Kids and Families

Civil War Fiction for Older Readers

Across the Lines by Carolyn Reeder. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 1997.
Edward, the son of a white plantation owner, and his black house servant and friend Simon witness the siege of Petersburg during the Civil War.

An Acquaintance with Darkness by Ann Rinaldi. Harcourt Brace, 1996.
When her mother dies and her best friend's family is implicated in the assassination of President Lincoln, fourteen-year-old Emily Pigbush must go live with an uncle she suspects of being involved in stealing bodies for medical research.

Dear Austin: Letters from the Underground Railroad by Elvira Woodruff. Knopf, 1998.
In 1853, in letters to his older brother, eleven-year-old Levi describes his adventures in the Pennsylvania countryside with his black friend Jupiter and his experiences with the Underground Railroad.

Jayhawker by Patricia Beatty. Morrow Junior Books, 1991.
In the early years of the Civil War, teenage Kansas farm boy Lije Tulley becomes a Jayhawker, an abolitionist raider freeing slaves from the neighboring state of Missouri, and then goes undercover there as a spy.

Jip: His Story by Katherine Paterson. Lodestar Books, 1996.
While living on a Vermont poor farm during 1855 and 1856, Jip learns his identity and that of his mother and comes to understand how he arrived at this place.

Mr. Lincoln's Drummer by G. Clifton Wisler. Lodestar Books, 1995.
Recounts the courageous exploits of Willie Johnston, an eleven-year-old Civil War drummer, who became the youngest recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Sarny: a Life Remembered by Gary Paulsen. Delacorte Press, 1997.
Continues the adventures of Sarny, the slave girl Nightjohn taught to read, through the aftermath of the Civil War during which time she taught other Blacks and lived a full life until age ninety-four.

Second Daughter: the Story of a Slave Girl by Mildred Pitts Walter. Scholastic, 1996.
Aissa, the teen-age fictional sister of Elizabeth Freeman, struggles against a system which declares that she is property and that she is to remain silent.

Silent Thunder by Andrea Davis Pinkney. Hyperion Books for Children, 1999.
In 1862 eleven-year-old Summer and her thirteen-year-old brother Rosco take turns describing how life on the quiet Virginia plantation where they are slaves is affected by the Civil War.

Soldier's Heart: a Novel of the Civil War by Gary Paulsen. Dell Laurel-Leaf, 2000, 1998.
Eager to enlist, fifteen-year-old Charley has a change of heart after experiencing both the physical horrors and mental anguish of Civil War combat.

Stealing Freedom by Elisa Lynn Carbone. Knopf, 1998.
A novel based on the events in the life of a young slave girl from Maryland who endures all kinds of mistreatment and cruelty, including being separated from her family, but who eventually escapes to freedom in Canada.

True North: a Novel of the Underground Railroad by Katherine Lasky. Scholastic, 1996.
Because of the strong influence which her grandfather, an abolitionist, has in her life, fourteen-year-old Lucy assists a fugitive slave girl in her escape.

Which Way Freedom? by Joyce Hansen. Walker, 1986.
Obi escapes from slavery during the Civil War, joins a black Union regiment, and soon becomes involved in the bloody fighting at Fort Pillow, Tennessee.