American History and Biography

Picture Books | Intermediate | Young Adult

The books recommended below were published within the last several years. Grade levels are only suggestions; the individual child is the real criterion.

Picture Books

When Washington Crossed the Delaware: A Wintertime Story for Young Patriots written by Lynne Cheney, illustrated by Peter M. Fiore (Simon)
After the despair of Valley Forge, Washington boldly attacks the British at Trenton and Princeton. Grade level: K–3. 40 pages.

Hold the Flag High written by Catherine Clinton, illustrated by Shane W. Evans (Tegen/HarperCollins)
The story of the African American Massachusetts Fifty-fourth Regiment at a Civil War turning point. Grade level: 2–5. 32 pages.

Hey Batta Batta Swing: The Wild Old Days of Baseball written by Sally Cook and James Charlton, illustrated by Ross MacDonald (McElderry)
This beguiling tribute to the national pastime’s days of yore is peppered with trivia and slang and guided by sunny idealism. Grade level: 1–5. 48 pages.

The Silent Witness: A True Story of the Civil War written by Robin Friedman, illustrated by Claire A. Nivola (Houghton)
Abandoned by her fleeing owner, a doll acts as “silent witness” to General Lee’s surrender. Grade level: 2–5. 32 pages.

Flush!: The Scoop on Poop throughout the Ages written and illustrated by Charise Mericle Harper (Little)
Thirteen poems skim the history of human waste, shedding irreverent but edifying light on everything from “Before Toilet Paper” to “Toilets in Space.” Grade level: 1–5. 32 pages.

Delivering Justice: W.W. Law and the Fight for Civil Rights by Jim Haskins, illustrated by Benny Andrews (Candlewick)
A mail carrier in Savannah, Georgia, dedicates his life to the civil rights struggle. Grade level: K–3. 32 pages.

John Lewis in the Lead: A Story of the Civil Rights Movement written by Jim Haskins and Kathleen Benson, illustrated by Benny Andrews (Lee & Low)
Based on an interview and the Georgia congressman’s writings, this biopic tracks Lewis’s life from student organizing to the 1964 Selma-to-Washington march and its aftermath. Grade level: 1–4. 40 pages.

What to Do about Alice?: How Alice Roosevelt Broke the Rules, Charmed the World, and Drove Her Father Teddy Crazy! written by Barbara Kerley, illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham (Scholastic)
This sassy biography of Alice Roosevelt Longworth validates President Theodore Roosevelt’s famous quip about his oldest child: “I can be president of the United States, or I can control Alice. I cannot possibly do both.” Grade level: 1–5. 48 pages.

Henry’s Freedom Box written by Ellen Levine, illustrated by Kadir Nelson (Scholastic)
The fictionalized story of Henry “Box” Brown, who mailed himself north to freedom in a wooden box. Grade level: 2–5. 40 pages.

Different like Coco written and illustrated by Elizabeth Matthews (Candlewick)
Against a well-defined backdrop of the social change of the early 1900s, the fashion icon is introduced as a young girl who overcomes poverty with creativity and oodles of attitude. Grade level: 1–4. 40 pages.

Aliens Are Coming!: The True Account of the 1938 War of the Worlds Radio Broadcast written and illustrated by Meghan McCarthy (Knopf)
A compact, dramatic account of the Halloween broadcast that caused radio listeners to believe aliens had landed on Earth. Grade level: K–3. 40 pages.

Marvelous Mattie: How Margaret E. Knight Became an Inventor written and illustrated by Emily Arnold McCully
Confounding expectations, a nineteenth-century New England girl becomes a successful inventor. Grade level: 1–4. 32 pages.

Tuttle’s Red Barn: The Story of America’s Oldest Family Farm written by Richard Michelson, illustrated by Mary Azarian (Putnam)
This family saga offers a real sense of history as it tracks twelve generations of Tuttles who farm the same land through four centuries of social, technological, and economic change. Grade level: 1–5. 40 pages.

Quiet Hero: The Ira Hayes Story written and illustrated by S. D. Nelson (Lee & Low)
This biography of one of the six World War II marines who raised the flag at Iwo Jima captures the duality of a private man who became a public hero. Grade level: 2–5. 32 pages.

The School Is Not White!: A True Story of the Civil Rights Movement written by Doreen Rappaport, illustrated by Curtis James (Jump at the Sun)
In 1965, eleven years after Brown v. the Board of Education, eight siblings enroll in a previously all-white school. Grade level: K–3. 40 pages.

The Journey of the One and Only Declaration of Independence written by Judith St. George, illustrated by Will Hillenbrand (Philomel)
A genial history of the venerable document’s many travels and its often (not-so-)safekeeping. Grade level: K–3. 48 pages.

You’re on Your Way, Teddy Roosevelt written by Judith St. George, illustrated by Matt Faulkner (Philomel)
The future president struggles with ill health as a child but is determined to improve himself. Grade level: K–3. 48 pages.

Liberty Rising: The Story of the Statue of Liberty written by Pegi Deitz Shea, illustrated by Wade Zahares (Holt)
The building of the Statue of Liberty, rendered in dazzling pastels. Grade level: 4–6. 40 pages.

This Is the Dream written by Diane Z. Shore and Jessica Alexander, illustrated by James Ransome (HarperCollins)
Simple verses and bold oil paintings honor the aspirations and achievements of the civil rights movement. Grade level: K–3. 40 pages.

Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom written by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Kadir Nelson (Jump/Hyperion)
This poetic retelling of Tubman’s role as an Underground Railroad conductor combines with larger-than-life illustrations to portray the spiritual life of the visionary leader. Grade level: K–3. 48 pages.

Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds: The Sammy Lee Story written by Paula Yoo, illustrated by Dom Lee (Lee & Low)
Restricted from using the public pool because of his race, a Korean-American doctor medals in diving at the 1948 Olympics. Grade level: 2–5. 32 pages.

Intermediate
Suggested grade level for each entry: 4–6

Miss Crandall’s School for Young Ladies & Little Misses of Color written by Elizabeth Alexander and Marilyn Nelson, illustrated by Floyd Cooper (Wordsong/Boyds)
Two dozen sonnets describe the little-known historical episode of Miss Crandall’s School, created by a Quaker who defied the citizens of her time to teach African American girls in 1930s Canterbury, Connecticut. 48 pages.

Photo by Brady: A Picture of the Civil War written by Jennifer Armstrong (Atheneum)
Matthew Brady’s pioneering photographs are the focal point of this chronological overview of the war. 147 pages.

York’s Adventures with Lewis and Clark: An African-American’s Part in the Great Expedition by Rhoda Blumberg (HarperCollins)
An account of William Clark’s “personal body servant,” the only African American on the famed expedition. 88 pages.

Maritcha: A Nineteenth-Century American Girl by Tonya Bolden (Abrams)
In the 1860s, Maritcha Remond Lyons fights for the right to become the first black student at a high school in Providence, Rhode Island. 48 pages.

Dangerous Engine: Benjamin Franklin, from Scientist to Diplomat written by Joan Dash, illustrated by Dusan Petricic (Farrar/Foster)
A seamless integration of the personal, scientific, and political dimensions of Franklin’s long life. 246 pages.

Escape!: The Story of the Great Houdini by Sid Fleischman (Greenwillow)
The author, a magician himself, presents an energetic biography of the great escape artist and illusionist. 208 pages.

Whale Port written by Mark Foster, illustrated by Gerald Foster (Lorraine/Houghton)
The ebbing-and-flowing fortunes of a fictional New England harbor town are traced from colonization in 1683 through whaling, shipsmithing, candleworks, and milling industries as well as storms, fire, war, and the discovery of petroleum. 64 pages.

Jane Addams: Champion of Democracy by Judith Bloom Fradin and Dennis Brindell Fradin (Clarion)
The life of Nobel Peace Prize–winner Jane Addams, whose humanitarian work and writings were particularly controversial during World War I, is presented in its full complexity and enduring timeliness. 213 pages.

Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Russell Freedman (Holiday)
Balanced but impassioned, this is an expertly paced presentation of one of the defining episodes in the fight for racial equality. 114 pages.

Who Was First?: Discovering the Americas by Russell Freedman (Clarion)
Introducing Chinese sailors, Viking explorers, Native American civilizations, and prehistoric settlers, Freedman demonstrates how these connected continents have been discovered and settled over and over since the Stone Age. 88 pages.

The Lost Colony of Roanoke written by Jean Fritz, illustrated by Talbott Hudson (Putnam)
What happened to the colonists of Roanoke? Fritz brings the characters of this enduring mystery to life. 58 pages.

The Many Rides of Paul Revere by James Cross Giblin (Scholastic)
Numerous archival photographs of paintings, engravings, maps, and artifacts are accompanied by an efficient yet fluid text detailing Revere’s political and business contributions to the embryonic nation. 85 pages.

Up Close: Elvis Presley written by Wilborn Hampton (Viking)
Compelling and thoughtful chapters present a wealth of information without oversimplifying the life of the rock-and-roll king. 197 pages.

Shutting Out the Sky: Life in the Tenements of New York, 1880–1924 by Deborah Hopkinson (Orchard/Scholastic)
First-hand accounts by young people depict immigrant life in New York City at the turn of the twentieth century. 134 pages.

The Forbidden Schoolhouse: The True and Dramatic Story of Prudence Crandall and Her Students by Suzanne Jurmain (Houghton)
Prudence Crandall is full of hope in 1833 when she opens a school in Connecticut for middle-class black girls. Two years later, her dream is destroyed. 160 pages.

The Brothers’ War: Civil War Voices in Verse by J. Patrick Lewis (National)
Eleven poems featuring apt rhyming and jagged rhythms offer little consolation but plenty of intensity in depicting the Civil War. Grade level: 4–8. 32 pages.

Liberty or Death: The American Revolution 1763–1783 written by Betsy Maestro, illustrated by Giulio Maestro (HarperCollins)
This compact survey of America’s long struggle for independence is handsomely and generously illustrated by pen-and-ink drawings. 64 pages.

A Dream of Freedom: The Civil Rights Movement from 1954 to 1968 by Diane McWhorter (Scholastic)
An exemplary account of the movement’s major players, events, and themes by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Carry Me Home. 160 pages.

USS Constellation: Pride of the American Navy by Walter Dean Myers (Holiday)
The long, proud history of one of America’s earliest frigates. 86 pages.

Ain’t Nothing but a Man: My Quest to Find the Real John Henry written by Scott Reynolds Nelson with Marc Aronson (National)
Illuminating the mystery of history, Nelson follows clues, from song lyrics to census data, engineering reports, and prison records, in search of the truth about a folk hero who originated during the racial injustice of the 1870s. 64 pages.

Free at Last!: Stories and Songs of Emancipation written by Doreen Rappaport, illustrated by Shane W. Evans (Candlewick)
Historical summaries, vignettes, poems and songs convey the African-American experience from emancipation through Brown v. Board of Education. 64 pages.

Nobody Gonna Turn Me ’Round: Stories and Songs of the Civil Rights Movement written by Doreen Rappaport, illustrated by Shane W. Evans (Candlewick)
Pivotal events of the 1950s and 1960s are recalled in songs, poems, and vignettes, deftly contextualized and powerfully illustrated. 64 pages.

United No More!: Stories of the Civil War written by Doreen Rappaport and Joan Verniero, illustrated by Rick Reeves (HarperCollins)
Drawn from both Northerners and Southerners, seven dramatically told biographical accounts of Civil War partisans illustrate the national divide. 132 pages.

Down the Colorado: John Wesley Powell, the One-Armed Explorer written and illustrated by Deborah Kogan Ray (Foster/Farrar)
Despite the book’s subtitle, Ray emphasizes the accomplishments rather than the limitations of the Civil War veteran who, in 1869, led the first recorded expedition down the Green and Colorado rivers, mapping and scientifically studying a large portion of the Grand Canyon. 48 pages.

George vs. George: The American Revolution as Seen from Both Sides written and illustrated by Rosalyn Schanzer (National Geographic)
The contrasting roles of George Washington and King George III in the causes, events, and aftermath of the American Revolution. 60 pages.

John Smith Escapes Again! written and illustrated by Rosalyn Schanzer (National Geographic)
This beguiling, myth-busting tribute to John Smith as “America’s first genuine superstar” and “escape artist” explores his many exploits outside of being that guy Pocahontas saved. 64 pages.

Team Moon: How 400,000 People Landed Apollo 11 on the Moon by Catherine Thimmesh (Houghton)
Starting pre-launch and ending with splashdown, an account of all the people who made the mission possible — from the contractors who built the rockets to launch operators at NASA. 80 pages.

Young Adult
Suggested grade level for each entry: 7 and up

George Washington: An Illustrated Biography by David A. Adler (Holiday)
This well-rendered biography places particular emphasis on Washington’s years at war and his presidential period. 274 pages.

Race: A History beyond Black and White by Marc Aronson (Seo/Atheneum)
Ambition and imagination animate this rousing history of racism and its antecedents that, while focusing on anti-Semitism and discrimination against blacks, explores various forms of prejudice from ancient Sumer to the Rodney King beating and beyond. Grade level: 7 and up. 314 pages.

Up Close: Robert F. Kennedy by Marc Aronson (Viking)
“Was Kennedy a priest in politician’s clothing?” asks the author, illuminating Kennedy’s meteoric life story while spelling out social and political conflicts of the 1950s and 1960s. Grade level: 6–8. 202 pages.

Witch-Hunt: Mysteries of the Salem Witch Trials written by Marc Aronson (Atheneum)
This history of the Salem Witch Trials examines their enduring relevance. 272 pages.

Let Me Play: The Story of Title IX, the Law that Changed the Future of Girls in America written by Karen Blumenthal (Atheneum)
How the landmark 1972 legislation leveled the playing field for female athletes. 152 pages.

Our Eleanor: A Scrapbook Look at Eleanor Roosevelt’s Remarkable Life by Candace Fleming (Schwartz/Atheneum)
Artfully arranged in scrapbook format, this intimate portrait is an unabashed tribute to the influential first lady. 176 pages.

The Power of One: Daisy Bates and the Little Rock Nine by Judith Bloom Fradin and Dennis Brindell Fradin (Clarion)
An unsung civil rights crusader and her role in the 1957 integration of Little Rock’s Central High School. 178 pages.

Hear Us Out!: Lesbian and Gay Stories of Struggle, Progress, and Hope, 1950 to the Present by Nancy Garden (Farrar)
Decade-by-decade historical summaries and period-specific short stories depict the evolution of gay rights and the rise of a GLBTQ community in America. 230 pages.

Good Brother, Bad Brother: The Story of Edwin Booth and John Wilkes Booth by James Cross Giblin (Clarion)
Dual biography of the infamous presidential assassin and his brother, an acclaimed stage actor. 235 pages.

Westward Ho!: Eleven Explorers of the West by Charlotte Foltz Jones (Holiday)
Collective biography of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century pathfinders who led the way for the westward expansion of the United States. 233 pages.

Grierson’s Raid: A Daring Cavalry Strike through the Heart of the Confederacy by Tom Lalicki (Farrar)
This day-by-day account of a Union officer’s successful raid on central Mississippi concentrates on military maneuvers and tactics. 200 pages.

Up Close: Rachel Carson by Ellen Levine (Viking)
Excerpts from the prominent environmentalist’s lyrical writings are a highlight of this meaty biography. Grade level: 6–8. 216 pages.

The Great Adventure: Theodore Roosevelt and the Rise of Modern America by Albert Marrin (Dutton)
Marrin addresses Roosevelt’s strengths, weaknesses, and ambiguities, focusing on his approach to being president and on the situations he faced and created that remain in some form with us today. 248 pages.

Old Hickory: Andrew Jackson and the American People by Albert Marrin (Dutton)
An illuminating portrait of the general and president who was both a product and a shaper
of his times. 262 pages.

The Real Benedict Arnold by Jim Murphy (Clarion)
Murphy examines both rumors and facts about Arnold, focusing on his military record and the machinations of the Continental Congress, so that readers can see him “in as fair and as objective a way possible.” 264 pages.

Dear Miss Breed: True Stories of the Japanese American Incarceration during World War II and a Librarian Who Made a Difference written by Joanne Oppenheim (Scholastic)
After her Japanese-American patrons are transported to an internment camp, a San Diego librarian (and Horn Book contributor) continues to serve them. 288 pages.

Bernice Abbott, Photographer: An Independent Vision by George Sullivan (Clarion)
One of the groundbreaking photographers of the twentieth century is brought to life in this generously illustrated biography. 170 pages.

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