Fifteen years in Title I classrooms later, here are the historical fiction novels that never once let me down—five from the Revolution, five from the Civil War. These are the ones that shut up a room full of 5th and 6th graders who swore “history is boring” faster than Superman changing in a phone booth. I showed up in Los Angeles in 1961, eleven years old, clutching a one-way ticket from San Salvador and exactly four English words—“yes,” “no,” “please,” and “thank you.” Comic books and Saturday matinees at the dime theater on Broadway in Los Angeles did the rest. Fast-forward: Army, night school, forty years running technology for the biggest retailers in America, retired at 52 with a nice watch and nicer memories. Then, at 62, I did the craziest thing of all—I went back and got my teaching credential so I could stand in front of kids who looked and sounded exactly like I did in 1961.
American Revolution.
My Brother Sam Is Dead – James Lincoln Collier & Christopher Collier
This one hurts in all the right places. A Connecticut family is ripped apart when one son grabs a Brown Bess for the Patriots while Dad stays loyal to the King. I’ve had tough little dudes who think war is all glory sit there stunned when Sam’s fate shows up. They finally get it: revolutions aren’t video games; they’re neighbor shooting neighbor, sometimes literally.
Johnny Tremain – Esther Forbes
The book that should be issued with every tricorn hat. Cocky Boston apprentice burns his hand, ends up riding with Paul Revere, and suddenly my English-learners are shouting “Sam Adams!” and “Dr. Warren!” like they’re calling plays in a Dodgers game. If you only have time for one Revolutionary War novel, plant your flag here.
The Seeds of America Trilogy (Chains, Forge, Ashes) – Laurie Halse Anderson
Laurie Halse Anderson asks the question nobody asked me in school: “Hey, kid from El Salvador, whose liberty were they actually fighting for?” Isabel and Curzon are enslaved teenagers trying to grab freedom while white folks argue about taxes. Every February, I taught this trilogy and watched my Black and Brown students see themselves in history for the first time. Discussions got so electric, I had to add extra chairs.
Civil War
Across Five Aprils – Irene Hunt
Nine-year-old Jethro Creighton on an Illinois farm, brothers fighting in blue and gray, news coming by horseback or a week-old newspaper. I read the scene where Jethro learns his favorite brother might be dead, and you could hear a pin drop in a classroom of thirty 5th-graders who usually can’t sit still for thirty seconds. Perfect for teaching that the war wasn’t just Gettysburg—it was kids growing old before their time.
The River Between Us – Richard Peck
Starts in 1916 with a road trip, flashes back to 1861 when two mysterious women step off a steamboat into a little Illinois town. Race, passing, secrets, and a twist at the end that makes grown men pretend they have dust in their eyes. Every single year, my kids gasped at the last ten pages. Richard Peck was a wizard, God rest him.
Look, textbooks give you dates. These books give you nightmares, tears, and—best of all—questions that won’t leave you alone. When a kid who learned English the same way I did finishes Chains and says, “Señor, why didn’t the Revolution free every slave?”—that’s when I know the comics and cowboy movies were worth every quarter.
So tell me—which one are you cracking open first with your students (or your own kids)? Please drop me a note and let me know how it lands.
Keep the faith, keep reading, and remember: sometimes the best way to love this country is to read the stories that don’t sugar-coat it.
(From a kid who learned English from Superman capes and cowboy drawls)*
