Women in American History: Selected Young Adult Fiction in the Springfield Library

The Ransom of Mercy Carter by Caroline Cooney (2001)

In Deerfield in 1704, Mercy is captured by Mohawk Indians and their French allies.

Soldier's Secret: The Story of Deborah Sampson by Sheila Solomon Klass (2009)

During the Revolutionary War, a young woman named Deborah Sampson disguises herself as a man in order to serve in the Continental Army.

Witch Child by Celia Rees (2002)

Witch trials told from the point of view of a young woman skilled in the practice of witchcraft.

A Break with Charity: A Story About the Salem Witch Trials Ann Rinaldi (1992)

While waiting for a church meeting in 1706, Susanna recalls the accusations of witchcraft that tore her village apart in 1692.

Wolf by the Ears by Ann Rinaldi (1991)

Harriet Hemings, rumored to be Thomas Jefferson's daughter, faces the choice of passing as white or staying a slave at Monticello.

19th Century

Sacajawea by Joseph Bruchac (2009)

Story of the native woman who guided Lewis and Clark, told as fiction.

A Gathering of Days: a New England Girl's Journal, 1830-32 by Joan W. Blos (1979)

A 14-year-old New Hampshire girl records such events as her father's remarriage and the death of her best friend.

Lyddie by Katherine Paterson (1991)

A feisty farm girl survives the dangers of the textile mills in 1840s Massachusetts.

Mine Eyes Have Seen by Ann Rinaldi (1998)

The daughter of anti-slavery crusader John Brown serves as lookout for the secret raid on Harper's Ferry.

Girl in Blue by Ann Rinaldi (2001)

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.

Red Moon at Sharpsburg by Rosemary Wells (2007)

As the Civil War breaks out, India, a young Southern girl, summons her sharp intelligence and the courage she didn't know she had to survive the war that threatens to destroy her family, her Virginia home, and the only life she has ever known.

Come Juneteenth by Ann Rinaldi (2007)

Fourteen-year-old Luli and her family face tragedy after failing to tell their slaves that President Lincoln's Emanicipation Proclamation made them free.

My Last Skirt : the Story of Jennie Hodgers, Union Soldier by Lynda Durrant (2006)

Enjoying the freedom afforded her while dressing as a boy in order to earn higher pay after emigrating from Ireland, Jennie Hodgers serves in the 95th Illinois Infantry as Private Albert Cashier, a Union soldier in the American Civil War. Based on the life of a real “petticoat soldier”.

20th Century

Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman by Ernest Gaines (1971)

Fictional narrative of the life of a woman born a slave, who lives to see the civil rights struggles of the 1960s.

The Bread Givers by Anzi Yezierska (1975)

In New York in the early 1900s, a Polish Jewish immigrant girl named Sarah struggles with her father, who strives to enforce his old-world values.

The Road Home by Ellen Emerson White (1995)

Leaving wartime Viet Nam after serving as a nurse, Rebecca faces a difficult adjustment.

Uprising By Margaret Peterson Haddix (2007)

Three young women from different backgrounds experience the New York City Triangle Shirtwaist strike and fire of 1911.

Flygirl By Sherri L. Smith (2009)

During World War II, a light-skinned African American girl "passes" for white in order to join the Women Airforce Service Pilots.

Updated 5/10