Compilation - 15 Noteworthy Middle Grade Historical Novels

For my 2024 compilation posts, I've decided to provide lists according to genre. I recently joined a Facebook group for historical fiction enthusiasts. No doubt some of them may wish to find historical fiction titles for their tweens. This month, I'm offering a list of middle grade historical fiction (presenting most recently read first). All of these titles garnered 4-1/2 or 5 stars in my estimation:

• More Than Grit by Gretchen A. Carlson - (ACFW Genesis Award Winner) A coming of age novel based on a true story. It is 1939 in Kansas and Sissy is desperate to help her family raise the necessary funds to bring electricity to their farm home.
• Lifeboat 12 by Susan Hood - A riveting survival tale based on a true story. This novel in verse is set aboard a lifeboat during World War II.
• Rascal by Sterling North - (Newbery Honor Book) Set in 1918 in Wisconsin and published as fiction, this autobiographical tale tells of Sterling's adventures in his eleventh year, when he adopted a baby raccoon.
• We Dream of Space by Erin Entrada Kelly - (Newbery Honor Book) A novel about The Challenger Space Shuttle Expedition in 1986.
• Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy by Gary D. Schmidt - (Newbery Honor Book) Set in New England in 1912, and based on a true story of a community's destruction, this book highlights a challenging friendship despite cultural prejudices.
• Penny from Heaven by Jennifer L. Holm - (Newbery Honor Book) A tale of an Italian-American family fighting prejudice after WWII in 1950s New Jersey.
• Bird in a Box by Andrea Davis Pinkney - Three kids fight their own battles as they follow the radio commentary of heavyweight champion, Joe Louis.
• Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder - Beginning in a log cabin in 1871, this is the first of the nine pioneering Little House books.
• A Faraway Island by Annika Thor - (Mildred L. Baltchelder Honor Book) Book One of the Faraway Island series. Two Jewish girls find refuge in Sweden in 1939.
• The Lily Pond by Annika Thor - (ALA-ALSC Notable Children's Book) Book Two of the Faraway Island series. Stephie Steiner is sent to school on the mainland.
• A Night Divided by Jennifer A. Nielsen - Details a family divided by the rise of the Berlin Wall.
• Countdown by Debra Wiles - First in The Sixties Trilogy. A riveting book about an 11-year-old girl in 1962.
• Revolution by Debra Wiles - (National Book Award Finalist) Book Two in The Sixties Trilogy. Sunny experiences all the changes brought by Freedom Summer in 1964 Mississippi.
• Lily's Crossing by Patricia Reilly Giff - (Newbery Honor Book) Lily learns that lies have consequences when a Hungarian refugee comes to her Rockaway summer house by the Atlantic Ocean in the summer of 1944.
• Number the Stars by Lois Lowry - (Newbery Award Winner) During WWII, Annemarie's family take in her Jewish friend, concealing her as part of the family.