Book picks similar to
Stella Stands Alone by A. LaFaye


historical-fiction
ya
slavery
civil-war

The Book of the Maidservant


Rebecca Barnhouse - 2009
    Dame Margery feels the suffering the Virgin Mary felt for her son but cares little for the misery she sees every day. When she announces that Johanna will accompany her on a pilgrimage to Rome, the suffering truly begins. After walking all day, Johanna must fetch water, wash clothes, and cook for the entire party of pilgrims. Then arguing breaks out between Dame Margery and the other travelers, and Johanna is caught in the middle. As the fighting escalates, Dame Margery turns her back on the whole group, including Johanna. Abandoned in a foreign land where she doesn’t even speak the language, the young maidservant must find her own way to Rome.Inspired by the fifteenth-century text The Book of Margery Kempe, the first autobiography in English, debut novelist Rebecca Barnhouse chronicles Johanna’s painful journey through fear, anger, and physical hardship to ultimate redemption.From the Hardcover edition.

Here Be Monsters!


Alan Snow - 2005
    But beware—for there is skulduggery afoot. Young Arthur has fallen foul of the appalling outlaw, Snatcher, and is trapped alone in the town with every way home sealed.Meanwhile Snatcher and his men are working tirelessly in secret on a fiendish and dastardly plan to take over—and destroy—the entire town. With the help of Willbury Nibble, QC; some friendly boxtrolls and cabbageheads; Marjorie the frustrated inventor; and the rats and pirates from the Ratbridge Nautical Laundry, can Arthur thwart Snatcher’s evil plans—and find his way home?

Letters from a Slave Girl: The Story of Harriet Jacobs


Mary E. Lyons - 1992
    Now, with the death of her mistress, there is a chance she will be given her freedom, and for the first time Harriet feels hopeful. But hoping can be dangerous, because disappointment is devastating. Harriet has one last hope, though: escape to the North. And as she faces numerous ordeals, this hope gives her the strength she needs to survive.

Come August, Come Freedom: The Bellows, The Gallows, and The Black General Gabriel


Gigi Amateau - 2012
    The revolt would be thwarted by a confluence of fierce weather and human betrayal, but Gabriel retained his dignity to the end. History knows little of Gabriel’s early life. But here, author Gigi Amateau imagines a childhood shaped by a mother’s devotion, a father’s passion for liberation, and a friendship with a white master’s son who later proved cowardly and cruel. She gives vibrant life to Gabriel’s love for his wife-to-be, Nanny, a slave woman whose freedom he worked tirelessly, and futilely, to buy. Interwoven with original documents, this poignant, illuminating novel gives a personal face to a remarkable moment in history.

The Madman of Piney Woods


Christopher Paul Curtis - 2014
    They aren't friends. They don't even live in the same town. But their fates are entwined. A chance meeting leads the boys to discover that they have more in common than meets the eye. Both of them have encountered a strange presence in the forest, watching them, tracking them. Could the Madman of Piney Woods be real?

Irish Chain


Barbara Haworth-Attard - 2002
    At least that is what she being constantly told by the Sisters at school in Halifax during the early 1900s. She’s been held back twice now and if she fails again, next year she’ll be in the same class... (show all) as Winnie, her younger sister. Although the war against Germany seems far away – her most pressing fears are the words that inexplicably tumble together on the page whenever she tries to read them. They don’t make sense to her. Isolated from her schoolmates and ashamed of her inability to read, Rose tries to escape into her Mam’s Irish Chain quilt, a handmade emblem of the family’s past laden with love. But when that doesn’t help, Rose desperately prays to God so that she doesn’t have to go to school anymore. Exactly one day later on December 6, 1917, two ships explode in Halifax’s harbor, resulting in the greatest human tragedy Canada has ever seen. Rose’s life changes forever – and she’s sure it’s all her fault. A stunned and grief-stricken Rose draws on the heroic stories of her great-grandmother stitched into the Irish Chain quilt to find her own courage and inner strength. Irish Chain is a beautifully moving story about awakening the gifts within.

Danger Along the Ohio


Patricia Willis - 1997
    The three children are swept down the river, and must make their way back through the wilderness in the direction of the Marietta settlement, hoping to find their father there. Their plight becomes still more dramatic -- and dangerous -- when Amos rescues a wounded Indian boy from the river. Though the boy mistrusts them and his condition slows them down, Amos refuses to leave him behind to die. Now more than ever, it seems they'll never make it back to their father and to safety.

Piratica: Being a Daring Tale of a Singular Girl's Adventure Upon the High Seas


Tanith Lee - 2004
    Escaping from the school, she hunts up her mother's crew and breezily commands them out to sea in a leaky boat. Unfortunately, Art's memories of her early life may not be accurate-her seasick crew are actors, and Art's infamous mother was the darling of the stage in a pirate drama. But fiery, pistol-proof Art soon shapes her men into the cleverest pirate crew afloat. And when they meet the dread ship Enemy and her beautiful, treacherous captain, Goldie Girl, Art is certain that her memories are real. The Seven Seas aren't large enough for two pirate queens: Art will have the battle of her life to win her mother's title--and the race for the most fabulous treasure in pirate lore. This gaudy, outrageous tale sparkles with swordplay, skullduggery, and salty language--not to mention over-the-top comedy!

Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad


Ann Petry - 1955
    

Who Comes with Cannons?


Patricia Beatty - 1992
    Like Truth, the Bardwells are Quakers. They oppose slavery but refuse to take up arms in the civil war that is now being waged to end this inhuman institution. Then one day, a runaway slave takes refuge on the Bardwell farm and, to Truth's amazement, her uncle hides him from the slave catchers. Even more puzzling, he asks her to accompany him when he deliverswagonload of hay to a neighbor late: that night.This ride, and the wagon's real cargo, involve Truth in a mysterious and dangerous underground movement -- and reveal how she can help further the cause of freedom without the use of a rifle.Patricia Beatty, best-selling author and winner of the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction, takes readers on an unforgettable trip aboard the Underground Railroad. Her powerful story of the Civil War captures the secrecy, suspense, and heroism of this little-known chapter in America's history and will long be remembered by readers.

The Fire-Eaters


David Almond - 2003
    His new school is a frightening place, World War III might be imminent, and then there's the strange fire eater - a devil called McNulty.

Dactyl Hill Squad


Daniel José Older - 2018
    Magdalys Roca and her friends from the Colored Orphan Asylum are on a field trip when the Draft Riots break out, and a number of their fellow orphans are kidnapped by an evil magistrate, Richard Riker. Magdalys and her friends flee to Brooklyn and settle in the Dactyl Hill neighborhood, where black and brown New Yorkers have set up an independent community--a safe haven from the threats of Manhattan. Together with the Vigilance Committee, they train to fly on dactylback, discover new friends and amazing dinosaurs, and plot to take down Riker. Can Magdalys and the squad rescue the rest of their friends before it's too late?

Day of Tears


Julius Lester - 2005
    More than 400 slaves were sold. On the first day of the auction, the skies darkened and torrential rain began falling. The rain continued throughout the two days, stopping only when the auction had ended. The simultaneity of the rain storm with the auction led to these two days being called "the weeping time." Master storyteller Julius Lester has taken this footnote of history and created the crowning achievement of his literary career.Julius Lester tells the story of several characters including Emma, a slave owned by Pierce Butler and caretaker of his two daughters, and Pierce, a man with a mounting gambling debt and household to protect. Emma wants to teach his daughters-one who opposes slavery and one who supports it-to have kind hearts. Meanwhile, in a desperate bid to survive, Pierce decides to cash in his "assets" and host the largest slave auction in American history. And on that day, the skies open up and weep endlessly on the proceedings below.Using the multiple voices of enslaved Africans and their owners, Julius Lester has taken a little-known, all-true event in American history and transformed it into a heartbreaking and powerfully dramatic epic on slavery, and the struggle to affirm humanity in the midst of it.

Storm Warriors


Elisa Carbone - 2001
    Fortunately, life on Pea Island at the end of the 19th century is far from quiet.  The other island residents include the surfmen--the African American crew of the nearby U.S. Life-Saving Station--and soon Nathan is lending an extra hand to these men as they rescue sailors from sinking ships. Working and learning alongside the courageous surfmen, Nathan begins to dream of becoming one himself. But the reality of post-Civil War racism starts to show itself as he gradually realizes the futility of his dream. And then another dream begins to take shape, one that Nathan refuses to let anyone take from him.From the Hardcover Library Binding edition.

Magic Marks the Spot


Caroline Carlson - 2013
    “My dear,” he said, “let me be clear: You are a young lady. You will not tell silly tales and you will never be a pirate.”Hilary Westfield has always dreamed of being a pirate. She can tread water for thirty-seven minutes. She can tie a knot faster than a fleet of sailors. She particularly enjoys defying authority, and she already owns a rather pointy sword. There’s only one problem: The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates refuses to let any girl join their ranks of scourges and scallywags.Girls belong at Miss Pimm’s Finishing School for Delicate Ladies, learning to waltz, faint, and cursty. But Hilary and her dearest friend, the gargoyle, have no use for such frivolous lessons—they are pirates! (Or very nearly.)To escape from a life of petticoats and politeness, Hilary answers a curious advertisement for a pirate crew and suddenly finds herself swept up in a seafaring adventure that may or may not involve a map without an X, a magical treasure that likely doesn’t exist, a rogue governess who insists on propriety, a crew of misfit scallywags, and the most treacherous—and unexpected—villain on the High Seas.Will Hilary find the treasure in time? Will she become a true pirate after all? And what will become of the gargoyle?