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.

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)

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)

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)

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)