Great Books by Time Period
Here is my list of great books I would recommend broken up by time period. This is a living list, meaning, I will be continually adding to it.
I do plan on making a printable of this list in the near-ish future but want to read a few more books before I do so.
If you notice an error or have a book you would like to recommend you can leave them in the comments at the bottom of the page. Once I have read and approved them I’ll add them to the list.
Also, for those in my membership I have created a page that gives some more details about some of the books on this list, it’s just one of the perks of the membership.
![Great Books by Historical Time Period - Intentional Homeschooling Book List](https://www.intentionalhomeschooling.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/book-list-by-historical-time-period.jpg)
A few disclaimers before we get onto the list:
- the grade level I recommend for these books is the earliest age I recommend reading them, if I mark a book as grade 4 that does not mean a grade 5, 6, or 7 child won’t enjoy it, it’s just the earliest age I would recommend it. Most of these books I’ve enjoyed as an adult so just because a book is marked a certain grade does not mean it can only be read in that grade.
- I have read most of these books myself or have read one or more books in the series
- a few of these my daughter has read and recommends but she’s got pretty good judgment when it comes to books
- as mentioned in the first point, some of these I’ve read one or more books in the series but feel fairly confident recommending the entire series
- these suggestions and my recommended grade levels are what I am okay with in our home based on the average child. I have one kid who is fairly sensitive to content in books and one who is less so, in the case where I felt like one would be ready for the book in grade 4 and the other in grade 6, for example, I chose to put the recommendation to grade 5.
- a lot of history is centered around wars so that’s a major theme in a number of these books
- the highest grade level I have included is grade 10, some of the books I recommend for this age are technically adult books but I think the content would be appropriate for grades 10 and up
- at this time I’m not including classics on this list, though I may come back and add some because they can be great educators of the time period
- most of the books on this list are for grades 3 and up, I did not include the Magic Tree House books on here but if you have younger kids, that’s a great series to check out as well!
- one more thing: some of these books are historical fiction with a fantasy twist (they are be pointed out on the Details of Great Books by Time Period page that I have available for members), if you have a child who enjoys fantasy this may just be the way to get them interested in history as well!
I think that is all for my disclaimers, let’s get on to the list!
Great Books by Time Period
GN denotes a graphic novel.
Ancient Times: before 500 AD
- A.D. 30 (grade 10)
- A.D. 33 (grade 10)
- Attack at the Arena (grade 3)
- Challenge on the Hill of Fire (grade 3)
- Cleopatra VII: Daughter of the Nile (grade 5)
- Counted with the Stars (grade 10)
- Danger on a Silent Night (grade 3)
- Doomsday in Pompeii (grade 3)
- Isabel: Jewel of Castilla (grade 5)
- Iscariot (grade 10)
- I Survived the Destruction of Pompeii (grade 4)
- Light in the Lions’ Den (grade 3)
- Showdown with the Shepherd (grade 3)
- Swept into the Sea (grade 3)
Middle Ages: 500-1600
- Anacaona: Golden Flower (grade 5)
- A Journey to the New World (grade 4)
- Alone in an Untamed Land (grade 4)
- Blue Birds (grade 5)
- Eleanor: Crown Jewel of Aquitaine (grade 5)
- Elizabeth I: Red Rose of the House of Tudor (grade 5)
- Hood (grade 10)
- Hunt for the Devil’s Dragon (grade 3)
- Islands and Enemies (grade 3)
- I Walk in Dread (grade 4)
- Lady of Ch’iao Kuo: Warrior of the South (grade 5)
- Lady of Palenque: Flower of Bacal (grade 5)
- Mary, Queen of Scots: Queen Without a Country (grade 5)
- Nzingha: Warrior Queen of Matamba (grade 5)
- Peril in the Palace (grade 3)
- Revenge of the Red Knight (grade 3)
- Secret of the Prince’s Tomb (grade 3)
- Sŏndŏk: Princess of the Moon and Stars (grade 5)
- Voyage with the Vikings (grade 3)
Early Modern Times: 1600’s & 1700’s
- Banished from Our Home (grade 4)
- Cannons at Dawn (grade 4)
- Captured on the High Seas (grade 3)
- Catherine: The Great Journey (grade 5)
- Fawkes (grade 8)
- Fever 1793 (grade 5)
- I Survived the American Revolution (grade 4)
- Jahanara: Princess of Princesses (grade 5)
- Kristina: The Girl King (grade 5)
- Look to the Hills (grade 4)
- Love Thy Neighbor (grade 4)
- Marie Antoinette: Princess of Versailles (grade 5)
- Problems in Plymouth (grade 3)
- Standing in the Light (grade 4)
- Surprise at Yorktown (grade 3)
- The Death of My Country (grade 4)
- The Redcoats Are Coming! (grade 3)
- The Winter of Red Snow (grade 4)
- Weetamoo: Heart of the Pocassets (grade 5)
- Winter of Peril (grade 4)
- With Nothing But Our Courage (grade 4)
![An Ivy Hill Christmas - Historical Fiction Books by Time Period](https://www.intentionalhomeschooling.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Snapshot_322-2.jpg)
1800’s
- Abina and the Important Men (grade 10) GN
- A Coal Miner’s Bride (grade 4)
- A Country of Our Own (grade 4)
- Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie (grade 4)
- A Desperate Road to Freedom (grade 4)
- A Light in the Storm (grade 4)
- A Line in the Sand (grade 4)
- All the Stars in the Sky (grade 4)
- An Ivy Hill Christmas (grade 10)
- A Picture of Freedom (grade 4)
- A Ribbon of Shining Steel (grade 4)
- A Rebel’s Daughter (grade 4)
- A Sea of Sorrows (grade 4)
- A Trail of Broken Dreams (grade 4)
- Battle for Cannibal Island (grade 3)
- Behind the Masks (grade 4)
- Belle of Batoche (grade 4)
- Blood Upon Our Land (grade 4)
- David Livingstone: Africa’s Trailblazer (grade 6)
- Days of Toil and Tears (grade 4)
- Down the Rabbit Hole (grade 4)
- Elisabeth: The Princess Bride (grade 5)
- Flame and Ashes (grade 4)
- Footsteps in the Snow (grade 4)
- Freedom at the Falls (grade 3)
- George Muller: The Guardian of Bristol’s Orphans (grade 3)
- Island of the Blue Dolphins (grade 4)
- I Survived the Battle of Gettysburg (grade 4)
- I Survived the Children’s Blizzard (grade 4)
- I Survived the Great Chicago Fire (grade 4)
- I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly (grade 4)
- Kaiulani: The People’s Princess (grade 5)
- Kazunomiya: Prisoner of Heaven (grade 5)
- Lady Jayne Disappears (grade 10)
- Land of the Buffalo Bones (grade 4)
- Little House in the Big Woods & series (kindergarten)
- May B. (grade 5)
- My Face to the Wind (grade 4)
- My Heart Is on the Ground (grade 4)
- Nory Ryan’s Song (grade 5)
- Orphan at My Door (grade 4)
- Poison at the Pump (grade 3)
- Prairie Lotus (grade 5)
- Premeditated Myrtle & series (grade 5)
- Rescue on the River (grade 3)
- Sarah, Plain and Tall (grade 4)
- Seeds of Hope (grade 4)
- So Far from Home (grade 4)
- Sweep (grade 5)
- Terror in the Tunnel (grade 3)
- The Girl in His Shadow (grade 10)
- The Girl Who Chased Away Sorrow (grade 4)
- The Great Railroad Race (grade 4)
- The Great Trouble: A Mystery of London, the Blue Death, and a Boy Called Eel (grade 6)
- The Lost Melody (grade 10)
- The Surgeon’s Daughter (grade 10)
- Trouble on the Orphan Train (grade 3)
- Underground to Canada (grade 7)
- Valley of the Moon (grade 4)
- Victoria: May Blossom of Britannia (grade 5)
- West to a Land of Plenty (grade 4)
- When Will This Cruel War Be Over? (grade 4)
- Where the River Takes Me (grade 4)
- Whispers of War (grade 4)
- Words on Fire (grade 6)
1900’s & 1910’s
- A City Tossed and Broken (grade 4)
- All Fall Down (grade 4)
- All-of-a-Kind Family (grade 2)
- Anastasia: The Last Grand Duchess (grade 5)
- As Bright as Heaven (grade 10)
- A Time for Courage (grade 4)
- Brothers Far from Home (grade 4)
- Color Me Dark (grade 4)
- Dreams in the Golden Country (grade 4)
- Hear My Sorrow (grade 4)
- Iceberg (grade 6)
- If I Die Before I Wake (grade 4)
- I Survived the Galveston Hurricane (grade 4)
- I Survived The Great Molasses Flood (grade 4)
- I Survived the San Francisco Earthquake (grade 4)
- I Survived the Shark Attacks of 1916 (grade 4)
- I Survived the Sinking of the Titanic (grade 4)
- I Survived the Wellington Avalanche (grade 4)
- Like the Willow Tree (grade 4)
- No Safe Harbour (grade 4)
- Prisoners in the Promised Land (grade 4)
- Romanov (grade 9)
- That Fatal Night (grade 4)
- Tunnels of Time & series (grade 6)
- Voyage on the Great Titanic (grade 4)
- When Christmas Comes Again (grade 4)
1920-pre-WWII
- An Ocean Apart (grade 4)
- A Prairie as Wide as the Sea (grade 4)
- Christmas After All (grade 4)
- Esperanza Rising (grade 4)
- Inferno in Tokyo (grade 3)
- I Survived the Hindenburg Disaster (grade 4)
- Madman in Manhattan (grade 3)
- Mirror, Mirror on the Wall (grade 4)
- Not a Nickel to Spare (grade 4)
- One Eye Laughing, the Other Weeping (grade 4)
- Out of the Dust (grade 6)
- Stella by Starlight (grade 6)
- Survival in the Storm (grade 4)
- To Stand On My Own (grade 4)
- Vienna Prelude (grade 10)
![](https://www.intentionalhomeschooling.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/20221216_210030.jpg)
WWII
- A Place to Hang the Moon (grade 5)
- Between Shades of Gray (grade 10)
- Catherine’s War (grade 6) GN
- Corrie ten Boom: Keeper of the Angels’ Den (grade 6)
- Early Sunday Morning (grade 4)
- Echo (grade 6)
- Escape to the Hiding Place (grade 3)
- Exiles from the War (grade 4)
- I Survived the Battle of D-Day (grade 4)
- I Survived the Bombing of Pearl Harbor (grade 4)
- I Survived the Nazi Invasion (grade 4)
- I Survived the Nazi Invasion (grade 4) GN
- Jacob DeShazer: Forgive Your Enemies (grade 6)
- Letters from the Lighthouse (grade 4)
- My Secret War (grade 4)
- Number the Stars (grade 7)
- Refugees on the Run (grade 3)
- Rescue (grade 6)
- Resistance (grade 8)
- Salt to the Sea (grade 10)
- The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (grade 9)
- The Diary of a Young Girl (grade 7)
- The Fences Between Us (grade 4)
- The Hiding Place (grade 10)
- The Length of a String (grade 6)
- The War that Saved My Life (grade 5)
- Torn Apart (grade 4)
- Turned Away (grade 4)
- White Bird (grade 5) GN
1940’s & 1950’s
- Brother Andrew: God’s Secret Agent (grade 6)
- God’s Smuggler (grade 9)
- I am David (grade 8)
- Pieces of the Past (grade 4)
- These Are My Words (grade 4)
- Where Have All the Flowers Gone? (grade 4)
- With the Might of Angels (grade 4)
1960’s & 1970’s
- A Night Divided (grade 7)
- In Fear of the Spear (grade 3)
- Inside Out and Back Again (grade 6)
- I Survived the Attack of the Grizzlies (grade 4)
- The Wednesday Wars (grade 7)
- Until Tomorrow Mr. Marsworth (grade 6)
![](https://www.intentionalhomeschooling.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Snapshot_494-2.jpg)
1980’s & 1990’s
- A Long Walk to Water (grade 6)
- I Must Betray You (grade 10)
- I Survived the Eruption of Mount St. Helens (grade 4)
- Soldier Boy (grade 10)
- When Stars are Scattered (grade 6) GN
2000’s
- Ground Zero (grade 5)
- I Survived Hurricane Katrina (grade 4)
- I Survived the Attacks of September 11th (grade 4)
- I Survived The California Wildfires (grade 4)
- I Survived the Japanese Tsunami (grade 4)
- I Survived the Joplin Tornado (grade 4)
![](https://www.intentionalhomeschooling.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/ihs-chantel.jpg)