HISTORICAL
FICTION
#TBT
We Are Not Free
by Traci Chee
YA FIC CHEE
Fourteen teens who have grown up together in Japantown, San Francisco, who form a community and a family, have their lives turned upside down when over 100,000 people of Japanese ancestry are removed from their homes and forced into desolate incarceration camps. In a world that seems determined to hate them, these young Nisei must rally together as racism and injustice threaten to pull them apart.
Luck of the Titanic
by Stacey Lee
YA FIC LEE
After smuggling herself onto the RMS Titanic, British-Chinese teenager Valora Luck reunites wit her twin brother and tries to convince him that their acrobatic training could be their ticket to a better life. Then one night, the unthinkable happens, and suddenly Val’s dreams of a new life are crushed under the weight of the only thing that matters: survival.
American in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red-Scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. With deportation looming over her father -- despite his hard-won citizenship--Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day.
Last Night at the Telegraph Club
by Malinda Lo
YA FIC LO
This Rebel Heart
by Katherine Locke
YA FIC LOCKE
Csilla has felt protected by the Duna River her entire life, and especially during the Holocaust of World War II, but that magic seems to have broken when Communists took control of Hungary. When her parents are killed by the secret police, she feels betrayed and plans her escape from her homeland. After, a series of protests make her reconsider whether she can leave it all behind.
An Emotion of Great Delight
by Tahereh Mafi
YA FIC MAFI
It’s 2003, months since the US declared war on Iraq. Tensions are high, hate crimes are on the rise, FBI agents are infiltrating local mosques, and the Muslim community is harassed and targeted more than ever. Shadi, who wears hijab, keeps her head down. Her brother is dead, her father is dying, her mother is falling apart, and her best friend has mysteriously dropped out of her life. How long until it’s all too much to endure on her own?
The Davenports
by Krystal Marquis
YA FIC MARQUIS
In 1910, the Davenports are one of the few Black families of immense wealth and status in a changing United States. A glimpse into a period of African American history often overlooked, inspired by the real-life story of C.R. Patterson and his family, it’s the tale of four determined and passionate young Black women discovering the courage to steer their own path in life -- and love.
Bad Girls Never Say Die
by Jennifer Mathieu
YA FIC MATHIEU
It’s 1964 in Houston, Texas and Evie Barnes is a bad girl. So are all her friends. They wear bold makeup, laugh too loud, and run around with boys. So when Evie is saved from a sinister encounter by a good girl from the “right“ side of the tracks, she must redefine what it means to be a bad girl and rethink everything she knew about loyalty.
Mirror Girls
by Kelly McWilliams
YA FIC MCWILLIAMS
As infants, twin sisters were secretly separated after the brutal lynching of their parents. Now, at the dawn of the Civil Rights Movement, one is a young Black organizer in Harlem, while the white-passing other is the heiress to a cotton plantation in Georgia. The sisters reunite as teenagers in Georgia and discover the meaning of sisterhood in a racially divided land.
I Must Betray You
by Ruta Sepetys
YA FIC SEPETYS
In a communist country governed by isolation, fear, and a tyrannical dictator, seventeen-year-old Cristian Florescu is blackmailed by the secret police to become an informer, but he decides to use his position to try to outwit his handler, undermine the regime, give voice to fellow Romanians, and expose to the world what is happening in his country.
The Awakening of Malcolm X
by Ilyahsah Shabazz
YA FIC SHABAZZ
An intimate look at Malcolm X’s young adult years. Malcolm Little struggles with the weight of his past while inside Charlestown Prison. Slowly, he befriends other prisoners, reads all the books in the prison library, joins the debate team, and the Nation of Islam. Malcolm grapples with race, politics, religion, and justice in the 1940s.
A Sitting in St. James
by Rita Williams-Garcia
YA FIC WILLIAMS-GARCIA
1869, Louisiana. There are important stories to be told on the Guilbert plantation. Stories that span generations, from the big house to out in the fields, of routine horrors, secrets buried as deep as the family fortune, and the tangled bonds of descendants and enslaved.
The Most Dazzling Girl in Berlin
by Kip Wilson
YA FIC WILSON
Hilde, a former orphan, experiences Berlin on the cusp of World War II and discovers her own voice and sexuality and finds a family when she gets a job at a cabaret. Between the elections and protests in the streets, she will have to decide what’s best for her future...and what it means to love a place on the cusp of war.