7 Historical Fiction Titles to Recommend to Your Middle School Students

Historical fiction is my favorite genre to read because I love history (maybe I should have been a social studies teacher). It's also a genre I love to recommend to students because they learn about an issue, event, or time period as they are reading. Here's 7 historical fiction titles, that I've recently read and would recommend to middle school students. Click the title of each to read my full review and ideas for using it in the classroom.

1. Chasing Secrets by Gennifer Choldenko
Lizzie always feels like the odd girl out at her finishing school in 1900s San Francisco. When disease strikes the city and Chinatown is put under quarantine, Lizzie's worries about fitting in at school are sidelined for larger concerns.

2. Folly by Marthe Jocelyn
Two plucky youngsters navigate Victorian London. James, an orphan, must survive the cold, unfeeling Foundling Hospital and Mary, pushed out of her home by a jealous stepmother, must learn the ins and outs of household employment.

3. Three Rivers Rising by Jame Richards
Celestia is vacationing with her socialite family when she meets and falls in love with Peter, a young man working at the hotel as a way out of the coal mines. Their forbidden love is tested and social status matters little when the Johnstown Flood occurs.

4. The Lions of Little Rock by Kristen Levine
This tale about friendship is set against the backdrop of the desegregation of schools in the late 1950s. The color of their skin is not the only difference between Marlee and Elizabeth, but through their friendship, both girls grow and change.

5. The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schlitz
Written in a diary format, the novel is a roller coaster of emotions as Joan leaves her family's farm and her father's tyranny at the age of fourteen. She travels to Baltimore where she lucks into a job and marvels at life in the city.

6. Fall Out by Todd Strasser
History is rewritten when the Cuban Missile Crisis escalates into nuclear war. Scott and his family retreat into their bomb shelter along with the neighbors who laughed at the idea.

7. Shooting Kabul by N. H. Senzai
The night that Fadi and his family flee the Taliban's control is full of peril and in one terrible moment, the youngest sister is separated from the family and left behind in Afghanistan. Once in America, Fadi, his parents, and his sister struggle to assimilate while holding on to the hope that Mariam will be found.