Counting on Grace, by Elizabeth Winthrop

It's 1910 in Pownal, Vermont. At 12 Grace and her best friend Arthur must go to work in the mill, helping their mothers work the looms. Together Grace and Arthur write a secret letter to the Child Labor Board about underage children working in the mill. A few weeks later Lewis Hine, a famous reformer, arrives undercover to gather evidence.

Grades 5 and up.

The Case of the Missing Marquess, by Nancy Springer

Enola Holmes, much younger sister of detective Sherlock Holmes must travel to London in disguise to unravel the disappearance of her missing mother.

Grades 5 and up.

Bread and Roses, Too, by Katherine Paterson

Jake and Rosa form an unlikely friendship as they try to survive and understand the 1912 Bread and Roses strike of mill workers in Lawrence, MA and later are sent to Barre, Vermont.

Grades 5 and up.

Black Duck, by Janet Taylor Lisle

Years afterwards, Ruben Hart tells the story of how, in 1929 Newport, Rhode Island, his family and his best friend's family were caught up in the violent competition among groups trying to contral the local rum-smuggling trade.

Grades 6 and up.

Weedflower, by Cynthia Kadohata

After twelve-year-old Sumiko and her Japanese-American family are relocated from their flower farm in southern California to an interment camp on an Indian reservation in Arizona, she helps her family and neighbors, becomes friends with a local Indian boy, and tries to hold on to her dream of owning a flower shop.

Grades 6 and up.

Alphabet of Dreams, by Susan Fletcher

Fourteen-year-old Mitra, of royal Persian lineage, and her five-year-old brother Babak, whose dreams foretell the future, flee for their lives in the company of the magus Melchior and two other magi, as they follow star signs leading to a newly-born king in Bethlehem.

Grades 7 and up.

One-Handed Catch, by Mary Jane Auch

A strong sense of purpose, leavened by generous doses of humor and post-World War II period detail, drives this story of a resilient middle-grader who demonstrates that having one hand is an opportunity rather than a handicap.

Grades 5 and up.

Hattie Big Sky, by Kirby Larson

After inheriting her uncle's homesteading claim in Montana, sixteen-year-old orphan Hattie Brooks travels from Iowa in 1917 to make a home for herself.

Grades 6 and up.

A Drowned Maiden's Hair, by Laura Amy Schlitz

At the Barbary Asylum for Female Orphans, eleven-year-old Maud is adopted by three spinster sisters moonlighting as mediums who take her home and reveal to her the role she will play their seances.

Grades 5 and up.