24 Historical Fiction Books for Tweens

Oracle by Jackie French.
Age 10+
This story is set in the Mycenaean court in 3500 BCE with fabulous characters and lots of history, mythology and fantasy making it a great read. This is just one of this authors great historical fiction books that my kids love, so make sure you check out her others.

Minoan Wings Series by Wendy Orr
Age 10+
This three book historical fiction series for middle grades is set in Bronze-Age Crete, with great characters and fantastical stories this is a great series for tweens.

Dragon Keeper by Carol Wilkenson
Age 8+
Set in ancient China in 141 VCE, this is the first book in a series of three and all of them weave interesting history into great stories. They are great audiobooks too!

Black Ships Before Troy: The Story of ‘The Iliad’ by Rosemary Sutcliff
Age 11+
This retelling of the classic Iliad story includes all the drama, adventure and intrigue you’d except from this ancient Greek story. This author has got other great historical fiction books you should check out too.

Mark of the Thief Trilogy by Jennifer A Nielsen
Age 11+
This three book set follows the story of Nic who is a slave in ancient Rome and the magical, mythical adventures he finds himself entwined in!

A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park.
Age 9+
Set in 12th century Korea, this story has a brave and resilient main character and lots of intriguing details. We borrowed this one as an audio book and it’s great!

The Crystal Ribbon by Celeste Lim
Age 10+
Twelve-year-old Li Jing lives in a village in 12th century imperial China when she is sold as a bride to a wealthy family. Li Jing overcomes hardships and eventually triumphs in this wonderful story that is woven with historical culture and a little bit of magic!

The Mad Wolf’s Daughter by Diane Magras
Age 9+
This is a Scottish medieval story about a young heroine who must free her family from a castle prison after knights attack her home. There is also a sequel to this story – The Hunt for the Mad Wolf’s Daughter.

Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi
Ages 9+
Crispin is a thirteen-year-old peasant boy in medieval England, who is accused of a crime he did not commit. This book brings to life the history of feudalistic medieval Britain with a great adventure story.

Matilda Bone by Karen Cushman
Ages 9+
Matilda finds herself making potions and mixing poultices to helping Red Peg the Bonesetter treat patients, and at first she doesn’t like it at all! This story is full of authentic, funny, and fascinating details about what life was like for an medieval apothecary!

The Somerset Tsunami by Emma Carroll
Ages 10+
When a catastrophic flood hits the Somerset coast in 1607, Fortune is accused of using witchcraft to cause it! This is a great story about an event that really happened.

Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson.
Age 10+
This book is based on a true story of a yellow fever epidemic if Philadelphia in 1793 and it will draw you in and have you needing to know what happens to Mattie and her family.

Our Australian Girl Series by various authors.
Ages 8+
There are over 40 books by various authors in this series of historical fiction and they cover Australian history from 1808 to1983. My kids love them as they feature strong characters and interesting stories. There is also a ‘boy version’ of this series called Do You Dare?

Playing Beatie Bow by Ruth Park.
Age 11+
I read this book when I was a kid and loved it and so have my kids. With a clever time travel twist the main character is transported back to Sydney in the 1800s and has to work out how to live and how to get back.

The Great Trouble: A Mystery of London, the Blue Death, and a Boy Called Eel by Deborah Hopkinson
Ages 9+
Set in London in the 1850s, this book has a great male main character and lots of great historical details with some science and mystery thrown in.

The Door of No Return by Kwame Alexander
Ages 10+
This is the story of a boy, growing up in Ghana in the 1860s and what his life was like before he walked through that ‘door of no return’ and became part of the transatlantic slave trade.

The Island at the End of Everything by by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
Age 10+
Set in the early 1900s this the story of Ami who lives with her mother on Culion, an island in the Philippines for people who have leprosy, until one day she is sent away and her world is ripped apart. Ami lives on Culion, an island in the Philippines for people who have leprosy.

Stella by Starlight by Sharon M. Draper
Age 9+
This book covers some tricky subjects to do with racism in America in the 1930s, but it does so in a way younger kids can understand and without too many horrific details, plus it’s a really great story

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor.
Age 10+
Set in Mississippi during the Depression, this is the story of Cassie, and her family’s struggle to maintain their pride, and independence in the face of racism and social injustice and hardship.

An Elephant in the Garden by Michael Morpurgo.
Age 9+
Loosely based on a true story about an elephant that was rescued from a Dresden zoo during WW2, this story is told from the perspective of a non-nazi family in Germany and is a great read.

Once, (The Once Series) by Morris Gleitzman
Ages 10+
Set during (and after) the second world war, this beautiful series of historic fiction books will make you cry as you fall in love with the characters and their stories.

A Seed in the Sun by by Aida Salazar
Age 9+
This is a story about the plight of Lula’s family and that of migrant farm workers in California in the 1960s, it is beautifully told with engaging characters.

Inside Out and Back Again by by Thanhhà Lai
Age 8+
This book is written in verse and full of beutiful, emotive language. It is the story of Ha as she flees Vietnam just before the fall Siagon in 1975 and  ‘journeys from one country to another, and one life to the next’.

The Blackbird Girls by by Anne Blankman
Age 9+
This is the story of two young girls who were once enemies, and who now must deal with secrets and lies and the aftermath of the Chernobyl powerplant disaster in 1986.