the best middle-grade books | historical fiction

Hey, friends!

If you’ve read any of my book posts, you can tell that I love middle grade and that’s pretty much all I read. So for today’s post, I’m going to be sharing my favorite middle-grade books that are historical fiction, and in a few weeks, I’m hoping to write a list of my favorite contemporary books. If you love middle-grade, or there’s someone you know who does, I hope this post helps you find some new books to read or recommend!

the green glass sea

This book was so interesting and eye-opening to read what it was like to be there while the first atomic bomb was being developed. There were a couple of things I didn’t like about it and it’s upper MG, but the writing style was amazing. Also, to get the most out of this book, you need to know at least some about WW2 otherwise none of the characters/plot is going to make any sense or mean anything to you. Overall, this is one of my favorites and I’m hoping to read the next books in the series soon.

It is 1943, and 11-year-old Dewey Kerrigan is traveling west on a train to live with her scientist father, but no one, not her father nor the military guardians who accompany her, will tell her exactly where he is. When she reaches Los Alamos, New Mexico, she learns why: he’s working on a top secret government program. Over the next few years, Dewey gets to know eminent scientists, starts tinkering with her own mechanical projects, becomes friends with a budding artist who is as much of a misfit as she is and, all the while, has no idea how the Manhattan Project is about to change the world. This book’s fresh prose and fascinating subject are like nothing you’ve read before.

the melendy quartet

First, anything by Elizabeth Enright is so good, but the Melendy Quartet, specifically the Four-Story Mistake, is her best in my opinion. I don’t know how she did it but her stories perfectly capture all the fun & joy of growing up. This book is set during WW2 in the U.S. but the main focus isn’t on the War but it is mentioned quite a bit. I also feel like her books are more accurate and realistic since she had lived during that time and all four books in the series were published from 1941 – 1951.

Into the Four-Story Mistake, an odd-looking house with a confused architectural history, move the Melendy family — Mona, Rush, Randy, Oliver, Father, and Cuffy, the housekeeper. Though disappointed about leaving their old brownstone in New York City, and apprehensive about living the country life, the four Melendy kids soon settle into this unusual new home. Here, they become absorbed in the adventures of the country, adjusting themselves with all their accustomed resourcefulness and discovering the many hidden attractions that the Four-Story Mistake has to offer.

nory ryan’s song

I haven’t read this recently (it’s been at least 2 or 3 years so I don’t remember everything other than I loved it when I read it) but all of Patricia Reilly Giff’s writing is amazing. This was in a different period from what I’d ever read and about an event I had never really heard of which made reading interesting.

Nory Ryan’s family has lived on Maidin Bay on the west coast of Ireland for generations, raising a pig and a few chickens, planting potatoes, getting by. Every year Nory’s father goes away on a fishing boat and returns with the rent money for the English lord who owns their cottage and fields, the English lord bent upon forcing the Irish from their land so he can tumble the cottages and clear the fields for grazing. Times are never easy on Maidin Bay, but this year, a terrible blight attacks the potatoes. No crop means starvation. Twelve-year-old Nory must summon the courage and ingenuity to find food, to find hope, to find a way to help her family survive.

nothing else but miracles

I just listened to this last month and it is one of my new favorites! I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it as much as I did because I feel like newer historical fic isn’t as good, but this was pretty accurate and the plot & characters were great. I felt like the end did have a bit of ‘everything comes together too perfectly’ but despite that, it was one of my favorites.

When 12-year-old Dory Byrne’s pop left New York City’s Lower East Side to fight Hitler, he promised her and her brothers that they’d be safe. Like he always said, “the neighborhood will give you what you need.” There’s the lady from the bakery, who saves them leftover crullers. The kind landlord who checks in on them. And every Thursday night, the Byrnes enjoy a free bowl of seafood stew at Mr. Caputo’s restaurant. . . which is where Dory learns about the abandoned hand-pulled elevator that is the only way to get to Caputo’s upper floors. But when a new landlord threatens their home in the community that’s raised them and kept them safe, the secret elevator—and the abandoned hotel it leads to—provides just the solution they need.

words on fire

Words on Fire is my favorite by Jennifer A. Nielsen, but A Night Divided is really good, as well. I listened to this and I had to keep myself from skipping to the end because I was so curious to hear what happened. (I’m a horrible reader and I usually do this if I’m reading romance and every once in a while with historical fiction – halfway through the book, I’ll read the last chapter and then contentedly read the rest of the book since I know what I want to happen is going to happen. 😂)

Danger is never far from Audra’s family farm in Lithuania. She always avoids the occupying Russian Cossack soldiers, who insist that everyone must become Russian — they have banned Lithuanian books, religion, culture, and even the language. But Audra knows her parents are involved in something secret and perilous.When Cossacks arrive abruptly at their door, Audra’s parents insist that she flee, taking with her an important package and instructions for where to deliver it. But escape means abandoning her parents to a terrible fate. As Audra embarks on a journey to deliver the mysterious package, she faces unimaginable risks, and soon she becomes caught up in a growing resistance movement. Can joining the underground network of book smugglers give Audra a chance to rescue her parents?‘

the witch of blackbird pond

I’m pretty sure my mom read this me in maybe fourth or fifth grade? But it’s been one of my favorites ever since! You can definitely enjoy it no matter how old you are. I feel like this book gave insight into a time that there aren’t many books written about, and Elizabeth George Speare has amazing prose.

Orphaned Kit Tyler knows, as she gazes for the first time at the cold, bleak shores of Connecticut Colony, that her new home will never be like the shimmering Caribbean island she left behind. In her relatives’ stern Puritan community, she feels like a tropical bird that has flown to the wrong part of the world, a bird that is now caged and lonely. The only place where Kit feels completely free is in the meadows, where she enjoys the company of the old Quaker woman known as the Witch of Blackbird Pond, and on occasion, her young sailor friend Nat. But when Kit’s friendship with the “witch” is discovered, Kit is faced with suspicion, fear, and anger. She herself is accused of witchcraft!

now, it’s your turn!

What’s your favorite historical fiction book? Do you read middle-grade? Comment below and give me all your historical fic and MG recs!