's struggle to build a new life must give way to a new fight-the fight to stay alive. Later, after much hardship and terror, they return to the deserted town to find their former cook, a freed slave, working with the African Free Society, an actual group who undertook to visit and assist the sick and saved many lives. As first frost arrives and the epidemic ends, Mattie's sufferings have changed her from a willful child to a strong, capable young woman able to manage her family's business on her own. The opening scene of Anderson's ambitious novel about the yellow fever epidemic that ravaged Philadelphia in the late 18th century shows a hint of the gallows humor and insight of her previous novel, Speak. Sixteen-year-old Matilda "Mattie" Cook awakens in the sweltering summer heat on August 16th, 1793, to her mother's command to rouse and with a mosquito buzzing in her ear.
Reviews
"Great book."
"Laurie clearly does her research (very Gabaldon-esqe) and puts together a gripping historical fiction tale that moved me and caused me to stay up late just to find out what happened next!"
"This story does a nice job so describing the setting and context of the epidemic as well as showing the hard work everyone did during the time."
"The Yellow Fever epidemic is very frightening to anyone who lived through it and our heroine makes the reader comprehend all aspects of it."
"My daughter and I loved this book!"
"I've long known about the yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia but this book brought it to life through the eyes of the protagonist."
"A neighbor read it and liked it."
"I loved it, it started out kind of slow then built up until you couldn't put it down like a good story should."
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