Historical Fiction: 1920s


Historical Fiction: 1920s

Entries marked with a ♥ are staff favorites

Hesse, Karen Witness

Various people give personal accounts of life in a small Vermont town during the early 1920s when the Klu Klux Klan tries to infiltrate their town. Among the narrators are an African American girl, a Jewish girl, Klansmen, and townspeople both for and against the KKK.  (M,J)

Myers, Walter Dean Harlem Summer

In 1920s Harlem, sixteen-year-old Mark Purvis, an aspiring jazz saxophonist, gets a summer job as an errand boy for the publishers of the groundbreaking African American magazine, "The Crisis," but soon finds himself on the enemy list of mobster Dutch Shultz. Includes real photos of people and places of Harlem in the 1920s.  (M,J)

Namioka, Lesley An Ocean Apart, a World Away

Despite the odds facing her decision to become a doctor in 1920's Nanking, China, 16-year-old Yanyan leaves her family to study at Cornell University where, along with hard work, she finds prejudice and loneliness as well as friendship and a new sense of accomplishment.  (M,J,S)

Reiss, Kathryn Paint By Magic

Something is terribly wrong with Connor's mom--she keeps slipping into bizarre trances. Connor suspects that the key to his mom's strange behavior is an old art book filled with paintings of a woman who looks exactly like her. But the artist who created those paintings died before his mom was even born. Connor gets his chance to break the evil link between the past and the present when he is mysteriously whisked back in time to the 1920s. But can he save his mom--and himself--before it's too late?  (M,J)

Ritter, John Choosing Up Sides

The early days of baseball, Babe Ruth and the major leagues is the backdrop for Luke's story, in which the thirteen year-old must find a way to reconcile his changing beliefs and the loyalty he feels for his father.  (M,J)

 

  Grade Level Interest
M Middle School (defined as grades 6-8).
J Junior High (defined as grades 7-9).
S Senior High (defined as grades 10-12).
A/YA Adult-marketed book recommended for teens.