Family-Friendly Historical Booklist for the Entire Family

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A family-friendly historical booklist for all ages. These family-friendly books have been divided into categories. Use the Table of Contents to jump to the desired category. It is recommended that you review books before letting your child read them, as standards differ for each individual and family.

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Autobiography

• Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story
• The Complete Story of My Life by Helen Keller
• I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban
• In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom by Yeomi Park. This book shines a light not just into the darkest corners of life in North Korea, describing the deprivation and deception she endured and which millions of North Korean people continue to endure to this day, but also onto her own most painful and difficult memories

Biography, Adults

Check out this selection of inspirational biographies:

• Grant by Ron Chernow. Chernow shows in his masterful biography, the first to provide a complete understanding of the general and president whose fortunes rose and fell with dizzying speed and frequency
• Oswald Chambers: Abandoned to God: The Life Story of the Author of My Utmost for His Highest by David McCasland. Discover a remarkable story

Biography, Children

• Ice Cream Man: How Augustus Jackson Made a Sweet Treat Better by Glenda Armand. Discover the inspiring story of Augustus Jackson, an African American entrepreneur who is known as “the father of ice cream,” in this beautifully illustrated picture-book biography.

Biography, Teens

Inspirational family-friendly historical books for teens:

• Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (Kids’ Edition) – Today this young boy from the inner-city is one of the world’s greatest pediatric neurosurgeons.
• I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban (Young Readers’ Edition)
• Ten Boys Who Changed the World: (Lightkeepers) – David Livingstone (Missionary in Africa), Nicky Cruz (Evangelist), Brother Andrew (Smuggler for God in Communist Countries), George Muller (Founder of Children’s Homes), William Carey (Missionary in India), John Newton (Minister and reformer), Adoniram Judson (Missionary in Burma), Billy Graham (Evangelist), Luis Palau (Evangelist), Eric Liddell (Athlete and Missionary in China)
• Ten Girls Who Changed the World: (Lightkeepers) – Mary Slessor (Missionary in Africa), Corrie Ten Boom (hid Jews in Nazi Germany), Evelyn Brand (Missionary in India), Joni Eareckson , Gladys Aylward (Missionary in China), Jackie Pullinger (Missionary in Hong Kong), Amy Carmichael (Missionary in India), Elisabeth Fry (Worked among the sick, prisoners and homeless), Catherine Booth (Co–Founder of The Salvation Army) and Isobel Kuhn (Missionary in Asia)
• Trailblazer Heroes & Heroines Box Set: Including George Muller, Corrie Ten Boom, Eric Liddell, and others
• Trailblazer Arts & Science Box Set: Including John Bunyan, C.S. Lewis, and others
• Seven Men: And the Secret of Their Greatness – George Washington, William Wilberforce, Eric Liddell, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Jackie Robinson, John Paul II, and Charles Colson
• Seven More Men: And the Secret of Their Greatness – Martin Luther, George Whitefield, General William Booth, George Washington Carver, Sergeant Alvin York, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Billy Graham

Books about Books

Discover more historical books, and how best to read them, by referencing the recommended books below:

Children’s History Books

• City: A Story of Roman Planning and Construction by David Macaulay. Award-winning author-illustrator David Macaulay brings readers into a beautiful exploration of Roman buildings and construction.
• A Child Through Time: The Book of Children’s History by  Phil Wilkinson. We know all about history through the eyes of adults, but what about children? Journey through the lives of 30 everyday children from the Ice Age to modern times.
• The Children’s Book of Heroes by William J. Bennett. A beautifully illustrated celebration of heroic deeds, both real and fictional, that will delight and inspire millions of young children and their parents.
• Tuttle Twin Series Don’t miss this popular series that teaches principles of freedom. Children of all ages love it!

Historical Fiction Books

• Where The Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls – A  beloved classic that captures the powerful bond between man and man’s best friend
• Ox-Cart Man -(Book & Audio CD) by Arthur Donald Hall – A captivating verse about the cycle of life from season to season in rural New England of the nineteenth century
• A Little Prairie House (Little House Picture Book) by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Laura, Pa, Ma, Mary, and baby Carrie have traveled from the Big Woods to the prairie in their covered wagon, driving through tall grass until they found just the right spot for their new home.

• Les Miserables: By author Victor Hugo, Les Misérables ranks among the greatest novels of all time. 
• The Seymore Wainscott Anthology by Al R. Young

History Books, EARLY AMERICAN

The Orphan Train Series by Arleta Richardson. And be sure not to miss Arleta’s other series, In Grandma’s Attic.

• A is for America by Devin Scillian
• My Father’s Captivity by Al R. Young
• Paul Revere’s Ride: The Classic Edition by Henry Longfellow
• A More Perfect Union: The Story of Our Constitution by Betsy Maestro
• A Picture Book of Thomas Jefferson (Picture Book Biography) by David A. Adler
• We the Kids: The Preamble to the Constitution of the United State by David Catrow

• History Pockets: The American Revolution by Evan-Moor Educational Publishers
• History Pockets: Moving West by Evan-Moor Educational Publishers
• These is my Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901 (P.S.) (Sarah Agnes Prine Series, 1) by Nancy E. Turner. A moving, exciting, and heartfelt American saga inspired by the author’s own family memoirs.
• Sarah’s Quilt: A Novel of Sarah Agnes Prine and the Arizona Territories, 1906 (Sarah Agnes Prine Series, 2) by Nancy E. Turner.
• The Star Garden (Sarah Prine) (Sarah Agnes Prine Series, 3) by Nancy E. Turner

History Books, CIVIL WAR, Fiction and Non-Fiction

• The American Civil War: 50 Fascinating Facts For Kids by Kevin Ashmole
• The Civil War for Kids: A History with 21 Activities (14) (For Kids series) by Janis Herbert
• A Soldier’s Life in the Civil War Coloring Book (Dover American History Coloring Books)by Peter F. Copeland
• Learn more about the Civil War with ” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener sponsored nofollow”>Civil War Time Travelers.

• Explore The War Across Five Aprils File Folder Game:

History Books, DUST BOWL, Fiction and Non-Fiction

• Survival in the Storm: The Dust Bowl Diary of Grace Edwards, Dalhart, Texas 1935 (Dear America Series) by Katelan Jane. Fourteen-year-old Katelan Janke writes this exciting and harrowing tale of Grace Edwards and her family’s struggle to survive the dangers and despair of the American Dust Bowl.
• Erosion: How Hugh Bennett Saved America’s Soil and Ended the Dust Bowl (Moments in Science)by Darcy Pattison. When the dust storms of the 1930s threatened to destroy U.S. farming and agriculture, Hugh Bennett knew what to do.

History Books, GREAT DEPRESSION, Fiction and Non-Fiction

• Welcome to Kit’s World, 1934 : Growing Up During America’s Great Depression (The American Girls Collection) by Harriet Brown. Through photographs, illustrations, and both factual and fictionalized anecdotes, shows what life was like in the United States during the Depression, including major historical events to the details of everyday life.

History Books, WORLD WAR II, Fiction and Non-Fiction

• The Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park. Two stories, told in alternating sections, about two eleven-year-olds in Sudan, a girl in 2008 and a boy in 1985
• Comfort (Bakers Mountain Stories) by Joyce Moyer Hostetter. In the wake of World War II, Ann Fay Honeycut grapples with her father’s trauma and the physical and emotional effects of polio—finding healing in the unlikeliest of places
• The Whispering Town by Jennifer Elvgren – The dramatic story of neighbors in a small Danish fishing village who, during the Holocaust, shelter a Jewish family waiting to be ferried to safety in Sweden – based on a true story.
• The Harmonica by Tony Johnston – This powerful story, inspired by the life of a Holocaust survivor, is a testament to the human spirit and the transcendent power of music.
• Benno and the Night of Broken Glass by Meg Wiviot – Benno was the neighborhood’s favorite cat.
• Terrible Things: An Allegory of the Holocaust by Eve Bunting. Little Rabbit wondered what was wrong with feathers, but his fellow animals silenced him. “Just mind your own business, Little Rabbit. We don’t want them to get mad at us.”
• Jars of Hope: How One Woman Helped Save 2,500 Children During the Holocaust by Jennifer Roy
• I Never Saw Another Butterfly: Children’s Drawings and Poems from the Terezin Concentration Camp, 1942-1944 by Hana Volavkola
• Lily’s Promise: Holding On to Hope Through Auschwitz and Beyond―A Story for All Generations by Lily Ebert