If your child is a fan of historical fiction there are many wonderful tales set in our city. From the American Revolution to September 11th, a lot of important events have happened here. This selection of stories below take place in neighborhoods from Harlem to Brooklyn, and even on Liberty Island inside the famous statue.  Some are about  immigrants who came to New York City for a better life,  but you can also find the adventures of native New Yorkers, and children who came to the city from other parts of America. The characters in these books struggle against: slavery, poverty, discrimination, being orphaned, and other difficulties both large and small. Read their adventures and share their lives as they overcome these perils, while making friends along the way. Suggested for readers ages 8 - 12.

A Bandit's Tale by Deborah Hopkinson

In March of 1887, Rocco, an eleven-year-old from an Italian village, arrives in New York CIty where he is forced to live in squalor and beg for money as a street musician, but he finds the city's cruelty to children and animals intolerable and sets out to make things better, whatever the cost to himself.

 

 

 

 

Brooklyn Bridge by Karen Hesse

 In 1903 Brooklyn, fourteen-year-old Joseph Michtom's life changes for the worse when his parents, Russian immigrants, invent the teddy bear and turn their apartment into a factory, while nearby the glitter of Coney Island contrasts with the dismal lives of children dwelling under the Brooklyn Bridge.

 

 

 

Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson

As the Revolutionary War begins, thirteen-year-old Isabel wages her own fight...for freedom. Promised freedom upon the death of their owner, she and her sister, Ruth, in a cruel twist of fate become the property of a malicious New York City couple, the Locktons, who have no sympathy for the American Revolution and even less for Ruth and Isabel. When Isabel meets Curzon, a slave with ties to the Patriots, he encourages her to spy on her owners, who know details of British plans for invasion. She is reluctant at first, but when the unthinkable happens to Ruth, Isabel realizes her loyalty is available to the bidder who can provide her with freedom.

 

City of Orphans by Avi

Struggling to outmaneuver the news-controlling gangs of 1893 New York, newsboy Maks Geless races to prove the innocence of his sister, Emma, when she is accused of stealing a watch from the brand new Waldorf Hotel where she works, an endeavor for which he teams up with a homeless girl and an eccentric lawyer.

 

 

 

Dave at Night by Gail Carson Levine

When his father dies, Dave knows nothing will ever be the same. And then it happens. Dave lands in an orphanage—the cold and strict Hebrew Home for Boys in Harlem—far from the life he knew on the Lower East Side. But he's not so worried. He knows he'll be okay. He always is. If it doesn't work out, he'll just leave, find a better place to stay. But it's not that simple.

Outside the gates of the orphanage, the nighttime streets of Harlem buzz with jazz musicians and swindlers; exclusive parties and mystifying strangers. Inside, another world unfolds, thick with rare friendships and bitter enemies. Perhaps somewhere, among it all, Dave can find a place that feels like home.

The Gallery by Laura Marx Fitzgerald

It's 1929, and twelve-year-old Martha has no choice but to work as a maid in the New York City mansion of the wealthy Sewell family. But, despite the Gatsby-like parties and trimmings of success, she suspects something might be deeply wrong in the household—specifically with Rose Sewell, the formerly vivacious lady of the house who now refuses to leave her room. The other servants say Rose is crazy, but scrappy, strong-willed Martha thinks there’s more to the story—and that the paintings in the Sewell’s gallery contain a hidden message detailing the truth. But in a house filled with secrets, nothing is quite what it seems, and no one is who they say. Can Martha follow the clues, decipher the code, and solve the mystery of what’s really going on with Rose Sewell?
 

The Girl in the Torch by Robert Sharenow

The Invention of Hugo Cabret meets True Grit in this heartfelt novel of resilience, hope, and discovering a family where you least expect it, from award-winning author Robert Sharenow.

After her father is killed in a pogrom, twelve-year-old Sarah and her mother immigrate to America—but when her mother dies before they get through Ellis Island, and the authorities want to send her back to the old country, Sarah hides in the torch of the Statue of Liberty.

 

 

 

The King of Mulberry Street by Donna Jo Napoli

After being sent alone on ship by his mother from Italy to New York City to start a new life in 1892, young Dom arrives with only a pair of shoes to his name and must find a way to survive in the new world with the rest of the homeless children in Manhattan's Five Points in order to become the success his mother was certain he would be.

 

 

 

 

Nilda by Nicholasa Mohr

The bombing of Pearl Harbor awakens Nilda Ramirez to the harsh realities of life outside her friendly Spanish Harlem neighborhood. Named an "Outstanding Book of the Year" by The New York Times and one of the "Best Books of the Year" by the American Library Association in 1973 when it was first published, Nicholasa Mohr’s classic novel about life as an immigrant in New York City offers a poignant look at one young girl’s experiences. Issues of race, religion and machismo are realistically and movingly depicted in this groundbreaking coming-of-age novel that was one of the first by a Latina author to be hailed by the mainstream media. Recomended for older readers.

 

Skating with the Statue of Liberty by Susan Lynn Meyer 

After escaping the Germans in Nazi-occupied France, Gustave and his family have made it to America at last. But life is not easy in New York. Gustave’s clothes are all wrong, he can barely speak English, and he is worried about his best friend, Marcel, who is in danger back in France. Then there is September Rose, the most interesting girl in school, who doesn’t seem to want to be friends with him. Gustave is starting to notice that not everyone in America is treated equally, and his new country isn’t everything he’d expected. But he isn’t giving up.

 

 

Touched by Fire by Irene M. Watts

Fleeing the pograms of early 20th-century Russia and unable to endure the brutal anti-Semitism in Berlin, teenaged Miriam arrives in America and struggles with discrimination against immigrants before landing a job in a clothing factory and witnessing the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire.

 

 

 

Towers Falling by Jewel Parker Rhodes

Three dynamic fifth-graders who were born after September 11 work together on a project about how communities grow together, discovering how the attacks still powerfully affect their families and their neighborhood. By the Coretta Scott King Honor-winning author of Ninth Ward.

 

 

 

 

War Comes to Willy Freeman by James Lincoln Collier

When her father is killed by the Redcoats and her mother kidnapped, Willy, a young black girl, disguises herself as a boy and sets out to find her mother in British-occupied New York.

 

 

 

 

 

Water Street by Patricia Reilly Giff

Brooklyn, 1875: Bird Mallon lives on Water Street where you can see the huge towers of the bridge to Manhattan being built. Bird wants nothing more in life than to be brave enough to be a healer, like her mother, Nory, to help her sister Annie find love, and to convince her brother, Hughie, to stop fighting for money with his street gang. And of course, she wishes that a girl would move into the empty apartment upstairs so that she can have a new friend close by.

But Thomas Neary and his Pop move in upstairs. Thomas who writes about his life in his journal—his father who spends each night at the Tavern down the street, and the mother he wishes he had.

 

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Summaries provided via NYPL’s catalog, which draws from multiple sources. Click through to each book’s title for more.