To find books at your reading level look for the following codes:
A=Grades 1 - 3, B=Grades 4 - 6, C=Grades 7 – 8.

On the Frontier | Lincoln's Life | Lincoln Family | Slavery | The Civil War

On the Frontier

Fiction

Anderson, Joan            Joshua’s Westward Journal.
In 1836, Joshua and his family travel as pioneers into Illinois, where they survive disastrous hardships to establish a prosperous farm of their own. A

Auch, Mary Jane             Frozen Summer.
In 1816, twelve-year-old Mem's new home in the wilderness of western New York is disrupted when the birth of another baby sends her mother into "spells" that disconnect her from reality. B

Brink, Carol             Caddie Woodlawn.
An intrepid 12-year-old Wisconsin girl never lacks for excitement. B

Cullen, Lynn             Nelly in the Wilderness.
In the Indiana wilderness in 1821, twelve-year-old Nelly Vandorn and her older brother hold fast to their rough frontier ways when their father brings home a fancy new city wife not long after burying their mother. B

DeFelice, Cynthia             Weasel.
Alone in the frontier wilderness in the winter of 1839 while his father is recovering from an injury, eleven-year-old Nathan runs afoul of the renegade killer known as Weasel and makes a surprising discovery about the concept of revenge. B

Fleischman, Paul             The Borning Room.
At the end of her life, lying in the room where she was born in 1851, Georgina remembers what it was like to grow up on the Ohio frontier. B, C

Howard, Ellen             The Log Cabin Quilt.
When Elvirey and her family move to a log cabin in the Michigan woods, something even more important than Granny's quilt pieces makes the new dwelling a home. A

Ketchum, Liza             Orphan Journey Home.
In 1828, while traveling from Illinois to Kentucky, twelve-year-old Jesse and her two brothers and sister lose their parents to the milk sickness and must try to finish the dangerous journey by themselves. B

Whelan, Gloria             Next Spring an Oriole.
In 1837, ten-year-old Libby and her parents journey by covered wagon to the Michigan frontier, where they make themselves a new home near friendly Indians and other pioneers. A, B

Wilkes, Maria             Little Town at the Crossroads.
Young Caroline Quiner, who would grow up to become Laura Ingalls Wilder's mother, and her family have new adventures as the frontier outpost of Brookfield, Wisconsin, grows into a bustling town. B


Non-fiction

Hargrove, Jim              The Story of the Black Hawk War.
Relates the events, as recalled by the Sauk Indian chief Black Hawk, that led to the last great Indian uprising east of the Mississippi River in 1832. B, C

Henry, Joanne              Log Cabin in the Woods: A True Story About a Pioneer Boy.
Recounts eleven-year-old Oliver Johnson's experiences living in the densely forested wilderness of nineteenth-century central Indiana. A, B
 

Lincoln’s Life

Fiction

Roop, Connie             Grace’s Letter to Lincoln.
On the eve of the 1860 presidential election, as war clouds gather and the South threatens to secede, eleven-year-old Grace decides to help Abraham Lincoln get elected by writing and advising him to grow a beard. B

Winnick, Karen B.             Mr. Lincoln’s Whiskers.
The true story of Grace Bedell, who suggested that Abraham Lincoln grow a beard. A


Non-fiction

Adler, David             A Picture Book of Abraham Lincoln.
Follows the life of the popular president, from his childhood on the frontier to his assassination after the end of the Civil War. A

Bial, Raymond             Where Lincoln Walked.
Includes a brief biography of President Lincoln, a list of locations where he walked, and photographs of places, buildings, and objects significant in his life. A, B

Bowler, Sarah             Abraham Lincoln: Our Sixteenth President.
A basic introduction to the life and times of Abraham Lincoln illustrated with historic photographs, etchings, posters and cartoons. A

Brenner, Martha             Abe Lincoln’s Hat.
Frontier lawyer Abraham Lincoln cures his absent-mindedness by placing letters, court notes, contracts, and his checkbook in his tall black hat. A

Burchard, Peter             Lincoln and Slavery.
A biography of the sixteenth president which focuses on the issue of slavery and the importance it had throughout Lincoln's life from his early days as a lawyer through his presidency. C

Burke, Rick             Abraham Lincoln.
A biography of the Illinois lawyer who served the country as president through the difficulties of the Civil War.
A

Cary, Barbara             Meet Abraham Lincoln.
Highlights the life of the man who was president during the Civil War. A

Cohn, Amy L.             Abraham Lincoln.
From his humble start in a log cabin in Kentucky, this book follows Lincoln through his presidency to his untimely death. With lively, stylized illustrations by David A. Johnson, this unusual biography with a decidedly folkloric flavor is sure to become a perennial classic. A

D’Aulaire, Ingri             Abraham Lincoln.
The classic illustrated biography of the great American president chronicles "Honest Abe's" rise from impoverished son of a Kentucky farmer to president of a nation at war with itself. A, B

Freedman, Russell             Lincoln: A Photobiography.
Vintage photographs and text trace the life of the Civil War president in this award winning biography. B, C

Gross, Ruth Belov             True Stories About Abraham Lincoln.
Traces the political and personal life of the Civil War president. A, B

Harness, Cheryl             Abe Lincoln Goes to Washington: 1837-1865.
Portrays Lincoln's life as a lawyer in Springfield, a devoted husband and father, and president during the Civil War years. A

Harness, Cheryl             Young Abe Lincoln: The Frontier Days 1809-1837.
Briefly presents the life of this famous president from his birth until the age of twenty-eight. A

Ito, Tom             Abraham Lincoln.
Examines the assassination of President Lincoln, focusing on the questions that remain open about conspiracy as well as Lincoln's mysterious premonitions of death. B, C

Jakoubek, Robert E.             The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
Discusses the day Lincoln was shot and the weeks following his assassination, including the manhunt for John Wilkes Booth and his co-conspirators. B

January, Brendan             The Emancipation Proclamation.
Tells the story of the document which eventually led to the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment and relates the role of President Lincoln in freeing the slaves. A, B

Kent, Deborah             The Lincoln Memorial.
Provides a detailed history of the planning and construction of the national monument honoring Abraham Lincoln. B

Kent, Zachary             The Story of Ford’s Theatre and the Death of Lincoln.
Describes the events leading up to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the conspiracy involved in that slaying, and the aftermath of the tragic event. A, B

Kunhardt, Edith             Honest Abe.
A simple biography of the president who led the United States through a bloody civil war. A

Lincoln, Abraham             Abraham Lincoln the Writer: A Treasury of His Greatest Speeches and Letters.
A collection of speeches and letters of Abraham Lincoln, with brief introductions that provide historical background. Illustrated throughout with black-and-white archival photographs. C

Marrin, Albert             Commander in Chief Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War.
Brings Lincoln to life by placing him in the context of his own personal background and the larger circumstances of the country's greatest conflict. C

Metzger, Larry             Abraham Lincoln.
Follows the life of America's sixteenth president, with an emphasis on his personal life and early career as lawyer, lawmaker, and abolitionist. B

North, Sterling             Abe Lincoln: Log Cabin to White House.
A biography of Abraham Lincoln, focusing on his childhood spent in poverty on the Midwestern frontier and chronicling his rise to the Presidency and the highlights of his tenure. B

Otfinoski, Steven             John Wilkes Booth and the Civil War.
Sets the life story of the man who assassinated Abraham Lincoln against the backdrop of the Civil War. B

Sandburg, Carl             Abe Lincoln Grows Up.
A redesigned issue of the beautifully told story of young Abe Lincoln, drawn from the early chapters of Carl Sandburg's original biography. B, C

Shorto, Russell             Abraham Lincoln and the End of Slavery.
A brief biography of Abraham Lincoln, describing his political career, his feelings about slavery, and his role as president during the Civil War. A, B

Sullivan, George             Abraham Lincoln.
Presents a biography, including excerpts from his speeches, letters, and other writings, of the man who was president during the Civil War. Includes an explanation of primary and secondary sources. B

Sullivan, George             Picturing Lincoln: Famous Photographs that Popularized the President.
Examines some of the famous photographs taken of President Abraham Lincoln, discussing the circumstances under which they were taken and how these images were used. B

Winters, Kay             Abe Lincoln: The Boy Who Loved Books.
The story of Lincoln’s early life is told using events from his childhood in Kentucky and Indiana and his young adulthood in New Salem, Illinois. The engaging narrative emphasizes Lincoln's love of books and reading, which flourished despite his lack of formal education. A

Zeinert, Karen             The Lincoln Murder Plot.
Text, including quotations from contemporary sources such as the diary of John Wilkes Booth, the testimony of witnesses, letters, and accounts by others involved, examines the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. B, C

 

Lincoln’s Family

Fiction

Monjo, F.N.             Gettysburg: Tad Lincoln’s Story.
Recounts the events of the Battle of Gettysburg and the dedication of the cemetery there, as seen through the eyes of Tad Lincoln. A


Non-fiction

Anderson, LaVere             Robert Todd Lincoln: President's Boy.
This simple biography, covering the Illinois childhood of Robert Todd Lincoln, presents an interesting look into the early family life of Abraham and Mary Lincoln. A, B

Collins, David R.             Shattered Dreams: The Story of Mary Todd Lincoln.
This well written biography presents a sympathetic picture of a vain and spoiled but also bright and ambitious woman whose support and encouragement helped her husband to become president. C

Monjo, F.N.             Me and Willie and Pa: The Story of Abraham Lincoln and His Son Tad.
President Lincoln's youngest son recounts his own and his family's experience during their four years in the White House. B

Rutberg, Becky             Mary Lincoln’s Dressmaker: Elizabeth Keckley's Remarkable Rise from Slave to White House Confidante.
Most of this fascinating biography covers the friendship between Mary Todd Lincoln and her gifted dressmaker.
C

Weaver, John Downing             Tad Lincoln: Mischief-Maker in the White House.
This book, containing many fascinating details of Abraham Lincoln’s family life, covers Tad Lincoln’s life from his birth in 1853 to his father’s death in 1865. B, C

Slavery

Fiction

American Girls             Meet Addy.
Nine-year-old Addy Walker escapes from a cruel life of slavery to freedom during the Civil War. A, B

Armstrong, Jennifer             Steal Away.
In 1855, two thirteen-year-old girls, one white and one black, run away from a southern farm and make the difficult journey north to freedom, living to recount their story forty-one years later to two similar young girls. B

Ayres, Katherine             North by Night: A Story of the Underground Railroad.
Presents the journal of a sixteen-year-old girl whose family operates a stop on the Underground Railroad.
B, C

Carbone, Elisa Lynn             Stealing Freedom.
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. C

Chambers, Veronica             Amistad Rising: A Story of Freedom.
A fictional account of the 1839 revolt of Africans aboard the slave ship Amistad and the subsequent legal case argued before the Supreme Court in 1841 by former president John Quincy Adams. A, B

De Angeli, Marguerite             Thee, Hannah!
A little Quaker girl resents having to wear a plain bonnet instead of a flowered one, until she realizes that her bonnet is an important signal to escaped slaves. A, B

Edwards, Pamela Duncan             Barefoot: Escape on the Underground Railroad.
In the forest, a group of animals help a runaway slave escape his pursuers. A

Fox, Paula             The Slave Dancer.
Kidnapped by the crew of an Africa-bound ship, a thirteen-year-old boy discovers to his horror that he is on a slaver and his job is to play music for the exercise periods of the human cargo. B, C

Hopkinson, Deborah             Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt.
A young slave stitches a quilt with a map pattern which guides her to freedom in the North. A, B

Johnson, Dolores             Now Let Me Fly: The Story of a Slave Family.
A fictionalized account of the life of Minna, kidnapped as a girl in Africa, as she endures the harsh life of a slave on a Southern plantation in the 1800s and tries to help her family survive. A, B

Johnston, Norma             Over Jordan.
In 1836, fourteen-year-old Roxana undertakes a dangerous journey up the Ohio River to help her beloved servant Jess and Jess's fiance, a runaway slave, escape to freedom, aided by Roxana's former teacher Harriet Beecher Stowe. C

Lyons, Mary             Letters from a Slave Girl: The Story of Harriet Jacobs.
A fictionalized version of the life of Harriet Jacobs, told in the form of letters that she might have written during her slavery in North Carolina and as she prepared for escape to the North in 1842. B

Monjo, F. N.             The Drinking Gourd.
How a mischievous little boy, with the help of the Underground Railroad, foiled slave catchers. A

Nolen, Jerdine             Big Jabe.
Momma Mary tells stories about a special young man who does wondrous things, especially for the slaves on the Plenty Plantation. A, B

Paulsen, Gary             Nightjohn.
Twelve-year-old Sarny's brutal life as a slave becomes even more dangerous when a newly arrived slave offers to teach her how to read. A, B

Pearsall, Shelley             Trouble Don’t Last.
Samuel, an eleven-year-old Kentucky slave, and Harrison, the elderly slave who helped raise him, attempt to escape to Canada via the Underground Railroad. B

Pinkney, Andrea Davis             Abraham Lincoln: Letters from a Slave Girl.
A fictional correspondence between President Abraham Lincoln and a twelve-year-old slave girl that discusses his decision to write the Emancipation Proclamation. B

Rees, Douglas             Lightning Time.
Fourteen-year-old Theodore Worth struggles with the decision to leave his home in Boston and join the controversial abolitionist John Brown in the fight against slavery. B, C

Rinaldi, Ann             Mine Eyes Have Seen.
In the summer of 1859, fifteen-year-old Annie travels to the Maryland farm where her father, John Brown, is secretly assembling his provisional army prior to their raid on the United States arsenal at nearby Harpers Ferry. B, C

Rinaldi, Ann             Wolf By the Ears.
Harriet Hemings, rumored to be the daughter of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, one of his black slaves, struggles with the problem facing her--to escape from the velvet cage that is Monticello, or to stay, and thus remain a slave. B, C

Ringgold, Faith             Aunt Harriet’s Underground Railroad in the Sky.
With Harriet Tubman as her guide, Cassie retraces the steps escaping slaves took on the Underground Railroad in order to reunite with her younger brother. A, B

Rosen, Michael J.             A School for Pompey Walker.
At the dedication of a school named after him, an old former slave tells the story of his life and how his white friend helped him earn the money for the school by repeatedly selling him into slavery, after which he always escaped. A, B

Schwartz, Virginia Frances             If I Just Had Two Wings.
Thirteen-year-old Phoebe and nineteen-year-old Liney and her two young children attempt to escape slavery aided by coded clues Phoebe discovers about the Underground Railroad through African-American songs.
B, C

Turner, Ann             Nettie’s Trip South.
A ten-year-old northern girl encounters the ugly realities of slavery when she visits Richmond, Virginia, and sees a slave auction. A

Twain, Mark             Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
The story of a teenaged misfit who finds himself floating on a raft down the Mississippi River with an escaping slave. In the course of their perilous journey they meet adventure, danger, and an unusual cast of characters. B, C

Winter, Jeanette             Follow the Drinking Gourd.
By following the directions in a song, "The Drinking Gourd," taught them by an old sailor named Peg Leg Joe, runaway slaves journey north along the Underground Railroad to freedom in Canada. A


Non-fiction

Adler, David             A Picture Book of Harriet Tubman.
The biography of a black woman who escaped from slavery to become famous as a conductor on the Underground Railroad. A

Douglass, Frederick             Escape from Slavery: The Boyhood of Frederick Douglass in His Own Words.
A shortened autobiography presenting the early life of the slave who became an abolitionist, journalist, and statesman. B, C

Freedman, Florence B.             Two Tickets to Freedom: The True Story of Ellen and William Craft, Fugitive Slaves.
Traces the search for freedom by a black man and wife who traveled to Boston and eventually to England after their clever escape from slavery in Georgia. B, C

Hamilton, Virginia             Many Thousand Gone: African Americans from Slavery to Freedom.
Recounts the journey of black slaves to freedom via the Underground Railroad, an extended group of people who helped fugitive slaves in many ways. B, C

Hopkinson, Deborah             Under the Quilt of Night.
A young girl flees from the farm where she has been worked as a slave and uses the Underground Railroad to escape to freedom in the North. A

Jaffe, Elizabeth Dana             Sojourner Truth.
The brief biography of a woman who was born a slave but became a famous writer and civil rights leader. A

Lester, Julius             To Be a Slave.
A compilation, selected from various sources and arranged chronologically, of the reminiscences of slaves and ex-slaves about their experiences from the leaving of Africa through the Civil War and into the early twentieth century. C

McLoone, Margo             Frederick Douglass.
A brief biography of the man who escaped life as a slave in 1838 and became a great anti-slavery orator and advisor to President Abraham Lincoln. A

Miller, William             Frederick Douglass: The Last Day of Slavery.
This picture-book biography focuses on a crucial episode in the life of the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass: the day he stood up to a vicious overseer and fought back. A

Neshama, Rivvy             Nat Turner and the Virginia Slave Revolt.
Examines the life of Nat Turner and the events leading up to the slave rebellion he led in 1831. A, B

Rappaport, Doreen             Freedom River.
Describes an incident in the life of John Parker, an ex-slave who became a successful businessman in Ripley, Ohio, and who repeatedly risked his life to help other slaves escape to freedom. A

Rau, Dana Meachen             Harriet Tubman.
An introduction to the life of Harriet Tubman, who helped hundreds of slaves escape to freedom via the Underground Railroad. A

Rowley, John             Harriet Tubman.
A simple biography of the woman who escaped life as a slave and then rescued other slaves as a conductor on the Underground Railroad. A

Slavery Time When I was Chillun.
Twelve oral histories of former slaves selected from the more than 2000 interviewed as part of the Slave Narratives of the Library of Congress for the Works Progress Administration in 1936. B, C

Swain, Gwenyth             President of the Underground Railroad: A Story About Levi Coffin.
A biography of a Quaker man from North Carolina whose fearless work on the Underground Railroad in Indiana and Ohio helped thousands of men and women escape the cruelty of slavery. B, C

 

The Civil War

Fiction

Alcott, Louisa May             Little Women.
Chronicles the joys and sorrows of the four March sisters as they grow into young ladies in nineteenth-century New England. B, C

Beatty, Patricia             Jayhawker.
In the early years of the Civil War, teenage Kansan 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. C

Beatty, Patricia             Turn Homeward, Hannalee.
Twelve-year-old Hannalee Reed, forced to relocate in Indiana along with other Georgia millworkers during the Civil War, leaves her mother with a promise to return home as soon as the war ends. B

Brenaman, Miriam             Evvy’s Civil War.
In Virginia in 1860, on the verge of the Civil War, fourteen-year-old Evvy chafes at the restrictions that her society places on both women and slaves. C

Bunting, Eve             The Blue and the Gray.
As a black boy and his white friend watch the construction of a house which will make them neighbors on the site of a Civil War battlefield, they agree that their homes are monuments to that war. A

Clapp, Patricia             The Tamarack Tree: A Girl’s Eye View of the Siege Of Vicksburg.
An eighteen-year-old English girl finds her loyalties divided and all her resources tested as she and her friends experience the terrible physical and emotional hardships of the forty-seven day siege of Vicksburg in the spring of 1863. C

Collier, James Lincoln             With Every Drop of Blood.
While trying to transport food to Richmond, Virginia, during the Civil War, fourteen-year-old Johnny is captured by a black Union soldier. B

Crane, Stephen             The Red Badge of Courage.
During his service in the Civil War, a young Union soldier matures to manhood and finds peace of mind as he comes to grips with his conflicting emotions about war. B, C

Crist-Evans, Craig             Moon Over Tennessee: A Boy’s Civil War Journal.
A thirteen-year-old boy sets off with his father from their farm in Tennessee to join the Confederate forces on their way to fight at Gettysburg. Told in the form of diary entries. B

Dear America             The Journal of James Edmond Pease: A Civil War Union Soldier.
James Edmond, a sixteen-year-old orphan, keeps a journal of his experiences and those of "G" Company which he joined as a volunteer in the Union Army during the Civil War. B, C

Dear America             A Light in the Storm: The Civil War Diary of Amelia Martin.
In 1860 and 1861, while working in her father's lighthouse on an island off the coast of Delaware, fifteen-year-old Amelia records in her diary how the Civil War is beginning to devastate her divided state. B, C

Denslow, Sharon             All Their Names Were Courage.
In 1862, as William Burd fights in the Civil War, he exchanges letters with his sister, Sallie, who is also writing to Confederate and Union generals asking about their horses in order to write a book. B

Fleischman, Paul             Bull Run.
Northerners, Southerners, generals, couriers, dreaming boys and worried sisters describe the glory, the horror, the thrill, and the disillusionment of the first battle of the Civil War. B, C

Garrity, Jennifer Johnson             The Bushwhacker.
While the Civil War rages in Missouri and Rebels destroy their farm home and scatter their family, thirteen-year-old Jacob and his younger sister find refuge in an unlikely place. B

Hahn, Mary Downing             Hear the Wind Blow.
With their mother dead and their home burned, a thirteen-year-old boy and his little sister set out across Virginia in search of relatives during the final days of the Civil War. B

Hansen, Joyce             Which Way Freedom?
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. B, C

Hughes, Pat             Guerrilla Season.
Two fifteen-year-old boys in Missouri in 1863 find friendship and family loyalty tested by Quantrell's raiders, a Rebel guerrilla band who roamed under the black flag of "no quarter to be given by Union troops." C

Hunt, Irene             Across Five Aprils.
Jethro Creighton is left on their farm in Illinois while his brothers go off to fight in the Civil War. B, C

Keehn, Sally M.             Anna Sunday.
In 1863, twelve-year-old Anna, disguised as a boy and accompanied by her younger brother Jed, leaves their Pennsylvania home and makes the difficult journey to join their wounded father in Winchester, Virginia,
where they find themselves in danger from Confederate troops. B

Keith, Harold             Rifles For Watie.
With fighting erupting around his Kansas farm, sixteen-year-old Jefferson Davis Bussey can hardly wait to join the Union forces. When he infiltrates Colonel Watie's Confederate camp as a spy, he discovers the enemy is much like himself -- only fighting for a different cause. B, C

Matas, Carol             The War Within.
In 1862, after Union forces expel Hannah's family from Holly Springs, Mississippi, because they are Jews, Hannah reexamines her views regarding slavery and the war. B

Paulsen, Gary             Soldier’s Heart: A Novel of the Civil War.
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. B, C

Pinkney, Andrea Davis             Silent Thunder.
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. B

Polacco, Patricia             Pink and Say.
Say Curtis describes his meeting with Pinkus Aylee, a black soldier, during the Civil War and their capture by Southern troops. A, B, C

Reeder, Carolyn             Across the Lines.
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. B

Reeder, Carolyn             Shades of Gray.
At the end of the Civil War, twelve-year-old Will, having lost all his immediate family, reluctantly leaves his city home to live in the Virginia countryside with his aunt and the uncle he considers a "traitor" because he refused to take part in the war. B

Richardson, George C.             Drummer.
A young slave, Johnny Jackson, escapes from a Confederate officer claiming to own him. With help, he makes his way to Philadelphia where he is permitted to join the First Pennsylvania Colored Infantry and becomes the drummer for Company A. B

Rinaldi, Ann             Girl in Blue.
To escape an abusive father and an arranged marriage, fourteen-year-old Sarah, dressed as a boy, leaves her Michigan home to enlist in the Union Army and becomes a soldier on the battlefields of Virginia as well as a Union spy working in the house of Confederate sympathizer Rose O'Neal Greenhow in Washington, D.C. B

Rinaldi, Ann             In My Father’s House.
For two sisters growing up surrounded by the Civil War, there is conflict both outside and inside their house. C

Rinaldi, Ann             The Last Silk Dress.
During the Civil War, Susan finds a way to help the Confederate Army and uncovers a series of mysterious family secrets. C

Smucker, Barbara Claasen             Selina and the Bear Paw Quilt.
When her Mennonite family moves to Upper Canada to avoid involvement in the Civil War, young Selina is given a special quilt to remember the grandmother she left behind. A

Wisler, G. Clifton             The Drummer Boy of Vicksburg.
In this fact-based story, fourteen-year-old drummer boy Orion Howe displays great bravery during a Civil War battle at Vicksburg, Mississippi. B

Wisler, G. Clifton             Red Cap.
A young Yankee drummer boy displays great courage when he's captured and sent to Andersonville Prison.
B, C

Wisler, G. Clifton             Run the Blockade.
During the Civil War, fourteen-year-old Henry finds adventure working as a ship's boy and lookout aboard the "Banshee," a new British ship attempting to get past the Yankee blockade of the Southern coast. B, C
 

Non-fiction

Archer, Jules             A House Divided: The Lives of Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee.
The story of the Civil War's top rival generals which follows their experiences from Bull Run to the fall of Richmond and from Shiloh to Sherman's march through Georgia. B, C

Beller, Susan Provost             Confederate Ladies of Richmond.
Recounts the experiences, as described in diaries and letters, of several Confederate women living in Richmond, Virginia, during the Civil War, with particular emphasis on life during the siege of the city by Union forces. B, C

Day, Nancy             Your Travel Guide to Civil War America.
Takes readers on a journey back in time in order to experience life during the Civil War, describing clothing, accommodations, foods, local customs, transportation, a few notable personalities, and more. B, C

Fritz, Jean             Just a Few Words, Mr. Lincoln: The Story of the Gettysburg Address.
Provides a look at the private side of Abraham Lincoln and at the circumstances surrounding his short, but memorable speech at the dedication of the cemetery at the Gettysburg battlefield. Includes text of the speech. A

Herbert, Janis             The Civil War for Kids: A History with 21 Activities.
Teaches about the Civil War from the secession debates to Appomattox, by means of activities like making butternut dye, decoding wigwag, and baking hardtack. Includes a resource section with a glossary and pertinent web sites. B, C

King, David C.             Civil War Days: Discover the Past with Exciting Projects, Games, Activities, and Recipes.
Discusses what life was like for Americans during the Civil War; follows a year in the lives of two fictional families, a white family from the South and a black family from the North; presents projects and activities from that time period. A, B, C

McPherson, James M.             Fields of Fury: The American Civil War.
Pulitzer Prize award-winning historian James M. McPherson has written for young readers a stirring account of the greatest conflict to happen on our nation's soil. A typical double-page spread comprises several paragraphs of text focused on a single topic; a sidebar of quick facts; a small, captioned picture and a large, full-page picture. C

Mettger, Zak             Till Victory is Won: Black Soldiers in the Civil War.
Complemented by archival photographs, paintings, maps, and letter and diary excerpts, this informative historical study chronicles the contributions of black soldiers who fought for the Union during the Civil War.
B, C

Moore, Kay             If You Lived at the Time of the Civil War.
Describes conditions for the civilians in both North and South during and immediately after the war. A

Murphy, Jim             The Boys' War: Confederate and Union Soldiers Talk About the Civil War.
Includes diary entries, personal letters, and archival photographs to describe the experiences of boys, sixteen years old or younger, who fought in the Civil War. B, C

O’Brien, Patrick             Duel of the Ironclads: The Monitor vs. the Virginia.
A lively description of the famous battle between the Monitor and the Virginia, which was the Southern name for the captured and rebuilt Northern ship, called the Merrimack. A, B

Ray, Delia             Behind the Blue and Gray: The Soldier’s Life in the Civil War.
Traces, in this second of a three part series, the events of the Civil War from the first battle to the surrender with emphasis on the experiences of the individual soldier. B, C

Reit, Seymour             Behind Rebel Lines: The Incredible Story of Emma Edmonds, Civil War Spy.
Recounts the story of the Canadian woman who disguised herself as a man and slipped behind Confederate lines to spy for the Union Army. B

Richards, Kenneth             The Gettysburg Address.
Traces the events which led to the Battle of Gettysburg in 1864 and describes the dedication of the cemetery to the fallen soldiers by Lincoln in his famous speech. Includes text of the speech. B

Sinnott, Susan             Welcome to Addy's World, 1864: Growing Up During America’s Civil War.
Describes the conditions of African Americans in the North and the South during and immediately after the Civil War. B

Stanchak, John E.             Civil War.
This volume of the “Eyewitness Books” series examines many aspects of the Civil War, including the issue of slavery, secession, the raising of armies, individual battles, the commanders, Northern life, Confederate culture, the surrender of the South, and the aftermath. B

Voices from the Civil War: A Documentary History of the Great American Conflict.
Letters, diaries, memoirs, interviews, ballads, newspaper articles, and speeches depict life and events during the four years of the Civil War. C

Wisler, G. Clifton             When Johnny Went Marching: Young Americans Fight the Civil War.
This book features the stories of forty-nine young people. There are soldiers and spies, drummers and buglers, a future president, and six youngsters presented with the Medal of Honor. Some were boys, some were girls, some died, and some survived. But all were young, and all have a story to tell. B, C

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