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Suggested Historical Fiction for Fifth Grade

 

Interested in reading a story that takes place in a different time period? Try checking out one of these historic tales. Books are suggested for Fifth Grade, but remember that each Reader is different, and might find something interesting at another level.

The boy who dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

In October, 1942, seventeen-year-old Helmuth Hübener, imprisoned for distributing anti-Nazi leaflets, recalls his past life and how he came to dedicate himself to bring the truth about Hitler and the war to the German people.

Bud, not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
Also available in: large print

Ten-year-old Bud, a motherless boy living in Flint, Michigan, during the Great Depression, escapes a bad foster home and sets out in search of the man he believes to be his father--the renowned bandleader, H.E. Calloway of Grand Rapids.

Cleopatra, daughter of the Nile by Kristiana Gregory

While her father is in hiding after attempts on his life, twelve-year-old Cleopatra records in her diary how she fears for her own safety and hopes to survive to become Queen of Egypt some day.

Falsely accused of theft and murder, an orphaned peasant boy in fourteenth-century England flees his village and meets a larger-than-life juggler who holds a dangerous secret.

The empty mirror by James Lincoln Collier

Thirteen-year-old Nick, whose parents died in the 1918 flu epidemic, must find out why his mirror-image is causing mischief around their New England town and making sure Nick gets the blame.

In central Texas in 1899, eleven-year-old Callie Vee Tate is instructed to be a lady by her mother, learns about love from the older three of her six brothers, and studies the natural world with her grandfather, the latter of which leads to an important discovery.

Moon over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool
Also available in: e-book | e-audiobook

Twelve-year-old Abilene Tucker is the daughter of a drifter who, in the summer of 1936, sends her to stay with an old friend in Manifest, Kansas, where he grew up, and where she hopes to find out some things about his past.

Number the stars by Lois Lowry
Also available in: e-book | e-audiobook | large print

In 1943, during the German occupation of Denmark, ten-year-old Annemarie learns how to be brave and courageous when she helps shelter her Jewish friend from the Nazis.

Room for one more by Monique Polak

In Montréal, Canada, in 1942, the war in Europe seems far off to twelve-year-old Rosetta Wolfson until her family takes in Isaac, a war refugee, and everything changes.

Stumptown kid by Carol Gorman

In a small Iowa town in 1952, eleven-year-old Charlie Nebraska, whose father died in the Korean War, learns the meanings of both racism and heroism when he befriends a black man who had played baseball in the Negro Leagues.