History For Teens

Thea Hope longs to be an alchemist out of the shadow of her famous mother. The two of them are close to creating the legendary Philosopher’s Stone — whose properties include immortality and can turn any metal into gold — but just when the promise of the Stone’s riches is in their grasp, Thea’s mother destroys the Stone in a sudden fit of violent madness.

As a young girl growing up in the '50s, Hillary Diane Rodham had an unusual upbringing for the time - her parents told her, "You can do or be whatever you choose, as long as you're willing to work for it." Hillary took those words and ran. Whether it was campaigning at the age of 13 in the 1964 presidential election, receiving a standing ovation and being featured in Life magazine as the first student commencement speaker at Wellesley, or graduating from Yale Law School - she was always one to stand out from the pack.

World War I was a brutal war that left more than nine million dead. Millions more were wounded and lost their homes. The two sides - the Allied Powers and Central Powers - cut secret deals to get countries to join their side. They unleashed secret weapons, employed spies, and relied on the element of surprise itself to wage terrible battles.

The heartbreaking story of five generations of young people from a single African-and-American family pursuing an elusive dream of freedom. Dream Country begins in suburban Minneapolis at the moment when 17-year-old Kollie Flomo begins to crack under the strain of his life as a Liberian refugee. Then listeners travel back to Liberia and back in time, to the early 20th century and the point of view of Togar Somah, an 18-year-old indigenous Liberian on the run from government militias, and to America in 1827....

A fractured alliance. A father’s impossible bargain. A ritual that cannot fail… Beatrice Zero’s estate isn’t a prison—it’s a test. He says I’m his balance, his heir, the only one who can complete the ritual to save magic. But the more he talks, the more I hear lies wrapped in half-truths. Somewhere out there, Nate and Sab are hunting the Exiled and trying to bring me home. What they don’t know is that Zero isn’t just keeping me here—he’s preparing me to take his place. Sab Zero thinks I’m gone, but I’m still fighting. Time and magic have pulled me through the ...

By winning the state high school basketball championship in 1955, ten teens from an Indianapolis school meant to be the centerpiece of racially segregated education in the state shattered the myth of their inferiority. Their brilliant coach had fashioned an unbeatable team from a group of boys born in the South and raised in poverty. Anchored by the astonishing Oscar Robertson, a future college and NBA star, the Crispus Attucks Tigers went down in history as the first state champions from Indianapolis and the first all-black team in U.S. history to win a racially open championship tournament.

Ryan Smithson joined the Army Reserve when he was 17. Two years later, he was deployed to Iraq as an Army engineer. In this extraordinary and harrowing memoir, readers march along one GI's tour of duty. It will change the way you feel about what it means to be an American.

A poignant, deeply funny coming-of-age story about first love, first loss, and the power of history to give life meaning. History buff Ray knows everything about the peculiar legends and lore of his rural Connecticut hometown. Burgerville's past is riddled with green cow sightings and human groundhogs, but the most interesting thing about the present is the new girl - we'll call her Jane Doe. Inscrutable, cool, and above all mysterious, Jane seems as determined to hide her past as Ray is to uncover it.

Are you searching for a book that will inspire and empower the young women in your life? Look no further than "The Most Inspirational Women's Soccer Stories Of All Time". This collection of over 30 captivating stories is the perfect way to celebrate the power of women in sports and fuel their passion for soccer.

Ten-year-old Pinchas is separated from his parents and twin sister when they are deported from the Warsaw ghetto to the killing site of Majdanek. As Pinchas is sent on to a series of concentration camps, he shuts himself off to the terrors surrounding him and tries his best not to be noticed, to become almost invisible.

"Stand and deliver! Hand over your valuables if you value your life!" Sophia's duty is clear: look pretty, behave well, and find a husband as soon as possible. But Sophia hates the social whirl of balls and masquerades. So under the cover of darkness, she secretly swaps her ball gowns for breeches, and turns to highway robbery. When one man begins to take a keen interest in her, Sophia must keep her distance - or risk him unmasking her secret life.

The 11th century was a dangerous time to be of the line unbroken of King Æthelred II Unread and his first queen, Æfgifu of York. Born in Hungary after King Canute III's failed attempt to murder her father, Edward the Exile, Margaret found her life turned upside down by King Edward the Confessor's discovery of her father's survival—and the resulting recall of her family to England.

Born into the household of a wealthy slave owner in Cuba in 1797, Juan Francisco Manzano spent his early years by the side of a woman who made him call her Mama, even though he had a mama of his own. Denied an education, young Juan still showed an exceptional talent for poetry. His verses reflect the beauty of his world, but they also expose its hideous cruelty.

Slava, a 14-year-old teen, comes to Canada with her parents and sister and a suitcase filled with memories of a lost childhood, memories that now haunt her new life. She cannot forget the hunger, stench, and disease in the Warsaw Ghetto, nor the fear and humiliation of being incarcerated behind a high brick wall. She cannot forget her extraordinary escape from the Ghetto, leaving behind her beloved parents and sister. Nor can she forget being swallowed up in a strange and unknown place to survive under a hidden identity.

Millions of Africans were enslaved during the transatlantic slave trade, but few recorded their personal experiences. Olaudah Equiano's The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano is perhaps the most well known of the autobiographies that exist. Using this narrative as a primary source text, authors Monica Edinger and Lesley Younge share Equiano's life story in "found verse," supplemented with annotations to give listeners historical context.

Three hundred years ago, something terrifying arose and pushed humanity to the brink of extinction. Now, a small remnant - the descendants of the survivors who escaped the massacre below - lives above the clouds, on the top of a mountain. When they discover that their water supply is being poisoned Down Below, an expedition, including 17-year-old girl Icelyn Brathius, must descend and face the monsters, the Threat Below, that wiped out civilization centuries ago.

Twin sisters Hassana and Husseina have always shared their lives. But after a raid on their village in 1892, the twins are torn apart. Taken in different directions, far from their home in rural West Africa, each sister finds freedom and a new start. Hassana settles in in the city of Accra, where she throws herself into working for political and social change. Husseina travels to Salvador, Brazil, where she becomes immersed in faith, worshipping spirits that bridge the motherland and the new world.

Paris, 1889. When the Exposition Universelle opens in Paris, 18-year-old Nathalie Baudin welcomes a much-needed break from the heartache of her friend's murder. The fair is full of sensational innovations, cultural displays, and marvelous inventions from around the world. But someone is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the guillotine with a gruesome display of their own: beheaded victims in some of the Exposition's most popular exhibits.

Through the eyes of 12-year-old Lorraine, this haunting novel from the award-winning author of Hidden and Hush gives insight and understanding into a little-known part of history - the Irish potato famine.

On her eighteenth birthday, Hilde leaves her orphanage in 1930s Berlin, and heads out into the world to discover her place in it. But finding a job is hard, at least until she stumbles into Café Lila, a vibrant cabaret full of expressive customers. Rosa, one of the club’s waitresses and performers, immediately takes Hilde under her wing. As the café denizens slowly embrace Hilde, and she embraces them in turn, she discovers her voice and her own blossoming feelings for Rosa.