Historical middle grade fiction

 I adore historical fiction and the middle grade versions are typically wonderful!  Here are two terrific ones to look for!

The first one is called "The Enemy's Daughter" by Anne Blankman.  I haven't read any of her books before, but I'm definitely going to be looking for more!  "The Enemy's Daughter" has such an interesting point of view.  It's told by Marta, a German girl who has been living in America with her extended family but is returning back to Germany, on the eve of World War 1.  She and her dad are traveling on the Lusitania and have been trying to make sure that no one knows they are German.  Marta is an excellent actress and loves trying out different accents and attitudes to match.  When the boat sinks, Marta and her father are separated, but both are rescued and taken to England, where her dad is an accused of being a spy for Germany.  Marta decides that rather than going home, she will go to find and then rescue her dad.  Things don't exactly go according to Marta's plan and she ends up stealing turnips out of a garden because she's so hungry.  Luckily, the girl who catches her is angry and then intrigued and Marta ends up joining their family as Martha, a Dutch girl, trying to make her way back home.  Throughout the story, Marta talks about the conflict of being around people she considers her enemies but how the stories she's been told about the English don't match up with how the people she's met behave.   There are themes of love and forgiveness, family and found family, political propaganda and truth.  It's a terrific story and would be an interesting conversation with students, not only about the World War 1 setting (which is awesome-there are hardly any books set during World War 1 for middle graders) but also making connections to today's political climate.  Don't miss this one, your students are going to love it.  

The second one is a novel in verse.  It's called Radiant and it's written by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson.  It's about an African American girl named Cooper Dale, a fifth grader who is the youngest child of in a close knit and loving family in Pennsylvania in 1963.  At the opening of the story, Cooper wishes she were white, because her mom has told her that she will have to work harder to get to where she wants to go than white people do.  Cooper is worried about her new teacher, who has a reputation for being mean and she ends up sitting next to a boy who often teases her about being black.  As the story moves along, Cooper finds that the bully has big reasons to be sad  and that the mean teacher is well intentioned, if gruff and occasionally harsh.  Cooper's family is wonderfully supportive of her and as the year unfolds, there are some big changes that happen.  This is a lovely story, full of beautiful images and intense feelings that will help readers understand how life was back during the Civil Rights Movement.  I thought this was terrific and I think the kids will too.